A key objective and strength of the Sharjah Publishers Conference has been to connect publishers from the global publishing community with the African publishing world. This year’s African presence has increased again, with participants from 18 African countries (excluding North Africa/Arab countries), many of them Francophone, including Benin, Burkino Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritius and Zaire for the first time, along with many returning participants. Ernest Oppong, Executive Director of the African Publishers Network (APNET), based in Accra, Ghana, has been representing African publishers at the Publishers Conference since 2018. I have been to book fairs where the African presence comprised a publisher or two from Egypt. The conference was the starting point of her international publishing journey which led to winning a London Book Fair Excellence Award in 2021.

Source: The North Africa Journal October 21, 2023 00:51 UTC