Boualem Sansal receives German Peace Prize
This via The Washington Post. Unhappily the talk itself is not yet available either in French or even in German (not to mention English). You can however — if you have German — follow the whole ceremony, the various speeches & Sansal’s address (in French, though with overlaid German simul-translation) here. For those who have German, check out Sansal’s German translator Regina Keil-Sagawe’s excellent homage-essay in the Neue Zuricher Zeitung here.
German Peace prize honors Algerian writer Boualem Sansal‘s struggle for Democracy
BERLIN — Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has won the top award at the annual Frankfurt Book Fair for his struggle for democracy in his homeland. Sansal accepted the €25,000 ($35,000) Peace Prize in Frankfurt on Sunday, saying it will encourage the region’s people who are trying to liberate themselves from “vicious and archaic dictatorships.”
When Sansal was criticized to have gone to the Paris 2008 Salon du livre , boycotted by most Artab writers and intellectuals to protest against the massacre of the Palestinians by Israel, he is quoted to have responded “Je fais de la littérature, pas la guerre”.
Did he actually get this prize as a freedom fighter or as a writer?