Gauz

GauZ', also known as Armand Gauz, is the author name of Armand Patrick Gbaka-Brédé. He was born March 22, 1971 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He is an author, publisher, screenwriter, and actor. He is particularly renowned for his literary work, which explores themes of immigration, colonization, labor and identity through a lens that is often satirical and critical. He was the recipient of the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 2018 and was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. His screenwriting credits includes the Ivorian television series Ici C Babi — C’est doux mais c’est risqué and Niabla (2023), in which he also starred. He is the founder of Éditions Srèlè, a publishing house based in the Ivory Coast. He lives in Grand-Bassam.

Early life and education 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, northeast of Abidjan. He also lived in Yopougon, Bouaké, Daloa and Cocody. His first language is Anyin.

His father was a teacher and a socialist deputy, and his mother was a nurse and communist. As a child he stayed with extended family when his parents went to Paris to study.

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. 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.

In Camarade Papa, published in 2018 and winner of the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire that year, 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.

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.

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), 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.

Published work Debout-Payé, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2014. Translated by Frank Wynne as Standing Heavy (MacLehose Press, 2022; Biblioasis, International Translation Series, 2023). Camarade Papa, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2018. The book is about "Ivory Coast, Marxism Leninism, and colonization." Black Manoo, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2020. Cocoaïans (Naissance d’une nation chocolat), L’Arche, 2022 Portes, Le Nouvel Attila, 2024. Aboudia, Rizzoli, 2024 (co-author with Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi), a monograph on the American Ivorian artist Aboudia.

Filmography + Year Title Role Ref 2005 Parole(s) de Fana (short film) Director