• Established in 2004, Farafina Books has become one of Nigeria’s leading independent literary publishers. With 24 titles on its list — including the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — the company is leading a revolution in the movement to publish books by Africans for Africans. • Though Farafina continues to struggle against the limitations of publishing in Nigeria, notably poor …
Is the Internet Africa’s “Gutenberg Moment?”
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story looks at the pivotal role Farafina Books is playing in the changing landscape of Nigerian and African publishing. Last November, as part of African Literature Week in Oslo, Norway, Farafina owner Muhtar Bakare (pictured on the right) gave a speech in which he stated that the Internet represented Africa’s “Gutenberg Moment.” (You can read …
Cape Town Book Fair Strives, Struggles to Nurture “Africa’s Book Garden”
By Kelvin Smith Now in its fifth year, the Cape Town Book Fair (CTBF) — which starts this Friday, July 30, and runs through Monday, August 2 — is making progress to becoming an event for the whole African publishing world. “This year’s fair is positioning itself as an African affair,” CTBF Director Claudia Kaiser told LitNet. Since the demise …
Can One Book Fair Serve All of Africa?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead article looks at the upcoming Cape Town Book Fair. Over the years, the CTBF has been viewed by many as a possible replacement for the Zimbabwe Book Fair which was long held to be the main conduit for international publishing to interact with the pan-African book market. Cape Town has done an admirable job in …
Pilgrimages: African Travel Writing, By and For Africans
By Mark Garcia-Prats In hopes of extending the positive attention about Africa stemming from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, The Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artist is sponsoring a writing project called Pilgrimages. The idea for the series is that during Africa’s first World Cup, 14 African writers will be sent to 13 different African cities …
Africa United: Steve Bloomfield on Politics and the World Cup
By Mark Garcia-Prats Steve Bloomfield is a British journalist who has lived in Nairobi, Kenya since 2006. He was a former African correspondent for The Independent and now writes for different publications including Monocle, Newsweek and The Observer. His first book, Africa United, published in June by Harper Collins, gives a picture of modern Africa by telling the story of …
New Writing from Nairobi: Storymoja’s “Story of the Week”
By Edward Nawotka Storymoja, the Nairobi-based publishing collective that we profiled last year, is running a weekly short story contest. Publishers looking for new African voices might do well by paying attention to some of the winners. Stories that qualify for the contest need to adhere to certain criteria: Contemporary Nairobi setting Has two or more young professionals as main characters …
When Will E-books be the Answer for Africa’s Readers?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s story about Nigeria’s Cassava Republic suggests that e-books may be the perfect means of overcoming African publishing’s printing and distribution problems. Of course, as the publisher in the story notes, there still isn’t that much Internet penetration, but it is improving. At what point do you foresee e-books being a viable distribution channel for Africa, the …
Feeding the African Imagination: Nigeria’s Cassava Republic
By Belinda Otas and Tolu Ogunlesi ABUJA: Nigeria may not be the ideal place to start a publishing company, but Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and Jeremy Weate were crazy enough to take a chance. In 2006 the husband-and-wife team founded Cassava Republic, a publishing house with the goal of “feeding the African imagination” through stories taken from contemporary African life. When they …
Is Labeling a Writer by Race or Ethnicity Too Reductive?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s lead story, Nigerian-born author Chika Unigwe, who now lives in Belgium, states: “I’m African, and I never question my African identity. What I question sometimes are the expectations that come with being labeled an ‘African writer.’ What you are supposed to write, how you are supposed to write and so on. But then that is …