The 26th edition of the Algiers Book Fair (SILA) opens its doors this Wednesday, October 25 at the Algiers Exhibition Center. This unmissable cultural event, which will last until November 4, opens against the backdrop of two controversies: the visa refused to a Nobel Prize winner in literature and the exclusion of an Algerian publishing house.
Arezki Ait Larbi, founder and director of Éditions Koukou, announced in a press release that the SILA police station notified him by email of the exclusion of his publishing house for “excesses observed in publications contrary to SILA regulations” that Koukou Éditions is exhibiting on its stand.
“The censorship hoods have struck again,” denounces Ait Larbi, who recalls the various incidents that have punctuated Koukou’s presence at the Algiers book fair in recent years, which has been taking part in this event since 2011. Destruction of his stand during the night preceding the inauguration in 2016, attempted seizure of two works in 2018 by individuals presenting themselves as members of the reading committee, and attempted ban on 12 works in 2022, a decision notified by an officer of the Customs.
“For this year, the shadow censors did not go into detail,” protests Arezki Ait Larbi, indicating that the ban comes from the “Reading Commission” responsible for controlling the works offered to the public, a commission whose composition “is a matter of state secrecy” and whose “sad record is already very heavy”.
The director denounces a “violation of legal procedures” by highlighting Article 54 of the Constitution which postulates that “the activity of publications can only be prohibited by virtue of a court decision”.
The Workers’ Party and the RCD denounced Sila’s decision to exclude the Koukou publishing house.
A Nobel Prize-winning novelist will not be present at SILA due to lack of visa
The second controversy concerns the visa which would have been refused to the French novelist Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022. Ernaux was to participate in the Algiers Book Fair, but according to the newspaper Le Monde, she was unable to obtain an entry visa to Algeria.
In the absence of an official explanation, Le Monde cites observers who believe that this refusal is perhaps due to the column published last May in the same newspaper by several intellectuals, including Annie Ernaux, calling for the release of journalist El Kadi Ihsane sentenced to 7 years in prison including five years.
An anonymous academic cited by the newspaper nevertheless points out that the Nobel Prize winner, along with other personalities, published last Sunday in the left-wing French newspaper l’Humanité an “appeal from the world of culture for a cease-fire.” immediate fire in Gaza.”
