{"id":748,"date":"2024-04-15T17:46:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/?p=748"},"modified":"2024-04-15T17:46:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T12:16:00","slug":"nadia-essalmi-pioneer-of-childrens-publishing-in-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/?p=748","title":{"rendered":"Nadia Essalmi, pioneer of children&#8217;s publishing in Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"navbar navbar-expand-lg bg-primary header-mini-light navbar-dark\">\n<div class=\"sub-header\">\n<div class=\"region region-sub-header row\">\n<nav id=\"block-mainnavigation\" class=\"block block-menu navigation menu--main navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark col\" role=\"navigation\" aria-labelledby=\"block-mainnavigation-menu\">\n<div id=\"navbarNav\" class=\"main-navigation collapse navbar-collapse\"><\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<p><main class=\"container\" role=\"main\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"\">\n<div class=\"region region-content\">\n<div id=\"block-unesco-content\" class=\"block block-system block-system-main-block\">\n<article class=\"node--view-mode-full media-small node node--type-article node--promoted node--view-mode-idea\" data-terms-tags=\"5575 5574 92 11\" data-terms-univers=\"5575 5574 92 11\" data-letter=\"N\" data-nid=\"1803\">\n<div class=\"node__content\">\n<div class=\"header-node-content\">\n<p class=\"section-text is-arrow text-white\">\n<h1 class=\"title article-title\">Nadia Essalmi, pioneer of children&#8217;s publishing in Morocco<\/h1>\n<div class=\"section-text field field--name-field-description field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item\">In 1998, Nadia Essalmi founded Yomad, Morocco&#8217;s first publishing house dedicated to children&#8217;s literature, with the aim of offering young readers books that reflect their reality. Its catalogue now includes around a hundred titles, but producing and distributing original books remains a constant challenge.<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-date-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"created-time\">29 March 2024<\/div>\n<div class=\"updated-time\">Last update:4 April 2024<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"main-node-content\">\n<div class=\"content-narrow\">\n<div class=\"media-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"media-image field field--name-field-ref-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<article class=\"media media--type-image media--view-mode-medium\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item\"><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-paragraphs field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item\">\n<div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--rich-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n<div class=\"rich-text clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Nadia Essalmi has no time to lose. She has just left a bookshop in Casablanca&#8217;s Maarif shopping district, where she has been promoting her latest novel. The athletic-looking fifty-year-old moves from one meeting to the next, from one project to the next, and from one occupation to the next. A publisher first and foremost, she&#8217;s also a writer, director of a literary festival and a community activist. \u201cI can\u2019t stay still. Even as a child, I was hyperactive,\u201d she confides, with a burst of laughter, as she sits on a caf\u00e9 terrace in this vibrant district of Morocco&#8217;s economic capital.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The creation of Yomad, the first publishing house for children\u2019s literature in Morocco, is without a doubt her most ambitious project. \u201cIn 1998, when I was at a book fair in Paris, I realized that there wasn\u2019t a single children\u2019s book on the Moroccan stand,\u201d explains this elegant, smiling brunette. A few months later, Yomad was born. \u201cI don\u2019t see myself as a publisher, but rather as a publishing activist, because every day is a battle. I take care of everything\u00a0\u2013 from the design and layout of the books to proofreading and packaging. Everything!\u201d says this Moroccan, who grew up in Casablanca, before moving to Rabat and starting a family.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In a country where the publishing offer for young readers has long been limited to imported books, bringing a project like this to fruition was not easy. \u201cThe sector is still developing. Children\u2019s writers are rare, as are illustrators,\u201d she points out. Over 25 years later, Yomad has a hundred titles to its credit, with an average print run of a thousand copies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field__item\">\n<div id=\"raising-awareness-in-schools\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--rich-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-title field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<h2>Raising awareness in schools<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-text clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\" dir=\"ltr\">But there are still many challenges. \u201cI publish low-cost books to democratize reading, but as the margins are small, bookshops