The
Origins of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair Established
1983
(Paper by
Phyllis Johnson; (co-founder of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair)
Hon. Minister of
Primary and Secondary Education, Mr Lazarus Dokora
Diplomats and
other distinguished guests and supporters of ZIBF
The Chairman and
members of the General Council of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair
Association, and Honorary Members
And the Chairman
and members of the Executive Board
Colleagues and
Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen
May I just begin
by saying Makorokoto, Amhlope,
Congratulations to Minister Dokora on his appointment. The ZIBF is a suitable
start to your service… We look forward to advances in education under your
leadership, and of course education needs people such as the participants here,
that is writers, publishers, illustrators, editors, printers, booksellers,
students and youth … and readers. I should emphasise that this is a
well-developed and talented industry in Zimbabwe, but it is a business and the
supply chain needs to be hard working and efficient, and also needs to be able
to eat. It is a dynamic industry that has been, and can be again, a significant
contributor to the Zimbabwe’s economic recovery.
May I also say
to Musa Zimunya, the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Zimbabwe
International Book Fair Association, that you and your colleagues are doing a
remarkable job here under your leadership, with vision and substance, with a
holistic perspective that is inclusive, not exclusive, and you should be warmly
congratulated and strongly supported. I hope that the private sector and the
donors and the minister will take note…
I have been
asked to talk about ZIBF at 30 since I was involved in the initiation and
development of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in 1983, with my late
husband, David Martin, who was the Founding Director. In reviewing my archives,
I found a document that said I was the treasurer, so I suppose I was tasked
with raising the funds, we certainly didn’t have much to spend when we started.
There were other key people involved and I will come to that in a moment but
first I want to reflect on your theme for this year -- ZIBF@30: Enabling Creativity, Writing, Publishing and Reading for
Africa’s Growth.
I think the
theme for this year, when the book fair is 30, says it all, and the theme for
this year actually removes the need for a keynote address, because it tells us
why the book fair was founded… to enable creativity, writing, publishing and
reading for Africa’s growth. So, happy
30th birthday, the vision is still very much alive and growing.
We
can unpack that briefly… The book fair was conceived through a series of
encounters, comments and suggestions leading to a vision that spread and gained
momentum. But first you need to understand the context. This country, Zimbabwe,
was just 3 years old when the first book fair took place, in a country that was
the sweetheart of Africa, from its own population right across the continent,
and up and down, everyone wanted to come to Zimbabwe, to see and feel this new
place, so attracting visitors was not difficult at all. The book fair and the workshops were richly
subscribed from across the continent. The best books in Africa were on display.
The vision grew
out of a simple question by then Prime Minister R.G. Mugabe, now President, who
wanted to know what publishers were doing to bridge the communication gap on a
continent where writers of literature wrote mostly in the colonial languages,
with a few exceptions, and could not read each other’s work. The point was that
to increase understanding, cooperation and development in Africa, the barriers
of language need to be bridged.
The French
cultural officer in 1982 was a man called Alain Sancerni, who was an ardent
facilitator of cultural exchange, primarily African cultural exchange, his wife
was and is Ethiopian, and his roots were and are in Africa. He took the three
ZPH directors off to meet French-speaking African authors and publishers. He
also funded a number of translations to English, and in addition to French, we
managed to raise funds to include two books written in Portuguese, from Angola
and Mozambique. More on that later. The three directors were David and myself,
and Zimbabwe’s literary icon, Charles Mungoshi. So we were well supported in
discussing literature. Charles had the frustrating experience of meeting
French-speaking writers such as Mongo Beti, whom he could not communicate with.
The classic
comment in this regard came later from Jean-Marie Adiaffi, a writer from Cote
d’Ivoire who had just won a prestigious French literary award. He attended the
first book fair, and Bridget Katiyo translated his book. When Charles and I
handed him a copy of his book The
Identity Card, published in Zimbabwe in English, he beamed… He said, “Now I
have written a book I cannot read!”
The trio from
Zimbabwe went on to London courtesy of UNESCO to attend the second World
Congress on Books. This was accompanied by a display of books by African
writers and publishers at the Africa Centre in London, intended to circulated
in Europe, and titled Bookweek Africa. In opening the Bookweek display, the
UNESCO director-general, M. Amadou M’Bow from Senegal, expressed the hope that
the exhibit would “spread beyond the bounds of London” and be seen in Africa.
