Nigeria has never been short of writers, even before the advent of colonialism, there has been a long tradition of literature in northern Nigeria, using ajami as a form of expression. The ancient Igbos had developed a writing system called Nsibidi, which has recently resurfaced in the blockbuster movie, Black Panther. Unfortunately, Nsibidi was never a mass literacy scheme as it was the exclusive preserve of the dibia as diviners and the priesthood and with the shadow of the British empire extending over the forest and savannah of Nigeria, Nsibidi was branded as pagan practice and discarded. And the scholars in northern Nigeria who for centuries have produced illuminating handwritten manuscripts were suddenly branded illiterates.
Over the years, Nigerian writers have adapted English and Roman alphabets as vehicles for storytelling, even in Hausa, where ajami, based on Arabic scripts has given way to the new alphabets. And since Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart tore wide the gates of Nigerian writing in English, there has been an endless stream of Nigerian writers.
The adoption of a new medium of storytelling meant the adoption of new dissemination methods. Gone were the days of handwritten manuscripts being traded by itinerant merchants of knowledge and in came the days of mass produced books, by publishers.
Publishers have become the gatekeepers of stories, they decide which stories audiences should read and which ones never make it past the slush pile into the hands of the readers.
Publishing in Nigeria has had a long and interesting history. By 1939 Rupert East and Abubakar Imam set up Gaskiya Cooperation, a publishing house in Zaria. Onitsha market literature was in full swing then and with the 1954 publication of Cyprian Ekwensi’s People of the City, which was the first book to garner international acclaim, Nigerian literature was on the cusp of taking off.
But the publishing houses with the clout and experience to push a book to its maximum potential were British owned. This perhaps drove the likes of Achebe and Amos Tutoula to seek publication with these houses. And when they succeeded, it opened many doors. Soon Heinemann Educational Books set up the African Writers Series which rapidly created a body of African literature in English to cater for the needs of a literature hungry continent, of people who wanted to see their likes in books. Hence the proliferation of postcolonial literature.
The collapse of the Nigerian publishing industry in the 1980s-thanks to the twin tackles from the economy and successive military regimes, has caused the tragic loss of the voice of a generation of Nigerian writers.
In those lean years, Nigerian writers struggled to find an outlet for their works, having been limited to self-publishing which left them with badly printed books, which they carried in the boots of their cars and have to give away free copies to friends, because they wanted to be read desperately.
But since the 2000s, things have been looking up. The likes of Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and Muhtar Bakare (no relations) decided to venture into traditional publishing in the mid 2000s. That this happened a few years after the return of democracy was in itself telling. That these two had no experience in publishing (Muhtar was a former banker and Bibi was an academic) is equally striking. The only thing they had in common was a passion to project Nigerian or African stories.
From Kachifo (Farafina) and Cassava Republic, other publishers have drawn courage and strength. In the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of publishing houses out there. Last year, Lola Shoneyin, novelist and director of the Ake Arts and Book Festival launched Ouida Books, acquiring rights for authors like Ayobami Adebayo and Odafe Atogun, both previously published abroad. She is however the first to publish Hadiza Isma Elrufai’s An Abundance of Scorpions. Former Farafina pair, Eghosa Imasuen and Anwuli Ojugwu birthed Narrative Landscape, which was set up in 2016 as a publishing service provider but has now morphed into a publishing house, stealing a march over Farafina by signing up Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. They have also published Ayisha Osori’s Love Does not Win Election.
This two, followed on from the efforts of Parresia, set up by Richard Ali and Azafi Omoluabi Ogosi.
There are other publishing houses that have carted to a niche audience, that don’t have the muscles of the aforementioned, or the capacity to generate as much bizz but these too have been chipping in to provide books to readers.
The many challenges these publishers face can only be explained by their executives, but it is daunting and one is often left amazed that they are able to stay afloat. The production chain is practically non-existent and has seen them finding innovative ways to find solutions, often outsourcing printing to India, Turkey or China, where is it far more cheaper than in Nigeria, and where they have an assurance of quality.
One of the biggest challenge has been the broken distribution chain that has hampered delivery of books to consumers across the country and the return of money to the publishers and their authors. This has had impacts on the profit margins, if one can call it that, that these publishers work in.
So these publishers have had to find other ways to boost their income. Since they often do not have the capital to publish all the books they would like, and since there are writers anxious to have their books published, some of these publishers have gone into vanity publishing, which rakes in the money that they turn in to pursue their passion of publishing quality literature. Others have gone into the text book market as schools are still the biggest consumers of books.
However, with this proliferation of publishers, there has been positive competition to find quality literature to produce. But with millions of writers submitting manuscripts during submissions windows and grossly understaffed publishers, it is safe to say a majority of those manuscripts will never leave the slush pile. A bitter reality for all the writers hoping to find publishers.
For now, there is a need to understand that the publishing industry is on the rise, it is nowhere near what it should be, and most of those running this business are learning on the job, driven only by their passion. But this passion has changed the narrative landscape of a people. And with persistence, it is going to be the huge business it is always meant to be.
