AFRICA AND PUBLISHING: REFLECTIONS
There is a general opinion that publishing in Africa is developing. This view is based on evidence that more books are being published today than two decades ago and on the proliferation of indigenous publishing houses. This is indeed the case, but the development has been more quantitative than qualitative and this is not good enough to measure development of a publishing industry. Publishing in Africa remains an enclave industry serving foreign multinationals and their 'joint ventures', which are actually comprador companies, established to legitimise the former's presence and exploitation. More of the same textbooks covering the same core school subjects are published annually. There is little or no publishing of books of interest and relevance to the majority of the people. Not even the do-it-your-self books, covering all aspects of agriculture and animal husbandry, all aspects of health promotion and disease prevention; building construction, carpentry, brick laying, and so on that people need to improve their surroundings and their incomes. The few that are published are invariably in foreign languages.
Behind the backwardness of the publishing industry is a history of inappropriate educational and cultural policies, absence of national book policies including ineffective copyright laws, high duties and taxes on paper and other printing inputs, no or under funding of libraries. Book production and distribution cannot prosper in societies where reading is limited to functionality - passing school and professional examinations. In order to put the question of publishing and development of a 'reading public' in its proper context it is necessary to look at the economic and social conditions in which it is taking place. In the final analysis, publishing is as much about access to and management of resources - financial and human - as it is about political and social decisions that favour or obstruct all round development of society.
Legacies of colonialism and capitalism have never stopped exerting deleterious influence on African countries' economic and social development. The modest gains in the social sector - education and health - that were made in the first two and a half decades of independence were wiped out by the structural adjustment policies of the World Bank. 'While the record since Jomtien (Education for All) has been uneven across sub-Saharan Africa, the region in fact had made faster progress over the 1960s and 1970s in increasing primary enrolment than Asia and Latin America, tripling the number of children in primary school.' [1] The World Bank that was responsible for wrecking Africa's education, has turned around, is now 'funding' education and deciding through its army of consultants what education is to be given to Africans. 'At a meeting with African vice-chancellors in Harare in 1986, the Bank argued that higher education in African countries in Africa was a luxury: that most African countries were better off closing universities at home and training graduates overseas.' That position was later modified but the Bank was still 'calling for universities in Africa to be trimmed and restructured to produce only those skills which the "market" demands.'[2] This explains why the Bank is interested in African education; it is in order to control it. Who would deliver good education to African youth if the best of the product of World Bank's enlightenment would be primary school leavers or imported expatriates? Would such education policies not produce drawers of water and hewers of wood, the old debate between Booker Washington and W.E.B. Dubois?
Readers of Pambazuka will be familiar with the literature on the impact of neo-liberalism on African economies and the appalling poverty that it has created in its wake. The impoverishment of working people through massive lay offs, wages that can only pay for a week's, peasants whose labours are made nought by subsidies that European and American farmers receive; are these the conditions for development of a publishing industry? If a substantial percentage of revenues to be gained by the eighteen countries that were considered deserving of debt cancellation at the recent G8 summit is invested in improving education there will be more textbooks in schools. But as already pointed out there will be more of the same books and printing rather than publishing will be the beneficiary.
History of African Publishing
European missionaries introduced publishing in Sub Sahara Africa for the purpose of providing reading material intended to make Christians out of the African people. One hundred years since then is a very short time when compared with the history of publishing in Western Europe and America. If for example African publishing had already been developed by 1900, this period would still be shorter than the time it took publishers in the United States in the 19th century to respect copyright and to stop pirating books published mostly in the United Kingdom. Publishing in Africa (still by foreign companies), started in earnest after independence as governments of newly independent African countries poured money into education in order to fulfil one of the key objectives of the independence struggles. Indigenous African publishing is an even more recent phenomenon, and with few exceptions it is still fledgling, with companies that are struggling to survive and many going under a few years after they are established.
