Research in African Literatures

In 1996, Calixthe Beyala was twice accused of plagiarism. One of the accusations led to her being found guilty in the High Court in Paris. Pardoxically, in that same year she was awarded the highly prestigious Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie Française for one of the novels in which she had allegedly plagiarized. Focusing mainly on Beyala's responses to the allegations of 1996, this essay considers the consequences of what has become known as the "Beyala Affair." Beyala's situation is unique in that she is both a consecrated, best-selling "authentic" African author and a proven literary "fake." I suggest that by playing with notions of "authenticity" and "fakery," Beyala tests the limits of tolerance for an African woman writer in France.