REVIEW ARTICLE: The Politics of Publishing in South Africa, edited by Nicholas Evans and Monica Seeber
ISBN 0953726215 (Holger Ehling, UK) and ISBN 0869809873
(University of Natal, South Africa), 300pp 2001. International Edition
in association with International Publishing Monitor (UK)
Review by Sulaiman Adebowale
Sulaiman Adebowale is Assistant Editor (Publications and Communication)
at CODESRIA, based in Dakar, Senegal. He is currently with the Bellagio
Publishing Network while studying Electronic Media at Oxford Brookes,
UK.
In the age of the ubiquitous turn of the century
attempts to (re)present a post-modern third millennium worldview, few
nations today could be more convincing than South Africa in its efforts
at reinventing itself. The South African struggles have rightly gained
our sympathy, they are not just reforms of existing policies and laws,
but encompass a desperate need for a deeper and more fundamental restructuring
of every space and facet of a society scarred and marred by years of
racist apartheid ideology. The enormous challenges impeding such an
attempt have made the South African story at the turn of the century
a moving meta-narrative.
The Politics of Publishing in South Africa
is one facet of this complex process, but it is equally an astonishingly
enlightening story of how publishing as an industry in all its shades
and forms has participated in, influenced and been influenced by the
political history of the country. It traces how writers, editors, publishers,
printers, and including the booksellers and readers _ notes in `an ensemble
of discrete processes which centres on the production and dissemination
of literary artefacts' (p. 107), using Andries Oliphant's definition
_ pursued their various roles in developing a culture of publishing,
but also in fostering and destroying apartheid and contributing to the
socio-economic development of the country.
In this sense, however, it is tempting to conclude
that the book is a story with an obvious ending. A review of the culture
of a society's publishing should encapsulate its connections with the
larger society. But The Politics of Publishing in South Africa
is more than just a publisher's account of the story of a nation. Firstly,
the book is a collection of critical and candid analyses of the past
and present involvement of citizens of South Africa, bound together
by a communal relationship to the written text, in shaping their country's
future. The open and self-critical Truth and Reconciliation Commission
mentality pervading the chapters suggests not just a willingness to
banish the evils of the past but also an understanding of the nature
of and possible answers to some of the challenges facing them.
For instance, Phaswane Mpe and Monica Seeber's
critical overview explores the history of publishing in South Africa
and explicitly paints the multifaceted faces of South African publishers
over the years. In a world where labels _ self-given or attributed _
still play a role in identity construction, it is interesting to note
that mergers and acquisitions, a direct product of developments in the
publishing sector and global capital today, have `changed the complexions
and cultures of companies in ways that render apartheid "collaborators"
and "non-collaborators" simplistic and unreliable categories for classifying
publishing houses' (p. 31). True, the current relevance of an `apartheid
stigma' in the scheme of things is arguable. But looked at in the perspective
of, for example, government policy _ strongly advocated for in the entire
book as a crucial element to put things right _ there is need for more
than just resources to resolve some of the development questions facing
the country.
Secondly, by recognising an ongoing forever-changing
story and chronicling it as such, The Politics of Publishing in South
Africa attempts to grasp the nature of the current culture of publishing.
The fluidity and malleability of actors continuously reinventing themselves
to survive suggest that South African publishers are close to understanding
how to cope with a global culture of mobility. Some publishers will
survive, others won't, which may or may not be as a result of what they
did or did not do, or simply, as shown in the demise of the `Alternative
Press', because times have changed. Dick Cloete's and Guy Berger's accounts
of the downfall of the dynamic, fiery, indigenous, small and independent
publisher, such as Ravan and Skotaville, in post-apartheid South Africa
are telling, but aptly situate the context of the business. The loss
of foreign donors, lack of support from the new government coupled with
a decreasing interest in South Africa and a decline in local political
mobilisation mean those publishers must have to do more than reinvent
themselves. But we are neither to cry for them, nor laugh at them, opines
Berger. Alternative publishers served a particular critical period in
the country's history; they were crucial to the social movement that
brought about the South Africa of today, but new factors would have
to assure their sustainability and relevance now. This is arguably a
serious debate beyond the confines of publishing, but certainly worth
pursuing further.
