Writers, thinkers, and journalists participating in the round tables of the 18th edition of the International Book and Arts Fair of Tangier (SIT 2014) highlighted on Thursday the richness and diversity of African expression, reflected in the multitude of cultural traditions and the linguistic plurality of the continent. The participants in this fair, organised until 11 May by the French Institute of Morocco as part of its cultural season, in partnership with the Tangier Regional Cultural Action Association (ATRAC), noted that this richness is also reflected in the openness of African literature to Western languages, vectors of modern transmission and interpretation of African thought. In this regard, the Congolese writer and diplomat Henri Lopes emphasised, during a round table on “African linguistic pluralism”, the specificities of African modes of expression, which have long taken on an oral character, a factor of richness and diversity due to the multiplicity of languages and dialects on the continent. Sub-Saharan writers and intellectuals are naturally imbued with this teeming cultural environment, but most often opt for writing in Western languages, notably French and English, which allow for greater visibility and openness to a wider audience, he noted. However, far from being mere users of the languages of Molière and Shakespeare, African authors have shaped these languages according to their own sensibilities and codes of expression, developing an African literature in its own right, characterised by diversity both linguistically and aesthetically, added Mr Lopes. For his part, the Malian writer Ibrahima Aya emphasised the importance of respecting the writer's freedom in the choice of the language of expression but also of the subjects treated, expressing his esteem for authors who decide to write in their native and original African languages, contributing by their gesture, almost militant, to the enrichment of human culture.