Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture | The German connection

A seminar on Arab-German relations promised much in the way of intercultural cooperation, finds Rania Khallaf, but it hardly touched on the Frankfurt-inspired reforms proposed for the Cairo International Book Fair

The 37th Cairo International Book Fair seems more or less identical to its predecessors ( see sidebar ). Yet book fair officials have been charging ahead with the discourse of change, triggered by the Arab world guest-of-honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair last October. And though highly relevant to the topic, the question of reforming the Cairo Book Fair was largely ignored in the course of a high-profile seminar on Arab-German cultural relations held at the prestigious Six October Hall on the fair grounds on Sunday. Hosted by Deutsche Welle, the German broadcasting corporation, in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, it featured, among others, Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, and Volker Neumann, director of the last round of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Neumann spoke in glowing terms of the Arab presentation, which, he insisted, made last year's round the most successful in Frankfurt's history. "The most important point here," he added, "is how to pursue and develop cultural relations between our two countries, which started with your participation in Frankfurt. Let us think of a plan that will cover the period from now to 2010, which will give us time to establish cultural bonds."

Speaking in Arabic, Gènter Mulack, the German foreign ministry representative for Arab-German dialogue, asserted that Frankfurt helped improve the Arabs' "tarnished image" in the West. "Germans used to see Arabs through the eyes of the Western media, which tends to portray them as terrorists. So the Frankfurt Book Fair last year was an excellent opportunity for Westerners to see a different picture of Arabs -- to get to know Arab culture," Mulack said. Dialogue, he explained, should be an ongoing process; it should deal with real problems between the West and Muslim countries. Through dialogue, he hoped, Muslim-Western relations would be sufficiently fortified to transcend the stereotype of conflicting agendas.

For his part Mohamed Ghoneim, executive director of the Arab Frankfurt presentation, announced his intention to pursue cooperation with the Goethe Institute, headed by Friedrich Ebert, to organise cultural events in German cities until the end of 2005. Likewise Ibrahim El-Muallim, chairman of the Arab Publishers Union, announced that negotiations over the next five years of cultural cooperation are already underway.

Much of the substance of the seminar centred, somewhat unnecessarily, on evaluating the Arab contribution to Frankfurt last year -- with El-Muallim and others putting forward what amounted to an apologia for the Arab presentation.

"Most of the problems stemmed from the participants' ignorance of the nature of the Frankfurt Book Fair," El-Muallim said, "which differs completely from that of the Cairo Book Fair. One reason behind the lack of efficiency to which some parties have pointed," he added, "was the fact that the presentation represented 22 countries. Some 212 intellectuals participated -- a huge number. With too many options available, German audience members were often confused -- it was hard to decide which event to attend. The event cost Arab publishers some $100 million," El-Muallim concluded, "but the contacts we managed to make with international publishers surpassed all expectations -- it was well worth it."

In a move typical of Arab officials, El-Muallim resorted to statistics to establish the success of the presentation: 101 translations of Arab books aired by Deutsche Welle alone; over 4,000 articles exploring Arab culture in the light of the Frankfurt Book Fair published in the international press; the translation rights to 60-70 Arabic books sold. Ghoneim made the same point: "The German media highlighted Arab activities in a positive way, stressing that the Arab programme was the most successful in the last 25 years."

Through the seminar audience participation was extensive and as varied as audience constitution, reflecting the concerns of a wide variety of fair goers. Aside from comments about Muslim- Western dialogue and the choice of Germany as the 2006 Cairo Book Fair's guest of honour, audience members brought up the question of whether and to what extent "the Frankfurt experience" might generate reforms in the Cairo Book Fair -- to which both German and Arab panellists responded in the same way, exchanging compliments and asserting their intention to cooperate, with Cairo and Frankfurt benefiting from each other.

"We are going to negotiate with Mr Neumann," El-Muallim said, "regarding the prospect of permanent cooperation between the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Cairo Book Fair -- in order to maximise the possibility of cultural interaction and help develop cultural tools and mechanisms for improving the Cairo Book Fair..."

As to questions of censorship and exactly how the Frankfurt experience will transform the Cairo Book Fair, perhaps they will be discussed in another seminar.

UNCHANGING THE BOOK FAIR: A stormy day on the fair grounds. No matter how much you look out for signs of change, the wind-spattered dust monopolises your attention. One thing did strike me as I walked through the gate: the lack of noise. In previous rounds loudspeakers would have been blaring: cassettes, promotions, vendors advertising their wares. The phenomenon has almost disappeared, thankfully, though I did come across one vendor crying, souq -like, "Any story for 75 piastres", and overheard a veiled woman commenting in response: "Goha for 75 piastres -- how expensive!" The lower middle- class picnic atmosphere of previous years was summoned up, instantly. And it occurred to me that even under the auspices of a Frankfurt Book Fair-inspired round, the persistence of folk performances, film screenings and, more importantly, used book, stationary and toy stands -- combined with faulty logistics -- continue to give the impression of a popular carnival, with the vast majority of people believing they are going to a fair, not a book fair as such. And I thought this was one thing that had yet to change.

Many publishers seem to harbour similar sentiments. Representing the Jordanian house Dar Al-Azmena, Osama Abu Ta'a has many an organisational grievance: "More organisation and order is needed, especially in sorting the books. The shelves are not wide enough, there is no modern equipment to allow visitors to browse properly." He also complains of the fact that the price of any given book may vary from one house to another: "This creates a problem, especially towards the end of the fair when foreign publishers are willing to lower the prices for purposes of clearance in order to avoid the cost of shipping the books back again. There should be a price control office attached to the administration of the fair..." Bashir Rahouli, representing the Lebanese Dar Al-Shamal, echoes Abu Ta'a, wiping perspiration off his forehead: "The fair needs infrastructural changes. It's very hot as you can see, and neither we nor the visitors can stand the lack of air-conditioning." The lack of equipment "can no longer be tolerated", he went on, insisting that the budget of the fair should be increased.