The Zimbabwe International Book Fair was held for the first time in 1983 in

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

, the capital of

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It was founded by David Martin (late), Phylis Johnson and

Charles Mungoshi Charles Lovemore Mungoshi (2 December 1947 – 16 February 2019), was a Zimbabwean writer. Life and career Mungoshi was born on 2 December 1947 at Manyene, near Chivhu (Zimbabwe). He was educated at St Augustine's, Penhalonga. After leaving ...

(late). Until the opening of the

Cape Town Book Fair The South African Book Fair (previously known as the Cape Town Book Fair) is an international book fair in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is one of many similar events around the country. The fair started through a joint venture between the Publish ...

in 2006 it was one of the main

book fair A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

s of Africa.

History

Since 1991 the fair was organized by Trish Mbanga (until at least 1997) and under her leadership grew to be an important meeting point for publishers, writers, poets and translators.Prince Claus Fund
profile
/ref> The largest book fair of Africa is the

Cairo International Book Fair The Cairo International Book Fair is the largest and oldest book fair in the Arab world, held every year in the last week of January in Cairo, Egypt, at Egypt International Exhibitions Center in New Cairo, it is organised by the General Egyptian ...

, which focuses on the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

and largely on the readers. In 1997, the Zimbabwe International Book Fair was honoured with the principal

Prince Claus Award The Prince Claus Fund was established in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of the Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Fund has presented the international Prince Claus Awards annually si ...

from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The jury praised the book fair's networking function in combination with its modern and practical approach. After President

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...

in August 1995 expressed a virulent attack on homosexuals at the fair, voices arose to move the fair to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

in South Africa. The

was subsequently established in June 2006, in cooperation with the German

Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: Frankfurter Buchmesse, FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for internationa ...

. Earlier, an "International South African Education, Training, School Supplies and Book Market Exhibition" had also been organized in

.Monster Sand Critics
Robert Mugabe biography.

References

{{Books Book fairs in Zimbabwe Zimbabwean culture Harare 1983 establishments in Zimbabwe