Africa’s leading book fair may be a source of agony for Robert Mugabe, but it’s good for the book business, writes EDWINA SPICER in Harare
Despite the international press attention focused on the anti-homosexual bigotry for which the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) has become a flashpoint, the fair itself was a commercial success. South African libraries, for instance, did several million rands’ worth of book deals at the ZIBF last week.
While the Publishers’ Association of South African (Pasa) declined to attend because of last year’s banning of participation by Gay and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (Galz), it also stated it would not discourage its members from attending. Nevertheless, the South African branches of Heinemann and Cambridge University Press, among others, did not exhibit this year.
Some of the 220 exhibitors expressed the hope that Pasa was taking this stance on the basis of Moral High Ground and not Low Financial Motives. The fear underlying such comments is that South Africa, already the regional giant in economic terms, would steal the fair away from Zimbabwe.
The loss, say participants, would not just be that of money for Zimbabwe, but of an annual event that has established itself as Africa’s leading book fair, and one with a unique flavour. Of those exhibiting at the fair — publishers, booksellers and traders — some 45% are Zimbabwean, 35% are from the rest of Africa, and around 20% are non- African in origin.
Apart from the exhibitors’ stalls, there is a wealth of workshops and indabas, drawing some 200 writers from all over the world, though Africans predominate. Exhibitors are able to use the fair to tackle the problems that beset publishing in Africa, making valuable contacts, exchanging ideas and extending their commercial enterprises.
Publishers such as Cape Town’s Kwela Books, for instance, aim to produce popular, affordable and entertaining books for people who have been disadvantaged in the past.
”I came to Zimbabwe this year to meet people from the region with specific business deals in mind and I succeeded,” said Kwela’s Annari van der Merwe. ”But perhaps more important to us South Africans, coming to the ZIBF helps us begin to understand how the rest of Africa works.”
Literacy organisation the New Readers Project of Durban found the ZIBF ”invaluable” in making contacts and selling its titles to the libraries of the region.
”In First World publishing, rare are the people committed to African literature,” said Jan Kees van de Werk, a Dutch publisher of African literature. ”I feel like a tree calling for other trees to come and form a forest! Once a year we come here, meet with like-minded people and are reminded why we are doing it.”
”This is the only meeting place for so many varied levels of book-related activities,” said Peter Ripken of the Society for the Promotion of African, Asian and Latin American Literature in Frankfurt. ”We’re here to see what’s happening in the region and promote it in Europe. We have a small scheme sponsoring a few people to come to the Frankfurt Book Fair so they can see what’s happening in Europe and perhaps sell rights to their publications — but it can never be in the same atmosphere as here.”
And the ambience of the ZIBF, housed in cutely thatched stalls located in the open air of the Harare Gardens in the centre of the city, is a large part of its appeal.
”Large European commercial book fairs are entirely intimidating and demoralising,” said Irene Staunton of Zimbabwe’s Baobab and Academic Books. ”Here people come to see us on our own terms, because they’re genuinely interested and positive.”
The representative of a Swiss collective of 22 publishers said that ”the ZIBF is very professional and international — but unlike Frankfurt, where appointments are set up at 15-minute intervals, here you have time to talk. There’s a warm atmosphere — – no stress. You meet publishers and writers from places like Jamaica and India, but above all, Africa. It’s a network of people devoted to African issues. And it works.”
Paul Brickhill, ZIBF trustee, bookseller and publisher, says: ”This is where it’s real. There are 1 000 people all in the business, talking about books. If you’re not here you don’t know what’s happening in African books.”