Pretty soon Adjoua and Bintou are fighting over the same loser dude, who just happens to be from a wealthy family - let the catfights begin. From there, the narrative follows the escapades of Adjoua and Bintou as they sneak out to meet up with boys and go dancing, while ambitious Aya, who wants to become a doctor, stays home and studies. Narrated from Aya’s perspective, the story begins with her family and friends gathering to watch Ivory Coast’s first television ad campaign: the ad is for Solibra, a local brand of beer and the company for which Aya’s father is manager. That the story is rendered graphically underscores its emphasis on the local, with vivid panels bringing the neighborhood and its residents to life. But Aya is set apart from most coming-of-age stories in that its setting is distinctly localized to 1978 Yopougon (aka Yop City), a working-class neighborhood of Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. We know this story, probably all too well. In a way, Aya is just another coming-of-age story, dramatizing the period when protagonist Aya, 19, and her two best friends, Adjoua and Bintou, grow into adulthood and begin to grow apart. Aya tells a story both familiar and refreshingly new, at least to those of us who have little exposure to media that show more of African countries than civil war, AIDS, and poverty.
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