Paris: French President, Emmanuel Macron, will soon confer upon Ali Akbar, 73, France’s oldest and now the only street newsboy, the prestigious title of « Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite. »
They say Paris is the city of love – and not just romantic love. Ali Akbar’s tale of love is his love for this long-lost profession – that of a street newspaper seller. He left his hometown, Rawalpindi in Pakistan, in 1972 at the age of 20 to seek a « better life » in France and to be able to help his mother build her dream home back home. Like many other refugees, he reached the French coast by boat. Upon his arrival in the land of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, he worked as a kitchen help in a restaurant in Rouen. But evidently, he didn’t speak a word of French then.
During a visit to Paris, he got acquainted with a street newsboy. The job caught his interest. Then, a chance meeting with Professor Choron, the founder of Charlie Hebdo, the highly satirical French magazine, was the turning point in Ali Akbar’s professional trajectory. While a growing friendship blossomed between the two men, Ali’s love for selling newspapers in the street became a passion.
It is in the 6th arrondissement, in the wealthy neighbourhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, that one has been hearing the jovial voice of Ali Akbar crying out headlines of the French publications for over 50 years. He is known for his wittymhumour and affable personality. If one is in the quartier, Ali Akbar chatting with passersby, and clients in the brasseries, is an unmissable sight.
In an interview with a French news channel in December last year, he had said, « People think I’m an alien. I’m all alone doing this because it doesn’t exist anymore. » For the last 15 years, the septuagenarian has been the only one doing this job. When he’d started out in 1972, there were around 40 other street newspaper sellers.
While he would sell 300 newspapers back in the day, today he is hardly able to sell 40 publications. Despite the hardships of continuing a vocation that has disappeared, Ali vows to never close shop. He also earns a modest pension and has opened a food truck next to the iconic Jardin du Luxembourg.
