(KPL/Prensa Latina) South Africa, as guest country of honor, will have a large participation in the 33rd International Book Fair Havana 2025, scheduled from February 13 to 23, and more than 40 nations will be represented here.

According to what was revealed in a press conference in this capital, there will be 400 foreign guests at the event, in which South Africa leads the good response that the sum of African countries has had to the event this year, the president of the Organizing Committee, Juan Rodríguez Cabrera, said.

Rodríguez Cabrera added that relations between South Africa and Cuba were strengthened by leaders Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela, and supported by the African National Congress, political and cultural ties between the two countries have grown.

South African Ambassador in Havana Yvonne Nkwenkwezi praised the mutual ties and recalled that recently Cuba and South Africa celebrated 30 years of diplomatic relations.

She pointed out that currently, her nation, with the help of Cuban specialists, is making great progress in the field of education and learning.

Regarding the 33rd edition of the Book Fair, with its main venue in the San Carlos de la Cabaña fortress, the diplomat said, “We hope to be able to share experiences not only to expand the arts, but also to strengthen relations between the two countries.”

The president of the organizing committee for the Fair informed that as a great novelty for this edition, the first batch of books from the People’s Library is being printed, to which the best of universal culture will be incorporated each year with recognized titles.

He added that there will be more than 1,300 new features and multiple events associated with the great literary festival, including concerts, theater and film presentations, on dates that, in addition to Havana, will later extend throughout the country to the most remote communities.

Rodríguez Cabrera noted that the event will be a forum for communication of Cuban reality in the difficult conditions of the present, and said that for this, writers, promoters, publishers and other collaborators have worked so that it does not stop and continues to privilege the book, a cultural product extremely subsidized by the State in Cuba.

KPL