Syrian General Organization of Books celebrates signing Arabic version of Barry Gilder’s Book “Songs and Secrets”

The Syrian General Organization of Books recently held a symposium at Al-Assad Library in Damascus dedicated for a reading in the book “Songs and Secrets: South Africa from Liberation to Governance” written by Barry Gilder, the Ambassador of South Africa in Damascus. The Book was translated into Arabic by Sawsan Bader.

Minister of Culture Lubana Mushaweh attended the symposium.

Director of the Syrian General Organization of Books Nayef Al-Yaseen said that the book depicts the struggle of the people of South Africa against the apartheid system in the form of a narrative work, a struggle that is, to a large extent, similar to the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Zionist occupation entity.

For his part, the South African Ambassador Barry Gilder, the writer of the book, said that he wrote the book between 2010 and 2012 and that the book tells true stories about his experience in the struggle against the apartheid and about the struggle of the people of South Africa to achieve a democratic rule after they triumph over the apartheid system.

He said there is no doubt that the common factor between what was happening in South Africa and what is happening today in Palestine is imperialism and colonialism. He pointed out that his country was under the rule of the British colonialism which established an apartheid system which was supported by the United States, Britain, France and Germany, the same countries that are standing against Syria and Palestine today.

He hailed Syria’s key role in supporting the struggle of South African people against the apartheid system.

At the end of the symposium, Gilder signed the book in the presence of a number of writers and people concerned in culture.

Hamda Mustafa