English

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

The spread and consolidation of the women‘s movement in North and South over the past 30 years looks set to shape the course of social progress over the next generation. Peggy Antrobus asks

• Where are women now in the struggle against gender inequality ?
• What are the common issues that they face around the world ?
• What challenges confront the women‘s movements ?
• And what strategies are needed to meet them ?
  

The author draws on her long experience of feminist activism to set women‘s movements in their changing national and global context. Her analysis will be an invaluable aid to reflection and action for the next generation of women as they carry through the unfinished business of women‘s emancipation.
"Today the global women’s movement stands at the crossroads
between protecting hard-won gains and being swept away by the
tidal wave of globalization. It is my belief that feminist politics and praxis hold the key to addressing the threat this terrifying conjuncture poses for human security everywhere".

Peggy Antrobus was born in Jamaica. Her studies in Economics led her to a gradual commitment in the field of socioeconomic development. Working with NGOs and discovering feminism have transformed her understanding of economy and politics forever. She has worked for the UN, the Women and Development Unit (WAND) and the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) network.

See English version at www.zedbooks.co.uk

As the Casablanca International Book Fair (February 9 to 17, 2008) opens its foors in Morocco, the Alliance of Independent Publishers wishes to express its deepest concerns with regard to the situation of independent book retail and, more generally, of the entire local book industry.

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

The Alliance is present at the Geneva African Book Fair (April 22 to 26, 2009) and gives you the opportunity to participate in a smart book donation operation. By buying one or several youth books produced in Africa from the African bookshop on the Fair, as well as a pre-paid envelope from the Alliance, you can mail the books yourself to a library in Africa.

The members of the Spanish-language network met at the Buenos Aires Book Fair in Argentina, from April 18 to 22, 2009. On this occasion, the representatives from 6 Latin-American collectives of independent publishers held a specific meeting to exchange their experiences.

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

Invited in 1998 to a writers’ residence in Rwanda, Véronique Tadjo, from the Ivory Coast, discovered the remnants left by genocide. For collective memory’s sake, she decided to write in order to give faces, names, and lives to those that she met, whether victims or torturers. At times reporting, at times fiction, this novel gives a human perspective on one of the greatest dramas experienced by contemporary Africa. This work is a proof of literature’s ability to give a new look on the past and to help people relearn how to live together. In order that such barbarity doesn’t happen again.

From the Ivory Coast, Véronique Tadjo currently lives in South Africa. She writes books, collections of poetry, and children’s books. The “Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique Noire 2005” (Literary Grand Prize for sub-Saharan Africa) was awarded to her for the whole of her works.

Year of publication: 2006,
144 pages,
12 X 19 cm

Set up in Porto Alegre in 2001 in response to the Davos World Economic Forum, the World Social Forum has, with each publication, continued to flesh out, internationalize and build up its organization.
However, due to lack of information on the content of the debates, it has never succeeded in convincing the media, public opinion and politicians of its ability to put forward constructive ideas. A great many proposals have nevertheless emerged. Drawing on their memory of the previous forums, eleven editors, women and men from different regions of the world, covered the debates at Porto Alegre, for the 2005 WSF event, and collected the proposals that emerged from the eleven themes addressed. Their work demonstrates that the World Social Forum is a genuine vehicle for helping build a world community that is able to produce a significant amount of intellectual advances and put forward specific proposals based on its conviction that “another world is possible”.

Year of publication: 2006

Translated into portuguese by Giselle UNTI.

This book was co-published by the Brazilian publisher
Vozes, the Angolan publisher Chá de Caxinde and the Portuguese publisher Campo das Letras and received support from the Prince Claus Foundation for culture and development.
Following Les batailles de l’eau by Mohammed Larbi Bougerra, this is the second French-language title of the “Enjeux Planète” series, translated and published in the Portuguese series named “Questões Mundiais”.