The state of current African publishing
One problem of writing about African publishing is the absence of data on the subject. UNESCO carries scant and unreliable data on publishing in Africa because African member governments rarely ever submit such information, which is not surprising given the little interest most of them have in publishing or in UNESCO for that matter. But even limited data that is available on publishing in South Africa (considered most developed on the continent) and Nigeria (1995) when compared with the same data for Norway, a small Nordic country, exposes the weakness of publishing in Africa. Norway with a population of 4.55 million inhabitants published 7,265 titles while South Africa with more than 42 million published only 5,418 titles. Nigeria with a population of over 120 million inhabitants published 1,314 titles. That Africa with fifteen per cent of the world's population produces around two per cent of the total number of world book must be accepted at face value.
Of the books published in Africa, up to 95 percent are school textbooks. The disjunction between book production, book sales and creation of a reading public starts here. Leaving out illiterate populations, an average of 40 percent across the continent, the remaining out-of-school reading public cannot support a meaningful publishing industry. When this group is further disaggregated into subject interest sub groups, the resulting numbers of book buyers becomes too small to support more than a few titles, in short print runs and on a limited number of subjects. Implications of this fact are clear; high unit costs, high prices, absence of variety and stimulation of the market, stagnation and, or exit of publishing companies from non-textbook publishing. Authors earn little or nothing from writing, so that authorship suffers.
This is the reason for the obvious underdevelopment of the publishing industry even for a country such as Nigeria, despite its production of tens of millions of books for its huge student population and expenditure of billions of naira annually. It is also partly the reason for there being no incentives to publishing books other than textbooks. The profitability of educational publishing, which, it has been argued would lead to supporting general publishing including fiction, tends on the contrary to be the noose that is strangling it. The multinationals are only interested in profits and repatriating them. For even the famous Heinemann African writers' series, which enjoyed great prestige, was abandoned by Heinemann's new owners because it was not profitable enough. No great loss, as two prominent African writers, Nobel Prize winner for literature Wole Soyinka and Ayi Kwei Armah called the series, 'a neo-colonialist writer's coffle formed by Europeans but slyly miscalled African.' [3]
The impression should not be created here that because textbook publishing is the core of African publishing, there are adequate textbooks to meet demand for school books. Far from it. It has been suggested that a 1:3 book pupil ratio is acceptable given available resources, but even where, as in Tanzania, substantial funds were donated to invest in textbook provision through open tender system, after eight years (1995 and 2003) the project evaluation team found in one school visited (only 120 miles from Dar es Salaam) the appalling ratios of 1:40 in one subject and 0:40 for two other subjects. The Ministry of Education reports book student ratios of between 1:4 and 1:7 but reality on the ground is a different picture. Admittedly, for the sons and daughters of well to do families, the situation was different as many books that were meant to be distributed free to schools for use by all pupils were diverted to bookshops where they could be bought for private use on a 1:1 ratio.
Multinationals in textbook publishing in Africa
The situation varies from country to country, but multinational publishing companies take the biggest share of the educational book budgets in all sub-Sahara African countries. Here again statistics are not easy to come by but in South Africa, for example, Maskew Miller an indigenous white owned South African company (est. 1893), which merged with Longman (also South African) in 1983 and is now part of Pearson Group (the largest publishers in the world based in the USA), reports that they publish approximately one out of every three textbooks in South Africa [4] With several other companies, the group exercises enormous influence in South Africa's education and society generally (because they also own the influential Financial Times, Financial Mail, Business Day and TV). Other multinational publishing companies present in South Africa are Heinemann, Macmillan (which landed the hugely popular Nelson Mandela's biography) Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Stoughton Educational. OUP in South Africa as in the UK and elsewhere enjoys a not-for- profit status and does not pay taxes though it is one of the most profitable publishing giants in the UK and worldwide. Sixty percent of educational publishing in South Africa (which is 80 percent of the entire publishing industry) is controlled by multinationals with the remaining 40 percent being shared between white owned (30 percent) and black owned (10 percent) companies respectively. [5] Total net turnover for the three categories of publishing (educational, trade and academic) for 2003 is given as R1,609,500,231 which is equivalent to US$227,834,072. Sixty percent of that which is the share of the multinational translates into US$ 136,700,443. [6] Not an insignificant sum and from only one country!
