GauZ'

Gauz was born March 22, 1971 in Plateau, a district of Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast. He then lived in the neighborhood of Attécoubé before moving to Agnibilékrou, north east of Abidjan. He also lived in Yopougon, Bouaké, Daloa and Cocody. His first language is Anyin.{{Cite web |title=« Black Manoo », le voyage populaire de Gauz, entre Cocody et Belleville - Jeune Afrique.com |url=https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1062014/culture/black-manoo-le-voyage-populaire-de-gauz-entre-cocody-et-belleville/ |access-date=2024-11-20 |website=JeuneAfrique.com |language=fr-FR}}

His father was a teacher and a socialist deputy, and his mother was a nurse and communist.{{cite news |last1=Marivat |first1=Gladys |title=«J’ai deux cultures en moi » |agency=Le Monde |date=August 26, 2018}} As a child he stayed with extended family when his parents went to Paris to study.{{cite news |last1=Marivat |first1=Gladys |title=«J’ai deux cultures en moi » |agency=Le Monde |date=August 26, 2018}}

He received a master's degree in biochemistry from the Université Félix-Houphouët-Boigny before traveling to France in 1999 on a scholarship, though without a student visa, to obtain another master's degree in biochemistry at Paris VII Jussieu.{{cite news |last1=Marivat |first1=Gladys |title=«J’ai deux cultures en moi » |agency=Le Monde |date=August 26, 2018}}{{Cite web |last=Jaffré |first=Bruno |date=2006-10-06 |title=“Quand Sankara…” un film de Armand Gbaka-Brédé dit Gauz - Thomas Sankara Website - Officiel |url=https://www.thomassankara.net/quand-sankara-un-film-de-armand-gbaka-brede-dit-gauz/ |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Thomas Sankara Website - Officiel - La patrie ou la mort, Nous vaincrons! |language=fr-FR}} Once in France, he managed to secure a business visa that expired after a year. During that time, he started a two-year stint as a security guard that would inspire his first novel, Standing Heavy.

He eventually obtained a visa and French nationality after the birth of his son. He returned to the Ivory Coast in 2011 and has been living in Grand-Bassam since. He has two children, who still live in Paris.

In 2014 Gauz published his debut novel Debout-Payé, a satire of France's colonial legacy, racism and capitalism as seen through the eyes of three undocumented Ivorian security guards in Paris from the 1970s through the early 2000s. Later that year, the novel was the inaugural winner of the newly established Gibert Joseph Booksellers' Prize. In 2022 it was published in English as Standing Heavy and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. The title references the low-wage jobs that require people to stand for many hours.{{Cite news |last=Popescu |first=Lucy |date=2022-06-10 |title=Standing Heavy by GauZ’ — observations of a black security guard |url=https://www.ft.com/content/907c6c62-ff18-421e-8f2b-bfda95445193 |access-date=2024-11-19 |work=Financial Times}}

In Camarade Papa, published in 2018 and winner of the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire that year, Gauz places himself in the mind of a 19th-century White man to write a novel about colonization from the perspective of the colonizers. The other main character in the novel is a child of African origin born in Amsterdam. In 2020, Gauz published Black Manoo, which takes places in the 1990s African community of Paris and centered around a drug-addicted musician.

His book Cocoaïans (Birth of a Chocolate Nation), a political history of chocolate, was released in 2022. That same year, Gauz founded Éditions Srèlè, an Ivory Coast-based publishing house. The first book published was Le Jour montant, written by Demba Diop.{{Cite news |date=2022-04-24 |title=Un apéro avec Gauz : « Il fallait faire du Zola, du Hugo, c’est ce que j’ai fait » |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2022/04/24/un-apero-avec-gauz-il-fallait-faire-du-zola-du-hugo-c-est-ce-que-j-ai-fait_6123410_3212.html |access-date=2024-11-20 |language=fr}} Along with other African literary figures, Gauz would then spearhead the Front de Libération des Classiques Africains (FLCA), an initiative that aims to establish a fund to buy back the African rights of francophone African literary classics that are held by French publishers such as Plon, Seuil and Hachette.{{Cite web |date=2019-11-07 |title=Culture : Le Front de Libération des Classiques Africains (FLCA) est né - Afrique sur 7 |url=https://www.afrique-sur7.fr/437174-culture-classiques-africains-flca |access-date=2024-11-19 |language=fr-FR}}

In 2024 he published Portes (Doors), his fifth novel, inspired by the 1996 occupation of the church of Saint-Bernard in Paris by undocumented African immigrants. It is the final installment of his "trilogy of papers," comprising Standing Heavy and Black Manoo, all which take place in the northeastern African immigrant communities of Paris.{{Cite news |date=2024-05-16 |title=« Les Portes », de Gauz : le feuilleton littéraire de Tiphaine Samoyault |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2024/05/16/les-portes-de-gauz-le-feuilleton-litteraire-de-tiphaine-samoyault_6233655_3260.html |access-date=2024-11-19 |language=fr}}{{Cite news |date=2024-08-20 |title=Gauz, coauteur et interprète du polar abidjanais « Niabla » : « On comptait sur moi pour la véracité, pour “noircir” un peu le projet » |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/08/20/gauz-coauteur-et-interprete-du-polar-abidjanais-niabla-on-comptait-sur-moi-pour-la-veracite-pour-noircir-un-peu-le-projet_6288015_3246.html |access-date=2024-11-19 |language=fr}}

