On July 21, the Antonio Lozano Reading Club of Casa África will read the book “Mano, el hijo de oro” (“Mano, the golden son”), by Atoinette Tidjani Alou, which is part of the institution’s Literature Collection.
This club meeting, the last one before the summer closure, will take place on Tuesday, July 21 at 5:00 p.m., in Doramas Park, an emblematic place in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria where club members will be able to discuss the work in a pleasant atmosphere, enjoying a snack and, above all, a lot of wisdom. People interested in joining the Antonio Lozano Casa África Reading Club should write an email to its coordinator, Ángeles Jurado: ajurado@casafrica.es.
The play navigates the turbulent waters of a once-promising future that is slipping out of Mano’s hands. Returning from the “other side,” he finds himself broken, adrift on the familiar banks of the Niger River. In this evocative narrative, Mairam, his mother, and the Canoeist, his spiritual father, embark on a journey to untangle the threads that ensnare this troubled soul. The novel spans from Niamey to Bordeaux, following Mano’s incandescent odyssey, a meteoric existence on the brink of self-destruction. Through three different voices, the story unfolds following the flow of the river, exploring the subtlety, sensuality and fragility of Mano. As the narrative weaves through the pages, the reader is inexorably drawn toward the crucial rupture at the heart of the plot, witnessing the moving reconstruction of an individual and family story.
The writer, Atoinette Tidjani Alou, has dual nationality, Jamaican and Nigerian. She is an academic, writer, translator and promoter of arts and culture in Niger, where she co-founded and directs the Arts and Culture Program at Abdou Moumouni University. She served several terms at the head of the International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA), between 2006 and 2014. Her research focuses on the construction of identity and the poetics and politics of memory in literature and film. She writes autofiction, fiction and poetry, in English and French.
Self-defined as a “transwriter and (cultural) passeur,” her writing explores hybrid identities, experiences of exile, and the search for new terrain for self and community. It builds bridges between worlds to establish itself in the transitory and the intermediate. She has received several academic awards and distinctions, including the Commandeur des Palmes Académiques (Niger). Among her works are “On m’appelle Nina” (2017), finalist for the Prix Ivoire, “Tina Shot me Between the Eyes and Other Stories” (2017) and “Mano, el niño de oro” (Special Mention Prix Ivoire, 2023 – Tenerife 2026).