(KPL/Prensa Latina)  The 33rd edition of the Havana International Book Fair 2025 will have South Africa as a guest of honor, Juan Rodriguez, president of the Cuban Book Institute (ICL), informed in this capital on Thursday.

Scheduled from February 13 to 23 under the theme “Todo Un Pais En Libros” (A Whole Country In Books), the literary event will be dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Territorial Editions System and to the 130th anniversary of the death in war action of Cuba’s National Hero Jose Marti.

Researcher and professor Francisca Lopez Civeria, winner of the 2008 National History Prize and the 2022 National Social and Humanistic Sciences Prize, and poet, essayist, researcher, and literary critic Virgilio Lopez Lemus will also be honored.

Rodriguez stressed the significance of having South Africa as the third African guest of honor, after Algeria and Angola, at the usual main venue of San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress, which shares activities with 17 other places in Havana.

He underscored that the two nations share a common history and recalled the strong ties of friendship that developed between late leader Nelson Mandela and Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, in addition to all bilateral cooperation that has been fostered since the fall of the Apartheid regime.

He noted that Cuba is proud of having Souhth Afica at the event, because, “Cubans carry Africa in their hearts”

South African Ambassador to Havana, Yvonne Nkwenkwezi, voiced her gratitude on behalf of her country for such a designation, which she considered an honor and a commitment.

KPL