Antoine Abel

Who is Antoine Abel?

Antoine Abel was a Seychellois poet, novelist, playwright and folklorist born on 27 November 1934 in Anse Boileau, on the west coast of Mahe, into a modest peasant family. After completing his primary schooling locally and training briefly as a mason, he travelled to Switzerland in 1955 for secondary education, returning four years later to begin a long career as a teacher. He later studied education science for rural areas at the University of Reading in England before joining the Seychelles Teacher Training College in Victoria, where he taught until his retirement in 1986. Abel is widely regarded as the father of Seychelles literature: his 1969 poetry collection Paille en queue was the first work to carry his country's culture and Creole language onto the international stage, and in 1977 he became the first Seychellois author published in Europe, when the French publisher P.J. Oswald/L'Harmattan released his novel Coco sec, the story collection Une tortue se rappelle, and Contes et poemes des Seychelles, work that earned him France's Prix Mascareignes in 1979. After independence in 1976, when Seychellois Creole became a recognised national language, Abel edited more than sixty titles in Creole, including the first Creole-language novel and the first Creole-language play, and produced extensive children's literature and recorded folklore. He died in Mahe on 19 October 2004, and since 2007 the annual Festival Kreol des Seychelles has awarded the Prix Antoine Abel in his memory.

Sources: Antoine Abel, Wikipedia · Seychelles Cultural Foundation, "Antoine Abel" writer profile · The Woyingi Blog, "African Writer Profile: Antoine Abel" (2011)