Safaola Spiritual Elevation

Maurice Bandaman prize for best poetic creation. Safaola, it’s that voice that resonates in each one of us. It’s the mixture of images from here and elsewhere, of bygone eras and unconfessed hopes. It’s an invitation to go on a voyage. Safaola, it’s an ode to love, an ode to passion, born to be reborn, to heal, to make loved and to dream. With this unheard of word, Philippe Tiémassa-Grey breaks down boundaries and brings together the diversity of emotions under one banner, that of poetry. In this collection with its powerful, passionate lyricism, the author blends the known and the unknown, dreams and reality, and gives to read a poetry that transcends individuality, time and space to one goal, to truly bring words to life. Philippe Tiémassa-Grey was born on January 12th, 1988, in Jacqueville, Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). A lover of literature, he started writing at age 10 and hasn’t stopped since. Thanks to his writing talent, in 2013 he was recruited to the offices of the Ivory Coast’s first lady, Madame Dominique Ouattara. In 2017, the pan-African media outlet Financial Afrik considered him one of the most influential young people in the country. The poetry collection Safaola is his first published work.