Another seed had been planted…
This is where we
met Hans Zell of the African Book Publishing
Record, who showed a similar dedication by publishing an annual record of
books published in Africa. He also administered the Noma Award for Publishing
in Africa, and he invited us to host that award in Zimbabwe. But, he said, it
needs to be associated with an event. Charles was excited, we were all excited,
and together we agreed with Hans Zell that we should bring the Bookweek Africa
display to Zimbabwe and host the presentation of the Noma Award for Publishing
in Africa.
As a result of
all this, the Noma Award was presented in Zimbabwe during the Bookweek Africa
display from 23-27 August 1983. The award was won by Justice Austin Amissah for
his book on Criminal Justice in Ghana, published by Sedco in Accra. The
ceremony was attended by Hans Zell and by the founder of the award, Shoichi
Noma from Japan. The award was presented by a published Zimbabwean author who
also happened to be the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development,
Dr Bernard Chidzero. Dr Chidzero urged African authors to take on their
responsibility to work with the publishing industry in Africa, to publish
locally, and thus save foreign currency on the import of books as well as
earning through export.
Hans Zell knew
about book fairs, as he had initiated the successful Ife book fair in Nigeria,
and he helped David and Charles and the staff of Zimbabwe Publishing House to
set up Bookweek Africa. The commitment and dedication of the ZPH staff cannot
be overemphasized, including Taine Mundondo, Mavis Chirekeni, Liz Matavire,
Lazarus Gandanzara, Nicholas Murove and others.
Although there
were few financial resources, there was enthusiastic support from the
publishing industry, authors and the Government of Zimbabwe. The Minister of
Information of Information, Post and Telecommunications, Dr Nathan Shamuyarira,
who was another published Zimbabwean author, was fully supportive and chaired
the organizing committee, perhaps the equivalent to your ZIBFA General Council.
The other members, in addition to the founders, included Dr Stan Made who was
Chairman of the Zimbabwe Library Association; Father Plangger, the head of
Mambo Press in Gweru; Christopher Till, Director of the National Gallery of
Zimbabwe, ably represented when absent by his deputy, Doreen Sibanda, who is
now the Director in her own right; and Ashabai Chinyemba and Aaron Mudapakati
from the Ministry.
As the date
approached and it became apparent that Dr Shamuyarira would not be in the
country at the time of the event, he gave one instruction to his deputy
minister, Dr Naomi Nhiwatiwa. His instruction to her was… if David asks for
anything while I’m away… say Yes. Although Bookweek Africa came with its own
display stands, there was no infrastructure for local exhibitors. So the
ministry’s Production Services department was an essential resource in building
and setting up the stands.
Dr
Chidzero’s ministry assisted with the task of getting the books into the
country through customs. And there it was, the first Zimbabwe international book
fair was opened by the first Minister of Education and Culture, Dr Dzingai
Mutumbuka, who urged the exhausted organizers that this should become an annual
event. He was very committed to strengthening the focus on books and learning
and reading, and he spent considerable time at the fair looking at books, as
did the then Prime Minister, R.G. Mugabe.
This event now
had a display of African books and a prestigious award presentation, it needed
writers from across the continent, and Alain Sancerni again found some
resources and mobilized others. Among his other achievements was the
responsibility for bringing home the then not so well known Dambudzo Marechera,
but more on that later. …
Norway, Sweden
and Denmark who have supported the book fair through the years, were there at
the start. The organizing committee was chaired by Dr Emmanuel Ngara, who was
head of the English department at the University of Zimbabwe. The members
included the late Toby Moyana from the Ministry of Education and Culture, who
was instrumental in Africanizing the literature curriculum and ensuring that
students could study African writers and have access to their books; Charles
Mungoshi, who was Literary Director at ZPH, but did not like to reject any
manuscripts because he believed that every writer has something to say;
Chenjerai Hove, then an editor at Mambo Press; Kimani Gecau from the Zimbabwe
People’s Theatre Project, who later joined the University of Zimbabwe’s Department
of English where he has trained a generation
of students to think and write, and continues to do so; and Stephen Mpofu, a
knowledgeable young journalist from The Herald.
