Freedom to publish

Intervenant·es :
Salifou Djibo, Niger
Léanne Ramassamy, Martinique
Yoan Francis, Maurice
Ghislain Kabuyaya, République démocratique du Congo (Fleuve de l’Intrigue)
Déborah Pépé, Haïti
Modération par Laëtitia Saint-Loubert (France)

Salifou Djibo : « Ce serait un monde dans lequel aucune littérature n’aurait besoin d’être validée dans un centre extérieur pour être considérée comme légitime. Ce serait un monde dans lequel tous les écrivains africains, caribéens, océaniens, seraient lus pour ce qu’ils écrivent et non pas pour l’image exotique que l’on a d’eux. Décoloniser le livre serait de rétablir une égalité de dignité entre les récits. »

Léanne Ramassamy : « On entend beaucoup parler de la résilience haïtienne, c’est un vrai sujet dans la littérature et l’imaginaire antillais. Mais la résilience a ses limites, les humains ont leurs limites et cette demande de toujours résister encore et encore indéfiniment c’est encore une fois nier la problématique. »

Yoan Francis : « Les auteurs mauriciens, pour se faire reconnaître, doivent publier et éditer leurs textes ailleurs pour qu’ensuite ils aient plus de valeur et de reconnaissance, pour exister et se faire de la place dans ce monde assez compétitif qu’est la littérature. »

Ghislain Kabuyaya : « On se rend de plus en plus compte que les gens ne sont pas vraiment au courant de leur propre réalité, de leur propre histoire. Il y a trop peu de jeunes congolais qui maîtrisent l’histoire de la RDC, alors que beaucoup maîtrisent l’histoire de l’Europe par exemple. […] Tout ça est beaucoup plus lié à l’imaginaire, le mental a été colonisé durant très longtemps. »

Déborah Pépé : « Je pense qu’il faut décoloniser notre rapport à ces thèmes [violence, dénuement, misère] et qu’en tant qu’écrivain·e haitien·ne il nous faut avoir une vision plus large, il faut parler de ces thèmes mais avec une certaine précaution de manière à ne pas réduire la réalité. Il nous incombe de fournir une image plus diversifiée et complexe de cette réalité afin de ne pas alimenter certains narratifs qui veulent réduire la réalité haïtienne à seulement la violence et le dénuement. »

Cette table ronde s’est déroulée dans le cadre de l’édition 2026 du salon du livre Babelica.

Speakers :
Slava Svitova, Ukraine (Creative Women Publishing)
Bayan Rashad Faraj, Palestine
Qamar Abdulrahman, Palestine
Anastasiia Lytvynenko, Ukraine
Hala Bizri, Lebanon (Snoubar Bayrout)
Moderated by Samar Haddad, Syria (Atlas)

Slava Svitova : “When we talk about these small, manageable communities, this is what authoritarian systems are afraid of : these little communities that you can’t destroy. You can destroy physical buildings, or you can destroy an institution, but you can’t destroy these resilient circles of people who are crisscrossing and are ready to build horizontal networks.”

Bayan Rashad Faraj : “The most dangerous thing that people can use is their ability to dream.”

Qamar Abdulrahman : “The most important form of resistance in our life during war is to live our daily life as human beings, to live our teenage lives.”

Anastasiia Lytvynenko : “For Ukrainians, it’s very unusual not to feel guilty when you’re creating those safe spaces. You usually think, ‘Oh my God, there is a war out there and I am here, chilling with my coffee, writing part of my novel and enjoying this life.’ We constantly feel guilty, and writing, expressing myself, and doing some art probably are some of the least guilty pleasures of my life here, living in the war.”

Hala Bizri : “Many communities give you a sense of oxygen, and we move from one place to another to see where we can belong. When you help others, you feel like you’re helping yourself.”

Samar Haddad : “You shouldn’t feel guilty if you smile, if you laugh, if you listen to music, if you go to a concert, if you go to an art exhibition. You shouldn’t feel guilty if the times are bad. For example, in Damascus, there was a concert and people attended in large numbers. Some of them were crying, but it was a sense of collectiveness, a sense of solidarity.”

This panel discussion took place during the 2026 edition of the Babelica Book Fair.

Speakers :
Amir Muhammad, Malaysia (Buku Fixi)
Lorna Zita, Mozambique
Jahnavi Sen, India
Moderated by Müge Gursoy Sokmen, Turkey (Metis Publishers)

Amir Muhammad : “3 209 books are currently banned. It sounds like a lot but it means that there are millions that are not banned ! [...] We are acknowledging that censorship exists but we also are acknowledging that we have the right to talk about it.”

