problems of post-colonialism—continuing links with European countries, poverty, low
literacy levels, conflict between cultural groups and problems of production and
distribution which make it difficult to produce good quality children’s books suited to
local needs. While English, French or Portuguese may be the language of business,
hundreds of local languages and dialects at once preserve the oral tradition and
exacerbate the difficulties of producing printed text. The English-speaking colonies were
generally left with a basic network of public libraries, much of which has been
maintained. Before independence, major British publishers were involved in producing
educational texts for local needs, and in Nigeria and Ghana, for example, texts by local
writers were being produced as early as the 1920s (Segun 1992:26–27). Equally, some
benefits came in the 1960s from the interest of British publishers in producing stories
which reflected life in the newly independent African nations, partly to meet the needs of
immigrants into Britain.
There were different attitudes in French-speaking Africa: there was not the same
network of public libraries, and there seems to have been much less effort to provide
books relevant to African children. A Peace Corps volunteer working in Senegal in the
1970s commented on the lack of motivation amongst Senegalese children when faced
with French texts about rosy-cheeked, blond French children (Melching 1981:7).
Of the Portuguese-speaking countries, Angola, which became independent in 1975,
seems to be the most advanced in terms of children’s literature. A National Institute for
Books and records was set up in 1977 and after 1980 attention began to focus on
children’s books. The need to encourage the local languages is recognised, and
workshops have been organised to encourage Angolan writers to write for children. As
early as 1980, a book in Portuguese, As Aventuras de Ngunga (1980) by Pepetela—a
story about a young Angolan orphan boy, who goes to live in a guerrilla camp and
becomes involved in the fight against Portuguese colonialism—was imported from Brazil.
Sagrada Esperanca [Sacred Hope], a book of poetry by Agostinho Neto, is known to every
Angolan child.
In Africa, as elsewhere, magazines for children have played a part in providing
attractive reading material at a reasonable price. In the 1970s, the Centre d’Etude des
Civilisations in Senegal launched a magazine, Demb ak Tey [Yesterday and Today] to
promote the traditions of black Africa and to provide poems and stories related to the
lives and interests of African children for as wide a public as possible. Rainbow was
started in Kenya in 1976 with similar aims—to publish non-imperialistic English
language reading material for children; locally produced material has gradually replaced
imported writing. Ngouvou [Hippopotamus], founded in 1988, is both educational and
entertaining—but the only such magazine published in the Congo.
Great encouragement has been given to African publishers by the Noma Award,
founded in 1979 by the late Shoichi Noma of Kodansha Limited, a Japanese publishing
firm. Despite many problems, an indigenous African children’s literature is developing
slowly but surely.
Children’s picture books are particularly subject to economic pressures. The costs of
originating full-colour illustrations are high and need to be spread over as many copies
as possible. Even those countries with high book sales find it advantageous to produce
co-editions, where publishers in a number of countries agree to publish a book
650 THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE