« Cher sir, it’s a riot! We have to stop. NOW ! “. Faced with the completely professional determination of the security officers, Osama Moslim complied. The 47-year-old Saudi author was quickly exfiltrated, in the middle of a security cordon, from the stand where he had been holding a signing sale for almost four hours, surrounded by a dense crowd. “I traveled 400 kilometers last night to buy his work and, above all, to see it in the flesh! », Testifies Chakib, a young high school student, with tears in his eyes.
A whole part of the gigantic Exhibition Center, east of Algiers, which houses the Algiers International Book Fair (SILA)was, this Saturday, November 9, besieged by thousands of young fans. They had come to see their idol, a best-selling author of literature fantasy horrifying and fantastic. The price of his latest opuses (Fear III et Dix), 5,000 DA (35 euros at the official rate), or five times the price of a novel in Algeria on average, did not dissuade his thousands of admirers. “My 16-year-old daughter fought me for dragging me here and buying a book at this price! », chokes a mother dragging a teenager holding the book against her like a treasure, a trophy.
At the end of the day, the one we often compare to J.K. Rowlingby the universe and the success (millions of sales, translations, millions of followers on social networks…), posted a video on TikTok apologizing for the interruption of the signing session. “The situation was becoming dangerous for you,” he told his fans. Too many fainting, incidents, people crushed by the crowd… I apologize for that but it was for your safety.”
At the Rabat Book Fair (Morocco), a few weeks ago, the organizers were also forced to interrupt the signing session of this author for the 32 novels, for fear of incidents. “I’m happy for him,” sighs an Algerian editor. A Saudi writing stories about mermaids and the Devil is special. And to think that Harry Potter books were banned from importing into Algeria for several months because it was about something haram (religiously illicit): witchcraft! “. Such success-story editorial is a dream.
Civil servants looking for “problematic titles”
An Algerian editor who testified on condition of anonymity is not at all in this state of mind and can barely contain his anger. “We can’t even manufacture our works in Algeria,” he protests in the middle of his stand in the central pavilion of the Palais des Expositions. “I am reduced to printing… 50 copies per title! The authors are as desperate as we are. There has been no ink at the printers for months because the authorities have not yet decided who should import or not. Paper is super expensive and speculation around this raw material is terrible. »
He also complains about “surveillance, censorship”. “This week, the Ministry of Culture required us to present the works in their entirety to obtain the ISBN (code specific to each book), whereas before it was content with the title, a summary and the fourth of cover,” he continues. And to mention the “tour” of ministry officials in the SILA stands to flush out “problematic titles”. “They have already sorted in advance, but they continue to monitor, asking to remove this or that work,” denounces another Algerian publisher.
ALSO READ Algeria: the harsh life of publishers and booksellersThere, officials asked to “hide” The Encyclopedia of Love in Islam by the late Malek Chebel because of the cover design depicting an embracing couple. “We were told to hide it but that it was not banned from sale. So I wonder how to sell a work that has been put under the table? », we ask ourselves on the stand. Elsewhere, a Middle Eastern publisher is asked to hide all Moroccan novels. In another case, officials require a publisher to “set aside” two works, Who are these self-proclaimed tenors of Hirak Algerian? by Ahmed Bensaada, although much in demand by the official media, and… the novel by the Ivorian Tanella Boni, Niggas never go to heaven. “They just detected the words ‘hirak’ and ‘paradise’ on the covers and that alerted them! The rest, they didn’t even know what it was.”
Koukou publishing house banned from SILA
Several publishers also recall the ban on SILA from the Koukou publishing house, for the second consecutive edition. The publisher filed a complaint last year against this decision but the courts refused to open a judicial investigation. At the end of June, the signing of a work, Kabylia sharedby Dominique Martre, published by Koukou, in a bookstore in Béjaïa was banned and all those present were taken away by the police.
Another publishing house regular at the Salon is absent (but we do not know if this is an initiative of the publisher or the organizers): Frantz Fanon editions. This publishing house has been in turmoil since the ban, at the end of October, of two signing sessions by Hédia Bensahli, author of Jewish Algeriaprefaced by the Franco-Israeli Valérie Zenatti. A campaign against “normalization with Israel in the context of war” was led against his two signing sessions and the book was seized from all bookstores.
“As publishers, we are so weak, disunited, lacking in solidarity and subject to the authorities,” regrets one publisher. My father told me ”sell potatoes, it’s more interesting”. I will not sell potatoes, I assume this suicide-commitment to the end.”
ALSO READ “Houris” by Kamel Daoud: this Goncourt that Algeria does not want to hear aboutThe ban, verbal and not official, also affects all the works of Kamel Daoud, winner of the Goncourt for his novel Houris. Its publisher Gallimard was forbidden presence at SILA. In the Grasset & Fasquelle stand sits a large poster of Gail FayeRenaudot prize. At Actes sud, we can see another poster of Miguel BonnefoyFemina Prize. The Goncourt winner is nowhere.
When we ask in stands if his books are available, we are first met with big, bewildered eyes. ” No. And what’s more, ministry officials and organizers are always making rounds looking for his works. There is even a bookseller who forgot two copies of an old work by Daoud on his stalls, and he was scolded, says a book professional.
“They should have let Daoud’s novel in, because it is up to the Algerian reader to decide,” claims a publisher.
The Daoud case: reproaches and misunderstandings
“No, it’s not about Hourisit is his positions on Palestine, Islam and his country Algeria that pose a problem for Algerians,” retorts another editor. An author, who requested anonymity, seems tormented: “I really appreciate Kamel and his writings, but what happened? Was he trapped or manipulated by Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Parisian media? “. “No journalist here has called him to find out in any case,” reacts a veteran of the profession. Reproaches and misunderstandings accumulate and collide.
ALSO READ Is the novel telling fiction? Kamel Daoud’s response
To Discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
“The repeated restrictions on SILA have profound consequences for Algerian authors,” underlines Mohcene Belabbas, former president of the RCD (secular opposition party). Seeing themselves restricted in their own country, many risk turning away from the local market to publish abroad. This trend could lead to a ‘flight of pens’, with an increased risk of seeing Algerian writers go to produce and publish elsewhere.
The Minister of Culture and Arts, Soraya Mouloudji, explained during the opening of SILA that this space “wanted to be a real place of cultural influence at the national and international levels”. Under the theme “Read to triumph”, SILA presents more than 300,000 titles and brings together 1,007 publishers from 40 countries, including 290 Algerians.
