English

The International Alliance of Independent Publishers organizes from 18 to 21 December 2010 a meeting on the digital publishing in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), in partnership with the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

The English-language network next meeting will take place in Paris from 13th to 15th October 2010. Discussions about the network current and future projects (translation, co-publishing, book fairs, etc.) are planned.
Being in Paris will be an opportunity for the seven publishers (Spinifex in Australia, Jacana Media in South Africa, The New Press in the United States, Tulika and Women Unlimited in India and Zed Books in the United Kingdom) to meet French publishers (Actes Sud, La Fabrique...).

The Alliance language network coordinators will meet in Paris on Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th of October 2010. This meeting represents one of the annual appointment of the governance of the association.
Two days of exchanges and debates between the coordinators and the members of the Board of the Alliance... discover the attached programme.

Language network coordinators :

* Nouri Abid, Tunisia (Med Ali), coordinator of the Arabic-language network ;

* Serge D. Kouam, Cameroon (Presses universitaires d’Afrique), coordinator of the French-language network ;

* Marc Favreau, United States (The New Press), coordinator of the English-language network ;

* Araken Gomes Ribeiro, Brazil (Contra Capa), coordinator of the Portuguese-language network ;

* Guido Indij, Argentina (la marca editora), coordinator of the Spanish-language network.

To meet the independent publishers of the Alliance in Frankfurt, download the document below.

To contact these publishers, before or after the Fair, do not hesitate to address directly the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.

In 2010, the Prince Claus Foundation awards a prize to a publisher member of the Alliance. Indeed, the prestigious Prince Claus Award will next December pay tribute to Algeria’s Barzakh Publishing “for the way it gives concrete expression to Algerian voices, for having opened up a very necessary space for critical debates on Algerian realities, for having built a bridge between the different languages and cultures, and for having creatively dispelled the threat of the country’s cultural isolation”.

The Alliance expresses its warmest and most sincere congratulations to Selma Hellal, Sofiane Hadjadj and the whole team at Barzakh Publishing.

From 2010 International Bibliodiversity Day will be celebrated in several Latin American countries on 21 September each year. This day is deeply symbolic, representing Spring Day in the Southern hemisphere, in particular ; spring with its connotations of pleasant weather, diversity, contrasting colours, vigour, flowers in bloom, transitions, love, perfume, and new beginnings.

Even though this is an international day, it was important to note that this initiative originated in the South - in Latin America – and that it bears a concrete signicance. Indeed, in defending and promoting bibliodiversity, Latin American publishers reaffirm the necessity of rebalancing the direction in which books and ideas circulate and of achieving movement in other directions, from South to North, but also from South to South.

Watch the EldíaB 2010 videos !

More information on Bibliodiversity Day Blog : http://eldiab.org/

Comment l’Afrique peut-elle sortir de l’impasse ? À contre-courant, l’auteur montre que les Africains ont les cartes en mains pour assurer leur propre développement. Depuis les indépendances, le modèle de développement imposé à l’Afrique par l’Occident est un véritable échec. L’auteur dissèque les causes structurelles de cette faillite qui a entraîné les populations africaines dans une spirale de pauvreté et de violence. Il met en évidence les responsabilités occidentales sans occulter celles propres aux Africains eux-mêmes. Son analyse pluridimensionnelle propose ensuite un large éventail de solutions novatrices qui permettront aux Africains de prendre eux-mêmes en main leur propre développement. Avec une grande force de persuasion, Sanou Mbaye propose les réformes politiques, économiques et financières, les actions juridiques et le schéma de mobilisation des ressources qui peuvent assurer la véritable renaissance dont rêvent les populations de la région. Seule l’Afrique viendra à bout de ses propres maux et l’auteur nous emporte dans une lecture pleine d’espoir sur l’avenir du continent. Foncièrement panafricaniste, il est convaincu que la solidarité des peuples d’Afrique sera le terreau favorable à cette profonde mutation qui leur permettra de se réapproprier leur identité mise à mal par des siècles de domination et de se réaliser pleinement.

