Activities

Vandana Shiva has worked with farmers’ and people’s movements across the world against what she calls “seed imperialism”, economic polarisation, and the digital colonisation of our ecological and social diversity. This powerful memoir looks back at the most memorable campaigns and movements that she has been part of, while looking ahead to the challenges posed by the COVID crisis, the privatisation of biotechnology, and the commodification of our biological and natural resources. “The awareness that Vandana’s work and actions provoke is sublime”, says Gilles-Éric Séralini, “it will bring you light”.
© Women Unlimited (India)

First publication by two Alliance’s members, Women Unlimited (India) and Spinifex (Australia).

Translations and co-publishings of Terra viva by members of the Alliance:

• Boitempo (Brazil), 2024
• Marjin Kiri (Indonesia), 2024
• Wildproject and Rue de l’échiquier (France), 2023
• Continta Me Tienes (Spain), LOM Ediciones (Chile) and Econautas Editorial (Argentina) for a co-publishing in Spain and Latin America, 2024
• Atlas Publishing (Syria), Med Ali (Tunisia), Sefsafa Publishing (Egypt) and Mamdouh Adwan Publishing (Syria) for a co-publishing in the Arab world - in progress
• Nogaam Publishing (UK/Iran) and Dena Books (Netherlands/Iran) for a co-publishing into Persian - in progress
• Vakxikon Publications (Greece) - in progress

Several of these translations have benefited from the support of the Jan Michalski Foundation.

Vandana Shiva is one of the Alliance’s Bibliodiversity Ambassador. Listen here the replay of the round table with Vandana Shiva during Babelica 2023.

Thanks to a partnership between the Fondation Lilian Thuram - Éducation contre le racisme and the International Alliance of Independent Publishers, 11 publishing houses in French-speaking Africa are co-publishing La pensée blanche, originally published by Editions Philippe Rey (France).

La pensée blanche is available in the following countries: Algeria (Apic), Benin (Ruisseaux d’Afrique), Burkina Faso (Sankofa & Gurli), Cameroon (Presses universitaires d’Afrique), Côte d’Ivoire (Éburnie), Gabon (Éditions Nstame), Guinea (Ganndal), Mali (Jamana), Morocco (Le Fennec), Senegal (Papyrus d’Afrique), Togo (Graines de Pensées).

Publication date: November 2023
Format: 14,5 X 22 cm; 320 pages

Listen to Lilian Thuram’s interview here at Babelica, the international fair for independent online publishing, on September 20, 2023.

In Latin America, Unidad versus el 1% is co-published simultaneously by Econautas Editorial (Argentina), LOM ediciones (Chile), Editorial Mate (Argentina), Plural Editores (Bolivia) and Taller de Edición Rocca (Colombia).
For translation © Editorial Popular, S. A., Madrid, 2019.

The original version of this book was published in 2018 as Oneness vs. the 1% by Women Unlimited in India (co-published with Spinifex in Australia and New Internationalist in the UK).

Find here the interview with Vandana Shiva on the occasion of the launch of the Latin American co-publishing on 19 June 2021.

ISBN Argentina (Econautas Editorial): 978-987-46301-9-3

ISBN Chile (LOM ediciones): 978-956-00-1379-8

ISBN Argentina (Editorial Mate): 978-987-9199-29-x

Hamed Abdel-Samad and Mouhanad Khorchide discuss controversially central issues of the religion of Islam. They address burning issues such as sharia, violence, jihad, freedom of expression, human rights, the role of women and religion in democracy. Can Islam still be saved? is a polemic that allows two different perspectives on the future of Islam in the western states.

Publishers from the Persian network of the Alliance have translated and co-published this book in Farsi: Forough Book (Germany), Naakojaa (France), Khavaran (France), Pooya Verlag (Germany), Pegah Publishing (Canada).

2018 - 332 pages - ISBN : 978-3-96531-007-0

En un mundo globalizado, las megacorporaciones editoriales solo se preocupan por los números, por lo semejante, por seguir fórmulas ya probadas en sus últimos éxitos de ventas. Se espera que cada libro pague su propia producción junto con las externalidades del proceso de publicación, tales como la infraestructura y el sueldo de los ceo. Bajo esa óptica, los libros que se demoran más en “despegar”, pero que poseen una larga vida y son capaces de cambiar las normas sociales, tienen menos probabilidades de publicarse.

