Africa has been present for more than ten years at the great Parisian literary mass. The traditional Book Fair has given way today to the Paris Book Festival, set up in a new location. It moved from the Porte de Versailles where the fairs are held to a more convivial and central place: the ephemeral Grand Palais at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. And the African pavilion figures prominently there alongside the Gallimard editions.
The book festival is back, after two blank years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And after Côte d’Ivoire as leader in previous editions, it is Senegal that is carrying the African Pavilion this year at the Paris Book Festival. For the occasion, a delegation led by the Senegalese Minister of Culture, a dozen authors and three publishers made the trip.
” Senegal came with what is most beautiful knowing that the years 2021 and 2022 were the years of Senegal in literature, explains Abdoulaye Diallo of the Harmattan Senegal editions to Muriel Maalouffrom the Culture Department. In particular with the Saint-Simon prize from Souleymane Bachir Diagne, the Neustadt prize from Boubacar Boris Diop who is with us in the delegation, the Goncourt prize with Mohamed Mbougar Sarr but also the Ahmed Baba prize with Khalil Diallo whose books are obviously there . »
Discovering young talents from Africa
The African pavilion is also the opportunity to discover certain authors, specifies Aminata Diop Johnson, director of the African pavilion: “ Now when we talk about Boubakar Boris Diop or Osvalde Lewat who won the grand pan-African prize for literature, these are well-known names, but we must not forget that you have young talents, the talented feathers of Africa, who also deserve to be known. »
And if Senegalese literature is in the spotlight of the African pavilion this year at the Paris book festival, the other countries of the continent are of course represented as well as Caribbean literature.
►To listen: The book makes its festival in Paris