Co-publishings and translations

After the Africans’ first heated and indignant reactions to Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech in Dakar on July 26, 2007, his declarations on the African continent’s inaction or the absence of French responsibility in its current problems deserved a well-argued response, uncluttered with any emotional diversion. In the aim of enlightening President Sarkozy, yet also his entourage and, broadly speaking, the general public, about the reality of African history, Adame Ba Konaré launched in September 2007 a noticed call to the historians’ community. This book is the product of this mobilization: 25 contributions by world-famous experts or younger researchers, both African and European, who each tackle with rigor and precision one aspect of the continent’s rich, complex and little-known history.

Year of publication of the pan-African version: 2009, 350 pages, 15,5 X 24 cm

The result of a remarkable three-year-long investigation that took award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin across four continents (North and South America, Europe, and Asia), The World According to Monsanto tells the little-known yet shocking story of this agribusiness giant—the world’s leading producer of GMOs (genetically modified organisms)—and how its new “green” face is no less malign than its PCB- and Agent Orange–soaked past.

Robin reports that, following its long history of manufacturing hazardous chemicals and lethal herbicides, Monsanto is now marketing itself as a “life sciences” company, seemingly convinced about the virtues of sustainable development. However, Monsanto now controls the majority of the yield of the world’s genetically modified corn and soy—ingredients found in more than 95 percent of American households—and its alarming legal and political tactics to maintain this monopoly are the subject of worldwide concern.

Released to great acclaim and controversy in France, throughout Europe, and in Latin America alongside the documentary film of the same name, The World According to Monsanto is sure to change the way we think about food safety and the corporate control of our food supply.

Marie-Monique Robin is an award-winning French journalist and filmmaker. She received the 1995 Albert-Londres Prize, awarded to investigative journalists in France. She is the director and producer of over thirty documentaries and investigative reports filmed in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. She lives outside of Paris. George Holoch has translated more than twenty books, including Notes on the Occupation (The New Press). He lives in Hinesburg, Vermont.

Year of publication: 2010 ; 384 pages

Ousmane Sy describes his journey, that of a negotiator extraordinaire, moving between action and reflection, between Africa and the world, between the past and the future. In this work from his lively and unapologetic pen dipped in personal experience, Ousmane Sy sets out real alternatives: an authentic decentralisation, a radical reform of the state, regional integration achieved by the people, the rethinking of international aid. What he offers us is a real project for Mali and Africa.

Ousmane SY is a doctor of economic and social development. He was a researcher at the Rural Economic Institute and headed up the UNDP programme in Mail, then piloted the Mission for Centralisation and Institutional Reform in Mali, before joining the governement as Minister of Territorial Adminstration and Local Communities, which gives him the opportunity to put his theoretical work into political practice. He has also created his own centre of expertise and advice, the Centre of Political and Institutional Expertise in Africa (CPIEA). Since 2002 he has been a coordinator for the Alliance for the Rethinking of Governance in Africa.

Preface: Pierre CALAME

Year of publication: 2009, 224 pages, 14 X 21,5 cm, ISBN: 978-2-84377-149-1

What does fair trade mean today? Who are the main stakeholders? What is its future? So many questions which this book sets out to answer by way of seven experiments on site in various regions of the worls. In the course of this journey, the reader will visit a small organisation of coffee producers in Chiapas, a quinoa farm in Bolivia, and India to explore less traditional forms of fair trade.
This book reveals the many facets of an ever-growing movement, seeking the human face behind the consumer, the community behind the producer and to redefine the social and political links among those long reduced to disembodied economic players. Beyond the sterile criticism levelled against it in recent years, but without lapsing into an idealised discourse, the authors provide food for thought on the issues raised by fair trade compared with appeals for fairer international trade and the possibilities of an alternative market based on other values.

Corinne GENDRON is a tenured professor in the Department of Strategy, Social and Environmental Responsibility at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and holds the Chair of Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development. She has written many books and articles on fair trade as well as sustainable development and social responsibility. She is regularly called on as an expert by private and public organisations in Quebec and internationally.

Socio-economist specialising in economic solidarity and fair trade, Arturo PALMA TORRES is currently an expert associate at CRIDA (France) and consultant at the Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development. He is a member of the movement for economic solidarity in France and the international network ALOE (Alliance for a Plural, Responsible and Supportive Economy).

