Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 1 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Hans M. Zell hanszell@hanszell.co.uk Copyright © Hans Zell Publishing Consultants 2017 This is the second in a series of annual reviews of select new literature in English that has appeared on the topic of publishing and book development in sub-Saharan Africa. The previous annual literature review, for the 2015 period, can be found at https://www.academia.edu/20432811/Publishing_and_the_Book_in_Africa_- _A_Literature_Review_for_2015. (Print version published in The African Book Publishing Record 42, Issue 1 (March 2016): 11-37 https://doi.org/10.1515/abpr-2016-0003.) Extensively annotated and/or with abstracts, the present list brings together new literature published during the course of 2016, a total of 164 items. Also included are a small number of articles and other documents published in 2015 or earlier, and which have not hitherto been included in the Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa online database (see also below). The literature review covers books, chapters in books and edited collections, journal articles, Internet documents and reports, theses and dissertations, interviews, audio/video recordings and podcasts, as well as a number of blog postings, with their posting dates indicated. Newspaper articles are not generally included, unless of substantial length or of special significance. Records are grouped under a range of regional/country and topic-specific headings. It should be noted that, for the most part, literature on particular topics, e.g. children’s book publishing, copyright, educational and schoolbook publishing, digital publishing, reading culture and reading promotion, etc. is listed under topic/subject rather than country headings. However, in the absence of a country index you can search for all country-specific records by using the Ctrl+F ‘find’ function in this document. For example, typing in ‘Ghana’ in the search box will find any text/records (in titles of articles, blog postings and other documents, or if part of the annotations) containing the word Ghana. For more information on scope and type of material covered, consult the introductory pages (print or online) of Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Bibliography at http://www.hanszell.co.uk/pbrssa/intro.shtml. https://www.academia.edu/20432811/Publishing_and_the_Book_in_Africa_-_A_Literature_Review_for_2015 https://www.academia.edu/20432811/Publishing_and_the_Book_in_Africa_-_A_Literature_Review_for_2015 https://doi.org/10.1515/abpr-2016-0003 http://www.hanszell.co.uk/pbrssa/intro.shtml Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 2 Most journal articles published online are freely accessible unless otherwise indicated as being behind a paywall and subscription based. For web documents and electronic journals the date the source was accessed is indicated [in square brackets]. If I have missed any articles/papers, books, theses, or other relevant documents on the topics covered by this literature review (and published or posted in 2016), I would be grateful if these could be brought to my attention. Please email details to hanszell@hanszell.co.uk, together with an electronic file of the document, or a link to it. All these records, and many more, will shortly be integrated into the online database of Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is currently in the process of migrating to a new hosting institution, Kwara State University Library in Nigeria (see also press release at http://www.hanszell.co.uk/Press%20release.pdf). Unfortunately, due to a number of technical issues relating to metadata mapping and software functionality, there have been some delays in the migration of the database, but it is now hoped that it can be re- launched during the early part of 2017, on a more dynamic, Drupal-based open source content management platform. The first batch of updates and over 300 entirely new records will then also be added to the database. Meantime the old database – current as at October 2014 and containing 3,062 records – remains freely accessible at http://www.hanszell.co.uk/cgi-bin/online/pbrssa.shtml. This pre-print version uploaded on Academia.edu 14 February 2017. Print version to appear in The African Book Publishing Record Volume 43, Issue 2, (June 2017) https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/abpr mailto:hanszell@hanszell.co.uk http://www.hanszell.co.uk/Press%20release.pdf http://www.hanszell.co.uk/cgi-bin/online/pbrssa.shtml https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/abpr Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 3 Contents REFERENCE & BIBLIOGRAPHY 5 GENERAL & REGIONAL STUDIES 6 Africa: General studies/Book history in Africa 6 Regional studies: Africa, East 14 Regional studies: Africa, Francophone 15 COUNTRY STUDIES 16 Note: most articles or blog postings on particular topics or areas of the book trade, for example publishing for children, publishing in African languages, copyright, scholarly publishing, etc. are classified under STUDIES BY TOPIC, see below. Cameroon 16 Kenya 17 Namibia 18 Nigeria 18 Rwanda 23 Senegal 23 South Africa 25 Tanzania 29 Uganda 30 Zimbabwe 31 STUDIES BY TOPIC 32 The acquisition of African-published material 32 African books in the international market place 33 Authors and publishers/Publishing of African writers and African literature (in Africa and elsewhere) 33 Book and journals assistance and donation programmes 36 Book prizes and awards 39 Children's book publishing 39 Copyright and legal deposit/Authors' rights 41 Digital media and electronic publishing 42 Educational and school book publishing 47 Journals and magazine publishing 54 Mass market and popular literature publishing 56 Open access publishing and licensing 57 Publishing in African languages 61 Reading culture and reading promotion 62 Scholarly publishing (General) 67 Scientific, technical and medical publishing 71 Women in African publishing/Publishing by and for women 72 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 4 BOOK INDUSTRY TRAINING/SELF-PUBLISHING 73 Articles and reports 73 Training manuals and resources 73 Handbooks for authors and self-publishing 74 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 5 REFERENCE & BIBLIOGRAPHY Higgs, Coleen, and Aimee Carelse, eds. African Small Publishers’ Catalogue 2016. Rondebosch, South Africa: Modjaji Books, 2016 (distr. outside Africa by African Books Collective Ltd, Oxford). 118 pp. This is the third edition of a useful directory that aims “to present a showcase of the variety and extent of independent and small publishing in Africa.” It lists a total of 61 publishers, including some publishing services, each entry providing full address details, email address, telephone, website, principal contact person, and an image of their logo, together with short, informative profiles describing the activities of each publisher, nature of list and/or focus of its publishing programme, overseas distributors (where applicable), and more. It also contains six short articles, including “African Books Collective: 25 Years of the best in African publishing” by Justin Cox, and “Book Dash, growing new readers in South Africa” by Arthur Attwell. Publishers’ Association of South Africa PASA Directory 2016. Guide to Publishing in South Africa. Fish Hoek: Publishers Association of South Africa, 2016. 304 pp. Includes the PASA membership directory and index of publishers, their imprints and agencies, and also contains an overview of all sectors of the South African publishing industry and the most recent Industry Annual Survey, which details income per sector, in print and e-books, production profiles by genre and language and educational sales by province. Additionally it includes a directory of training providers and industry-related bodies, including government department contacts, as well as listing of book fairs, book promotional events, conferences and other industry-related events. Note: The PASA membership directory can also be accessed online at http://www.publishsa.co.za/members. Click ‘List All’, and then click on to names of individual publishers, with company profiles, key personnel, and full contact details and links to websites. Zell, Hans M. Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2015. https://www.academia.edu/20432811/Publishing_and_the_Book_in_Africa_- _A_Literature_Review_for_2015 [01/03/16] (Pre-print version) Also in The African Book Publishing Record 42, no. 1 (March 2016): 11-37. [Published as “Reference Resources. Publishing and the Book in Africa – A Literature Review.”] http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/abpr.2016.42.issue-1/abpr-2016-0003/abpr-2016- 0003.xml?format=INT (subscription based/pay per view) [30/04/16] The predecessor of the current (2016) literature review, which reviews select new literature in English that has appeared on the topic of publishing and book development in Africa published during the course of 2015. It covers books, papers in edited collections, journal articles, Internet documents and reports, interviews, as well as a number of blog postings Includes 85 records, most extensively annotated, and grouped under a range of regional/country and topic-specific headings. http://www.publishsa.co.za/members https://www.academia.edu/20432811/Publishing_and_the_Book_in_Africa_-_A_Literature_Review_for_2015 https://www.academia.edu/20432811/Publishing_and_the_Book_in_Africa_-_A_Literature_Review_for_2015 http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/abpr.2016.42.issue-1/abpr-2016-0003/abpr-2016-0003.xml?format=INT http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/abpr.2016.42.issue-1/abpr-2016-0003/abpr-2016-0003.xml?format=INT Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 6 GENERAL & REGIONAL STUDIES Africa: General studies/Book history in Africa African Books Collective Ltd Read African Books. http://www.readafricanbooks.com/ [14/12/16] A sub-site of the African Books Collective website http://www.africanbookscollective.com/, Read African Books “offers a place where people can come to read about the latest books, news, reviews and comment, on African publishing.” It is intended “to help grow awareness of the issues affecting African books and publishing – to celebrate its diversity – and to increase the visibility of African books worldwide.” ABC welcomes views or comments to publish on these pages. Initial contributions to the ‘Comments and Opinion’ pages include those by James Anderson, Walter Bgoya, Mary Jay, Stephanie Kitchen, Francis Nyamnjoh, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, and Hans Zell, as well as a number of articles which first appeared in The African Writers Handbook, published by ABC in 1999 http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/the-african-writers-handbook. Bush, Ruth and Madhu Krishnan “Print Activism in Twenty-First-Century Africa.” Wasafiri 31, no. 4 (December 2016) [issue 88]: 1-2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216267 (free access) [10/12/16] This is the introduction to a special and very rich issue of Wasafiri, exploring the continuities and discontinuities in activist print cultures in Africa and the African diaspora. Its initial spark was the fiftieth anniversary of the UK’s first black bookshop and publishing house, New Beacon Books (founded in London in 1966), and it aims to signal pathways that link from this and other important heritage initiatives to current trends in African and African diasporic book publishing. The articles and interviews brought together here seek to supplement an already burgeoning body of work on the topic by mapping and investigating the contemporary African publishing landscape. Note: articles and interviews this special issue of Wasafiri pertaining to publishing in sub-Saharan Africa are individually abstracted and recorded in this literature review. Carré, Nathalie “From Local to Global. New Paths for Publishing in Africa.” Wasafiri 31, no. 4 (December 2016) [issue 88]: 56-62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216282 (subscription based, pay per view) [09/12/16] Another (slightly longer) version at https://hal-inalco.