All of the above multinational companies with the exception of the last one are also present in most other African countries. Their share of the markets in those countries is not very different from what it is in South Africa even in countries such as Kenya where there is a stronger local publishers' presence than in other countries. Their share of secondary and tertiary level books is even bigger. In some other countries, such as Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, Macmillan does nearly all the publishing and supply of books as there is no local publishing there to the best of our knowledge.
Other issues in African publishing: New technologies, ICT, POD, Internet, e-books and e-commerce
African publishing has benefited greatly from new technologies especially in the origination of PDF files through Desk Top Publishing. Information and communication technology makes possible easy communication between all stakeholders in the book chain. Print On Demand has made it possible to publish books that would never have seen the light of day for lack of financial resources to offset print large editions whose markets were not assured. African Books Collective, (the marketing and distribution organisation owned by a group of African publishers and based in Oxford), with the agreement of their member publishers prints only the number of copies that they either have orders for or they know they can sell. This service helps the African publisher save money on freight charges and the hustle of handling of shipments. For ABC it ensures uniform quality of books according to western market demand, improves visibility, saves costs on warehousing and insures availability.
The internet has revolutionised access to information and to research for African academics. Although some African publishers have their own websites it is not certain that much business is generated via that channel especially internally, and for textbook publishers who have trade representatives on the move visiting bookshops. Outside the main cities and towns there are no ISPs and access to the internet is practically impossible. The same can be said of e-commerce. Although no doubt there is potential for it, problems of payment where credit cards systems are not yet in place or are just beginning and the cost of security software and management of such a system is high it will take time before this is a realistic and viable method of trading.
Publishing in African languages
Publishing in African languages is closely tied to the question of language of instruction in schools. All over Africa education is given in the languages of the former colonial masters. Naturally this works in favour of the foreign languages to the detriment of African languages. Proponents of African languages as languages of instruction are not against English or any foreign language that is currently in use in Africa. The issue is at the very heart of the question of emancipation of African people from the racist and colonial notions that African languages are too primitive to be used in any intellectual pursuits. For the British, the English language in addition to everything else is a multi billion dollar business annually. African languages could also be big business.
The same excuses that are being made today about the inadequacy of African languages for education vis-a-vis the colonial languages were made in the 16th century when Latin occupied the position that is today occupied by English. When England had adopted English and was making fast progress in spreading education, France lagged behind because education there was still in Latin. Likewise, far from being agents of development foreign languages act as hindrances to creation of literate and reading publics and keep the majority of African citizens from participating in one of the most important field of enlightenment. Missionaries had obviously a better understanding of the importance of African languages than African educationists and their foreign mentors. Fewer than 10 percent of African people can comfortably read books in these foreign languages, and that is probably generous. Without a strong reading culture, without access to books through bookshops and libraries and given the high prices of books, only a fraction of this group would actually be buying books. So, even in those languages, publishing in any meaningful scale is not possible. This is further justification for publishing in African languages where at least there is guarantee of a large population of potential readers who are also masters of their languages.
After noting how other countries developed via the 'scientification' of their languages, Professor Ali Mazrui has posed the question, 'Can any country approximate first rank economic development if it relies overwhelmingly on foreign languages for its discourse on development and transformation? Will Africa ever effectively "take off" when it is so tightly held hostage to the languages of the former imperial powers?'[7] There is urgent need to recognise this educational and cultural imperative and to invest in developing African languages to meet those challenges. The alternative is that publishing will continue to serve only the English speaking elite, and for that reason it will not grow to the same extent as that of the publishing industry of a small country's like Norway whose output is three or four times that of Nigeria, almost twenty times its size.
