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26 Apr 2024

ABC’s Statement on Gaza
African Books Collective's Statement on Gaza

22 Sep 2022

Decolonising Knowledge and its Challenges
For Africa, knowledge is a contested site that acquires affirmations, claims, and delineations. İt has to operate through many layers. In fact, is Africa a discourse, or an idea or concept? These are the questions begging to be asked. Ahmet Sait Akcay reflects on the recent ASAA conference.

4 Apr 2022

Transforming African Scholarly Writing
African scholarship, like all scholarship, must be conducted rigorously, follow scientific methods, account for context, and stand up to critical appraisal. Why, however, refer specifically to “African scholarly writing?”

29 Nov 2021

A good reading culture: Potential game changer in Africa
I made a deal with my eight-year-old son that for every book above 110 pages that he reads, I’ll pay him 15 rands, an equivalent of one United States Dollar (US$1).

9 Aug 2021

Marginalisation and Exclusion of Women in Scholarly Publishing and Dissemination in Africa
I came across a discussion on Twitter a while back about how notable women, especially those in academia, were either missing from Wikipedia or had their entries written incorrectly or with insufficient information.

22 Feb 2021

Kyoto University Collaboration with Langaa on Publication of the ‘African Potentials’ Series
The African Potentials Series is a co-publication initiative between Langaa and the Center for African Area Studies (CAAS) at Kyoto University. The series showcases the research of the African Potentials network of African and Japanese scholars

17 Dec 2020

The myth of the ‘book famine’ in African publishing
Books and publishing in Africa are often described in terms of ‘scarcity’ and ‘famine’, evoking the need for a crisis response. But do these terms reflect the reality of how Africans produce and engage with books? Elizabeth le Roux argues that the famine analogy is perpetuated by a book aid industry that works counter to structural solutions based on local book development.

23 Nov 2020

A (very) brief history of African publishing, from independence to the present
It may come as a surprise to some, but Africa has been producing the written word for thousands of years – from the indigenous scripts of Ancient Africa to the experimental digital press projects at the turn of this century. This blog, based on a longer article, attempts to give a very brief history of African publishing from the years following independence from European powers to today, showing that the written word – against many odds – continues to flow onto the latest reading formats.

3 Nov 2020

Co-publishing with Africa North–South–North
The decolonization of African studies extends beyond content to ethical partnerships between the North and the African continent. One key component of realizing partnership is through publishing.In partnership with the International African Institute, and with the active support of the African Studies Associations of the UK and the US, work is proceeding with publishers in the North and the South to broker co-publishing or co-editions to address this historic marginalization of Africa.

30 Jun 2020

African published books in the North
This paper was prepared for the SCOLMA annual conference ‘Decolonising African Studies: questions and dilemmas for libraries, archives and held at the University of Edinburgh on 10 June 2019. The aim of the paper is to provide some insights into how books published in Africa are making their way to libraries with collections on Africa

25 Jun 2020

Getting Published
Alice Wairimū Nderitū is an author, columnist (The EastAfrican) ethnic relations educator and mediator of armed conflict.Alice was named 2012 Woman Peace Maker of the Year by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, University of San Diego.

12 Jun 2020

African publishing in the time of COVID-19
COVID-19’s spread around the world continues to have catastrophic effects, from lives lost to the economic consequences of lockdowns, bringing financial devastation to individuals and jeopardising even the most robust industries.

29 May 2020

Publishing in Africa: From independence to the present day
Indigenous publishing is integral to national identity and development: cultural, social, and economic. Such publishing reflects a people’s history and experience, belief systems, and their concomitant expressions through language, writing, and art.

20 May 2020

Decolonisation and co-publishing
In 2018 the African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) and the African Studies Association (ASA, US) launched an initiative to draw attention to the need for a more equitable playing field in co-publication between publishers in the North and in Africa.

13 May 2020

Research on Africa: on whose terms?
Stephanie Kitchen, Managing Editor of the International African Institute, London, reflects on the 2017 ECAS conference Round Table discussion organised by the Swiss Society for African Studies and CODESRIA, looking at the relationship between ‘basic’ and ‘applied’ research on/in Africa and the politics and priorities of research funders and councils. Who should fund such research in Africa in a new moment of decolonisation?

7 Apr 2020

Publishing at the African Studies Association of Africa
Divine Fuh and Stephanie Kitchen co-convened a plenary and two panels at the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) conference held in Nairobi in October 2019 on the topic of ‘Publishing in Africa and African studies: practices, challenges and futures’.

