In The New York Times today Isma'il Kushkush reports that In a Faded Literary Capital, Efforts at a Revival, reporting from and about the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, as:
Books and reading are embedded profoundly in Khartoum's self-image and the country's history, and there is growing worry that the collapse of book culture is a direct mirror of the country's overall decline.As everywhere (and always ...) things sure ain't the way they used to be, the manager of the Sudan Bookshop noting:
"We used to order a shipping container of books every month or two," he recalled sadly. "But now no one reads anymore."Still, apparently:
That sense of urgency and loss is driving a new wave of activism, with its sights on reviving Khartoum's reputation as a literary city.And awful though it may be it is sort of exciting to hear (if perhaps not quite believe ...):
"There is more money in the counterfeit books trade than the drug and counterfeit currency trades combined," Mr. Iskander said.So, aside from the fact that "no one reads anymore" they also have to deal with the facts that:
While a significant market still exists here for local writers, high-cost and low-quality printing, censorship and copyright issues have limited the reach of locally published books. And it is harder and harder to find imported books in Khartoum(Yes, yes, it's pretty much -- with a few colorful local variations -- the standard identikit-article about bookselling and reading in place X that we've read a hundred times before; still, nice for Sudan to get some attention.)