Hundreds of publishers and authors from Francophone Africa and beyond gathered in Paris for what is becoming one of the most important African literary events in Europe.

By Olivia Snaije, Contributing Editor

One weekend a year, Paris turns into a spirited hub for authors and publishers from the African continent and the African diaspora. While entire families come to discover books for their children published in Senegal, Mali or Morocco, the Salon du Livre Africain de Paris (SLAP) has also become the place for publishers, booksellers, and authors from the African continent (or based elsewhere) to network.

SLAP launched in 2021 with 150 authors and 30 publishers, and was an instant success. By its second edition, the Italian publisher Sandro Ferri made the trip to Paris not only to scout for literature from Africa but also to get ideas for a festival of African literature he was organizing in Italy.

Despite initial difficulties finding a stable location and funding, SLAP has increased in size and importance—the Fifth edition, held March 21-22, included 400 authors and 150 publishers from 20 countries. Some 30 additional publishers were not able to attend due to lack of space.

The book fair is public facing, but each year a professional day for rights and business meetings is held the day before. And throughout the fair there are panels on topics ranging from “the future of children’s books in Africa” to “Angola in literature, the arts and history.”

For independent publishers, book sales are an important part of the fair. “This is the biggest market of the year for us,” enthused the Malagasy author and publisher Johary Ravoloson, who founded the publishing house Dodo Vole with his wife, contemporary artist Sophie Bazin, in 2006.

Based in France, Dodo Vole publishes adult and children’s books. In 2020 Dodo Vole began publishing traditional folktales for children in partnership with French, Senegalese, Gambian, and Congolese schools in bilingual editions including French, Lingala, Mandika, and Malagasy. Not only does Ravoloson sell to families from the African diaspora during the fair, but he says it’s also an opportunity to meet with other African publishers in one place.

A Dynamic Event

When SLAP’s director, Erick Monjour, founded the event, it was with the intention that publishers could provide books for the African diaspora during one weekend a year, making it profitable for them and enabling networks to form. With funding coming from a variety of public and private organizations, of which the largest tranche comes from the Swiss Jan Michalski Foundation, SLAP provides free tables for publishers coming from Africa, while booksellers or publishers based in Europe pay €150 for their tables.

As Monjour likes to say, in ten years’ time, half of the world’s youth will be African. Thus, the subject of African youth was the fair’s focus this year, with one of the most dynamic panels focusing on the African Gen Z.

Youssef Branh and Malafi Niamba from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), joined Elie Ramanankavana from Madagascar to discuss their work as cultural activists, publishers, and founders of cultural centers. All three have been engaged in culture since their teens. Today, they are poets, slammers, writers, and journalists.

Ramanankavana participated in the youth-led uprising in Madagascar’s capital in 2025 leading to the resignation of the president which then ended in a military-led transitional government.

Niamba stressed the importance of culture for youth living on the outskirts of Kinshasa, and lamented the lack of access to libraries and cultural events. He has since created a cultural center and cultural festivals.

Branh created a cultural center and became a publisher in order to spare what young writers like himself went through to find what he describes as a publisher that treats authors respectfully. He also underlined the importance of training for all aspects of the book supply chain. “We can be given funding,” he says, “but we need the necessary training to go with it.”

Fans of the comic book series Aya de Yopougon (Aya of Yop City) came from the northern city of Lille or from Brussels, Belgium, to see Marguerite Abouet speak about her books, illustrated by the late Clément Oubrerie, which have been translated into 18 languages and made into an animated film series. The Cameroonian CEO and founder of Zebra Comics, Ejob Nathanael Ejob, was in the audience and said he discovered Aya de Yopougon via the animated series, and was interested to know what Abouet thought about the link between books and animation.

Angola was this year’s guest of honor, and an interesting choice as Portuguese language literature from the African continent is often omitted from the more frequent Francophone or Anglophone literary events. Indeed, literature written in the linguistic colonial legacy of French, English, Portuguese and Arabic often remains in silos, even if some literary festivals on the continent, such as the Macondo Literary Festival in Kenya or the Aké Festival in Nigeria, include authors writing in a variety of languages, interpretation logistics notwithstanding.

But Monjour is ambitious for his festival, and this year included the first U.K.-based English-language distribution platform, the African Books Collective. He says he would like the fair to encompass Anglophone publishers, which would attract the English-speaking African population in Paris and its surroundings. But for the moment he lacks the financial resources.

“Our financial situation is pretty dire because we haven’t been able to find a stable patron,” said Monjour, adding that besides the Michalski Foundation, most of his budget is made up of small amounts donated by the City of Paris, the Centre National du Livre (CNL) or other public entities.

Meanwhile, given that Paris is one of the Francophone centers of the world, with African families often going back and forth between France and the continent five or six times a year, Monjour said Paris should be the location for a bigger book fair. “I’ve gone to the French ministries to try to get more substantial support, because the book fair deserves it,” he says. “And it would also be a powerful diplomatic tool.”

The Fair Must Go On

Fatou Diomandé, author and co-founder of Les Éditions Calebasse in Côte d’Ivoire agrees. She has participated in the fair since the start and describes the first year as “a beautiful discovery.”  She hadn’t realized how large and diverse the African diaspora was in France, and was particularly touched when a Senegalese man who had never read literature from the African continent began reading fiction she publishes from the Côte d’Ivoire.

Diomandé added that, thanks to contacts made at the fair, her eBooks are now on platforms such as YouScribe and Cantook. She also met Maxime Bonin at SLAP, whose website Africa Vivre distributes books for African publishers.

“People say Africans don’t read, but that’s not what I see here and at the [Côte d’Ivoire book fair] Salon International du Livre d’Abidjan (SILA),” Diomandé said. “Everyone is interested in books, at each point of the supply chain.”

In addition to publishers such as the Montréal-based Mémoire d’Encrier and the Brussels-based Edern Éditions, Voahirana Ramalanjaona from Madagascar was at SLAP for the first time. Ramalanjaona runs five bookshops on the island and brought 230 books in Malagasy and French from ten publishers to SLAP.

“I am delighted,” she said, adding that she was impressed by the presence of the diaspora, and inspired by what publishers from other African countries were producing.

Monjour hopes to continue to foster connections, and said he is intent on creating partnerships between book fairs. So far, he has three—the 72 Heures du Livre in Conakry, Guinea; SILA in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; and the Salon du Livre de Douala in Cameroon, which he formalized during this edition of SLAP.

“This fair must continue to live,” Diomandé insisted. “We have reunited around this cultural richness.”