Los editores independientes apuestan por una forma diferente de hacer las cosas. Buscan un compromiso distinto con la sociedad y se preocupan por reflejar el lugar y el espíritu de sus comunidades. “Bibliodiversidad” es un término creado por editores independientes en los años noventa para darle un nombre a esta forma diferente de pensar la edición. En este manifiesto, Susan Hawthorne nos ofrece una crítica mordaz a la industria editorial global, que contrapone a una propuesta visionaria para la publicación “orgánica”. En un contexto de predominio de las grandes corporaciones, Bibliodiversidad marca las diferencias entre los conceptos de libertad de expresión y de “discurso justo” y pone en perspectiva las promesas y los desafíos de la transición al mundo digital.

ISBN: 978-950-889-322-2 - 15 x 21 cm - 120 páginas

Bibliodiversidad, en francés
Bibliodiversidad, en árabe
Bibliodiversidad, en aléman

Widespread poverty and malnutrition, an alarming refugee crisis, social unrest, economic polarisation... have become our lived reality as the top 1% of the world’s seven-billion-plus population pushes the planet—and all its people—to the social and ecological brink. In Oneness vs. the 1%, Vandana Shiva takes on the Billionaires Club of Gates, Buffett, Zuckerberg and other modern Mughals, whose blindness to the rights of people, and to the destructive impact of their construct of linear progress, have wrought havoc across the world. Their single-minded pursuit of profit has undemocratically enforced uniformity and monocultures, division and separation, monopolies and external control—over finance, food, energy, information, healthcare, and even relationships.

Basing her analysis on explosive little-known facts, Shiva exposes the 1%’s model of philanthrocapitalism, which is about deploying unaccountable money to bypass democratic structures, derail diversity, and impose totalitarian ideas, based on One Science, One Agriculture and One History. She calls for the “resurgence of real knowledge, real intelligence, real wealth, real work, real well-being”, so that people can reclaim their right to: Live Free. Think Free. Breathe Free. Eat Free.

Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental thinker and activist, a leader in the International Forum on Globalisation, and of the Slow Food Movement. Director of Navdanya and of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and a tireless crusader for farmers’, peasants’ and women’s rights, she is the author and editor of several influential books, including Making Peace with the Earth; Soil Not Oil; Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard; and Who Really Feeds the World?
Vandana Shiva is the recipient of over 20 international awards, among them the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic (1998); the Horizon 3000 Award (Austria, 2001); the John Lennon-Yoko Ono Grant for Peace (2008); the Sydney Peace Prize (2010); the Calgary Peace Prize (2011); and the Thomas Merton Award (2011). She was the Fukuoka Grand Prize Laureate in 2012.

Kartikey Shiva is a shatterer of illusions, grower of freedom, and agent of light.

A co-publishing of the English-network of the Alliance: Women Unlimited (India), Spinifex (Australia) and New Internationalist (UK), 2019.
ISBN (Women Unlimited, India): 978-93-85606-18-2
ISBN (Spinifex Press, Australia): 978-19-25581-79-9

Oneness vs. the 1% , Australian cover:

Oneness vs. the 1% , UK cover:

US, Canada, UK, Italian, Australian, French and Spanish rights sold. All others available.

This nonfiction title by a German-Egyptian academic examines stereotypes throughout the history of the prophet Muhammad. The main theme of the book is a representation of the life of Mohammed and the emergence of Islam. Osama bin Laden’s actions, as well as the crimes of Islamist terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State, are also attributed to Muhammad’s willingness to spread Islam through violent subjugation and partial physical liquidation of people of other faiths.

Hamed Abdel-Samad, the author, is born near Cairo in 1972. He worked for UNESCO, at the Institute for Islamic Culture at the University of Erfurt, and at the Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich. Abdel-Samad is a member of the German Islam Conference and, according to his publisher, is “considered to be one of the most renowned Islam intellectuals in the German-speaking world”.

