Feel It: “A complex Procedures “

By: Haffiya Elyas
hafielyas@yahoo.com

Sudanese publishing houses are facing great difficulties as they try to participate in the Cairo International Book Fair (January 23 – February 5, 2025), one of the largest and most famous book fairs in the Arab region, as travel visas stand in their way, in addition to a requirement from the fair’s management to pay arrears, dating back to last year.

As a result, many Sudanese publishing houses are unable to fulfill participation obligations, thus severely limiting their exposure in what is widely considered one of the most significant cultural events in the Arab world.

Despite the violent war that erupted in Sudan about two years ago, local publishing houses have not stopped providing libraries with new books by Sudanese authors, whether in literature, thought, politics, and other types of writing, starting from other countries where their owners have sought refuge, and from within the city of Port Sudan, the administrative capital of the country.

According to the owner of the Photographers Publishing House, this year there is no participation in the known sense of Sudanese publishing houses in the Cairo Book Fair, as everyone was deprived, for various reasons, the first of which is the lack of visas for the owners of the houses. The second is that all Sudanese publishing houses have debts from last year, and the reasons for them are understandable given the circumstances we went through after the war, so participation, if it happens, will be very weak.

Since the outbreak of the war in Sudan , the Egyptian authorities have been strict in granting visas to Sudanese and require those who want a visa to obtain what is known as “security approval”, a complex procedure that is difficult to complete, as it has entered the parallel market, according to the owners of travel agencies, and its prices have become beyond the financial ability of the Sudanese.

The managers of Sudanese publishing houses are trying to obtain visas to Egypt, and thus participate in the book fair.

Sudan has a distinguished selection of books, in novel, poetry, thought, history and politics, by authors known to the Sudanese reader, and other new young writers that can constitute a real addition to Sudanese culture and thought, and thus contribute in one way or another, to solving the problems of the worsening Sudanese reality, as the crisis is essentially a cultural and intellectual crisis, which led Sudan to this predicament.”

Ultimately, the absence of a physical Sudanese presence at the Cairo International Book Fair raises concerns about the visibility of Sudanese literature and culture in a region rife with challenges but also brimming with potential for dialogue and exchange.

We hope that publishers will receive a visa to enter Egypt, before the expiration of the time set for the exhibition.