Aya of Yop City is a series of graphic novels by Marguerite Abouet and illustrated by Clement Oubrerie. Abouet grew up in the 1970’s in the Ivory Coast, and she wanted to write something that would show readers that Africa is not a continent on which nothing but awful things happen. She wanted to counter the stereotype of Africa as a place that is monolithic and disastrous. During the 1970’s, the Ivory Coast experienced an economic boom and a lengthy period of political stability, and this is reflected in the optimistic and enterprising tone of the story.

The characters in Aya have serious problems, but they aren’t plagued by war and famine and disaster. They gossip, they try to win beauty pageants, they run businesses, they go to work in the city and fight with their relatives in the village, and above all they fall in and out of love.

This isn’t specifically a romance comic. Characters often seem more motivated by lust and/or pragmatism than love, and they don’t always have a happy ending. It’s more soap opera than romance novel in style. However, it might appeal to romance readers who enjoy unusual and diverse comics and graphic novels, and who enjoy relationship-driven stories. 

The series follows the life of Aya, a teenage girl, and her family and friends. There are tons of characters and they have complicated relationships to each other – so much so that at the start of each book there’s an illustrated guide to help the reader keep everyone straight. The books also have helpful introductions and epilogues that include glossaries and essays and recipes.

Aya is studious and ambitious. She wants to go to university and she is the levelheaded person to whom everyone turns in times of trouble. Much of the series is about women pushing the boundaries of their traditional roles. The younger generation encourages their mothers to rebel against fathers who have affairs. Aya’s friend Adjoua, who is a single mom, runs her own business instead of marrying her son’s feckless father. Aya’s foster sister, Felicite, resists an arrange marriage in the village with the help of Aya and her friends. There’s not a central, linear plot – it’s more like a soap opera, with everyone’s storylines spooling off in various directions while Aya remains the calm center (until she’s not, which really shakes things up).

Promotional materials for Aya often refer to it as “light-hearted.” I don’t think the series is light-hearted at all. It’s true that it shows life that isn’t consumed by war or famine (it’s also set pre-HIV) but the characters do have to deal with some heavy stuff including abuse, forced marriage, adultery, decisions around an unplanned pregnancy, and homophobia. There’s a story arc that includes sexual harassment and attempted rape.

Rather than call it “light-hearted” I would say that Aya presents its characters as ordinary and relatable in a way that Western readers don’t often see in media. Characters worry about their looks and they worry about their love lives. Instead of going to Lover’s Point, the teens go make out at a place they call “The Hotel of 1000 Stars” but it’s the same concept as Lover’s Point (with a better name). It’s much more about the everyday lives of people than about an individual big dramatic event. All the characters are presented as flawed, but they are also presented with great affection (most of them, anyway).

One reason I wanted to read this series is that it’s supposed to be about romance. To be frank, there’s not a lot of romance in the way that I think about romance – there are a lot of crushes, and affairs, and broken hearts. However, there are two very sweet romances that develop near the end of the series – I don’t want to spoil either of them so I won’t say who falls in love with whom, but I will say that there’s a gay character who seems well on the road towards happiness, romantic and otherwise. It’s delightful to see a happy story about an African gay character – he has huge challenges, of course, but he’s an optimistic person who thrives on Aya’s support and acceptance and who makes brave choices to take control of his future.

The only thing I didn’t like about the series, and the reason it’s a B and not an A, is that the storytelling is so disjointed that very few threads seemed fully resolved. Often I thought I had missed a page, but no. The author repeatedly cuts away right at the point of resolution, which I found frustrating, and she switches plot lines often, which can be confusing.

Aya is available as a series of five graphic novels or in two large collections: Aya: Life in Yop City and Aya: Love in Yop City. The art uses earth tones and pretty basic panels – the focus is less on doing something stylistically unusual and more on conveying the business of life in Yop city, Aya’s neighborhood. Aya’s world is shown as dusty and loud and bustling, with run down shacks and polished skyscrapers only a short cab ride apart. It’s delightful to get a window into a place and time that I didn’t know much about.