Sanou MBAYE, ancien haut fonctionnaire de la Banque africaine de développement, est un chroniqueur politique et économique. Ses écrits sur le développement des pays africains proposent des politiques alternatives à celles mises en place, en Afrique, par des Occidentaux et leurs bras alliés : le FMI et la Banque mondiale.

Date de publication : 2010, 222 pages, 11 X 18 cm

Première édition grand format : les éditions de l’Atelier, 2009

Passé les réactions vives et indignées qu’a suscitées chez les Africains le discours de Nicolas Sarkozy prononcé à Dakar le 26 juillet 2007, ses déclarations sur l’immobilisme du continent africain ou encore la non-responsabilité de la France dans ses problèmes actuels nécessitaient une riposte argumentée, dépouillée de toute considération émotive. C’est dans le but d’éclairer le président Sarkozy, mais aussi son entourage et, plus généralement, le grand public sur la réalité de l’histoire africaine, qu’Adame Ba Konaré a lancé, en septembre 2007, un appel remarqué à la communauté des historiens. Cet ouvrage est le résultat de cette mobilisation : 25 contributions de spécialistes de notoriété internationale ou de plus jeunes chercheurs, africains et européens, qui abordent chacun avec rigueur et précision un pan de l’histoire riche, complexe et méconnue du continent.

Date de publication de la version panafricaine : 2009, 350 pages, 15,5 X 24 cm

The 3rd meeting of Latin-American independent publishers’ collectives of the Alliance will occur with the support of the Departmental Book Chamber of La Paz and the French cultural services for the Andean cooperation during the 15th La Paz International Book Fair (Bolivia) – which will take place from August 18 to 29, 2010, under the slogan “Celebrate Bibliodiversity”.

Massively used by small publishing firms to distribute their products to bookstores, libraries, and readers, the postal service is the most popular means of circulating books throughout the world. However, the absence, suppression or questioning of special postage for books is an impediment to bibliodiversity in many countries.
In Latin America, with a huge territory to cover and limited circulation, a large share of publishers ensures the delivery of their products themselves. For these publishers, preferential postage rates for shipping books are all the more vital.

Publishers & Books, a monthly specialized magazine, produced and published by the African Observatory of Professional Publishers (OAPE). Articles are in French and/or in English.

See here the first issue (June 2018) ;

And below the second issue (July 2018) and the third issue (August 2018).

Consult here the training material produced by Denis Jacquerye, typographer (Dalton Maag Ltd), as part of the workshop on digital publishing and African languages, held in Conakry (Guinea Conakry) from 20-23 November 2017.

STATEMENT
August 8, 2018

The International Alliance of Independent Publishers (IAIP), a network of 553 publishers worldwide, expresses its shock and dismay at the late-night abduction and detention of acclaimed photographer and human rights activist, Shahidul Alam, in Dhaka. Shahidul Alam has been a partner-colleague of the IAIP, in which context we have interacted with him on many occasions.

We believe that the charges against him under Section 57 of the ICT are an attempt to intimidate him by using a draconian law to stifle his right to free speech. He has been held without due legal process, and we have received disturbing reports of brutal treatment meted out to him in detention.

The right of peaceful protest, and the defence of that right, are fundamental to democracy and to upholding the rule of law. The IAIP extends its support to, and expresses solidarity with, Shahidul Alam, and reiterates its commitment to the freedom of expression in Bangladesh as well as in the rest of the world.

See here the film make by New Internationalist (UK) in support with Shahidul Alam.

Authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians and readers form what is commonly known as a “book ecosystem”, an expression that reflects the interdependence between actors in the book field. However, over the past few years, the discussions, both globally and in Europe, about re-defining the intellectual property rights, and the evolution of practices in the digital era, led to division that gradually distanced these stakeholders, with the risk of weakening the solidarity that unites them.
Fortunately, new conversations have started, more specifically about the cultural rights, opening a space where this topic can be debated and addressed from a new angle with focus on issues related to the balance of rights. Starting from the idea that fundamental rights are inseparable, it seems possible to understand author rights, cultural rights and social rights as a coherent whole. The challenge is to find an approach that would stop opposing the book professionals, to re-establish coalitions towards the conquest for new rights.
Due to their specific position, independent publishers could play an important role in framing this collective discussion in the book sector.

