Tanella Suzanne Boni (1954 – 15 September 2026) was an Ivorian poet and novelist. Also an academic, she was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Abidjan. Apart from her teaching and research activities, she was the President of the association of writers of the Ivory Coast from 1991 to 1997, and later the organizer of the International Poetry Festival in Abidjan from 1998 to 2002.
Life and career Tanella Boni was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where she was educated to high-school level, before going on to further university studies in Toulouse, France, and at the University of Paris, obtaining a PhD."Tanella Boni" at Aflit, The University of Western Australia. She subsequently became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cocody-Abidjan (now the University of Félix Houphouët-Boigny), as well as writing poetry, novels, short stories, criticism, and children's literature.
She served as President of the Writers' Association of Ivory Coast from 1991 to 1997"Tanella Boni (Cote de Ivoire)", Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal. and organized Abidjan's International Poetry Festival from 1998 to 2002."Tanella Boni (Côte d'Ivoire)", UNESCO. During the political strife in Ivory Coast (from 2002 until 2011) she self-exiled to France.Polo Moji, "Domesticating Ivoirité: Equating xenophobic nationalism and women’s marginalisation in Tanella Boni’s Matins de couvre-feu (2005)", International Journal of African Renaissance Studies - Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinarity, Volume 8, Issue 2, 2013.Tanella Boni biography , Europe Now, Council for European Studies, 1 March 2018. In 2005, she received the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize for her novel Matins de couvre-feu (Mornings after curfew). In 2009, she won the Antonio Viccaro International Poetry Prize. From 2013, Boni divided her time between Abidjan and Paris.
Boni was a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.Otosirieze Obi-Young, "Margaret Busby-Edited Anthology to Feature 200 Female Writers Including Adichie, Aminatta Forna, Bernadine Evaristo, Imbolo Mbue, Warsan Shire, Zadie Smith", Brittle Paper, 10 January 2018.
Boni died in Toulouse, France on 15 September 2026.
Bibliography Labyrinthe (poems), Editions Akpagnon, Lomé 1984 Une vie de crabe (novel), Dakar: Nouvelles Editions Africaines du Sénégal, 1990 De l'autre côté du soleil (children's story), Paris: NEA-EDICEF, 1991 La fugue d'Ozone (children's story), Paris: NEA-EDICEF, 1992 Grains de sable (poems), Limoges: Le bruit des autres, 1993 Les baigneurs du Lac rose (novel), Abidjan: Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes, 1995; Paris: Editions du Serpent à Plumes, 2002 Il n'y a pas de parole heureuse (poems), Limoges: Le bruit des autres, 1997 L'atelier des génies (children's story), Paris: Acoria, 2001 Chaque jour l'espérance (poems), Paris: L'Harmattan, 2002 Ma peau est fenêtre d'avenir (poems), La Rochelle: Rumeur des Ages, 2004 Gorée île baobab (poems), Limoges & Ecrits des forges, Trois-Rivières (Québec), 2004 Matins de couvre-feu (novel), Paris: Editions du Serpent à plumes, 2005 Que vivent les femmes d'Afrique (essay), Paris: Editions Panama, 2008, Les nègres n’iront jamais au paradis (novel), Paris: Editions du Serpent à Plumes, 2006 Le Rêve du dromadaire (poems, illustrated by Muriel Diallo), Cotonou: Ruisseaux d’Afrique, 2009 Myriam Makeba : une voix pour la liberté (biography), Paris: Éditions À dos d'âne, 2009 Jusqu’au souvenir de ton visage (poems), Paris: Alfabarre, 2010 L’avenir a rendez-vous avec l’aube (poems), Vents d’ailleurs, Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron, 2011, . Translated into English by Todd Fredson as The Future Has an Appointment with the Dawn, with an Introduction by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, University of Nebraska Press, 2018, Toute d’étincelles vêtue (poems), La Roque-d’Anthéron: Vents d’ailleurs, 2014 Là où il fait si clair en moi (poems), Paris: Éditions Bruno Doucey, 2017
Awards 2005: Ahmadou Kourouma Prize for Matins de couvre-feu 2009: Antonio Vicarro International Poetry Prize
References
External links Tanella Boni official website Bio-bibliography at "Lire les femmes et les littératures africaines" (in French) Review of the novel Matins de couvre-feu (in English) Two poems by Boni in English (translated by Patrick Williamson). Poetry in Translation. "Nine Poems by Tanella Boni" , translated by Todd Fredson, Europe Now, Council for European Studies