Salón Internacional del Libro Africano: SILA 2012

Casa África will be the venue for the main events of this international meeting, organised by a joint venture between the Farrah Foundation and Looking for Development, to be undertaken in Gran Canaria.

The 2012 edition of SILA will have Morocco as guest country and will be held from the 11th to 21st December 2012 following a comprehensive programme of activities forged with the conviction that SILA should be an opportunity for making African voices heard and words count in Africa. The planned programme (which can be downloaded here in PDF) is basically arranged in three sections:

• RUMBO SILA. From the 11th to 21st December.
  The RUMBO SILA space will carried out based on three differentiated sections:
  • SILA Connects: This spot will allow SILA 2012 to be presented in the countries of Senegal, Egypt and Morocco, as well as carrying out different meetings with writers from the Canary Islands and Africa in these countries, which will be connected using video conferencing. The aim will be to set up a Canary Islands-Africa conversation.
    Casa África will be used in the Canary Islands and on the continent facilities at the Technical Office for Cooperation of AECID (OTC) in Dakar and the
    Cervantes Institutes in Egypt and Morocco.
  • SILA Promotes: By setting up this activity it is hoped to bring nearer and promote books in Spanish, preferably from male and female Spanish writers
    or translations into Spanish of books by African writers, as part of the "Cervantes Classroom," which the Cervantes Institute in Dakar (Senegal) has.
  • SILA Roaming: With the aim of bringing SILA closer to the people of the Canary Islands and draw it nearer to the mainland, an afternoon will be spent by carrying out the SILA
    Roaming programme in each of the Canary Islands, where the SILA Fair is not held and in Madrid.
• SILA Fair. From the 11th to 15th December at Casa África.
  This will be the main event, which will be held at Casa África's premises.
• SEMINAR: EURO-AFRICAN MEETING ON WORLD HERITAGE SITES It will be held at Casa África's premises on the 19th December, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. as part of the Transnational Cooperation Programme Madeira-Azores-Canary Islands (MAC 2007-2013), a Development Cooperation Project through Historical Heritage (CODEPA), carried out by MBA Consultores.
• AUDIOVISUAL PARALLEL SILA. From the 11th to 15th December.
  This spot will have three activities that will be undertaken parallel to the main event, the SILA Fair. They are the sections:
  • SILA Looks at You
  • SILA in Images and Tastes
  • SILA Sounds Like

Casa África will also take on the costs for the exhibition rights of the African film exhibition which will be screened as part of the Moroccan Film Week that SILA organises from the 11th to the 15th December  at the Multicines Monopol of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria under the heading "SILA in Images and Tastes", introduced by the film critic Abdelatif El Bazi (Morocco).

The titles that can be seen during this exhibition are:

• A Jammâ (The mosque), by Daoud Aoulad-Syad. France, Morocco, 2010. 85’.
• Le grand voyage (The long journey).
• Sur la Planche (On the line), by Leïla Kilani. France, Germany, Morocco, 2011. 106’.
• Française (French woman), by Souad El-Bouhati. France, Morocco. 2008. 74’.
• Les coeurs Brûlés (Burnt hearts)  by Ahmed El Maanouni. Morocco. 2007. 84’.

We should highlight that the feature film Sur la Planche (Morocco, France, Germany), from the director Leila Kilani was awarded the 'Griot for best female Interpretation' at the African Film Festival of Córdoba 2012, as well as a special mention by SIGNIS. The film's leading actress, Soufia Issami, obtained the prize "for the honesty and intensity in playing her character."  On the other hand, the feature film A Jamaâ, won the ' Clay Griot for the best feature film (a prize sponsored by Casa África) at the African Film Festival of Córdoba 2011.

Casa África also takes advantage of the SILA framework to hold what will be the fourth edition of its librarianship meeting  and as part of this a new edition of African Letters will be held, a programme that has been undertaken by Casa África since 2009 and that has allowed a presence in Spain of the principal voices of African literature. On this occasion, it will be attended by the writer from Mali Moussa Konaté.

Related news: 11/12/2012 the International African Book Fair is inaugurated in Casa África. During five days, Casa África will be host to the activities of the fourth edition of SILA.

More information on Casa África's Portal Kuwamba