Lionel Maurel
A Law Degree holder, Lionel Maurel is currently a librarian at the University Paris Lumières Library. Author of the S.I.Lex blog, he specialises in Intellectual Property, Digital Law, and Cultural Law. Involved in the Commons movement, he co-founded the collective SavoirsCom1 (“Common Knowledges”) and is a member of the Strategic Orientation College of La Quadrature du Net.
Picture : thesupermath. CC-BY-SA. Source : Wikimedia Commons, remix by Guénaël Boutouillet

Read the full text !

“Publishing in African Languages : A Review of the Literature”, by Hans M. Zell, to read here !

This literature survey is an attempt to bring together some of the literature on an important and challenging, and one could well say neglected aspect of the African book sector, that of publishing in African languages, an area that greatly impacts literary production in many ways. It aims to make a small contribution to the ongoing debate about publishing of indigenous language materials, how the profile of indigenous language publishing might be enhanced – and how publishing in African languages could be conducted as a societally beneficial, sustainable, and profitable commercial activity.

Following an introductory overview of current publishing in African languages – and a discussion of its many barriers to success – it lists a total of 170 records, covering the literature (in English) published since the 1970s and through to early 2018. Fully annotated and/or with abstracts, it includes books, chapters in books and edited collections, reports, journal articles, Internet documents, theses and dissertations, as well as a number of blog postings.

To be published in African Research & Documentation. Journal of SCOLMA -The UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa, no. 132, 2018.

© Hans Zell Publishing Consultants 2018

An unprecedented study to be published in July 2020, initiated and coordinated by the Alliance !

A sociological survey conducted by Anne-Marie Voisard, Quebec researcher (MA on strategic lawsuits against public participation and legal repression of freedom of speech from the University of Montréal) and written by Philippe Chibani-Jacquot ; a historical introduction by Jean-Yves Mollier, French historian.

Since the creation of the Alliance, publishers – custodians of freedom of speech alongside journalists, authors, bloggers, booksellers, artists… – have been the whistleblowers on instances of censorship occurring in some countries. Over the past few years, we have noticed some new forms of attack on freedom of speech. In several contexts, pressures and limitations exercised on public speech are increasing. After the wave of freedom expected during the revolutions in the Arab world, the series of attacks in Africa, Europe, and in the Arab world, destabilised freedom of speech : a loss of sense, of bearings that brings us to question spaces of freedom, the reach of words and the power of the medium.

The freedom of publishing is a “category” of freedom of speech that can take different forms through various supports. The freedom of publishing pertains to the liberty to choose an author, to select or commission manuscripts, publish them, disseminate and distribute them, and put them on the market – all these activities are at the heart of publishers’ work. The threats to the freedom of publishing are precisely what the Alliance seeks to examine in this study.

In different geopolitical contexts, threatened by different forms of censorship, the Alliance’s independent publishers are committed to circulate texts and ideas, to amplify voices, even if sometimes they are in minority, to participate in building critical thinking and emancipation. It is their responsibility, both professional and civic.

Read here the presentation of the study, of the authors, the methodology...

Read here the report of the workshop on « African Book Industry », organized by the Global Book Alliance (USAID) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) in January 2018.
The workshop brought together 79 key stakeholders in the African Book Publishing Industry from 22 African countries.
More information here.

Publishers from the Alliance condemn the banning of the book El desarme, la vía vasca d’Iñaki Egaña (copublished by Txalaparta, Gara journal, and Mediabask media), during its promotion on Basque radio-television.

Read here the proceedings of the colloquium on “Children’s Literature in Africa” (in French), organised by Ganndal, Conakry, November 2017.

Read the “Conclusions of the Symposium on the Challenges of the Promotion and Distribution of Books in African Languages”, organized by Ganndal publishing in Conakry (Guinea Conakry), 27-28 November 2017.