Holder of a Masters Degree in Environmental Science, Véronique BISAILLPON is the coordinator of the Chair of Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development of the School of Management Sciences at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).

Year of publication: 2009, 274 pages, 14 X 21,5 cm, ISBN: 978-2-84377-148-4

Ousmane Sy describes his journey, that of a negotiator extraordinaire, moving between action and reflection, between Africa and the world, between the past and the future. In this work from his lively and unapologetic pen dipped in personal experience, Ousmane Sy sets out real alternatives: an authentic decentralisation, a radical reform of the state, regional integration achieved by the people, the relaunch of international aid. What he offers us is a real project for Mali and Africa.

Preface: Pierre CALAME

Year of publication: 2009, 224 pages, 14 X 21,5 cm

In the context of globalization, how is it possible for humanity to reconcile its economic needs with the inescapable fact the natural resources are limited ? That is the question asked by Pierre Calame in this book.

This book bears the “Le Livre équitable” (Fair Book) label, which symbolizes this solidarity between publishers – solidarity also indirectly mobilizing readers: because this book is sold for 25 € in France, it can be bought half this price in Republic of Guinea.

Year of publication : 2009,
608 pages,
14 X 21,6 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

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

Translated by Patrick CAMILLER

Also available in Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish and French.

This English co-publication now accompanies the French-language (12 publishers), Portuguese-language (5
publishers), Arabic-language (5 publishers)and Spanish-language (1 publisher) versions.

Rapid population growth, climate change and pollution have combined to make it the resource over which wars may be fought in years to come. But does water have a price? Is it a right or a need?
Increasingly, water is viewed as a commodity whose function is to generate profits. In this book, Larbi Bouguerra argues that instead we should view it as a common good of humanity. Water has an exceptional cross-cultural symbolic value and its use raises enormous questions about our lifestyle, our ethics and our relationship with nature. Bouguerra makes a powerful case for a society that is more economical with water and manages it openly and democratically, as a global resource.

Year of publication: 2006,
208 pages

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

A pan-African solidarity co-publication: Éburnie (Côte d’Ivoire), Ganndal (Guinea), Sawa (Mali), Nstame (Gabon), Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin)

A pan-African solidarity co-publication: Éburnie (Côte d’Ivoire), Elondja (Democratic Republic of Congo), Sawa (Mali), Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin)

A pan-African solidarity co-publication: Éburnie (Côte d’Ivoire), Sawa (Mali), Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin)

A pan-African solidarity co-publication: Éburnie (Côte d’Ivoire), Ganndal (Guinea), Sawa (Mali), Nstame (Gabon), Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin), Sankofa & Gurli (Burkina Faso)

A pan-African co-publishing gathering Atelier des nomades (Mauritius) and Eburnie (Ivory Coast).

Date of publication: September 2020

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 French Development Agency.

A pan-African co-publishing gathering Atelier des nomades (Mauritius) and Eburnie (Ivory Coast).

Date of publication: September 2020

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 French Development Agency.

A pan-African co-publishing gathering Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin) and Vallesse (Ivory Coast).

Date of publication: September 2020

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 French Development Agency.

A pan-African co-publishing gathering Ntsame (Gabon) and Elondja (DRC).

Date of publication: September 2020

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 French Development Agency.

A pan-African co-publishing gathering Ganndal (Guinea Conakry), Eburnie (Ivory Coast), Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin), Graines de Pensées (Togo), Ntsame (Gabon) and Elondja (DRC).
Date of publication: September 2020

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 French Development Agency.

Children’s illustrated book – bilingual French-Malagasy edition
Translated from Portuguese (Brazil) into French by Joana Cabral, translated into Malagasy by Veloniaina Rabakoly

Éditions Jeunes Malgaches, 2014, 32 pages.
Original edition: Pallas Editora (Brazil)

ISBN: 978-2 916362-42-7

Selling price: 16 0000 Ar (4 €)

This book is the result of several meetings between publishers who are members of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers (“Children’s literature” group of the Alliance), at book fairs (collective stand for young readers) and through workshops on children’s books. These opportunities of sharing mutual knowledge, know-how, and discussions foster unprecedented editorial partnerships. By supporting and promoting these partnerships, the members of the Alliance participate in the circulation of texts and ideas from one continent to another, but also from one language to another. Through these solidarity-based editorial partnerships, translation flows that are still “rare” are being developed, for example here from Brazilian Portuguese to Malagasy.