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01389097/document (freely accessible) [11/11/16] Historically, the writing, selling, and reading of books have been a central means through which stories have been shared across borders. However, despite the wide-ranging nature of print, the author says, “in Africa, books and publishers still struggle to get their share of attention. Not only is the volume of African book production dramatically underrepresented in the world but the African publishing industry has also had to contend with the ongoing legacies of former colonial monopolies. At the same time, if printing books and selling them across national borders has always been one of the main stumbling blocks to the African publishing trade, then it is reasonable to think that the new technologies and media that have emerged at the turn of the millennium might enable the written word to travel more http://www.readafricanbooks.com/ http://www.africanbookscollective.com/ http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/the-african-writers-handbook http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216267 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216282 https://hal-inalco.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01389097/document Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 7 easily across the continent and beyond, expanding the reach and circulation of African publishing, and African knowledge today.” The author examines some of these issues, as well as issues of uneven trading relationships, the relationship between local and global, publishing in African languages, and new opportunities for publishing and readership now offered by digital media. “New technologies seem to offer a real opportunity for publishing in Africa, but will that lead to more diversity or, on the contrary, a reign of global standardisation? The question is still open.” Emelife, Jennifer On Publishing Business in Africa: Emma Shercliff. http://www.praxismagonline.com/cassava-republic-press/ (Posted 08 April 2016) [10/04/16] This talk with Emma Shercliff of Cassava Republic Press http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/ is the final one in a series of insightful interviews with a number of small independent publishers in Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda (see individual entries under Country Studies), and published in the lively Praxis Magazine for Arts and Literature http://www.praxismagonline.com/tag/publishing-in-africa/. This interview addresses some of the most frequently mentioned issues and challenges in the interviews: For example, on the price of books and how it affects the young African reader: Shercliff says “I think it is partly about perception. Young people may well be prepared to spend 1000 Naira on phone credit to chat to their friends, but baulk at paying the same price for a novel. However, we do try and price our titles as sensitively as possible.” Commenting on the quality of books published in Africa she says there two separate issues here: “The first is the poor quality of physical production; the second is poor editorial control. Unfortunately, the quality of printing within Nigeria is not always of a high a standard or as consistent as we would like it to be. …. For this reason, we now print outside the country.” In terms of improving editorial quality of books “the answer is simple: more publishers need to introduce rigid editing processes, including multiple checks and proofing. … We work very closely with our authors to ensure that each finished work is a product of which they and we can be proud, but this process is expensive and time-consuming, which is why some publishers sometimes circumvent it.” On the many challenges of distribution, Shercliff says one of the major issues with distribution in Nigeria (and elsewhere in Africa) is that retail outlets do not pay publishers in a timely fashion. “Authors are understandably upset when they visit a bookstore and don’t find copies of their books there, but if the bookshop owes a publisher a large amount of money, the publisher simply can’t supply more stock without receiving payment. We have had several examples of bookshops and distributors who have gone bankrupt or disappeared altogether without paying for books – such instances make it difficult for publishers to have faith in the book distribution network.” Meantime the book-buying individual has been hampered in the past by the high cost of delivery. In terms of distribution elsewhere on the continent, intra-African distribution remains problematic due to the high cost of transportation, customs and import tariffs, and the unreliability of the road network. “Somewhat counter-intuitively, it will be easier and more cost-effective for us to use our UK office to distribute our African-authored titles into East and South Africa, rather than ship them to other African countries from Nigeria.” Despite the myriad number of problems “publishing in Africa has come a huge way in recent years. Although the large educational publishers still dominate the industry, there are http://www.praxismagonline.com/cassava-republic-press/ http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/ http://www.praxismagonline.com/tag/publishing-in-africa/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 8 a number of young, dynamic companies across the continent publishing contemporary fiction and non-fiction and providing outlets for African-based writers.” Jay, Mary African Publishing in a Globalised World. http://www2.su.se/media/videoplayer/videoplayer3.html?source=rtmp://stream-prod- flash1.it.su.se/vod/mp4:16212001.mp4&type=vod (Video 1hr20mins) [30/11/16] http://www.readafricanbooks.com/opinions/african-publishing-in-a-globalised-world (Text of lecture) [13/12/16] Mary Jay, former CEO of African Books Collective, presents the annual Adam Helms Lecture for 2016 held at Stockholm University on 21 November. Her lecture discusses international publishing connections in the context of wider co-operation for development, digital or otherwise, and also touches upon issues of cultural independence, and how that impacts in Africa. She sets out a brief history of globalization as a context to independent African publishing, provides an overview of colonial and post-independence African publishing, talks about the genesis and activities of African Books Collective, the role of partnerships and assistance, and reviews the current challenges and prospects for African publishing in the digital age. The lecture is followed by a discussion with members of the audience. Jay is critical of two of the British multinational publishers who have recently been involved in corruption scandals, and says the multinationals “take the lion’s share of the textbook market in Africa, invest little, if any, of those profits within the country in which they are made; and the non-textbook sector is insufficiently developed by indigenous publishers, partly because of their long effective exclusion from the textbook market.” A further continuing and deleterious activity, she says, are overseas book donation programmes and book aid charities that are shipping millions of free books to Africa every year. As a result “governments do not have to finance and resource libraries, including university libraries, if books are donated free, often irrespective of their relevance. Very few of these organizations match requested needs; rather they send publisher or library over-stocks. The shipping costs of the containers sent could in fact pay for locally published books requested by libraries in Africa …. What sort of charity is that, holding back a self-sustaining publishing industry, and continuing to swamp local culture by imported books?” On the topic of adoption of globalization opportunities, IT and the digital revolution, Jay believes that these developments have brought significant opportunities and benefits; and a great plus for African publishers has been digital marketing, enabling them to widely disseminate their print and e-books through the myriad mechanisms. On the negative side of globalization, Jay says “given our understanding that globalization broadly breaks down barriers, we might expect that there would be very much more cooperation between African publishers and the international publishing community. I am sorry that there is not a great deal of evidence of such cooperation.” Kamau, Kiarie, and Kirimi Mitambo, eds. “Coming of Age. Strides in African Publishing. Essays in Honour of Dr. Henry Chakava at 70.” Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 2016. 318 pp. (distributed outside Africa by African Books Collective Ltd., Oxford) The sixteen chapters in this book form a Festschrift in honour of Henry Chakava, the distinguished Kenyan publisher, who is widely recognized as one of the continent's most http://www2.su.se/media/videoplayer/videoplayer3.html?source=rtmp://stream-prod-flash1.it.su.se/vod/mp4:16212001.mp4&type=vod http://www2.su.se/media/videoplayer/videoplayer3.html?source=rtmp://stream-prod-flash1.it.su.se/vod/mp4:16212001.mp4&type=vod http://www.readafricanbooks.com/opinions/african-publishing-in-a-globalised-world Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 9 dynamic and most innovative publisher, as well as being a prolific author of numerous articles and studies on many aspects of publishing and the book sector in Africa. Preceded by a foreword by Walter Bgoya – another icon among African publishers – the first five chapters in the book are tributes to Chakava’s work, his commitment, courage and vision, and assess his intellectual and professional contribution to publishing and book development in Africa, as well as his involvement in the African world of letters. These five chapters are: “The Guru of Publishing: Assessing Henry’s Chakava’s Contribution in Africa” by Kiarie Kamau; “Henry Chakava: The Gory and Glory of African Language Publishing” by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o; “The Triangle that Defined AWS: Nairobi – Ibadan – London” by James Currey; “Publisher and Intellectual: The Work of Henry Chakava” by Simon Gikandi; and an orature epic in prose poetry commemorating Henry Miyinzi Chakava’s 70th birthday, “African Orature: Back to the Roots” by the Kenyan writer and scholar Micere Githae Mugo. The subsequent eleven chapters – abstracted and listed as individual records in this 2016 literature review – focus on different areas of African publishing, containing chapters on scholarly publishing, copyright, publishing in the digital age, African books in the international market place, professional training, and the need for research and documentation on the book industries. Kitchen, Stephanie African Books and Knowledge Production. http://www.readafricanbooks.com/opinions/http-www-internationalafricaninstitute-org (Posted 01 October 2016) [19/10/16] Reports about a number of sessions – organised in association with the African Books Collective – held at the 2016 African Studies Association (UK) biennial conference, which explored the challenges of publishing in Africa, and in relation to African studies in the North. The sessions included presentations by a number of leadings scholars and publishers, and issues discussed included the dissemination of print and electronic books between African countries, university presses in Africa, open access publishing, distribution challenges, the lack of library budgets and the negative effects of book donation programmes, debilitating import taxes on books, piracy, and how to redress the publishing imbalances between Africa and the North. MacPhee, Josh Judging Books by Their Covers [African presses and magazines]. http://justseeds.org/channel/judging-books-by-their-covers/ [30/09/16] Judging Books by Their Covers is Josh MacPhee's ongoing series of writings and image collections of book covers from many parts of the world. He says: “Although sometimes they feel marginal today, books have been a primary form of information and cultural exchange for almost 400 years. Book covers are often a person's first contact with the ideas inside, and in the hustle and bustle of