The book was first published in German (Mohamed. Eine Abrechnung) by the German publishing house Droemer Verlag in October 2015.
Publishers from the Persian network of the Alliance have translated and co-published the book in Farsi in 2018: Forough Publishing and Pouya Publishing (Germany), Khavaran Publishing (France) and Pegah Publishing (Canada).

2018 - 250 pages - 13 X 20,5 cm - ISBN: 978-3-943147-63-6

New edition published in 2017 by la marca editora (Argentina), co-published with EDINAR (Argentina) and CERLALC.
Book initially published by CERLALC.

ISBN: 978-950-889-299-7
264 pages / 20 X 25 cm

More information.

See also below the Peruvian publication of the Manual de edición, published by La Travesía Editora, Peruvian publisher, member of the collective EIP in Peru.

In a globalised world, megacorp publishing is all about numbers, about sameness, about following a formula based on the latest megasuccess. Each book is expected to pay for itself and all the externalities of publishing such as offices and CEO salaries. It means that books which take off slowly but have long lives, the books that change social norms, are less likely to be published.

Independent publishers are seeking another way. A way of engagement with society and methods that reflect something important about the locale or the niche they inhabit. Independent and small publishers are like rare plants that pop up among the larger growth but add something different, perhaps they feed the soil, bring colour or scent into the world.

Bibliodiversity is a term invented by Chilean publishers in the 1990s as a way of envisioning a different kind of publishing. In this manifesto, Susan Hawthorne provides a scathing critique of the global publishing industry set against a visionary proposal for organic publishing. She looks at free speech and fair speech, at the environmental costs of mainstream publishing and at the promises and challenges of the move to digital.

A translation from English into French followed by a co-publishing between 5 publishers in France (éditions Charles Léopold Mayer), Switzerland (éditions d’en bas), Mali (Jamana) and Cameroon (Presses universitaires d’Afrique).

In a globalised world, megacorp publishing is all about numbers, about sameness, about following a formula based on the latest megasuccess. Each book is expected to pay for itself and all the externalities of publishing such as offices and CEO salaries. It means that books which take off slowly but have long lives, the books that change social norms, are less likely to be published.

Independent publishers are seeking another way. A way of engagement with society and methods that reflect something important about the locale or the niche they inhabit. Independent and small publishers are like rare plants that pop up among the larger growth but add something different, perhaps they feed the soil, bring colour or scent into the world.

Bibliodiversity is a term invented by Chilean publishers in the 1990s as a way of envisioning a different kind of publishing. In this manifesto, Susan Hawthorne provides a scathing critique of the global publishing industry set against a visionary proposal for organic publishing. She looks at free speech and fair speech, at the environmental costs of mainstream publishing and at the promises and challenges of the move to digital.

A translation from English into Arabic followed by a co-publishing between 5 publishers in Egypt (Elain publishing), in Lebanon (Dar Al Farabi and Al Intischar), in Syria (Atlas publishing) and in Tunisia (Med Ali).

A co-publication of the Alliance’s English-langage network. Two co-publishers : Spinifex (Australia), Women Unlimited (India).

Abstract:

“Palestine-in-exile,” says Rana Barakat, “is an idea, a love, a goal, a movement, a massacre, a march, a parade, a poem, a thesis, a novel and, yes, a commodity, as well as a people scattered, displaced, dispossessed and determined.”
How do Palestinians live, imagine and reflect on home and exile in this period of a stateless and transitory Palestine, a deeply contested and crisis-ridden national project, and a sharp escalation in Israeli state violence and accompanying Palestinian oppression? How can exile and home be written?
In this volume of new writing fifteen innovative and outstanding Palestinian writers—essayists, poets, novelists, critics, artists and memoirists—respond with their reflections, experiences, memories and polemics. What is it like, in the words of Lila Abu-Lughod, to be “drafted into being Palestinian?” What happens when you take your American children, as Sharif Elmusa does, to the refugee camp where you were raised? And how can you convince, as Suad Amiry attempts to do, a weary airport official to continue searching for a code for a country that isn’t recognised?
Contributors probe the past through unconventional memories, reflecting on 1948 when it all began. But they are also deeply interested in beginnings, imagining, in the words of Mischa Hiller, “a Palestine that reflects who we are now and who we hope to become”. Their contributions—poignant, humorous, intimate, reflective, intensely political—make for an offering that is remarkable for the candour and grace with which it explores the many individual and collective experiences of waiting, living for, and seeking Palestine.

