Alliance Française de Nairobi to announce East African Comic Competition winners on 6 October

Alliance Française de Nairobi will announce the winners of the first East African Comic Competition (EACC 2026) on 6 October 2026, at the opening of an exhibition of comics by the 10 finalists at the centre in Nairobi, according to the competition page on its website.

The competition is run by the Alliances Françaises and Instituts Français of East Africa, with Alliance Française de Nairobi as coordinator. Its theme is "Inhabiting the World". The competition page asks: "What does it mean to belong to a place, a culture, a time?"

The first prize is €800 in cash from Alliance Française de Nairobi, plus long-term support from literary agent Nicolas Grivel, including representation at the Angoulême, Bologna and Frankfurt fairs. The second prize is €400. The third prize is a curated selection of French comic books.

The finalists were announced on 4 September 2026, according to the organisers' timeline. The page lists a five-day masterclass for them in Nairobi from 5 to 10 October 2026. Before the deadline, the organisers ran free online masterclasses from April to July with Grivel and the comic authors Cookie Kalkair, Geraldine Grenet and Lili Sohn.

The contest was open to creators aged 18 to 35 living in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, Djibouti and Uganda, who could submit work in French, English or Swahili. Entries went to the Alliance Française or Institut Français in each applicant's country, with a deadline of 31 July 2026. The final jury selection was set for 31 August 2026.

In a post dated 20 September 2026 on the Substack newsletter African Literature & Comics, Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru wrote that 81 entries came in and 60 eligible projects reached the jury after 21 were disqualified for not meeting the competition requirements. By country, Kenya had 29 eligible entries, Uganda and Ethiopia 11 each, Tanzania 7 and Rwanda 2.

Alliance Française de Nairobi's events list also carries "East African Comic Worlds: Portfolio Review" on 8 October 2026.

Questions about the competition go to [email protected]. The centre's arts and culture department can be reached at [email protected] or +254 20 4917 110.