In the North as in the South, we like big cities, but we don’t like their violence. A common tendency is to blame the poorest inhabitants for this violence, and then, in order to fight against its spread, to adopt strategies based on strong security measures: our societies are quickly becoming societies of fear. Town planning, already, divides space into fortresses and ghettos. One cannot continue to conceptualize urbanization in police stations: an alternative analysis of the phenomena of urban violence and insecurity is necessary. This can only be done by putting this question in perspective, in the context of the violence of urbanization and globalisation, while also taking into account, the point of view of the poor and particularly among these poor, the “malicious ones”, outsiders, illegal immigrants, criminals, members of gangs.
When everything seems blocked, the “vision of the poor” opens the way to a pacification of urban territories. Against the current obsession with security, a creative dialogue is essential with those that the ruling power blames or distrusts. This book is addressed to all those who seek to understand the logic of the city, those for whom the city inspires fear and love, who don’t want to give up it, but also to the inhabitants of the extreme districts, even if they are poor and “malicious”, even if the city destroys them more than it protects them. To rebuild cities we can live in, we must disobey the models.

Year of publication: 2006,
188 pages

Although several debates and discussions on book donations were held, very few considered, complementary to the essential point of view of librarians’ professional collectives, the point of view of publishers and booksellers.

This workshop, facilitated in the context of the International Assembly of Independent Publishers, therefore has 3 main objectives:
• To question existing practices and the impact of the “donation chain” on the “book chain”, from the perspective of local librarians, publishers and booksellers;
• To question, promote and “complete”, if applicable, existing benchmark tools (amongst others, the Book Donation Charter developed by the Culture and Development Association, in partnership with several structures and institutions);
• To propose realistic and sustainable alternatives to “classic” book donations, enabling us, hopefully, to enrich and built on current practices, through the input of local professionals.

The Alliance wishes to express its gratitude to the Ile-de-France Region for its support and trust and BULAC (Languages and civilisation University Library) for hosting us.

The primary outcomes of this workshop are detailed below.

Also read about the workshop’s indirect impacts on book donations: An article on Africultures, a programme on RFI...

Unlike other Asian publishing markets, like Korea or Japan, the Indian book market is nearly unknown by French children’s book publishers, though this industry is actually blooming.
The Indian book market is a very specific one: the country’s size makes book distribution difficult, many languages are spoken and written, and there is a wide gap between urban reading habits and rural ones. Independent publishers in this country adapt business strategies to these difficulties and the solutions they find are original and innovative. In view of the lack of studies and data about Indian publishing, this study is based on a certain number of interviews with booksellers, book fair directors, market specialists, illustrators, distributors, and publishers.

• In the first part ’’Quel paysage pour l’édition indienne?’’, this study deciphers the socio-economic and statistical data in order to better understand the Indian youth readership (gender, language, economical issues, among others).

• In the second part ’’Le monde de l’édition jeunesse’’, a typology of the different players in Indian publishing is sketched out: multinational companies, state publishing, commercial publishers, independent publishers, NGOs... what are their respective roles?

• In the third part ’’Quelles perspectives de diffusion et de valorisation?’’, the study examines the level and the nature of exchanges between Indian publishing and worldwide youth publishing.

An exciting treatise on a little-explored subject... a must read!

Mariette ROBBES, holder of a Master 2 in the World of the Book (Aix-en-Provence University) lived for six months in India in 2009, and returns often ever since. Since 2017, she is a member of the Alliance Board. Mariette concurrently works on several textile and graphic creation projects.

The label “Fair Trade Book” is attributed by the International Alliance of independent publishers to works published in the context of international publishing agreements that respect each other’s particularities: fair co- publishing. These fair copublishings enable the sharing of costs linked to intellectual and physical production of books and therefore ensure an economy of scale; an exchange of professional know-how and a common experience, while respecting the publishers’ cultural contexts and identities; and a distribution of works on a broader scale by adjusting prices for each geographic zone.

Download the format epub here!