Editors:
Penny Johnson is an independent researcher who works closely with the Institute of Women’s Studies at Birzeit University, where she edits the Review of Women’s Studies. Recent writing and research on Palestine has focused on weddings and wars, wives of political prisoners, and young Palestinians’ talk about proper and improper marriages. She is an Associate Editor of the Jerusalem Quarterly.
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer who lives in Ramallah. He is the founder of the pioneering non-partisan human rights organisation, Al Haq, an affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists, and the author of several books about international law, human rights and the Middle East. He is also the author of the award-winning Palestinian Walks and A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle. His new book, Occupation Diaries, is published in August 2012.

Endorsements:
“How can an essentially sad story give such pleasure? The answer is in these narratives: these stories, memoirs, poems are a pleasure and an education; personal, vivid, original, sometimes witty, always accomplished and always honest. They are a testimonial to the human spirit, and to the growing contribution of Palestine to literature.” —Ahdaf Soueif

ISBN: 81-88965-73-1 (Women Unlimited, India), 978-1-74219-823-1 (Spinifex, Australia).

The young Zulu Dumisani Gumede grows up in the pastoral setting of the mountains of South Africa. This irresistible seducer has two obsessions: sex and an utter adoration of Nelson Mandela, the mythical ANC leader then the talk of the country and to this young man the essence of courage and virility. Originally published in 2006, “Mandela’s ego” looks back at South Africa under the apartheid regime. A brave and unusual coming-of-age novel, combining delightful anecdotes about the everyday life of the Zulu community with scenes of violence, family, social and political, in a country in torment. Wisdom and humour rub shoulders in this fable, a homage to the great Mandela.

Lewis NKOSI was born in Durban (South Africa) in 1926. A journalist, he taught literature at various universities. The author of many essays on culture and South African literature, plays and novels, he was awarded numerous literary prizes. He died in Johannesburg in September 2010.

Year of publication of the Pan-African version: 2011, 360 pages, 11,5 X 19 cm

A Fair Trade Book co-publishing.

Zam, a committed political journalist, has been the victim of a theft: his entire valuable collection of jazz records has been stolen. The following day he discovers a dead body in his cupboard. There follows a succession of events during which Zam – more in tune with the simple pleasures of life – slowly realises that a plot is being hatched against him. So he decides to conduct an investigation which rapidly turns into a nightmare, where shady policemen get mixed up with corrupt politicians, where foreign diplomats lurk while the secret services let loose. “Trop de soleil tue l’amour” – the first volume of an incomplete trilogy – belongs to the tradition of literary farce that, through humour, denounces the tragedy of an Africa caught in the snares of its many contradictions and endless meddling.

Writer, essayist, bookseller, editor, militant citizen, Mongo BETI – born in 1932 in Cameroon – has for half a century been at the heart of the struggle for an Africa free from the tragedies of colonisation and independence confiscated. Author of an important body of work and considered one of Africa’s major writers, Mongo BETI died in October 2001.

Year of publication of the Pan-African version: 2011, 372 pages, 11,5 X 19 cm

A Fair Trade Book co-publishing.

A man – despite being a staunch opponent of animism – confides to a former party comrade: “I was bewitched by my paternal uncle”. Another, Likibi, is tried for having prevented the rain from falling on his village: accused of being a fetishist, he is executed. A factory watchman praises the communist Revolution without understanding a single word; his zeal will have fatal consequences for him. With bitter irony and a tone of detachment, this collection of eight short stories describes the collapse of new African states and the disillusionment that followed independence. So many portraits of men and women that Emmanuel Dongala succeeds in depicting convincingly and with humanity. The style is faux naïf, the situations sometimes bizarre... and even if the author indulges in flights of fancy – related to his passion for jazz – the overall impression remains pessimistic behind the bittersweet humour of the writing.

