Western Academic Publishing on Africa and the African Book Market: Paradoxes of Professional Development and Breadth of Access: A Few Lines

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

                              Western Academic Publishing on Africa and the African Book Market

                                   Paradoxes of Professional Development and Breadth of Access

                                                                   A Few Lines                        

                                                         Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                                                                          Compcros

                                                 Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

                                       Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge

                                                                           Abstract

Exploring the paradox of the limitations of penetration into Africa of books on Africa published in the West and examining possible solutions to this challenge.

A significant number of the best books on Africa are published in the West by Africans and non-Africans. To what degree, however, are these books accessible to Africans in terms of visibility and affordability?

Shadow libraries are helpful, even as they cheat writers and publishers, but to what degree can a learning culture be built that way?

 Are books replaceable in the world of learning? The amplitude of books, particularly in the humanities and some approaches to presenting knowledge in the sciences, can this quality be adequately demonstrated through other expressive forms?

State University of New York Press has  worked out a solution in relation to books on India. Some of its books on India are republished at lower paper quality, but still in excellent shape, by Indian publishers and sold worldwide at cheaper prices than the original SUNY books.

It would be a tragedy if the constant stream of wonderful books  on Africa published in the West should fail to significantly penetrate Africa.

I also wonder, if there is not a need for a stronger book writing and publishing culture among scholars in Nigeria, for one, a country to which I have more exposure.

Importing books can never replace a country's own endogenously constructed book writing and publishing culture.

Publishing in high impact Western scholarly journals is great but what is its level of value to Africa's endogenous scholarly and general learning culture?

Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach in Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein describe how the translation of British scientific  publications into German was crucial for the development of physics in 20th century Germany and to the eventual flowering of theoretical physics in Germany up till the 2nd World War, a flowering representing one of the great eras of human creativity.

Perhaps a strategy could be developed to republish  Western published texts in Nigeria. Another approach is to represent them in new books in Nigeria. It should be possible to represent the ideas of particular scholars and schools of thought through paraphrase and critical engagement.

I dont know how much weight is given to book publishing in Nigerian academia. Should more weight not be given to encourage book publishing?

But the Nigerian book publishing market is still a fledgling one. To what degree can it support a robust scholarly book publishing culture?

In an era of serious economic challenges in Nigeria  and the seductions of cyberspace, what challenges of economics and interest from customers are faced by publishers, particularly in Nigeria?

What safeguards can be provided against the dangers of self publishing? The University of Benin some years ago ruled that self published works could be accepted for promotion assessment provided they were edited by a professor. How may best practices be encouraged and abuses of such a system discouraged?

Online journal publishing is alive, well and possibly vigorous in the African scholarly space. What about online books?

[Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth]

Food for thought Toyin.

Maybe  the African Development Bank  should  step jn.it should be part of their  mandate  to develop  book publishing  in Africa.

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