In addition to his literary career, Gauz has been active in the film and television sector. After directing several short documentary films, Parole(s) de Fana (2005) and Quand Sankara....(2006), {{Cite web |last=Film-documentaire.fr |title=Gauz |url=https://www.film-documentaire.fr/4DACTION/w_liste_generique/C_42102_F |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=www.film-documentaire.fr |language=fr}} {{Cite web |last=Jaffré |first=Bruno |date=2006-10-06 |title=“Quand Sankara…” un film de Armand Gbaka-Brédé dit Gauz - Thomas Sankara Website - Officiel |url=https://www.thomassankara.net/quand-sankara-un-film-de-armand-gbaka-brede-dit-gauz/ |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Thomas Sankara Website - Officiel - La patrie ou la mort, Nous vaincrons! |language=fr-FR}} he co-wrote his first feature film screenplay for Beyond the Ocean, a 2006 French film directed by Éliane de Latour about two Ivorian friends who seek better fortune in Europe. The film premiered at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2022 he scripted Ici C Babi, an Ivorian drama series that received a Special Jury Mention at Fespaco 2023 and Best Francophone Series of the South at the 2024 Lauriers de l'Audiovisuel, an award given a sub-Saharan co-production produced in partnership with TV5Monde. In 2023, he took on his first acting role in Niabla, a Canal+ Ivorian police thriller series that also he co-created and co-wrote.{{Cite news |date=2024-08-20 |title=Gauz, coauteur et interprète du polar abidjanais « Niabla » : « On comptait sur moi pour la véracité, pour “noircir” un peu le projet » |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/08/20/gauz-coauteur-et-interprete-du-polar-abidjanais-niabla-on-comptait-sur-moi-pour-la-veracite-pour-noircir-un-peu-le-projet_6288015_3246.html |access-date=2024-11-19 |language=fr}}

• Debout-Payé, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2014.{{Cite web |title=Debout-Payé |url=http://www.lenouvelattila.fr/debout-paye/ |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=Le Nouvel Attila |language=fr-FR}} Translated by Frank Wynne as Standing Heavy (MacLehose Press, 2022; Biblioasis, International Translation Series, 2023).{{Cite web |title=Standing Heavy (trade paper) |url=https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/fiction/novel/standing-heavy-trade-paper/ |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=Biblioasis |language=en-US}}
• Camarade Papa, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2018.{{Cite web |title=Camarade papa |url=http://www.lenouvelattila.fr/camarade-papa/ |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=Le Nouvel Attila |language=fr-FR}} The book is about "Ivory Coast, Marxism Leninism, and colonization."{{cite news |last1=Marivat |first1=Gladys |title=«J’ai deux cultures en moi » |agency=Le Monde |date=August 26, 2018}}
• Black Manoo, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2020.{{Cite web |title=Black Manoo |url=http://www.lenouvelattila.fr/black-manoo/ |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=Le Nouvel Attila |language=fr-FR}}
• Cocoaïans (Naissance d’une nation chocolat), L’Arche, 2022{{Cite book |url=https://www.arche-editeur.com/livre/cocoaians-naissance-dune-nation-chocolat-721 |title=Cocoaïans (Naissance d'une nation chocolat) |date=2022-08-19 |isbn=978-2-38198-042-3 |language=fr}}
• Portes, Le Nouvel Attila, 2024.
• Aboudia, Rizzoli, 2024 (co-author with Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi), a monograph on the American Ivorian artist Aboudia.{{Cite web |last=Nzewi |first=Author Ugochukwu-Smooth C. |last2=Gauz |title=Book |url=https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9788891838285/ |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Rizzoli New York |language=en-US}}

• Debout-Payé, 2014 Prix des libraires Gibert Joseph; shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize
• Camarade Papa (2018), Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire{{cite web |title=Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire. |url=https://guides.loc.gov/french-collections/french-literary-prizes/grand-prix-litteraire-afrique-translations |website=Library of Congress}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150801124005/http://gauz.fr/ His website]
• https://web.archive.org/web/20141019215659/http://www.franceculture.fr/evenement-rencontre-avec-gauz-lauteur-de-debout-paye
• http://www.liberation.fr/livres/2014/09/17/gauz-veni-vidi-vigile_1102604
• http://www.lefigaro.fr/livres/2014/09/17/03005-20140917ARTFIG00141-les-invisibles-prennent-la-plume.php
• http://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2014/09/04/solidarite-vigile_4481651_3260.html
• http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/le-palmares-des-20-meilleurs-livres-de-l-annee-selon-la-redaction-de-lire_1626307.html
• http://www.livreshebdo.fr/article/gibert-joseph-attribue-son-premier-prix-gauz

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Category:Living people

Category:1971 births

Category:Ivorian photographers

Category:People from Abidjan