Publishing, Books and Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Bibliography (review)

Just when we thought (on the basis of trends showing publishers giving up on the genre) that bibliography was dead, along comes Hans Zell with this wonderfully sculpted guide to the African book and publishing worlds together with literary connections, which make it more useful to RAL readers. Bibliographers and publishers such as Zell—recall his compilation A New Reader's Guide to African Literature (1983) and his commissioning of important bibliographies such as those on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Nadine Gordimer and especially the seminal series Black African Literature in English by that other doyen of African literary bibliography, Bernth Lindfors—know the terrain so well that it would be a tragedy if this genre were allowed to die due to misplaced assumptions based on Google-mania.

The book and accompanying website (access to which comes with print purchase) are virtually flawless, despite the temperamental stability of website address. This new edition is much enlarged over that of 1996, now with a regularly updated web version and the focus squarely on newer publications, though classics are retained. Indexing and arrangement are clear. There are considerable data of interest to literary scholars, notably sections showcasing works on important new fields such as History of the Book or new literary authors, with detailed critical annotations to guide readers to best works, plus up-to-date details of associations of publishers, dealers, and readers of books and journals from and about Africa. An entertaining and thoughtful introduction on the progress and perils of the book in Africa by Kenyan publishing veteran Henry Chakava adds to the readability.

Coverage of a continent is no easy task. English and French language literature, especially of those giants of African publishing, Nigeria and South Africa, is very well covered, rather less so for countries with tiny publishing industries, such as Chad or Niger, or for African-language material, admittedly poorly represented in Northern libraries upon which Zell has drawn. This underlines the need for wider, regular bibliographic coverage, a task to which Zell has devoted an entire career and succeeded in so admirably. New digital libraries are emerging from Nsukka to Zomba that future editions will be able to plumb for sources.

This work flags the enduring value to African literature of bibliography and the bibliographer's ability to adapt to new technology. Today, new Zotero software with its power to scoop references out of databases and present them coherently makes rapid, personalized bibliographies a reality. Bibliographers of African literature: go forth and multiply your bibliographies, on the web and in other formats, to create a new generation of bibliographies, for instance on African cinema or writers lacking bibliographic coverage! In the meantime, scholars of the African literary apparatus will be repaid by visits to the print and online versions of this unique and most handy reference guide and critical bibliography.