Warm refuge for the Afro-descendant diaspora in the Raval

The bookstore was born in 2019 from the need to have a space in which sell your books, in the same way that he had been born, five years before, Wanafrica editions. If they didn’t have someone to edit them, they would edit themselves and if they didn’t have someone to sell them, they would do the same. The opportunity arose when Espai Contrabandos closed, independent bookstore that, yes, they always had a space in their shelves for the works of Africans. When they were preparing goodbye, Oumar Diallo Seydi, father and soul of Africans, went to Smuggling to pick up his books and, talking to them, they encouraged him to take over. “I thought it could be a good way to have visibility in a neighborhood, also as diverse as the Raval, and I said to myself why not “, remember Diallo from the precious space of 162 square meters on Junta de Comerç street. “The Panafricana is much more than a bookstore specialized in Migrant and Afro-descendant literature. It is a refuge and family “, sums up next to him, the poet Quinny Martínez Hernández. It is enough to spend a little time there to confirm that he is not lying. The woman came to the Panafricana when she presented her last book, in July, and was trapped by space. So much so that today she is one of the people who is fighting the most for save this oasis so necessary for the diaspora, in a more than complicated economic situation after the blow of the covid, which exploded when the initiative began to walk.

That he 40% of the books that they sell in this hypnotic bookstore are autopublicados it is not by chance. “Who writes best does not publish, but who has the most followers on social networks, assuring publishers that they will have minimal sales,” he sums up. Martinez Hernandez, author of ‘Umami, an Eroticized Heart’, who is clear that for books to be sold here they have to attract people with all kinds of cultural activities which, in turn, are an opportunity for Afro-descendant creators to show their work. “Every 15 days we organize a concert, all with reverse locker, from five euros, because we all live in precariousness“, continues the author, born in the Colombian Island of San Andres.

Among its present and future projects is to turn towards cooperativism -aided by Coopolis– so that this is, even more, “a people’s project”, claims the writer and bookseller, who defines the space as a place where “to feel good”.

In the middle of a chat with Oumar and Quinny enters through the door, always discreet, Beatriz, another member of this small family who is the personification that what counts Quinny is a true tale and this is, for many, a home. Beatriz, Venezuelan, discovered space by chance. He walked in, explained his story to Oumar and he, far from shaking her off, not only listened to her but also gave a space in his display unit for the work of this woman. “It is such a beautiful place, with so much light, with so much energy. I fell in love, I was hooked. You arrive here and arms a family“, says this volunteer from the space, who also organizes a presentation, sweeps the room, washes a cup or irons a tablecloth. Most of the furniture that dresses the room is recycled, collected from the garbage and cleaned and arranged by them.

Solidarity raffle

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Drawing on the popular wisdom of his country, in which “if someone got sick we raffled a pig“they have organized a raffle to get out of the economic doldrums where they are. “We sell tickets and we raffle all this,” he continues, showing a table full of books, beautiful author postcards, handmade cloth dolls and beautiful tote bags. The raffle will be on the 31st, they have the whole week to go on to collaborate in this kind of ‘crowdfunding’ the old-fashioned way.

“Here our university degrees are worth nothing because homologating a degree is more expensive than buying a flat. We are always looked at from the prejudging shore. It is not about ‘we are going to give them a voice’; we have a voice and we are shouting, the problem is that we are not listened to “, they reflect by way of summary. “And we don’t have to prove anything to them either. topic of joviality, the topic of resilience has been applied very badly to us. You fall and you get up, but every time you fall you wake up with a broken bone or a purple one, “they conclude. That is why their motto is the Pan-African resists.