contemporary life, cover designs are even more likely to shape the opinions of those that pick them up since many of us are too busy to ever read the entirety of the books. Judging Books by Their Covers largely focuses on – but is not exclusive to – the book covers and design coming out of the Left.” This interesting and often fascinating series now also covers the output of a number of small presses in sub-Saharan Africa, at this time most of them for the period of the 1970s through to the early 1990s (although “small press Africa” here also includes the branches/affiliates of two UK multinational publishers operating in Africa.) Each posting includes notes, insightful descriptions, critical commentary and observations about artwork and design, and http://www.readafricanbooks.com/opinions/http-www-internationalafricaninstitute-org http://justseeds.org/channel/judging-books-by-their-covers/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 10 sometimes a bit of historical background, together with images of the covers (and cover art credits/attributes, where available), as well as full bibliographic information on each book. A number of posts also include reproduction of some pages of text and illustrations. Below are the links to the image collections of the book covers from African publishers that are thus far available: no. 197: Ghana Publishing House [Corporation], Accra/Tema (posted October 2014) http://justseeds.org/jbbtc-196-ghana-publishing-house/ 207: Zimbabwe Publishing House, Harare http://justseeds.org/jbbtc-207-zimbabwe- publishing-house/ (posted January 2015) 219: Éditions CLE, Yaoundé http://justseeds.org/219-editions-cle/ (posted October 2015) 225: Small Press Africa, part I, [Southern Africa, 1970s/1980s] http://justseeds.org/225-small-press-africa-part-i/ (posted December 2015) 226: Small Press Africa, part II, [Nigeria and Ghana, mostly 1970s to 1990s] http://justseeds.org/226-small-press-africa-part-ii/ (posted January 2016) 227: Small Press Africa, part III [Nigeria Yearbook 1969] http://justseeds.org/227-small-press- africa-part-iii/ (posted January 2016) 228: Small Press Africa, part IV [East Africa, mostly 1970s/1980s] http://justseeds.org/228- small-press-africa-part-iv/ (posted February 2016) 229: Small Press Africa, part V [East African Literature Bureau/Kenya Literature Bureau] http://justseeds.org/229-small-press-africa-part-v/ (posted February 2016) 230: Small Press Africa, part VI [South Africa/Southern Africa, mostly 1980s/1990s] http://justseeds.org/230-small-press-africa-part-vi/ (posted February 2016) 239: Ravan Books [Press], Johannesburg http://justseeds.org/239-ravan-books/ (posted June 2016) 241: Black Orpheus. Journal of African and Afro-American Literature, Ibadan http://justseeds.org/241-black-orpheus/ (Posted August 2016) 242: Mbari Publishing, Ibadan http://justseeds.org/242-mbari-publishing/ (posted September 2016) Nyamnjoh, Francis “Shared Visions and Challenges in Publishing in Africa: Henry Chakava and CODESRIA.” In Coming of Age. Strides in African Publishing. Essays in Honour of Dr. Henry Chakava at 70, Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 2016, 159-188. A contribution to a Festschrift in honour of Henry Chakava, this is both a tribute to Chakava’s long-time devotion to the cause of publishing and the book in Africa, as well as a history of the work and activities of the Dakar-based Council for the Development of Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA), who have been in the forefront of African scholarly publishing for over four decades. The paper includes a discussion about the much debated issue of the marginalisation of African language publishing, and the authors seeks to demonstrate how CODESRIA “has navigated, negotiated and sought to reconcile this challenging linguistic landscape in the interest of its mission.” In his observations about the state of the book industries in Africa, Nyamnjoh – in contrast with other contributors to the volume, who are rather more upbeat about progress in recent years – conveys a rather gloomy picture: “Well over 90 per cent of books published in Africa are school textbooks, and the majority of these are published by multinational companies.” He asserts that, in South Africa for example, “publishing of books of interest and relevance to the majority of Africans is rare”, but it is a claim that publishers in South Africa, especially the smaller http://justseeds.org/jbbtc-196-ghana-publishing-house/ http://justseeds.org/jbbtc-207-zimbabwe-publishing-house/ http://justseeds.org/jbbtc-207-zimbabwe-publishing-house/ http://justseeds.org/219-editions-cle/ http://justseeds.org/225-small-press-africa-part-i/ http://justseeds.org/226-small-press-africa-part-ii/ http://justseeds.org/227-small-press-africa-part-iii/ http://justseeds.org/227-small-press-africa-part-iii/ http://justseeds.org/228-small-press-africa-part-iv/ http://justseeds.org/228-small-press-africa-part-iv/ http://justseeds.org/229-small-press-africa-part-v/ http://justseeds.org/230-small-press-africa-part-vi/ http://justseeds.org/239-ravan-books/ http://justseeds.org/241-black-orpheus/ http://justseeds.org/242-mbari-publishing/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 11 progressive publishers, would probably wish to challenge. In the social sciences, Nyamnjoh says, “where objectivity is often distorted by obvious or subtle ideology, African scholars face a critical choice between sacrificing relevance for recognition or recognition for relevance, the politics of the cultural economy of publishing prevents them from achieving both recognition and relevance simultaneously.” Nyariki, Lily “Lobby for the Book: The Politics of African Publishing and the Growth of Professional and Trade Organizations.” In Coming of Age. Strides in African Publishing. Essays in Honour of Dr. Henry Chakava at 70. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 2016, 217-235. Online pre-print version at https://www.academia.edu/24617767/Lobby_for_the_Book [13/05/16] An overview of the African publishing scene over the past few decades, providing a broad historical perspective of the publishing industries in sub-Saharan Africa. It sets out some of the main challenges and problems facing the industry – notably the lack of government support, and the absence of robust national book policies – and “critically examines the nature and form of the politics surrounding African book publishing industries and provides the justification for lobbying.” This is followed by a survey of the activities of the major book trade organizations and book promotional bodies in Africa (albeit several of them now dormant, or shut down), as well organizations and initiatives outside Africa that have supported the indigenous African book industries over the years. In her conclusion the author states that “a sustainable book industry that continuous to flourish is only possible with deliberate government support that recognizes the strategic importance of publishing and demonstrates this in its official commitment through policies and budgets.” Shercliff, Emma “African Publishing in the Twenty-First Century.” Wasafiri 31, no. 4 (December 2016) [issue 88]:10-12 (Introduction), 13-22 (Questionnaire responses). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216270 (Introduction, subscription based, pay per view) [09/12/16] Jay, Mary, and Emma Shercliff “A Survey of Fourteen African Publishers.” http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216272 (Questionnaire responses, free access) [09/12/16] Introduces a survey, gathered by means of questionnaires and interviews, of fourteen well- known independent publishers based across the African continent (from Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe), publishing primarily in English and African languages, as well as a number of recorded longer interviews (see entries by Raphael Thierry, p. 15) with four francophone African publishers. The survey intends to offer “a glimpse of the energy surrounding current African literary production in English, French and in African languages”, as well as drawing attention to the many challenges the book industries face. Each publisher was asked to respond to 14 questions, which included a kind of ‘mission’ statement about each imprint, date founded, size of the company and staff employed, the number of women in management roles, the nature of the list and/or areas of specialization, number of new titles published annually, bestselling titles, interaction with and assistance provided to authors, funding, methods of distribution and marketing, a whether digital technologies play a significant role in their operations, and each publisher’s views on the prospects and priorities over the next five years. https://www.academia.edu/24617767/Lobby_for_the_Book http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216270 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216272 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 12 The publishers interviewed were: Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Ntone Edjabe, Elieshi Lema, Hilda Twongyeirwe, Ann N Athiyo, Eghosa Imasuen, Billy Kahora, Walter Bgoya, Colleen Higgs, Azafi Omoluabi-Ogosi, Osman Sankoh, Muthoni Garland, Akoss Ofori-Mensah, and Irene Staunton. The publisher interviews are accompanied by images of the logo of each publishing house. Stringer, Roger “African Publishing in the Digital Age.” In Coming of Age. Strides in African Publishing. Essays in Honour of Dr. Henry Chakava at 70, Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 2016, 187-200. Looks back at the early development of indigenous publishing in Africa, how locally owned publishing companies were formed and how they progressed over the years, the major challenges they faced at the time, the organizations and bodies that supported the book industries, and the technology issues that began to dominate discussions about publishing in the early 21st century. The author finds that the current picture indicates, despite the opportunities now offered by these continuously evolving technologies, many African publishers have still not fully embraced the digital age to maintain or improve their position in the publishing world. Not many publishers have websites, and of those that do, they frequently don’t work. However, not all African publishers are the same, and there is now a new generation of publishers on the continent fully comfortable with the technologies, who “are adapting their approaches to publishing to take advantage of the opportunities that are available in the digital age.” These publishers “represent the future of African publishing, particularly in the general publishing and literary arena. They are building on the foundations laid by the now established African indigenous publishers, but are better placed to use the technologies and approaches required in the digital age.” Wallis, Kate “How Books Matter: Kwani Trust, Farafina, Cassava Republic Press and the Medium of Print.” Wasafiri 31, no. 4 (December 2016) [issue 88]: 39-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1220698 (free access) [11/12/16] “Provides an insight into the ways in which African literature in English has been made material by a new inter-connected generation of publishers based on the continent.” It sets out the publishing histories of three independent African publishers that “bring into view the ways in which, in a digital age, decisions about medium are critical to how texts are read, circulated and given meaning.” The also provides an analysis of the structure, vision, and editorial policies of these three publishers; their engagement with authors and readers, how they reach their publishing decisions, and how they are trying to build a sustainable literary publishing business. It also describes what they are doing to make their books visible to potential customers, and their distribution and marketing methods. Zell, Hans M. “Indigenous Publishing in Africa – The Need for Research, Documentation, and Collaboration.” In Coming of Age. Strides in African Publishing. Essays in Honour of Dr. Henry Chakava at 70, edited by Kiarie Kamau and Kirimi Mitambo. