The Sharjah International Book Fair discussed the history and reality of the African novel, which is considered an integral part of the literature on the continent, the effects of geography on its creators, issues related to multilingualism in their countries, the absence of the original language from the literary project, and the concerns associated with the workers. In which.
This came during a seminar entitled «African novel», hosted the Eritrean novelist Haji Jaber, and the Nigerian Namdi Ehirim, and moderated by the writer Mohammed Abu Arab, and addressed the geographical factor and its role in reducing the identity of fiction literature, and the impact of writing in foreign languages without indigenous languages on the delivery of local cultures for the world.
Haji Jaber started by saying: «Classifications have a preoccupation with them, I do not focus on these considerations, and in the African literary matter is increasingly confusing, there is a stereotype made by colonialism of the participants that bring together African culture, summarized stories of myths and magic and others».
For his part, said Nigerian novelist Namdi Ehirim: «The definition of the African novel is broad, and the subject goes beyond geographical boundaries, and up to the need to concern the identity of the narrative, we write in English, as we seek to reach the reader who will understand what we write. It is difficult to write them in the local language, because of the diversity and richness in our countries, this factor, and the other factor that the publisher forces you to write in a language he can publish, and this is a dilemma facing writers and writers ».