The challenges of publishers in a country with
a `rich publishing history' (p.3) from a `third world' part of the globe
to achieve recognition for their development are noteworthy, and the
writers in this book do try as much as they can to inform the world.
The particularity of the South African case is glaring in the wealth
of a nation in the company of the poorest countries in the globe. But
much more than that, as Nicholas Evans and Monica Seeber argue in their
introduction, there are pointers of `uniquely South African' roles in
publishing, whether multinational or indigenous, that `do not parallel
the story of underdevelopment in publishing on the continent'. However,
Eve Gray's discussion of the near-absence of South-South co-operation,
involving South Africa and other nations in the South, e.g. India, and
the overarching dominance of imported academic books from the United
States and the United Kingdom seems more indicative of the true status
of the South African publishing industry. Gray's article makes an effort
to place academic publishing in South Africa beyond the transformation
taking place within South Africa itself _ its changing higher education
policies, the influence of distance education, government policy and
the responses of local publishers to these _ to include the external
dynamics _ regional, continental and global _ impacting on academic
publishing in the country. Like Gray's, Nicholas Combrinck and Maggie
Davey's near sardonic dialogue is a realistic characterisation of publishing
not just in South Africa, but of its place among others, be it industries
or countries.
However, the turning point of this commendable
book, which also touches on other important issues _ professional training
and development, language policies, writing, education and digital technologies
_ is the concluding article on copyright licensing. In a painstakingly
argued piece entitled: `Protecting the Publishing Industry: Reprographic
Reproduction Rights Administration as a Strategy and Tool for National
Book Publishing Developments', Monica Seeber ignores other salient issues
influencing questions of copyright ownership and control, intellectual
property, piracy and international regulatory mechanisms. It is valid
that we need to act effectively against piracy and violation of copyright
material, be it locally produced or foreign, not just with a view to
sustaining the publishing industry, but also as part of our interconnection
with the global world around us. But it is equally compelling that a
discussion of copyright devoid of the impact of the digital environment
(p.282) seriously impedes, rather than facilitates, our search for ways
of assuring the sustainability of the publishing industry, especially
the fragile ones in the South. The reasons behind this assertion are
manifold. Some pointers worth mentioning are as follow:
Firstly, that `[t]he immediate imperative is _
since �the book continues to be the primary means of transferring knowledge
in Africa _ to put our analogue houses in order and take steps to eradicate,
or at least control, copyright infringement through unauthorised photocopying'
(p 282) is not convincing. Recent developments in publishing have confirmed
that the impact of digital media cannot be constrained to digital publishers
only; it affects the standing and survival of print publishers, given
the obvious facts that virtually all print media exist today first in
their digital format.
Secondly, past and present advances in information
technology have made it imperative for discussions of copyright to be
situated in the practicalities of enforcing and controlling copyright
violations. It is not just enough to appeal to the moral and ethical
sides of would-be copyright thieves, but to be realistic about the limitations
of enforcing copyright laws today. The Politics of Publishing in
South Africa would have been more fitting if Seeber's well-researched
discussion on the issues above was balanced with other perspectives,
especially one that connects copyright issues beyond the confines of
`analogue media' _ perspectives that seek ways of surmounting the problems
posed in earning returns on investments in publishing in the digital
era. The significance of media convergence discussed by Steve Kromberg
is one of such possibilities, and this ought to be linked with copyright
issues. Then, we can fully understand the value of South African publishers'
attempts at protecting intellectual property rights alongside the question
of `Why then is the level of literacy in South Africa so low?' (p.3),
or of how the country can cope well with the `change in statutory inequalities
of apartheid to the nominal equality of constitutional democracy' (p.
125) as Oliphant succinctly puts it. [end] [BPN, no
28, 2001, p 15-17.]
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