Léonora Miano

Cameroonian-French writer pioneering Afro-European identity narratives through radical literary works.

Born in 1973 in Douala, Cameroon, Léonora Miano redefined Afropean literature by exploring diasporic Black identities in Europe. Her novels like Dark Heart of the Night (2005) confront colonialism's psychological scars while inventing new linguistic structures blending Ewondo proverbs with French.

Miano's breakthrough came with «Tels des astres éteints» (2008), which won the Prix Femina. She founded the Afropean Project, creating spaces for mixed-race Europeans to reclaim their narratives. Her essays like Habiter la frontière (2012) coined the term «afropéen», now widely used in identity studies.

Unlike mainstream African writers, Miano rejects postcolonial victimhood tropes. Instead, her characters navigate Brussels and Paris with defiant agency. The French government awarded her the Legion of Honor in 2021 for reshaping Francophone literature. Her upcoming graphic novel «Rouge Impératrice» (2023) speculates about an Africa-led global future.