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers Ltd, 2016, 141-158. https://www.academia.edu/24429073/Indigenous_publishing_in_Africa_the_need_for_res earch_documentation_and_collaboration (Pre-print version) [18/05/16] Sets out the need for more systematic and more vigorous research and documentation, data gathering, and analysis of the African book sector. This should include, for example, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1220698 https://www.academia.edu/24429073/Indigenous_publishing_in_Africa_the_need_for_research_documentation_and_collaboration https://www.academia.edu/24429073/Indigenous_publishing_in_Africa_the_need_for_research_documentation_and_collaboration Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 13 compilation of publishing data and book production statistics, as important elements in measuring the growth and vitality of indigenous publishing in Africa today. The author also calls for more collaboration, knowledge sharing, and information and skills exchange within Africa; as well as the possible development of North-South links and partnership programmes, such as for example a programme to establish a North-South research group, a new research cluster or network bringing together suitable academic and research institutions in Africa, Europe, and North America. A final section offers some pointers for reinvigorating research, and possible forms of collaboration. A listing of university institutions in Africa with Departments of Book and Publishing Studies is included as an appendix (pp. 270-271). The author says “it strikes me that, especially with the closure of APNET – which has deprived African publishers of a collective voice – there is now, more than ever, a need for solidarity among independent African publishers: to share experience and know-how, and leading to collaborative ventures and programmes. Many indigenous publishers in Africa share a great deal of common ground, and they all face the same formidable challenges to survive and prosper, and so more active collaboration and sharing of skills and expertise could be of mutual benefit.” And in his concluding remarks he states “in the new digital era, with its demand for skills and knowledge, and at a time of unprecedented change and promise, more informal collaboration between African publishers, as one-to-one relationships, or alliances of small independent publishers, may well achieve a greater measure of success and sustainability than Pan-African or regional organizations hampered by cumbersome constitutional and administrative management structures.” Zell, Hans M. “Review Article: African Publishing Coming of Age.” Logos. Journal of the World Publishing Community 27, no. 3 (2016): 52-60. http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1878-4712-11112111 (subscription based/pay per view) [01/09/16] https://www.academia.edu/26872848/African_Publishing_Coming_of_Age._A_Review_Es say (Pre-print version, freely accessible) [10/07/16] A book review essay of a Festschrift, Coming of Age: Strides in African Publishing, published in honour of Dr. Henry Chakava, the distinguished Kenyan publisher who is widely recognized as one of Africa’s most dynamic and innovative publishers, as well as a prolific author articles and studies on many aspects of publishing and the book sector in Africa. The first five chapters in the book are tributes to Chakava’s work, his commitment, courage and vision, and assess his intellectual and professional contribution to publishing and book development in Africa, as well as his involvement in the African world of letters. The subsequent eleven chapters1, which are reviewed in this essay, focus on different areas of African publishing, containing papers on educational and scholarly publishing, copyright, publishing in the digital age, African books in the international market place, professional training, and the need for research and documentation on the African book industries. In a concluding section the author examines the advances of the African book industries over the past three decades, the emergence of a new generation of small but enterprising African publishers, and the dramatic rise in self-publishing in the new digital age. 1 Note: annotated records for these 11 chapters are also included individually in this 2016 literature review. http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1878-4712-11112111 https://www.academia.edu/26872848/African_Publishing_Coming_of_Age._A_Review_Essay https://www.academia.edu/26872848/African_Publishing_Coming_of_Age._A_Review_Essay Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 14 van der Vlies, Andrew “The History of the Book in Sub-Saharan Africa.” In Michael F. Suarez SJ and Henry Woudhuysen, eds. The Oxford Companion to the Book. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, Vol. 1, 313-20. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198606536.001.0001/acref- 9780198606536-e-0039 (free access) Not new, but now freely accessible as part of OUP’s monumental reference work The Oxford Companion to the Book – covering the book, broadly conceived, throughout the world from ancient to modern times – this is a useful condensed history of the book in sub-Saharan Africa. It is divided into six sub-sections: MS Cultures, The Impact of Slavery and Evangelism, West Africa, East and Central Africa, Southern Africa, and Book Production in Africa Today, albeit the latter consisting of just a single paragraph. Regional studies: Africa, East Ilieva, Emiliia, and Hillary Chakava “East African Publishing and the Academia.” In Coming of Age. Strides in African Publishing. Essays in Honour of Dr. Henry Chakava at 70, Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 2016, 106-128. Presents a round-up of knowledge production, academic publishing output (journals and scholarly monographs), and collaboration between academician and publishers over the last four decades or more, during which a vast and diverse corpus of scholarship was produced and made available both within the East African region and the wider world. However, the present situation reveals a plethora of challenges, the authors say. Many of these challenges have arisen as a result of underfunding and understaffing of universities, “their inadequate infrastructure, and the crisis of quality in teaching and learning. A new institutional culture has evolved whereby intellectual concerns have been displaced by financial and administrative exigencies. Under these circumstances, research and the standard of publications have declined.” Frequent irregularity in the publication of local journals, and sometimes poor editorial standards, lead academicians to seek publication abroad, thus “weak journals become weaker through constant supply of weak submissions.” On the positive side, research output in scientific publications has been on the rise over the last decade, with Kenya the leading nation in this area, and research impact in the region. University presses in East Africa (at Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, and Makerere), “have, on the whole, not fulfilled the ‘lofty mission’ of university presses the world over” to publish and disseminate the best possible scholarship. This, the authors argue, demands a change “that would revamp the collaboration between the academia and publishers and expand the creation and dissemination of knowledge in East Africa. This change must start with the producers of knowledge—the academicians. … One major component in this task is to improve the quality of their publications.” University presses, the authors argue, “need not endlessly lament their pecuniary troubles”, while publishers need to become more demanding regarding the quality of the manuscripts they accept for publication. Academics and publishers must close ranks in order to create a more vigorous intellectual system of which publishing is very much an integral part. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198606536.001.0001/acref-9780198606536-e-0039 http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198606536.001.0001/acref-9780198606536-e-0039 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 15 Tumusiime, James “Publishing in East Africa: A Close Examination of Uganda (1985- 2015).” In Coming of Age. Strides in African Publishing. Essays in Honour of Dr. Henry Chakava at 70, Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 2016, 129-140. James Tumusiime, founder of Fountain Publishers http://www.fountainpublishers.net/ in Kampala, offers a close history and analysis of publishing in Uganda in which he describes his efforts to strengthen local publishing capacity in the country, and the numerous obstacles and challenges he faced in setting up his own indigenous publishing house in 1988, in a country in which at that time the textbook markets were monopolised by well- entrenched UK multinationals. Although significant progress has been made in establishing an autonomous publishing industry, multiple challenges remain. These range from a poor reading culture, the government’s “flip-flopping policies” as it relates to the book sector and textbook policies, an uncertain investment climate, a weak book chain, and the absence of high quality printing facilities. However, there have been positive developments too. For example, locally-based publishers have moved beyond the traditional bookshops to seek outlets to get their books to the reading public. Most of the major supermarkets nowadays have book sections on different topics, including textbooks, and more and more places for selling books are opening. And with the expansion of the East African Community, when Burundi and Rwanda came on board and with the latter switching to an English curriculum, the East African publishing industry received a significant boost. Nonetheless, unclear government book policies makes it very difficult to predict the future success of the book industries, and this calls for a more favourable and transparent business environment, Tumusiime says, and for clarity of guidelines: “Publishing houses, the public and government agencies are all partners in this endeavour and must contribute in the debate on how to improve the sector. However, governments must provide the leading role by improving budgetary allocations to the improvement of school books supplies; and the research initiative climate that can ensure creativity among writers, [and] sensitise the public on the significance of literature and a good reading culture.” Regional studies: Africa, Francophone Thierry, Raphaël “An Interview with Sulaiman Adebowale.” Wasafiri 31, no. 4 (December 2016) [issue 88]: 23-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216639 (subscription based, pay per view) [11/12/16] Thierry, Raphaël “Clé Publishing. An Interview with Marcelin Vounda Etoa.” Wasafiri 31, no. 4 (December 2016) [issue 88]: 26-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216640 (subscription based, pay per view) [11/12/16] Thierry, Raphaël “Ganndal Publishing. An Interview with Mamadou Aliou Sow and Marie-Paule Huet.” Wasafiri 31, no. 4 (December 2016) [issue 88]: 32-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216642 (subscription based, pay per view) [11/12/16] http://www.fountainpublishers.net/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216639 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216640 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2016.1216642 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 16 A three-part series of questionnaire interviews with a number of prominent publishers in francophone Africa from Senegal, Cameroon, and Guinea. They cover a wide range of issues and questions, such as ‘How did your career begin?’ or ‘What prompted you to get into publishing?’, to questions about editorial policies, the number of manuscript proposals received annually, average print runs, what have been the most successful titles, and how is the business funded. How do the publishers interact with authors, how do they help them to develop their work, and how are books marketed and distributed? Are the publishers active in co-publishing with other publishers on the continent, or selling rights? Do digital technologies play a role? And what are the seen as the priorities for each publisher in the years ahead in terms of list development. COUNTRY STUDIES Note: most articles or blog postings on particular topics or areas of the book trade, for example publishing for children, publishing in African languages, copyright, scholarly publishing, etc. are classified under STUDIES BY TOPIC. Cameroon Nfah-Abbenyi, Juliana Makuchi, and Ambroise Kom “Francophone Cameroon Literature: A Conversation with Ambroise Kom.” Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 53, no. 1 (January 2016): 30- 50. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v.53i1.3 (subscription based/pay per view) Also at http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/tvl/v53n1/03.pdf (freely accessible) Ambroise Kom is a distinguished Cameroonian literary critic. In this wide ranging and insightful conversation he talks about the evolution of Francophone Cameroon literature, and the interview also covers some ground about the history and current status of publishing in the country. For example about the role played by Editions CLE in the seventies and eighties and the turbulent 1990s – a period heavily dominated by government censorship – although CLE did not publish any books that were considered to be politically sensitive. Kom also talks about the creation and selection of government approved textbooks, and the distribution and importation of books, an area still largely in the hands of a major French multinational that enjoys a monopoly for the distribution of newspapers and books. The lack of a national book policy, and the absence of positive government support for the book industries, has created a highly unfavourable climate for the growth and survival of the small number of publishing houses that currently exist. “Publishing within our national boundaries is tough, selling books within our national boundaries is not easy either. Most books published by our own people are in the diaspora – old and new – in Europe, America; they publish and some of their books can get here, generally shipped by themselves.” An indigenous and sustainable book industry is still a far way off, “the book industry in this country is not yet born. It is yet to exist because the conditions do not allow for it.” http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v.53i1.3 http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/tvl/v53n1/03.pdf Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 17 Kenya Abrams, Dennis Kenyan Publishers Call for Zero VAT on Books. http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/08/kenyan-publishers-on-vat/#.V7rGa_krJD8 (Posted 22 August 2016) [28/08/16] Based on a news story first published in Kenya’s Standard Digital News, reports about the appeal by the Kenyan Publishers Association to persuade the government to scrap the 16% VAT charged on books and make books tax-exempt. However the statement by the Kenya Publishers Association, as quoted here, “the practice all over Africa is that books are never taxed” is far from accurate. In fact an increasing number of African governments are taxing books – and in turn knowledge – through debilitating tariffs, value-added tax (VAT), or goods & services tax (GST), (see also the analysis by the International Publishers Association, VAT/GST on Books and E-books: An IPA/FEP Global Special Report, 20 July 2015 http://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/news/2015/vat2015specialreportcorrected. pdf). For example, VAT in Kenya is 16 per cent as reported in the article, Mozambique 17 per cent, South Africa 14 per cent, and Tanzania 18 per cent. Ghana and Zambia charge GST of, respectively, 17.5 per cent and 16 per cent on e-books. Moreover, in September 2015, the Zimbabwean government imposed a punitive, short-sighted 40 per cent import duty on books, including educational books and textbooks. International Publishers Association Kenya: VAT on Books is Harming the Quality of Public Education. http://www.internationalpublishers.org/educational-publishing/education-publishing- news/402-kenya-vat-on-books-is-ruining-the-quality-of- education?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page (Posted 24 May 2016) [28/05/16] An interview with David Waweru, Chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association http://www.kenyapublishers.org/. For years, Kenyan publishers have fought successfully to keep books VAT-free, before the government finally imposed the 16% levy in September 2013. Three years later, the country's publishing and bookselling industries – of which educational books represent 85% – have been decimated by the move, according to the Kenyan Publishers Association. Waweru says that VAT on books has sent legitimate sales plummeting and simultaneously driven piracy up so far that it is now “the bigger economy than the legitimate publishing industry”. He also says that there is evidence that some rogue booksellers are selling pirated books to schools at lower, VAT-free prices. Meantime, recently announced plans to reform and centralize the nation's textbook distribution system is beset by accountability issues. The Kenyan bookselling business is unregulated, he says, “money going to schools has led to corruption and some head teachers colluding with rogue booksellers who end up not actually supplying the books, although money still changes hands.” The long-term consequences will be very serious: “If you look at the national exam results of the last two years, it shows that in public schools there has been a decline each year in performance. Significantly, the worst performed subject is English language and the worst performed paper is English composition, and it's all pointing towards the fact that pupils don’t have access to books and aren't reading.” http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/08/kenyan-publishers-on-vat/#.V7rGa_krJD8 http://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/news/2015/vat2015specialreportcorrected.pdf http://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/news/2015/vat2015specialreportcorrected.pdf http://www.internationalpublishers.org/educational-publishing/education-publishing-news/402-kenya-vat-on-books-is-ruining-the-quality-of-education?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page http://www.internationalpublishers.org/educational-publishing/education-publishing-news/402-kenya-vat-on-books-is-ruining-the-quality-of-education?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page http://www.internationalpublishers.org/educational-publishing/education-publishing-news/402-kenya-vat-on-books-is-ruining-the-quality-of-education?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page http://www.kenyapublishers.org/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 18 Gross, Daniel A. Bringing African Books Back Home. http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/bringing-african-books-back-home (Posted 21 November 2016) [30/11/16] This story in the New Yorker magazine reports about an exclusively online bookstore in Kenya, the Magunga Bookstore http://books.magunga.com/, dedicated to the promotion and distribution of Kenyan and African books. Launched in December 2015, it “stocks only African books” as a matter of policy, mainly fiction by contemporary African authors (both in conventional print format and as e-books), but also some non-fiction, children’s books, comics, and books in Kiswahili. Matata, Lydia Kenyans Flock to Roadside Vendors Selling Cheap Secondhand Books, Spur Reading Boom. https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/kenya/kenyans-flock- roadside-vendors-selling-cheap-secondhand-books-spur-reading-boom/ (Posted 10 April 2016) [15/06/16] Second-hand book stalls and pavement booksellers that primarily sell books published in the US and the UK (reportedly bought through traders who import them in bulk, although their sources are not revealed), nowadays dot many corners in downtown Nairobi. These stalls, known as Inama, or ‘bend over’ bookshops in Swahili, have been flourishing since 2013 when the Nairobi City County government started licensing newspaper vendors to sell old books. Reading advocates argue that the stalls help to promote a reading culture in Nairobi, but local publishers are concerned that their new books can't compete with the cheap second-hand books on sale by street vendors, and that it can have an adverse effect on sales of locally published books. Namibia Nekomba, Netumbo Namibia: The Publishing Game. http://allafrica.com/stories/201511101224.html (Posted 10 November 2015) [16/03/16] Some observations on the current publishing scene in Namibia, which is still heavily dominated by educational and school book publishing. However, some general books from small independent publishers are selling well despite Namibia’s small reading population, with books about animals, children's books and young adult fiction doing particularly well, as do titles that have a tourist appeal, or have created worldwide demand in the international markets. Nigeria Anderson, Porter Nigeria’s Bibi Bakare-Yusuf: ‘Our Brand Is Growing’. http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/12/nigerian-publisher-bibi-bakare- yusuf/#.WEbbmrKLSpo (Posted 06 December 2016) [10/11/16] An interview with the founder of Nigeria’s Cassava Republic Press http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/ Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, in which she talks about present and future issues in African and West African publishing, and the many challenges ahead. In Africa, publishing involves doing everything yourself and there aren’t formal distribution systems, she says, while “publishing in the West brings a new set of rigors and demands, given how structured and process-driven the business is. Perhaps the biggest challenge of http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/bringing-african-books-back-home http://books.magunga.com/ https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/kenya/kenyans-flock-roadside-vendors-selling-cheap-secondhand-books-spur-reading-boom/ https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/kenya/kenyans-flock-roadside-vendors-selling-cheap-secondhand-books-spur-reading-boom/ http://allafrica.com/stories/201511101224.html http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/12/nigerian-publisher-bibi-bakare-yusuf/#.WEbbmrKLSpo http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/12/nigerian-publisher-bibi-bakare-yusuf/#.WEbbmrKLSpo http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 19 publishing in Nigeria is “that it’s close to impossible to find a consistently reliable local printer. After several disastrous experiences, we made the decision to print overseas.” And that is not without its “challenges”, as she delicately puts it, in terms of getting books through customs at the port once shipments arrive. Many parts of Africa are currently suffering from an economic downturn, which inevitably affects purchasing power, and this is particularly the case with the Nigerian economy, which has suffered greatly from a dramatic recent slump in oil prices. Getting books to readers who want them in Nigeria and across Africa remains another challenge: “We don’t have a reliable formal distribution system as there is in the West and we have very few decent retailers. We’ll continue to have to expend a lot of resources and time getting our books to readers using salaried marketers traveling around the country. The lack of good bookshops to aid discovery and sales is still a problem.” However these distribution challenges can be overcome by partnering with other non-bookshop outlets, persuading them to consider stocking selected books: “Cassava Republic partnered with supermarkets and cafes, and have even sold our books at hairdressers.” Cassava set up an office in London in April 2016, and in early 2017 is planning to launch a list in North America. Bagnetto, Laura Angela Abuja-based Publishing House Cassava Republic Opens UK Office, Interview. http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20160120-abuja-based-publishing-house-cassava-republic- opens-uk-office-interview (Posted 20 January 2016) [19/02/16] Emma Shercliff, a director of the Abuja-based Cassava Republic Press http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/, explains why they are opening offices in Europe and talks about the growing popularity of their e-books. All of its titles going forward will be both in e-book as well as in print format. “People are going online and buying e-books, but our experience here in Nigeria is that the tendency is still to buy print in the first instance.” The launch of the new UK operation is both for logistical reasons as well as to find a new audiences and new markets for its authors. “The business model is now signing authors for world rights, that we can now publish not just in Nigeria and Africa, but also in the UK. That’s part of the model. But it’s also just in terms of ease of distribution. Ironically, it’s going to be much easier for us to publish into east Africa and South Africa out of the UK. The intra-Africa distribution channels are pretty cumbersome for print—issues with customs, tax, tariffs and barriers. It’s costly, so the model is the really to become a global company. We’ll still have Africa as our base, but will use the UK to get to other markets.” Emelife, Jennifer On Publishing Business in Africa: Eghosa Imasuen. http://www.praxismagonline.com/on-publishing-business-in-africa/ (Posted 26 February) [03/03/2016] Nigerian publisher Eghosa Imasuen of Kachifo Ltd http://kachifo.com/home/ (and its Farafina Books imprint) talks about establishing cordial relationships between young unpublished writers and their prospective publishers, their editorial and submissions policies, and the challenges and vagaries of the publishing business in Africa. “This industry is recovering from near-death. And there really is no arbiter of what makes it to the market. So there is a din in the market, a multiplicity of voices. The market will decide, and those who are left will improve. There is no process to this. Those who do good work will continue to do so, and the books will improve.” http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20160120-abuja-based-publishing-house-cassava-republic-opens-uk-office-interview http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20160120-abuja-based-publishing-house-cassava-republic-opens-uk-office-interview http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/ http://www.praxismagonline.com/on-publishing-business-in-africa/ http://kachifo.com/home/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 20 Emelife, Jennifer On Publishing Business in Africa: Richard Ali. http://www.praxismagonline.com/parresia-books/ (Posted 07 March 2016) [09/03/16] An interview with Richard Ali, Chief Operating Officer at Parrésia Publishers http://parresia.com.ng/ in Nigeria, in which he shares his opinion on the state of publishing in Africa and talks about the high costs of producing books, the need for the highest standards of production quality, the challenges of distribution, and how to improve relations between writers and publishers. Emelife, Jennifer On Publishing Business in Africa: Su’eddie Vershima Agema. http://www.praxismagonline.com/tag/sevhage/ (Posted 13 March 2016) [18/03/16] Su’eddie Vershima Agema is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sevhage Publishers https://sevhage.wordpress.com/ in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria (and see also https://sevhagereviews.wordpress.com/. In this interview he speaks to Praxis Magazine about the steep price of African-published books as a result of high manufacturing costs, and reading habits in Nigeria (or the lack of it). He also talks about author-publisher relations and fair dealing with writers, the need for high editorial and production quality standards, and effective marketing strategies. Fick, Maggie “Publisher’s Expansion Brings Nigerian Writers to World Stage.” Financial Times 27 November 2016 https://www.ft.com/content/8cebd6d6-79b4-11e6-97ae-647294649b28 (Posted 27 November 2016) [29/11/16] Reports about the activities of Cassava Republic Press http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/, the Nigerian publishing house that opened a subsidiary in London in April 2016. Cassava Republic is stated to be “the first1 African publisher to open a subsidiary outside the continent”. To Cassava Republic’s Bibi Bakare-Yusuf the London launch provides a different approach of tapping other African markets that are hungry for literature from across the continent. Ironically, she explains, “it is easier to enter markets such as Kenya from the UK than it is from Nigeria because the distribution links between London and Nairobi are stronger than from Abuja.” Production is another challenge of doing business in Nigeria. While the books for sale in the British market are manufactured in the UK, Cassava Republic has always printed its books for the Nigerian market abroad, mainly in India, and imported them. This is because manufacturing locally is fraught with many uncertainties, including unreliable electricity and transport. An integral part of their publishing vision, Bakare-Yusuf says, “is publishing a diverse range of authors who are exploring topics well beyond conflict, rural life and some of the other themes for which the genre is best known.” 1 Note: that is a claim that is not entirely accurate. Quite apart from the fact that the not-for-profit, African-owned African Books Collective Ltd has been doing the marketing and distribution for a very large number of African publishers from its Oxford base since 1989, this ‘first’ must probably attributed to the late Nigerian publisher and journalist Raph Uwechue, who set up his Africa Books Limited in London in the 1990s, publishing a series of major reference resources on Africa. Earlier, another Nigerian, Joseph (Joe) Okpaku, was the President of Third Press in New York in the 1970s (publishing in the areas of African studies and African literature), as well as having a presence in London and in Lagos operating as Third Press International. Ihebuzor, L.A. and Ihebuzor, N.A. “The Political Economy of the Publishing Industry in Nigeria.” Open Access Library Journal, 3 (2016), e2674. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1102674 [15/10/16] http://www.praxismagonline.com/parresia-books/ http://parresia.com.ng/ http://www.praxismagonline.com/tag/sevhage/ https://sevhage.wordpress.com/ https://sevhagereviews.wordpress.com/ https://www.ft.com/content/8cebd6d6-79b4-11e6-97ae-647294649b28 http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/ http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1102674 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 21 Explores the political economy of book publishing in Nigeria, and examines practices in the book publishing industry and the various forces that influence the decisions made by the established Nigerian book publishers to accept or reject a manuscript for publication. The author argues that the drivers for most of these decisions are largely socio-economic and political and that unless checked, these drivers could distort the basic values of books, which are to promote the sharing of knowledge and cultural products for the development of a nation. “The bottom line of any [publishing] business is profit”; and there is no evidence of social responsibility. “What is on display in decisions to publish or not to publish is actually the power of economic considerations to determine the fate of cultural products and to shape and filter what is produced and consumed in these domains of culture and learning.” The article identifies a number of the barriers that tend to exclude manuscripts by authors with low status and power from the lists of the of the major and well-established book publishing houses, and examines possible coping strategies for such excluded writers, including self-publishing, and the challenges that these pose. In their conclusion the authors declare: “A nation is as progressive as its book industry. A book industry is vibrant to the extent it allows unfettered access to all those who are willing and able to produce useful manuscripts. Realities that exclude persons who are willing and able from access to this industry are a disservice to any nation. Actions taken to level the playing field and which allow the ‘under-privileged’ manuscript author access to the world of published persons will thus not only be useful at the individual psychological level, but would also have socially salutary effects on national development.” Okpamen, Ehidiamhen Struggles of a Startup: Bringing Back the Books. http://thenerveafrica.com/7934/rovingheights-bringing-back-books/ (Posted July 24 2016) [06/08/16] An interesting interview with Tobi Eyinade, co-founder of Roving Heights (RH Books) in Nigeria http://rhbooks.com.ng/, a “socially minded book sales and distribution company with the focus of making books the new cool”, in which she talks about their experience and challenges of managing this new start-up business, what hinders the growth of startups in Nigeria, and about Nigerians’ attitude to reading. In addition to marketing and selling books through its online platform as well as brick and mortar book stores, RH Books aims to enrich the reading culture in Nigeria through literacy programmes and various interventions that will help to create a vibrant reading public. Penn, Joanna African Authors and Diversity in Publishing. With Tolulope Popoola. http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2016/02/22/diversity-in-publishing-african-authors/ (Podcast and text, posted 22 February 20016.) [15/05/16] A talk with Tolulope Popoola – author of flash fiction, romance, and short stories, and founder of Accomplish Press http://www.accomplishpress.com/ – about African authors and Nigerian publishing. How she got started with blogging and writing and moved into self-publishing; and about issues such as being labelled ‘ethnic fiction’, diversity issues in publishing, how publishing currently works in Nigeria, how Nigerian readers find books and read digitally on mobile and devices, the type of books that are currently most popular, new e-book platforms, and book marketing both at home and abroad. In Nigeria, Popoola claims, “traditional publishing is almost non-existent. There are very few publishing houses willing to take a chance on new fiction writers, hence the rapid rise of self-publishing among writers in Nigeria.” http://thenerveafrica.com/7934/rovingheights-bringing-back-books/ http://rhbooks.com.ng/ http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2016/02/22/diversity-in-publishing-african-authors/ http://www.accomplishpress.com/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 22 Rossetti, Chip At Abu Dhabi Book Fair: A Few Words with Nigeria’s Richard Ali. http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/04/richard-ali-parresia-nigeria- publishing/#.VyNmkPkrJD8 (Posted 29 April 2016) [02/05/16] Nigerian publisher and writer Richard Ali of Parresia Publishers http://parresia.com.ng/, the company he founded in 2012, talks about the multiple hurdles faced by those working in publishing in Africa. Distribution remains a major challenge for the majority of African publishers, he says; and publishers will have to be creative about distribution: “Increasingly, we are looking for ways to test the markets for our books, and often those ways involve a digital platform.” Shercliff, Emma The Changing Face of Nigerian Literature. https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/changing-face-nigerian-literature (Posted 09 December 2015) [16/02/16] A look at Nigeria's vibrant and changing literary landscape: How Nigerian-based publishing houses are providing an outlet for new writers, how Nigerian authors are choosing to write for Nigerian audiences, and how publishers are seeking to reflect authentic voices from the African continent. The literary landscape in Nigeria is changing, Shercliff says, “the conversation about Nigerian writing, and, more widely, African writing, is taking place on the continent, without affirmation from the West.” She also reports that one of the leading independent publishers in Nigeria, Cassava Republic