Tchicaya U Tam'si
Tchicaya U Tam'si was a Congolese author; his pen name means "small paper that speaks for its country" in Kikongo.
Life
Born in Mpili, near Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa, in 1931, U Tam'si spent his childhood in France, where he worked as a journalist until he returned to his homeland in 1960. Back in Congo, he continued to work as a journalist; during this time he maintained contact to the politician Patrice Lumumba. In 1961, he started to work for UNESCO. He received Grand Prix at the 1966 first World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal.Death
U Tam'si died in 1988 in Bazancourt, Oise, near Paris.Since 1989, the Tchicaya U Tam'si Prize for African Poetry is awarded every two years in the Moroccan city of Asilah.