Born in 1941, Emmanuel Dongala grew up in Congo-Brazzaville and now lives in the United States. He is the author of many novels, including “Les petits garçons naissent aussi des étoiles” (“Boys Also Come From Stars”) and “Johnny Chien Méchant” (“Mean Dog Johnny”), publishing by Serpent à plumes.

Year of publication of the pan-African version: 2009, 204 pages, 11,5 X 19 cm

A corpse in a bunker: that of the Head of state, N’Zo Nikiema. A mystery: the murder of little Kaveena, only daughter of the late president’s mistress. Colonel Asante Kroma, chief of police, will have to disentangle the dark mysteries of a system he was part of. “Kaveena”, a long monologue, clear-sighted and desperate, speaks relentlessly of Africa bruised at the hands of local and foreign politicians, brutal, greedy, merciless. A brave novel that pulls no punches.

Born in 1946, the Senegalese author Boubacar Boris Diop has achieved renown as a major contemporary African writer. He has written several novels, including “Murambi, Le livre des ossements” published by Stock in 1997 and “Doomi Golo”, written in Wolof (Papyrus, 2003) and published in France by Philippe Rey publishing en 2009.

Year of publication of the pan-African version: 2009, 382 pages, 11,5 X 19 cm

In the eyes of an African teenager who joins the army without really knowing why, Ken Saro-Wiwa takes us into the chaos of a meaningless chaos, that of Nigerian civil war (1967-1970). Written in an extraordinary language – “rotten English” –, Sozaboy is a masterpiece of African literature; its astonishing violence and audacity have been celebrated throughout the world as a fierce plea against the madness of war.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was born in Nigeria in 1941. After studying English, he worked as a teacher in Laos. Besides writing novels and popular soap operas for television, he later created his own publishing house and was the President of the Association of Nigerian Authors for three years. As a journalist, he has been praised for his caustic pen and courageous positions. In 1995, he was sentenced to death and executed by hanging because of his militancy in favor of the Ogoni community to which he belonged.

Year of publication of the pan-African version: 2008,
294 pages,
11,5 X 19 cm

Ken Bugul’s novel is a dialogue between a daughter and her dead mother, whom she accuses of not having loved her and having preferred her sister ; it describes a relationship and a world from which love and truth seem absent. In a poetic fashion, alternating short sentences with poetry – as though pulsed by the murmur of despair – in a litany of remembrances, the author attempts to tell the ineffable pain of lost things.

Ken Bugul – whose name in Wolof means “one who is unwanted” – was born in Senegal in 1947, to a father who was a marabout (type of African shaman) and a mother who had to leave her when she was only 5 years old. She has worked as an international civil servant and now she lives in Benin. Her work, in which she combines her sense of humour with an innate talent for story-telling, is flooded with themes such as the status of women, Islam or North-South relationships. With her lucid, free and uncompromising look, she is one of the major voices in contemporary African literature.
Among her books are: La folie et la mort [Madness and Death], (Présence africaine, 2000), Rue Félix-Faure (Serpent à Plumes, 2004).

Year of publication of the pan-African version: 2008, 282 pages,
11,5 X 19 cm

In A Naked Needle, with a finesse that is not lacking in nerve – the explicit reference is to none other than James Joyce’s Ulysses– Nuruddin Farah adds to the love story a stroll through the city, as well as a detailed analysis of the psychology of his characters, each of whom sees the relationships from a different viewpoint. This increases the readers’ feelings of empathy, and they will inevitably be surprised as they identifies with one or other member of this community.
This is where one of the keys to the great success of Farah’s novels lies: the power of the novelist to take us gently and firmly by the hand and make us identify with individuals who remain timeless. “Outside of time, because they are them although they could be us” – writes Abdourahman A.Waberi in the prologue.

Born in Baidoa, in what was then Italian Somalia, Nuruddin Farah grew up in Ogaden, a Somali province in eastern Ethiopia, before going off to study in India in the mid 1970s. Back in his home country, he made a name for himself in 1968 in Mogadishu as a teacher, but above all as the first novelist to use both English and Somali. A double success – unusual, certainly – which was to precipitate his exile, sealed by the military junta of Mohamed Siad Barre, who came to power in 1969.