Marketing and distribution
Although editorial and production functions including printing are responsible for the book's existence, marketing and distribution are responsible for getting them to the readers. This regrettably is the weakest aspect of African publishing. Most publishers have limited knowledge and experience, which is compounded by the absence in most countries of an established book trade, bookshops and other commercial outlets. Transport infrastructure is weak especially during the rainy season when most roads are impassable. Postal services are unreliable and costly. Export of African books to European and American markets was practically non-existent until the African Books Collective was founded in Oxford and started trading in 1989. Overseas dealers in African books would make yearly visits, buying books at local prices with local discounts and then transporting them and selling them at high prices in their countries and pocketing the profits. Furthermore, contrary to expectations (naive for sure) western scholars and librarians are not all that interested in scholarship emanating from Africa. Western scholars come to Africa to do research and publish their books through publishers in their own countries. Libraries of African studies centres are the first to have their budgets cut and in post 9/11 US, African studies are losing popularity. The shift now is to Arab studies, language and religion.
The book selling business faces the same problem of financing as publishing. Access to bank loans is impossible without collateral in the form of buildings or guarantees. High interest rates are forbidding; at the worst period of SAP they were twice the trade discounts that publishers offered. In some countries for many years state monopoly of book distribution destroyed nascent bookshops in up-country stations (owned by missionaries) which were supplied from the major bookshop in the chain located in the capital acting as distributor. There are signs now that bookselling may be picking up but it will take time before book readers can access books through at least one bookshop in the district.
Copyright, policy and the publishing environment
The publishing environment in Africa is constrained by low literacy, by a weak reading culture, by lack of finance and by a weak system of distribution. Many of these can be traced to the absence of effective national book policies in Africa. Copyright is one of the areas where much needs to be done. Protection of works by local authors is only one aspect of copyright; but understanding and exploiting openings within the international copyright system and practices could allow countries to access foreign books for their educational needs more cheaply than through conventional rights purchases. Removal or reduction of high duties and taxes on paper and other printing materials could reduce printing costs considerably and result in lowering prices to more affordable levels. Training facilities for staff for the publishing and printing industries are a responsibility of governments through polytechnics but professional organisations can and must work hand in hand with government. So far APNET has been offering training opportunities to publishing staff from member National Publishers Associations. Some universities also offer degrees in publishing.
Banks could be encouraged to lend to publishers and other enterprises in the book chain. Indeed governments could even borrow at concessionary rates from international financial institutions and through guarantees enable them to borrow at lower interests than the market rate. Even simple steps such as lowering postal rates for printed matter would facilitate movement of books internally and help the book trade especially in the rural areas where there are no bookshops but postal services exist. Promoting reading through establishing libraries and organising national prizes for writers, illustrators and other distinguished persons in the book chain, as well as encouraging competitions in schools in book related activities are necessary if any society wishes to revolutionise learning and advance culture. However, all these can successfully be accomplished by governments that recognise the strategic importance of the publishing industry; that realise education, in addition to classrooms, teachers and textbooks is also libraries, bookshops, journals, magazines, newspapers, the Internet and other forms in which knowledge is packaged.
Notes.
[1] Novicki, Margaret A., Boosting Basic Education in Africa,Africa Recovery, Vol.II#4, (March 1998) p.8
[2] Brock-Utne, Birgit., Whose Education for All: The Recolonisation of the African Mind, London, Falmer Press, 2000, p.218
[3] Quoted from, Gedin, Per., Publishing in Africa: The View from Outside, in Development Dialogue 1984:1-2 p.103
[4] Business Day, Publishing in South Africa
[5] Communication with South African publisher, Brian Wafawarowa, New Africa Books
[6] Galloway, Francis., Trends in South African Book Publishing Industry Since the 1990s, Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria.
[7] Altibach, Philip G., and Hassan, Salah.,The Muse of Modernity: Essays on Culture as Development in Africa, Africa World Press, Trenton NJ 1996.
* Walter Bagoya is director of Mkuki wa Nyota publishers, Dar es Salaam
Please send comments to [email protected]