Press http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/, in a reversal from the traditional model, has announced plans to establish a base in London from which to publish and distribute African authors; and that publisher Bibi Bakare-Yusuf plans to bring Nigerian writing to the UK, strengthening the bonds between the two publishing landscapes, but without taking away the autonomy of Nigerian writers and publishers. “A lack of distribution networks and myriad logistical challenges such as customs charges, poor road networks, and the high cost of transportation have until now prevented printed books from being more widely distributed out of Nigeria. Establishing a base in London will open up possibilities of distributing more titles more widely, including to East and Southern Africa.” Uche, Anthony Ogbonna “Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Book Publishing and Marketing in Nigeria.” Communication Panorama. African and Global Perspectives 1, no. 2 (November- December) 2015: 1-23. http://rex.commpan.com/index.php/cpagp/article/viewFile/41/40 [06/08/16] Book publishing should be considered an essential enterprise in any nation, the author says. However the Nigerian book industry has been bedevilled by numerous issues, ranging from a weak infrastructure to inadequate skilled manpower, and piracy and violation of copyright. This article traces the history of the publishing industry in Nigeria, identifies some of the major challenges confronting it, and examines the opportunities for growth and development. http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/04/richard-ali-parresia-nigeria-publishing/#.VyNmkPkrJD8 http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/04/richard-ali-parresia-nigeria-publishing/#.VyNmkPkrJD8 http://parresia.com.ng/ https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/changing-face-nigerian-literature http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/ http://rex.commpan.com/index.php/cpagp/article/viewFile/41/40 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 23 Rwanda Emelife, Jennifer On Publishing Business in Africa: Louise Umutoni. http://www.praxismagonline.com/huza-press/ (Posted 26 February 2016) [09/03/16] Jennifer Emelife speaks with Louise Umutoni, founder and director at Huza Press http://huzapress.com/, a Rwanda-based publishing house committed to developing quality creative writing, and the growth of the creative industry through the publishing and distribution of contemporary African writing. She talks about the challenges of distribution within Africa, utilization of the Internet as distribution platforms, the promise of e-books, and the lack of online payment systems. “Our goal at Huza Press is to work with at least one publishing house in every region to either republish for us, or serve as a distribution point for our books. E-publishing is another solution that some publishers are looking at, but lack of online payment systems pose a hindrance to this ….We don’t have reliable online payment systems and mobile money is not cross-cutting. There are a few platforms that have been set up to sell African content such as Nuntu http://nuntu.hehelabs.com/, but they are still grappling with creating a reliable payment system. I think that once we address the payment system issue then we will start to see a lot more use of the Internet as a distribution platform.” Senegal Emelife, Jennifer On Publishing Business in Africa: Sulaiman Adebowale. http://www.praxismagonline.com/amalion-publishing/ (Posted 10 March 2016) [11/03/16] Sulaiman Adebowale is the director of Amalion Publishing http://www.amalion.net/en/, a Pan-African publishing house based in Dakar, Senegal, producing books both in French and in English, and publishing authors from many parts of the continent as well as the diaspora and elsewhere. In this interview he talks about the challenges facing African publishers, the harsh realities of the economics of publishing, new approaches of promoting writers and their books, his views on self-publishing, and about the digital engagement with readers. Adebowale disputes the still common notion that most African books are poorly produced: “I don’t know any publisher on the continent or outside who will deliberately set out to produce anything but excellent books. The more money and time you have to put into the production processes, the better the end result. But the money invested means you may have to print more copies to sell and more money to market and distribute in order to even think of breaking even.” And, he asks, just how much are readers willing to pay to buy books, whether regularly or even just occasionally? On self-publishing, he says some authors have been successfully doing this, but most have not, just as much as some publishing ventures have been successful, while others have failed. “It is the way of the world. Specifically for the African book market, the rarity of successful self-published books could be one of the reasons why we are having this discussion in the first place. The writers have yet to come up with better published and marketed titles on their own.” There is plethora of platforms and social media outlets for African writers to express themselves and get their work published and shared, but “how does a writer get noticed in this avalanche of writings online? How do you make your literature stand out from the drivel of writings out there?” http://www.praxismagonline.com/huza-press/ http://huzapress.com/ http://nuntu.hehelabs.com/ http://www.praxismagonline.com/amalion-publishing/ http://www.amalion.net/en/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 24 On the digital side and e-books, Adebowale says that there are now several publishers on the continent active in this area but “the key question is still on the market and the earnings, when will this side be a good ROI [Return-on-Investment]? If the e-commerce platforms develop further in most African countries and not just a few, there can be better leverage there. And we can also think of doing something much more interesting and engaging with e-books rather than simply just selling the plain vanilla e-pub and Kindle files. Secondly, most publishers still have work to do about creating content for mobile phones, which is the dominant digital platform in our part of the world.” Emelife, Jennifer On Publishing Business in Africa: Mamadou Diallo. http://www.praxismagonline.com/tag/mamadou-daillo/ (Posted 17 March 2016) [21/03/16] Founded in 2009, Les Éditions Vives Voix http://www.vives-voix.com/ is a Dakar-based fine arts and photography publisher and retailer, and at the same time acts as a not-for-profit organization that aims to develop and promote arts and culture, as well as organizing lectures and exhibitions, concerts, and other cultural events. In this interview with Mamadou Diallo, in charge of its non-fiction list, he offer his views on the publishing situation in Senegal, including issues such as editorial capacity, problems of intra-African distribution, publishing opportunities for new writers, and about breaking language barriers in writing across African countries. On the topic of editorial excellence he says “I think we must agree and take it as a fact that today, most of the books published are lacking quality. Most good Senegalese writers would rather be published elsewhere than in Senegal for many reasons including the quality of the editorial work. Good publishing comes from a qualified workforce that must have been trained, which makes it costly. As long as we don’t have local publishers with a reach to global or, at least, continental markets that would allow for increases in business size, we won’t be able to employ good and trained human resources.” Distribution, similarly as editorial quality, “has a lot to do with financial strength and investment. If we are talking about literary fiction, I think there is a market wide enough to sustain good publishing, and that the market can grow bigger if we invest more in marketing, communication and specialized media.” As for creating opportunities to promote new and upcoming writers, Diallo states “I think African publishers today must be more preoccupied by the emergence of new readers than by new names in literature. If we ensure that more Africans are excited about books and ready to pay for them, we’ll have much more publishing opportunities for up and coming writers.” Radio France Internationale Crossing African Boundaries Through Books: Sulaiman Adebowale, Head of Amalion Publishing. https://soundcloud.com/radiofranceinternationale/crossing-african-boundaries-through- books-suliaman-adebowale-head-of-amalion-publishing (Radio broadcast, 4.07mins) [12/09/16] RFI's Laura Angela Bagnetto speaks to the founder and head of Amalion Publishing, Sulaiman Adebowale. His Dakar, Senegal-based publishing house http://www.amalion.net/en/ aims to reach across Africa’s colonial language divide to foster discussion by publishing academic texts and novels in both French and English. Adebowale explains Amalion’s multilingual path, and the decision to work across languages, as a http://www.praxismagonline.com/tag/mamadou-daillo/ http://www.vives-voix.com/ https://soundcloud.com/radiofranceinternationale/crossing-african-boundaries-through-books-suliaman-adebowale-head-of-amalion-publishing https://soundcloud.com/radiofranceinternationale/crossing-african-boundaries-through-books-suliaman-adebowale-head-of-amalion-publishing http://www.amalion.net/en/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 25 condition predicated on the situation of the continent. In order to broaden knowledge and understanding of Africa, discussions on Africa cannot be monolingual because the continent and its peoples are not: “We cannot restrict ourselves to the phony boundaries of Francophone, Anglophone, Lusophone, Arabophone Africa. If you don’t work across the languages, you will end up losing the interesting stuff.” South Africa Bosman, Nicolette “An American in Joburg Discovers a New World of Book Selling.” http://www.editors.org.za/Documents/PEGboard%20APRIL%202016%20final.pdf PEGBoard. Newsletter of the Professional Editors’ Guild (April 2016): 18. A short profile of Griffin Shea, “a journalist who walked the streets of downtown Joburg and discovered a whole new world of bookselling” – street booksellers and informal book vendors – and how he became immersed in this market. And which demonstrated that there is definitely a market for lower-priced books, which the sellers can offer by virtue of their much lower overheads. Faircliff, Jessica “Jonathan Ball. A Rolling Stone Gathers no Moss.” Bookmark 87 (Dec 2016– Feb 2017): 22-23. http://www.sabooksellers.com/wp-content/assets/BookmarkIssue87.pdf [28/12/16] A profile of Jonathan Ball, http://www.jonathanball.co.za/ a leading publisher and distributor of English-language general books in South Africa, specialising in South African history, politics and current affairs, as well as publishing some fiction. In this interview he talks about when and how he started in the book business in 1976, the company’s growth during the following years, how the publishing industry has changed over the years, and how he sees the future of publishing in South Africa. Le Roux, Elizabeth “The Early Years of a Dutch Publisher in South Africa: A Case Study of Van Schaik in Pretoria.” Image and Text, no. 25 (2015): 86-109. https://www.academia.edu/19396551/The_early_years_of_a_Dutch_publisher_in_South_A frica_A_case_study_of_Van_Schaik_in_Pretoria [13/05/16] Print culture came to South Africa with the Dutch East India Company, followed by the British colonisers. This influence persisted after colonisation officially ended, with the Union of South Africa in 1910. Many early publishers and booksellers were immigrants, especially Dutch immigrants. While the settlers were Dutch, many lent their support to Afrikaner nationalist causes. Illustrated with archival photographs, this article considers the implications of the colonial influence for the development of South African print culture, using a case study of Van Schaik Publishers, which was founded by a Dutch Immigrant, J.L. van Schaik, in 1914. Attention