Lorna Zita : “We need to create a world where everyone can speak without fear. When we speak about repression, it is not only about stopping people to speak [...] when people be silenced, we lose important voice in the society.”

Jahnavi Sen : “An entire ecosystem knowing that everyone else also exists and continues to do that, it creates not just solidarity but also a sense of responsibility towards the other that you know. We have to hold this up for each other.”

Müge Gursoy Sokmen : “I’m coming from this country where we had a coup-d’état, a military takeover in Turkey in 1980 and that is why my publishing house was founded. We were students at that time but we wanted to continue talking about things that were important for us.”

This panel discussion took place during the 2026 edition of the Babelica Book Fair.

Young democracies are fragile. How are Eastern European publishing houses fighting against the danger, ideology, hybrid war, propaganda, fake news and violence of the hegemonic forces within the post-communist space and times ? What are the strategies of Ukrainian publishers to empower themselves in the war ? How is Slovakian culture dealing with the incompetent and risky behaviour of several of its leaders ? What are Bulgarian publishers most scared of within their practice ? How can we inspire each other in our coping strategies ? Are local writers able to become again strong voices of their society and change the political heading ? What are the strategies of Eastern European publishing houses to place their work in the global book market ? And what are the main subjects from the post-communist regions that have the potential to enrich the global culture, narrative and storytelling ?

Speakers :

• Antoinette Koleva (KX - Critique and Humanism Publishing House, Bulgaria)
• Slava Svitova (Creative Women Publishing, Ukraine)
• František Malík (BRaK, Slovakia)

Moderated by Barbora Baronová (wo-men, Czech Republic)

Esta mesa redonda tuvo lugar durante la edición 2025 de Babelica.

At a time when the far right is gaining ground in many countries, when a wind of authoritarianism, conservatism and extremism is spreading, when ultra-capitalist (or ultra-liberal) models are at work, many fundamental freedoms are being called into question. The book industry (and independent publishing in particular) is no exception. What are the consequences of these political, societal and economic shifts for the freedom to write, publish and read ? How are authors, publishers, booksellers and librarians around the world affected by this crumbling of democracy and freedom ? What are the mechanisms for circumventing these attacks on freedoms, the alternatives that have been put in place and the hopes held out by book professionals ?

Speakers :

• Romana Cacchioli (Director of PEN International)
• Gvantsa Jobava (President of the International Publishers Association)
• Maia Simonishvili (Parliamentary National Library of Georgia, member of the IFLA European Regional Committee and the FAIFE Advisory Committee)

Moderated by Kenza Sefrioui (En toutes lettres, Morocco)

Cette table ronde s’est déroulée pendant l’édition 2025 de Babelica.

When discussing decolonialism in a formal and academic manner, we observe or criticise paradigms that, from a European and Western perspective, fail to take into account the particular characteristics of different societies and cultures, which are also classified as inferior to Western and European standards, particularly colonialist ones. As cultural agents, even if we do not call ourselves that, we can ask ourselves whether our publishing practice is part of that system of coloniality that leads us to want to reproduce, whether imposed or not, what is done by hegemonic cultures, or whether we have consciously distanced ourselves from it.

This raises some questions we can ask ourselves : how much freedom do we have to publish what we want to publish ? Are we really publishing with complete freedom ? If freedom is a concept that comes from Europe, when we publish, do we consciously distance ourselves from the ideas that seem to have been imposed on our non-hegemonic societies ? The book, that object produced by our publishing practice but above all a reflection of our cultural practices, manifests itself in different ways according to the different contexts in which we are immersed. Can we make it a tool for decolonisation, or should it be the one that is “decolonised” ?

The discussion about freedom of publication and decolonial issues from different countries and, therefore, cultures, raises more questions than answers, but it is also an opportunity to reflect on how we position ourselves in the broad publishing ecosystem and, therefore, in bibliodiversity.

Speakers :
* Faye Cura (Gantala Press, Philippines)
* Daniel Galeas Sarzosa & Natalia Alarcón Pino (Kikuyo Editorial, Ecuador)
* Kah Gay (Ethos Books, Singapore)
* Saeed Husain (Folio Books, Pakistan)
* Tonatiuh Trejo (Laboratorio Editorial Esto es un libro, Mexico/Chile)

Moderated by Nayeli Sánchez (La Cartonera, Mexico)

Speakers :
* Atef Al Durra (Al Kalima Publishing House - Gaza, Palestine)
* Samir Mansour (Samir Mansour Bookshop & Printing - Gaza, Palestine)
* Fuad Akleek (Al Raqamia Publishing House - Jerusalem, Palestine)

Moderated by Fatma al Zahraa Sehwail (Gaza, Palestine)

The voice of those involved in the book industry in Palestine