6 Apr 2020

30 Years of providing visibility for African books in the global market place
African Books Collective is an example of an African owned and governed organisation which has successfully transitioned from a donor dependent NGO to a self-sustaining and independent social enterprise.

1 Apr 2020

In the Maghreb, there is an urgent need to structure the book sector
Kenza Sefrioui is a literary critic, the co-founder of En toutes lettres, a publishing house based in Casablanca.On the occasion of the 25thedition of the Maghreb book fair in Paris, literary critic Kenza Sefrioui highlights the publishing situation in the north of the continent. 

27 Mar 2020

Print-on-demand: An African publisher’s experience
In the early 2000s the late Nigerian publisher, Victor Nwankwo, of Fourth Dimension Publishers (FDP), with African Books Collective (ABC), started a project to digitise FDP's backlist and make the books available print on demand (POD).Reading his study today, some 18 years on, it is easy to forget the huge changes that have taken place in the publishing and bookselling world such as online bookselling, digital marketing, ebooks and eLibrary resources.

25 Mar 2020

Drinking from the cosmic gourd. How Amos Tutuola can change our minds
Francis B. Nyamnjoh on 28 March 2017 delivered the Archie Mafeje lecture for University of South Africa (UNISA) entitled Drinking from the Cosmic Gourd: How Amos Tutuola Can Change Our Minds. The lecture is based on his book of the same name. 

10 Feb 2020

Teaching is never easy… but for so many different reasons
Jason Anderson is a teacher, educator, researcher and author of books for language teachers. Here he recounts his experience of publishing locally and using local expertise in the development of his book Teaching English in Africa.

10 Feb 2020

Publishing in African languages
This literature review is an attempt to bring together some of the literature on an important and challenging, and one could well say neglected aspect of the African book sector, that of publishing in African languages, an area that greatly impacts literary production in many ways.

10 Feb 2020

Publishing in Africa: Where are we now? An update for 2019 (Extracts)
This update seeks to provide a broad round-up of the current situation of the book industry in Africa today (primarily that in English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa), together with a brief review of the work and activities of the various organizations and associations that have been supportive of African publishing over the years.

10 Feb 2020

Book donation programmes revisited
Book aid is complex, problematic, and sometimes controversial, but the literature and research on book donation programmes for Africa is still surprisingly scant. This wide-ranging, extensively documented investigation attempts to shed more light on current book donation practices, and provides an overview and profiles of the work of the principal book aid organizations active in the English-speaking parts of sub-Saharan Africa

10 Feb 2020

African book industry data and the state of African national bibliographies
No less than three international meetings on publishing in Africa have taken place recently, which have been followed with detailed action plans. Among many other recommendations, calls for action to find solutions to perennial problems, as well as discussions focusing on sectorial innovation and revitalization of the African book industries, participants in all three meetings were strongly urged to start collecting and disseminating book industry data.

10 Feb 2020

African books and knowledge production
Stephanie Kitchen, Managing Editor at The International Africa Institute, London, looks at the three lively 2016 sessions at the biennial African Studies Association(UK) conference which explored the challenges of publishing in Africa, in relation to African studies in the North.

4 Jun 2019

50 Years of Independence: Reflections on the Role of Progressive African Intellectuals
Keynote address by Walter Bgoya, Managing Director, Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, to the 50th Anniversary Conference of the African Studies Association UK at the University of Sussex, 10 September 2014

29 May 2019

African publishing in a globalised world
Former CEO and Director of African Books Collective, Mary Jay, delivers the Adam Helms Lecture, Stockholm University, 21 November 2016. Each lecture is given by a prominent individual within the international book and publishing industry. Between 1994 and 2016 it was arranged by Stockholm University Library in association with the Swedish Publishers’ Association.

22 Feb 2019

Growing the knowledge economy through research, writing, publishing and reading
Reflecting on the theme of the 2015 Zimbabwe International Book Fair for his address, Walter Bgoya (Mkuki na Nyota Publishers) decided to take the liberty to reorder the wording of the theme, from 'Growing the knowledge economy through research, writing, publishing and reading' to 'Growing the knowledge economy through writing, publishing, reading and research'.

22 Feb 2019

Publishers, authors and Africa’s cultural development
Publishers and authors, or writers if you prefer, are ever close to theatres of war. Invariably they play significant roles in starting and ending them. But very often, they continue fanning the embers of war long after the wars are ended.

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