In one of the most successful African comics there are no superheroes and certainly no supernatural powers.

Instead, Aya, a graphic novel series, is full of everyday heroes, and at the top of the list is Aya herself, a young woman navigating the joys and obstacles of early adulthood in the West African Ivory Coast.

Inspired by author Marguerite Abouet’s childhood years in Ivory Coast, the series focused on daily life in a working-class suburb of Abidjan, the country’s largest city. She mixes humor and a biting view of society with a feminist touch – all vividly captured by Clément Oubrerie, the illustrator.

In the books, Aya and her friends go on awkward first dates, meet each other and engage in countless shenanigans celebrating Ivory Coast’s favorite sport after soccer – “palabrer” or endless talking.

The relatable characters explain the instant acclaim that “Aya” received from readers and critics when it was first published in France in 2005. the following year it won the award for best debut at the Angouleme International Comics Festival, one of the world’s leading comics conventions. The books have now been translated into 15 languages ​​and have attracted more than a million readers worldwide.

In recent years, “Aya” has enjoyed a revival among a new generation of readers, many from the French-speaking African diaspora. “Aya is perfect for teenagers in France InAbouet said in a telephone interview from Paris, where she now lives. “You discover an African character who doesn’t see being black or being a woman as a hurdle, who has her friends and her beliefs.”

In the United States, sales of the books increased during the year George Floyd protests as American readers sought new perspectives on racial issues and stories from Africa, said Peggy Burns, the editor of Drawn & Quarterly, which publishes “Aya” in North America.

The latest English-language volume, “Aya: Claws Come Out,” was released this week, another sign that the series has appeal far beyond its setting, the Yopougon neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s.

Beyond the seemingly light tone is a multi-layered story in which Aya and her friends struggle with unemployment and police violence and fight for student rights and against sexual violence on campus.

In college, Aya wants to become a doctor and then turns to law, but her father doesn’t really support her ambitions. Adjoua, one of her best friends, ends up raising a baby alone; Her other friend, Bintou, an aspiring actress, fights against the sexism prevalent in the Ivorian television industry.

Her parents struggle with the corruption that plagues the country, as well as the problems that plague their households, such as excessive drinking and adultery.

When Aya tells Adjoua and Bintou that her father has been cheating on her mother for years and has had two children with his mistress, Bintou dismisses Aya’s despair with a devastating joke: “I’m sorry to say this, but men are like hospital beds; They take everyone under their covers.”

Adjoua doubles down: “It’s always been that way, you know that!”

Abouet, 52, moved to France at the age of 12 and began writing about growing up in Ivory Coast after the parents of three children she cared for encouraged her to share stories from home with a wider audience.

She did, and “Aya” is an ode to Abidjan’s most vibrant district, Yopougon, the birthplace of Zouglou, a dance style, and more Source of artistic creation.

Many of Ayas Yopougon’s landmarks – the outdoor playgrounds, the church where Abouet went, the “1,000-star hotel”, an open-air market that became a meeting place for lovers at night – are gone. Middle-class families have moved to wealthier neighborhoods, and some areas are becoming gentrified, with housing complexes next to slums.

But the soul of the district, which Aya and her friends call Yop City, “like something out of an American movie,” lives on. The noise of street vendors selling fried plantains or charcoal, groups of arguing children in school uniforms, or harried workers chasing public vans during rush hour create a dizzying atmosphere.

In the unpaved alleys and wide avenues there is still the roar of sewing machines, the smell of grilled fish in the open-air restaurants called “Maquis” and the haze of exhaust gases emanating from colorful motorized tricycles.

Finding the Aya series in Yopougon is no easy task, as most book stalls on the street focus on self-help books, school texts or old classics from France. Almost half of Ivory Coast’s 30 million residents are illiterate and “Aya” sales in West African countries account for less than 10 percent of total sales, according to Gallimard, the French publisher.

But Edwige-Renée Dro displays the books prominently in her library and bookstore in the heart of Yopougon, where she also organizes writing retreats for women.

Dro, an author herself, translated the latest volume of “Aya,” which will be published in English. (There were eight volumes in French and three in English; the first two English-language volumes each combined three of the French originals into one. The most recent volume translated into English, “Aya: Claws Come Out,” is the seventh one in France.)

She called the series a classic of Ivorian literature.

“Ivorian writers don’t write in the language we speak on the street,” Dro said one morning on the roof of her library, where she was smoking a cigarette and leafing through the book she was translating. “Marguerite does, and the people of Ivory Coast see themselves in Aya.”

However, she noted that “Aya” was still published in France, Ivory Coast’s former colonial power. “To have a vibrant Ivorian literary scene, we need the infrastructure Here,” she added.

After the fifth French edition, Abouet and Oubrerie took a twelve-year break from the series. During this time, they filmed “Aya” and Abouet wrote “That’s Life!”, a television series popular throughout West Africa, which explores the themes developed in “Aya” such as women’s well-being, gender issues and public health. She also wrote “Akissi: Tales of Mischief,” a story for younger readers that was published in a youth magazine sold throughout West Africa collected in an English language book.

Last year, while promoting the book’s latest volume to be published in France – the eighth not yet available in English – Abouet said she had met many mixed-race teenagers and young adults who had a real connection with their characters felt.

“There aren’t as many heroes like her,” Abouet said. “Black Panther is beautiful, but for many it is too much, too futuristic. They want a middle ground.”

Abouet said she continues to be fascinated by the perception of “Aya” around the world. In northern European countries, she said, parents have asked whether children in West Africa go to therapy after finding out their father has a second family or that he cheated on their mother.

In Ethiopia, she was once booed by university students who accused her of promoting homosexuality through the character of Innocent, a gay friend of Aya who moves to France and faces the hurdles of life as an undocumented immigrant.

“Life in Africa consists of problems that we all have, on all continents,” said Abouet. “But I still wonder, how is it that daily life in a working-class neighborhood in an African city is interesting to you?”

From her library in Yopougon, Dro, the translator, said she understood why.

“In ‘Aya’ we see Africans loving each other,” she said. “Like everyone else.”