1992, are five publishers from Nigeria, and one each from Kenya, Ghana and South
Africa.
It is cheaper and therefore easier to produce books for older children, where black ink
on fairly white paper (with perhaps a colour cover) is sufficient. Young children, who so
need to be attracted to books, seldom find more than an extra single colour to enliven their
picture books, and often the standard of illustration is not high. It is impossible in Africa
to earn a living by writing for children, so the published authors are either writers for
adults taking time off to write a junior story, or part-time (often mostly amateur)
authors. In many countries, the infrastructure is missing. As Tötemeyer has noted: ‘The
considerable potential writing talent in Africa is being frustrated by a totally depressed
publishing industry owing to a lack of foreign exchange to buy printing paper,
machinery, film, chemicals, plates and spare parts. Financial institutions in most
African countries do not as yet consider publishing a viable industry to lend money to’
(10).
Add to this the lowest literacy rate of all the continents in the world. Then add to that
the multiplicity of languages. In Nigeria alone there are 395 languages. Ghana has over
forty and has attempted to produce books in eleven of these. Kenya has forty or more
languages, with Swahili as the official language, though few Swahili books have been
published. Zambia has seven official languages. South Africa now has eleven officially
recognized languages; most children receive their first two years of schooling in their
mother tongue. Who is to blame education authorities for using with relief the huge
reservoir of children’s literature available in English? Indeed, soon after independence,
Namibia (which has the largest number of Afrikaans speakers of any country in Africa)
opted for English as the official language for all education. Zambia too chose English as
the language of instruction in education since it was seen as a neutral language which
would give no undue advantage to any one ethnic group. However, it has now been
found that English has created ‘a dichotomy between those who can, by virtue of their
education participate, and those who cannot, for lack of it’ (Siachitema 1992:19). The
prominence given to English has made the local languages valueless in terms of career
advancement. In the face of such linguistic problems and present economic recession,
one can only praise the creators of the books which have been published.
West AfricaAmong the titles which have attracted international acclaim from West Africa are The
Brassman’s Secret by Meshack Asare, How the Leopard Got His Claws by Chinua
Achebe, while the IBBY Honour List for 1992 includes author Abenaa Korama for The
Cats and the Mice and illustrator Therson Boadu for Island of No Return (both from
Ghana).
Nigerian society is harshly polarised (as in so many African countries) into the literate
minority and the illiterate majority. So it is not surprising to find the young heroes and
heroines portrayed as ambitious, eager children ‘whose main ambition is to go to school’
(Lawal 1989:11). The pioneer series in Nigerian children’s literature is the African
Reader’s Library, where readers encounter such redeeming adventures as Akpan and the
Smugglers by Rosemary Uwemedimo in which a boy struggling to restore his family’s
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