Another sad chapter for Zimbabwe with book fair's decline

The three-day fair, which had 84 exhibitors - mostly local publishers, booksellers, church groups and aid and human rights organisations, was a shadow of its former self.

After the inaugural fair in 1984, Harare attracted hundreds of agents, publishers and literary figures from Europe, the United States, Asia and Australia as well as from within Africa. Deals and contracts were signed in a carnival atmosphere. But Zimbabwe is now isolated from the West and there is little incentive for foreign publishers to attend the fair as few Zimbabweans can afford to buy books.

"What is amazing is that this fair happens at all," said Kudzi Kaparadza, a high school teacher visiting the fair on its final day.

Zimbabwe, in its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, is facing acute shortages of petrol, food and most basic commodities. Official inflation is given at 4,500 per cent - the highest in the world. Scores of businesses have closed down and state health and education services are short of supplies, with up to ten children sharing one textbook.

"Whether we are still an international book fair is a vexing question," said Greenfield Chilongo, executive director of the independent non-profit association of organisers.

Brightly coloured souvenir T-shirts with the fair's symbol were not produced this year and the past literary caf mood at the coffee bar was absent.

"Like everybody, we have had our budget constraints. We have done our best to survive and our participants and supporters want to see it continue," Mr Chilongo said.

Edgar Tekere, a maverick former politician and guerrilla leader who was a founder of the ruling party, arrived a few hours before the closing of the event to sign copies of his fast-selling autobiography, A Life of Struggle, which is now in its second printing - rare in local publishing circles. He said he had to "scrounge" for petrol in his home city of Mutare on the border with Mozambique to reach the Harare fair.

His book tells of internal struggles within the ruling party and contains highly critical accounts of the private and political life of long-time ruler President Robert Mugabe.

Officials of a free-speech lobby group said some visitors, evidently supporters of sweeping media laws passed by the ruling party in 2003, were openly hostile and aggressive over their exhibit of literature and fliers on media repression, arrests of independent journalists and pro-Mugabe propaganda in the dominant state-controlled media.

Just 500 people passed through the gates in the central Harare park on the first public day, compared with thousands in previous years.

"I guess people are preoccupied out there searching for food and necessities," said Kaparadza, the high school teacher. "All the same, I'm inspired by the hard work of the brave, committed people who put this fair together against everything that's going on."