aren\u2019t really interested. The crux of the problem lies in distribution, and to date, no solution has been found,\u201d she laments. Even the Moroccan readership remains difficult to mobilize. \u201cMinds are shaped by other styles of books. The public doesn\u2019t always see the value of local productions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field__item\">\n<div class=\"paragraph-border paragraph paragraph--type--quote paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"rich-text clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>The public doesn\u2019t always see the value of local productions<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field__item\">\n<div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--rich-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n<div class=\"rich-text clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But Nadia Essalmi isn\u2019t one to give up. She calls on renowned Maghrebi writers such as Driss Chraibi, Mohamed Dib and Fouad Laroui, who give the books greater visibility. At the same time, she has begun a lengthy awareness-raising campaign in schools and with families to promote locally produced books. \u201cWhen we import books, we import a whole imaginary world with them,\u201d insists the publisher. \u201cFather Christmas or the Eiffel Tower don\u2019t have a lot of meaning for a child who has never left Morocco. A child needs to be rooted in his or her own culture in order to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field__item\">\n<div class=\"paragraph-border paragraph paragraph--type--quote paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"rich-text clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>The\u00a0Comptines marocaines\u00a0collection, a first of its kind in Morocco, brings together 24 nursery rhymes and lullabies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field__item\">\n<div class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--rich-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n<div class=\"rich-text clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Yomad mainly publishes texts in French and Arabic, as well as a handful of works in Tamazight (Berber). Aimed at children and teenagers, they feature elements of everyday Moroccan life, set against a backdrop of romance. Emblematic titles include\u00a0<em>Les l\u00e9gendes de Casablanca<\/em>\u00a0by Mostapha Oghnia, and\u00a0<em>Abdelkrim El Khattabi<\/em>,\u00a0<em>le h\u00e9ros du Rif<\/em>, which recounts the adventures of a historic figure in the Rif resistance against French colonial rule. The\u00a0<em>Comptines marocaines<\/em>\u00a0collection, a first of its kind in Morocco, brings together 24 nursery rhymes and lullabies drawn from Morocco&#8217;s oral heritage, which Nadia Essalmi has painstakingly reassembled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field__item\">\n<div id=\"a-taste-for-reading\" class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--rich-text paragraph--view-mode--default\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-title field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<h2>A taste for reading<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-text clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It has become her life\u2019s mission to promote reading in Morocco. In addition to her work as a publisher, she directs a cultural magazine, runs a literary caf\u00e9 and sets up community projects. In 2017, she created the\u00a0<em>Litt\u00e9ratures Itin\u00e9rantes<\/em>\u00a0festival, a platform for exchange between writers and readers that travels from town to town.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAll children are born readers. But if we don\u2019t keep that flame alive, it goes out.\u201d She developed her own taste for reading at the age of eight, at her neighbours\u2019 houses. \u201cThere were no books in my family. So I spent a lot of time at my neighbours\u2019, reading and borrowing their books \u2013 I became a bookaholic!\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Years later, she\u2019s the one who is instilling a taste for reading in children. In 2016, she launched\u00a0<em>Lire pour grandir<\/em>\u00a0in Rabat, an initiative designed to promote reading every Sunday, which has been extended to 15 towns across the kingdom. Through her work with community organizations, she regularly visits rural areas of Morocco, where she has helped renovate schools and enabled the construction of a library. \u201cIf I can bring them a little happiness through literature, I\u2019ve won,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/main><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nadia Essalmi, pioneer of children&#8217;s publishing in Morocco In 1998, Nadia Essalmi founded Yomad, Morocco&#8217;s first publishing house dedicated to children&#8217;s literature, with the aim of offering young readers books that reflect their reality. Its catalogue now includes around a hundred titles, but producing and distributing original books remains a constant challenge. 29 March 2024 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-america"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gih.al-emam.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}