The African Writers' Handbook (review)

The African Writers' Handbook, ed. James Gibbs and Jack Mapanje. Oxford: African Books Collective, Ltd., 1999. xxiv + 432 pp. ISBN 0-9521269-6 paper. www.africanbookscollective.com

A previous work by one of the co-authors of the book under consideration, James Gibbs's A Handbook for African Writers (Oxford: Hans Zell, 1986), though wholly different, laid the groundwork for this one. This one, however, is much longer, too large to cover each chapter in the small spaces allotted. Examples will have to suffice.

The current work arose in part out of a conference held in Arusha, Tanzania, in 1998 under the auspices of two noncommercial organizations, African Books Collective and the Dag Hammerskjøld Foundation. African Books Collective is a joint venture of African publishers whereby they can sell their books overseas through a facility in Oxford, UK. The book was made possible, in part, by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency: "Through this support, copies of the Handbook will be distributed free of charge to African writers, writers' organizations and the wider African book community." A common thread running through the book is publishing within Africa rather than through multinationals (though much information is given on non-African publishers and organizations). Further, its general theme is that African writers and publishers should get to understand each other better, and the book offers a "new deal" for African writers.

Niyi Osundare offers insight into the particular problems of publishing poetry (it "provokes goose pimples in publishing circles," 17). M. M. Mulokozi writes about the "harsh and disconcerting" experience of publishing in Swahili with the East African Publishing House. Femi Osofisan talks about his English-language dramatic works all of which were published in Nigeria rather than abroad because of his belief that literature should have "a direct political purpose" (32). Osonye Tess Onwueme offers advice to the "would-be African female writer." Henry Chakava contributes two articles, "An Autonomous African Publishing House: A Model" and "Publishing Ngugi: The Challenge, the Risk, the Reward." The late mourned Ken Saro-Wiwa's "Notes of a Reluctant Publisher" is an offering that outlines the difficulties of self-publishing. (It is not clear why he is not entered in the list of contributors.) Walter Bgoya contributes a chapter entitled "Publishing Africa: Culture and Development."

All of these experiences and more contribute to the overall utility of the book, but its greatest strength is in its practical chapters--among other items, directories of writers' organizations, publishers, agents, magazines, awards, and information on vanity presses, self-publishing, censorship, libel, and so on. Here is the information that can be of the most worth to budding African writers. They now have information at their finger tips that can make the difference between a successful book launching and a rejection slip. Further chapters of interest are found at the end of the work. These include Zell's "The Author's Bookshelf," which includes Africa-specific and non-Africa-specific material and his "Internet Resources for African Writers." The book ends with two documents: "Minimum Terms Agreement" issues by the UK Society of Authors in 1982, giving a model publishing contract, and "Code of Practice: Publishers' Dealings with Authors" updated in 1997 by the Publishers' Association, London.

In sum this is a truly practical guide. It is highly recommended as a sourcebook and for general reading on the current status of African publishing. It would have benefited, however, had it followed its precursor's practice of including a chapter on African language publishing (or has this become just too tiresome?) And a chapter specifically on children's literature.

David Westley

David Westley is Africana Bibliographer at the African Studies Library, Boston University.

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