MY BRIEF BIO-DATA
I was born at the crossroads of the rivers that embrace the Jacmel Valley, in the southeast of Haiti, Jacmel, capital of crafts and carnival. Vermeille city, marvel city, which brought to the world writers-poets like René Depestre and Jean Metellus.
University, professional and family reasons have brought me to various destinations: Bordeaux, Paris, New York, Geneva, Brussels, and finally Lomé where I have found and replanted my roots since 1984.
I am a media and communication professional; member of the Society of French Poets; member of the Association of Togolese Writers; member of the Zonta Club International; member of Toastmasters International; founder of Jacmelia, an association which aims to promote the teaching and practice of poetic writing in schools.
THE REPORT
Dear poetry friends,
The Poetry Award Ceremony organized by the Pan African Writers Association gives us this pleasurable occasion and a beautiful pretext to find ourselves in a poetic bubble, for a moment of dream, in these times when the world environment is fraught with danger and when the sky threatens to fall.
It is precisely in these difficult times when insecurity and uncertainty seem to prevail that poetry opens a luminous pathway for us to go through adversity with confidence and complete freedom.
Poetry is above all a cry of resistance and a song of hope to express confidence in the Beauty of life and in the Goodness of Man in all circumstances.
Poetry is a hymn to beauty. And beauty is the best in mankind. Beauty is the best for mankind. We are all caught up in time. We are pursued and overtaken by time.
Poetry invites us to take the time to live fully and intensely every moment of life, to immerse the realities of our finitude in a luminous bath of eternity. The time to write and to write beautifully. As did the numerous poets who participated in the 2022 PAWA poetry competition.
I have the honour to report the outcomes of the deliberations of the group of three judges who were nominated for the French language poetry category.
The group of judges included
Dr Alain Serge Agnessan from Ivory Coast, Mr. Eric Bekale from Gabon, and Ketline Adodo from Togo
The selection process began with the allocation of fifteen books to each of the three judges.
Poetry is above all a cry of resistance and a song of hope to express confidence in the Beauty of life and in the Goodness of Man in all circumstances.
Poetry is a hymn to beauty. And beauty is the best in mankind. Beauty is the best for mankind. We are all caught up in time. We are pursued and overtaken by time
Each judge had to make an initial selection of five books in view of establishing a long list of fifteen preselected books. In a second step, each judge had to choose the two best books according to his heart to end up with a short list of six books.
Thirdly, the judges had to score the six best authors in order to determine the winner, based on a number of criteria including : poetic innovation, crafting and use of the poetic langage, originality of the choice and treatment of themes, values of humanity and solidarity.
The six finalists selected were:
1. Sekou Cherif Haïdara for Cahier de vertiges
2. Ernest Koffiga Kavege for Demain la plénitude
3. Kossi Sena Adufu for Des profondeurs de la vie
4. Abdoulaye Seck for Délices de l’âme et du cœur
5. Fatoumata Keita for Ce n’est jamais fini
6. Danielle Gonaï for Mosaïque
The winner of the 2022 PAWA Poetry competition in the French language category is Sékou Cherif Haidara for his book Cahier de vertiges published by Editions Yigui in 2021.
Dear poetry friends,
Poetry books that mark have no age or sex. It came as a surprise that the author of the book Cahier de vertiges, Mr. Sekou Cherif Haidara who demonstrates such mastery of language and poetic art, is a young student from the University of Sonfonia in Guinea.
Without any complex, he already poses as a master and dedicates his work to the young writers of his country Guinea, which was in 2017 declared a UNESCO World Book Capital City.
However, the construction of Haidara’s writing, the diverting and turning around of words and the constellation of surprising and fascinating images could inspire young and not-so-young poets from any other African countries.
In poetry, as you know, there is form and content. There is above all the Breath of the Verb which arises from the conjunction and the interaction between the two.
Without this almost divine breath, the poetic fire does not take. Sekou Cherif Haidara has won his bet to “conquer the poem”. We wish him other conquests and brighter ones that will contribute to the blossoming of African poetry.
We must also acknowledge and congratulate all the poets who participate in the PAWA poetry competition, especially the five other finalists.
Each of these poetry books has its own character and esthetic value. Reading them all was a beautiful journey for which we are grateful.
We also express our gratitude to the Secretary General of PAWA, Dr. Wale Okediran, for having entrusted us with this beautiful task.
