Editorial
Katherine
Salahi
Coordinator, Bellagio Publishing
Network
'You should have seen the delegates dancing the night
away in the mud!', said Ian Randle, founding President of the Caribbean
Publishers Network (CAPNET). 'And still they all turned up promptly
the following morning for the workshops.' As Jeremy Taylor's report
so vividly describes, the first CAPNET conference was a lively and truly
pan-Caribbean affair which gave real impetus to CAPNET's avowed aims
of strengthening indigenous publishing in the region. The long list
of 'crucial areas for urgent action' within the next three years underlines
how much this network has to achieve, and how timely is its existence.
The fact that so many delegates turned up in spite of the hurricane,
and more especially in spite of the region's history of fragmentation
by colonial history and language, bears eloquent testimony to the perceived
need for intra-regional co-operation as the way forward. It is also
testimony to the sheer hard work of CAPNET's founding team.
The choice of CAPNET's conference title - 'Reclaiming
our own voices' - resonates with the aims and aspirations of so many
African as well as Caribbean publishers. Corneille Monoko sat quietly
shaking his head at a meeting in Brazil while another speaker made the
assumption publicly that the Democratic Republic of Congo was a country
without books, never mind publishers. As Director of Kinshasa's 5th
Book Fair Monoko had hot-footed it from Kinshasa to Salvador-Bahia as
one event ended and the other began. There is much to be done to improve
book provision and the publishing industry in Congo, Monoko agreed.
But locally published books do exist, published by Congolese publishers;
450 titles in 2001, all deposited in the National Library. In other
words, in spite of the terrible conflict, writers continue to write,
publishers publish, booksellers sell and readers read. We hope this
heartening and reassuring news is followed by the news of stronger intra-African
links with APNET and other publishers.
Sulaiman Adebowale's report on the INASP seminar
'Strengthening biomedical publishing in developing countries' raises
crucial issues to do with scholarly publishing in Africa. The seminar
focused on biomedical journals publishing and various efforts aimed
at correcting the acute information imbalance between north and south.
INASP is to be commended for its support for African-published scientific
journals. By making possible the participation of James Falaiye, African
Journal of Reproductive Health (AJRH)'s Managing Editor, as a speaker
at the seminar, the mainly British participants had the chance to find
out about a little-known African success story in scientific publishing.
More importantly, it gave international exposure to the AJRH at a stage
of the journal's life when practical support would be welcome in the
form of training, library subscriptions and improved distribution. The
journal has an interesting history as an African-published journal that
began life in the north, and continues to earn international respect
for its professionalism after three years in its Nigerian base. It deserves
strong support. Yet Adebowale rightly remonstrates with the narrow focus
of initiatives that single out science and medical publishing for support
to the detriment of other scholarly publishing. He argues cogently for
the need to strengthen African scholarly publishing in all fields, thereby
creating synergy in the dissemination of research as an effective tool
for development.
Recognition for African publishing internationally
continues to grow, though at times it appears to be an uphill battle.
Among an increasing number of prizes for African writing, only the Noma
Award for African Publishing, now in its 22nd year, recognises the importance
of the African publishing of African writing. The International Publishers
Association, an organisation that has been in existence for over a hundred
years, will be holding an event on African soil for the first time when
the 5th IPA Copyright Conference takes place in Accra in February.
We take this opportunity to salute the grand old
man of African literature Cyprian Ekwensi in honour of his 80th birthday,
with two articles about his life, his work and his significance. This
most prolific and eclectic of African writers more than deserves our
accolade not only for his works per se, but also for publishing them
with Nigerian publishers when he surely had the chance to move outside
the continent instead. Happy birthday, Cyprian Ekwensi!
Update on "The Internet, e-commerce and Africa's
book professions", Bellagio Publishing Network Newsletter, no. 28, November
2001: As a further indication of just how volatile the electronic publishing
field still is, and as an update on Hans Zell's article in the last
issue, readers may be interested in an article in the Chronicle of Higher
Education of November 16, 2001; http://chronicle.com/free/2001/11/2001111601t.htm,
which reports that NetLibrary, one of the companies offering a service
to publishers to distribute their books in digital formats, filed for
bankruptcy protection on November 14. The Chronicle also reports that
NetLibrary's assets might be purchased by the non-profit OCLC [Online
Computer Library Center], which would then ensure continuity of access
to NetLibrary's current collection of about 33,000 full-text books. [end] [BPN,
no 29, 2001, pp 2-3.]
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