is paid to the question of how this early publisher saw its role in developing an ‘imagined community’ that engaged both with the culture of the coloniser and that of the developing settler colony. The author argues that Van Schaik played a significant role in the development of Afrikaans publishing, but that little scholarly attention has been paid to his publishing philosophy and strategy. “Van Schaik developed a highly successful business as both a bookseller and a publisher, largely thanks to print networks that already existed between South Africa and Europe, which he in turn further developed. The records suggest that Van Schaik was successful owing to both his ability to develop http://www.editors.org.za/Documents/PEGboard%20APRIL%202016%20final.pdf http://www.sabooksellers.com/wp-content/assets/BookmarkIssue87.pdf http://www.jonathanball.co.za/ https://www.academia.edu/19396551/The_early_years_of_a_Dutch_publisher_in_South_Africa_A_case_study_of_Van_Schaik_in_Pretoria https://www.academia.edu/19396551/The_early_years_of_a_Dutch_publisher_in_South_Africa_A_case_study_of_Van_Schaik_in_Pretoria Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 26 networks through the associations of family and political sympathies, and his attention to the details of his business. It is clear that Van Schaik gained an early understanding of the local market and tapped into a growing Afrikaner nationalist spirit, which was facilitated by acceptance into a fairly elite, professional network. It is difficult to disentangle business motives from the ideological motivation associated with the promotion of Afrikaans. … An examination of Van Schaik’s publishing philosophy and list shows that such early publishers played an important role in developing an ‘imagined community’, especially within the nascent Afrikaans community.” Malec, Jennifer Facts and Fictions: Find out about Bridge Books – Joburg’s Newest Independent Bookstore – and the Coming Reading Revolution. http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2016/08/02/facts-and-fictions-find-out-about-bridge-books- joburgs-newest-independent-bookstore-and-the-coming-reading-revolution/ (Posted 02 August 2016) [12/08/16] Griffin Shea talks about his plans for a newly opened store Bridge Bridge Books https://bridgebooks.co.za/, a unique bookstore in downtown Johannesburg, who believes in supporting African writers and in finding as many ways of getting books into the hands of as many readers as possible. Bridge Books work with other booksellers across downtown Johannesburg, acting as a go-between for publishers in South Africa and smaller retailers who might not have access to new books. Shea talks about distribution challenges, which he describes as being among the most daunting in his part of the world, and also how unaware local citizens seem to be of opportunities to buy books, because they only look for books in conventional bookstores, even though dozens of informal street vendors are selling books just around the corner. “When you walk around you realise there’s a lot of reading happening that the formal book industry just doesn’t know about.” His ambition is to connect the publishing establishment with the reading that happens “quite literally on the street”. But what are people looking for? Well, almost everything Shea says, while his younger customers are interested in lesser known liberation heroes, as well as early African or pre-colonial stories about the San or Mapungubwe. “They tend not to be so obsessed with the recent past, which weighs so heavily on many people. They want a much broader look at history, which is inspiring.” Mulgrew, Nick uHlanga: On the Birth of a South African Poetry Press. http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/01/uhlanga-birth-south-african-poetry- press/#.VtmF3fmLRD8 (Posted 13 January 2016) [03/03/16] Nick Mulgrew discusses the poetry publishing scene in South Africa and the birth of his poetry press, uHlanga, that seeks to open doors for young poets to develop their careers, and specializes in publishing debut anthologies from the country's most promising young poets. Like other forms of literature locally, poetry is in the doldrums, Mulgrew says, and with a few exceptions, “commercial publishers don’t do poetry, really. Few publish it, and even fewer publish it if it’s not to do with textbooks or the school market.” He hopes that his small new press will contribute to “make the literary industry in South Africa more equitable, more accessible and more interesting than it currently is.” uHlanga publications are now available from the Oxford-based African Books Collective. http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2016/08/02/facts-and-fictions-find-out-about-bridge-books-joburgs-newest-independent-bookstore-and-the-coming-reading-revolution/ http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2016/08/02/facts-and-fictions-find-out-about-bridge-books-joburgs-newest-independent-bookstore-and-the-coming-reading-revolution/ https://bridgebooks.co.za/ http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/01/uhlanga-birth-south-african-poetry-press/#.VtmF3fmLRD8 http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/01/uhlanga-birth-south-african-poetry-press/#.VtmF3fmLRD8 Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 27 Nishino, Ryota “Political Economy of History Textbook Publishing During Apartheid (1948-1994): Towards further Historical Enquiry into Commercial Imperatives.” Yesterday & Today, no. 14 (December 2015): 18-40. http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/yt/n14/03.pdf [26/09/2016] Also at https://www.academia.edu/21814274/Political_economy_of_History_textbook_publishing _during_apartheid_1948- 1994_Towards_further_historical_enquiry_into_commercial_imperatives [26/09/2016] The provision of textbooks in apartheid South Africa (1948-1994), a source of much controversy and media interest in recent years, is placed in historical perspective, with particular reference to the production of history textbooks. During apartheid bureaucratic structures and commercial imperatives gave rise to a conformist ethos that stifled innovation. The textbook approval and adoption processes led publishers into adopting strategies to ensure approval for and approval of their textbooks. To avoid friction with education departments, editors urged self-restraint on their writers and instructed them in how to write officially approvable manuscripts. Textbook approval and adoption processes at that time clearly indicate that the education departments during apartheid assumed and ensured a monopoly in textbook approval, as well as adoption policies and processes. Most manuscripts were approved on condition that specific changes were made. There was little opportunity for publishers or authors to challenge the departments’ instructions for amendments. In his conclusion the author states: “The use of honorary authors, in-house screening before submission, and the selection of co-operative or ‘colluding’ authors were among the strategies publishers and editors developed. Consistently rigid and tight timeframes not only stifled the development of textbooks of quality, but compelled writers to engage in de facto plagiarism of textbooks that had successful records in the selection and approval processes; the publishers acquiesced in and encouraged such practices. Combined with these constraints, the de facto price caps on the textbooks gave rise to an additional commercial concern for textbook publishers and one that compromised the educational concerns of the pupils and teachers. The nature and extent of these constraints engendered an ethos that encouraged and rewarded conformity rather than innovation amongst publishers and authors.” PEN South Africa Jacana Media’s Bridget Impey on the State of Publishing and the Zapiro Litmus Test. http://pensouthafrica.co.za/jacana-medias-bridget-impey-on-the-state-of-publishing-and- the-zapiro-litmus-test/ (Posted 25 November 2015) [16/02/16] A thought-provoking talk given by Bridget Impey of Jacana Media (and previously with the prominent anti-apartheid David Phillip Publishers for many years) entitled “Overview of the publishing industry in South Africa: which specifics and which issues?”, presented at the International Assembly of Independent Publishers held in Cape Town in September 2014, hosted by the Paris-based Alliance internationale des éditeurs indépendants/International Alliance of Independent Publishers, and held under the auspices of UNESCO. It provides an overview of the state of publishing in South Africa, examining book buying habits and the lack of a widespread reading culture, and the perceived reasons for it. “Locally written fiction is noticeable by its absence as it is the imported variety that sell. Cookbooks feature http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/yt/n14/03.pdf https://www.academia.edu/21814274/Political_economy_of_History_textbook_publishing_during_apartheid_1948-1994_Towards_further_historical_enquiry_into_commercial_imperatives https://www.academia.edu/21814274/Political_economy_of_History_textbook_publishing_during_apartheid_1948-1994_Towards_further_historical_enquiry_into_commercial_imperatives https://www.academia.edu/21814274/Political_economy_of_History_textbook_publishing_during_apartheid_1948-1994_Towards_further_historical_enquiry_into_commercial_imperatives http://pensouthafrica.co.za/jacana-medias-bridget-impey-on-the-state-of-publishing-and-the-zapiro-litmus-test/ http://pensouthafrica.co.za/jacana-medias-bridget-impey-on-the-state-of-publishing-and-the-zapiro-litmus-test/ Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2016 Page 28 strongly, as does local memoir and local current affairs. Much of this top of the pops list is in Afrikaans.” Books found on the bestseller lists are frequently the books that are not challenging. “It’s harder to make the books that matter, the books that change things, that challenge us and which more properly reflect and expose the state of this state, thus revealing the state of the book. And one of the factors that militate against this kind of publishing is that it isn’t always going to break even, let alone make a profit.” In the second part of her presentation Impey addresses the threats, or severe restrictions, to freedom of information, freedom of expression, and freedom to publish—faced by authors, artists, journalists, the media and publishers in South Africa. “The current methods of intimidation have been the extensive threat of defamation lawsuits. And it is an effective deterrent. ‘Discretion is the better part of valour’ is not a game changing war cry, but publishers regularly opt for the safer route, mindful that a court challenge issued by the state is likely to set one back a million rand before even setting foot in a court room. And that’s without the collateral damage of time and effort tied up in the business of defending oneself. And which independent publisher can afford those kinds of costs?” South African Book Development Council National Book Week 29 August to 6 September 2014. 2014 Final Report. http://sabookcouncil.co.za/nationalbookweek/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/SABDC- Report-2014.pdf [26/10/15] National Book Week (NBW) was launched in 2010 and is a joint initiative between the South African Book Development Council and the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC). Since its inception in 2010, National Book Week is the longest running and most successful campaign of its kind to foster partnerships between government, the publishing sector, civil society and the media, to highlight and celebrate a reading lifestyle in South Africa. In 2014 the organizers were proud to introduce a travelling bus which, over seven days, transported NBW ambassadors, motivational speakers, authors, storytellers and a toy library to towns from Ganyesa in the North West Province to Paarl in the Western Cape. The annual National Book Week focuses on promoting the reading of books while showcasing local writers, poets, publishers, storytellers, booksellers and authors. The use of indigenous languages was again a strong element in the campaign, and w