Indigenous Book Publishing in South Africa: Challenges and Opportunities

Major publishers in many parts of Africa are conspicuous by their reluctance to publish in indigenous African languages. Many of these publishers cite lack of readership in indigenous languages as a reason for this move which is frustrating efforts at indigenisation and domestication and increase dependency on foreign languages, notably English. This chapter explores indigenous publishing in South Africa and exemplifies pertinent issues inherent in the multilingual country where English has remained a dominant discourse at the expense of indigenous languages which have largely remained under-utilised as media of instruction and public discourse. It is argued in this chapter that this underutilisation impacts directly on indigenous book publishing as it leads to a shrinking market for publishers. It is posited further that, since language is a key feature of culture which also enables access to indigenous wisdom especially in the context of Africa, it can be concluded that the cultural legacy of many indigenous African communities is under threat. Any book publisher attempting to publish in indigenous languages is at an immediate disadvantage due to the hegemonic domination of foreign languages; obsession with western and European content; lack of writers and interest in indigenous writing and reading, escalating production costs; poor distribution system; lack of political will to support indigenous publishing, lack of visibility of publishers themselves, and the publisher's increased calculated reluctance to take risks which translates in inhibited growth (no risk translates to no growth); excessive and unauthorized photocopying not consistent with fair use. However, a major hurdle for indigenous book publishing in any part of Africa remains the limited market due to poor readership and limited buying power of potential readers. In the first place, any serious discussion about indigenous book publishing in any part of Africa will inevitably raise the issue of colonialism. It is a fact that Africa is currently still reeling from the traumatic effects of the onslaught of colonisation which has negatively dented the cultures, languages, identity and ways of knowing of many African communities. At the moment many countries in Africa are magnificently heeded to the call for the African Renaissance and have begun intensifying efforts to resuscitate indigenous languages, culture and knowledge systems. As one of the South African publishers, Solani Ngobeni noted in an article published in a local newspaper in 2008, "The publishing industry is pivotal to the realisation of the African Renaissance." This is especially so in a country such as South Africa which experienced a double-tragedy of colonialism and apartheid. South Africa became a democratic country when Nelson Mandela was voted president in 1994, after many years of apartheid which exploited and persecuted blacks and denied them basic human rights, subjecting them to abstract poverty, illiteracy and discrimination. On his arrival in office, Mandela introduced numerous progressive reforms which included transformation of the media industry which was mainly intended to ensure that the media become pluralist in order to cater for all sectors of the South African communities. Although a primary focus was more on the mainstream newspaper, radio and television industry, the requirements were equally compelling for the book industry. At that stage many local communities had already been penetrated by foreign cultures and this had weakened cultural institutions particularly the language which is now being replaced to a large extent by foreign languages that are inevitably regarded as being more prestigious and competitive in the job market, business and politics while local languages are mainly perceived as being backward, unsophisticated and useless. During both colonialism and apartheid, the oppressors aggressively promoted their cultures, languages, and ways of life at the expense of the African culture, labelling anything indigenous or African as backward, dull and underdeveloped. For these reasons, a thriving publishing industry in indigenous book publishing is rightly being hampered by poor readership amongst other things. The situation is even worse amongst the youth that form the majority of the population and this is worrying because these are people who go on to become future leaders, and occupy important positions in society.