In an excellent translation into French by Catherine Pierre-Bon and a remarkable cover design, A Naked Needle signals the editorial orientation of the “Terres d’écritures” collection, which is being published jointly by seven French-language publishers. A demanding collection of books that are destined to last, and which strongly reassert the universality of literature.

Year of publication : 2007,
260 pages,
14,5 X 22 cm

Algiers, Tlemcen, Angers, Saint-Etienne, Firminy, Yaounde, Bamako, Philippe Dauchez, in all these cities, played of his art, theatre, as an actor, director or professor.

Once working with Albert Camus as an assistant, he was always impassioned for the integration of theatre in the City in all its forms, classical, popular, traditional... From large French scenes to Malians villages, he has always worked with the same simplicity and the same commitment. This book recalls his history, his passion for life, theatre and people, in a text which makes cross the intimacy and the universal, history and everyday life, erudite theatre and popular art. Pierre Chambert draws up us a poetic portrait of a man who put his very whole life at the service of a useful theatre.

Pierre Chambert, a poet and a writer, is an inspector-advisor for theatre and performing arts at the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. He is currently posted in Guyana, near Amazonia, its legends and its storytellers.

Year of publication: 2006, 256 pages

Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) into French by Flavio Corrêa de Mello

Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin), 2012; 37 pages
Original edition: Pallas Editora (Brazil)

Rooted in African daily life, in the streets of Bamako and Conakry, in the fishing port of Cotonou, on Tunisian soil, or redolent of Afro-Brazilian heritage, the 281 tales, documentaries, albums and novels that make up the catalogue are just waiting to be discovered. Books by nine independent publishing houses from Africa (South Africa, Benin, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, the Republic of Guinea, Rwanda, Tunisia) and from Brazil are now available in France, Belgium and Switzerland!
If you would like to diversify your stock, read in Bambara, in Arabic, in English, in Portuguese, in Kinyarwanda, in Malagasy, in French, if you are simply looking for some escapism… the solution is here… just turn the pages !

The Alliance distributes all the books contained in the catalogue.

Download the catalogue here.

The “African readings” catalogue was created with the support of the Ile-de-France Region.

This collection, which takes its title from an iconic verse by Fernando Pessoa, is a veritable invitation to a journey through sixteen tales by
authors from Brazil, Guinea-Bissau and Angola.

Year of publication: 2010; 224 pages; 14 X 21 cm; ISBN: 978-85-347-0294-2

To access the youth catalogues, click here and here.

These catalogues are available from the Alliance. Contact us telephonically or by email for all enquiries and orders.

This poetical text, writing by Béatrice LALINON GBADO, is a real homage for Woman, a wonderfull poem illustrated by several senegalese artists working with the technic of “under-glass”.

Year of publication : 2006,
48 pages,
24 X 24 cm

1001 activités autour du livre is not about learning to read but about giving children from 2 to 11 years old and beyond a passion for books and reading. How can you achieve this? By playing, drawing, inventing, talking, miming... all thanks to books. This playful and original work of practice and experience makes you want to devour all the others! An authentic tool for child education professionals and attentive parents.

Initially published by Éditions Casterman in 2013.
Date of publication (Pan-African version): September 2020
A specific adaptation for this pan-African co-publishing has been made by Philippe Brasseur; the co-publishers have also updated and adapted to their contexts and environments some of the references of the book.

A book co-published by 11 publishing houses in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean: AGO Média (Togo), Atelier des Nomades (Mauritius), Editions Bakame (Rwanda), Editions Elondja (DRC), Ganndal (Guinea), La Farandole des livres bookstore (Niger), Gashingo (Niger), Jeunes Malgaches (Madagascar), Editions Ntsamé (Gabon), Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin) and Vallesse (Ivory Coast).

This co-publishing bears the label “Fair Trade Book”.

This solidarity co-publishing is the result of a workshop on children’s literature organised by the Alliance in Abidjan in May 2019, as part of the International Conference of Independent Publishers 2019-2021. It received the support of the Centre national du livre.