The writers workshop
was organized with the theme of “Communicating through Literature”, and writers
of literature turned up from all over the continent. They were too many to
mention here but they included Nuruddin Farah from Somalia; Lewis Nkosi, Nadine
Gordimer and Ingoapele Mandingoane from South Africa, Micere Mugo and David
Maillu from Kenya, Jack Mapanje from Malawi, Gabriel Okara from Nigeria, Ama
Ata Aidoo and Meshack Asare from Ghana. Zimbabwean writers who participated in
the workshop and also gave public readings in the First Street Mall, included,
in addition to Charles Mungoshi, Shimmer Chinodya, Stanley Nyamfukudza, and
Dambudzo Marechera.
African
publishers were key advisors and participants in the event, including the local
publishers of ZPH, Father Plangger of Mambo Press, Ben Mugabe of College Press,
Nda Dlodlo and Sam Mpofu of Longman Zimbabwe, and later Irene Staunton and
Murray McCartney of Baobab and then Weaver Press. From further afield, we were
able to count on support and draw ideas and advice from such experienced
colleagues as Walter Bgoya of Tanzania Publishing House who later started his
own publishing house, Mkuki na Nyota; Henry Chakava of Heinemann East Africa
which later became East African Educational Books; Ravan Press from South
Africa; Victor Nwankwo and Joop Berkhout, among others from Nigeria; and
Richard Crabbe from Ghana. Later, after Namibia’s independence, came Jane
Katjavivi from New Namibia Books, now the Publisher at University of Namibia
Press.
James Currey and
Penny Butler from Heinemann African Writers Series and Heinemann Educational
Books, Tony Zerbrugg from Third World Publications were early and consistent
supporters of the book fair, and so too was Mary Jay of the African Books
Collective, which was established much later. Peter Ripken from the Society for
African and Third World Literature in Germany came and supported the ZIBF, and
later invited the organizers to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1985 with a
joint exhibition of African publishers.
And of course…
the public. One of the many comments about the first Zimbabwe International
Book Fair said, “The response of the public has been really tremendous. The
pre-fair publicity and advertising has clearly done the trick. And there has
been a never-ending stream of visitors. I made some good contacts.”
The second ZIBF
in 1984 as I recall did not have a specific theme or conference… we had enough
challenges just holding the book fair after we were evicted from our home at
the National Gallery because the then director inherited at independence, did
not think it appropriate to have so many people in his gallery, while our
objective was to introduce more people to the National Gallery who had never
gone there before. So the second book
fair was held at Kingstons, a commercial bookseller, who cleared out space to
hold it mainly during a weekend from 28 September -1 August 1984. It was
different, very crowded and very successful, with as many exhibitors as could
fit into the space. Dr Shamuyarira opened the second ZIBF. The Noma Award was presented again during
ZIBF to Professor Njabulo Ndebele from South Africa.
By the time of
the third ZIBF in 1985, the director of the National Gallery had changed to Dr
Cyril Rodgers and we had negotiated our way back in, hosting a workshop to
accompany the book fair at the same venue, with the theme of “Books for, by and
about Women” to mark the end of the UN Decade for Women. Women writers came
from Zimbabwe and all over the continent, including Nawal el Sadaawi from Egypt,
Micere Mugo from Kenya and Mabel Sagan from Ghana, as well as Irvashi Butalia
from India and others; and publishers launched new books by women writers.
Local participants included publisher/writers Barbara Makhalisa and Tisa
Chifunyise, Olivia Muchena from the University of Zimbabwe, now Minister of
Higher and Tertiary Education, and Sekai Holland from the Zimbabwe Institute of
Mass Communications.
We had to skip
1986 for various reasons but the fourth ZIBF in 1987 matched the enthusiasm of
the first in its local and continental support. This was opened by the
Mozambican Minister of Culture, Luis Bernardo Honwana, who is also a published
author of literature. That year had a deep connection to this year… when we
have lost the grandfather of written African literature, Chinua Achebe. The
theme “Children’s Literature in Africa and the Third World” drew authors from a
wide range of countries who presented papers, including Cyrpian Ekwensi, Kole
Omotoso and Chinua Achebe, all from Nigeria, and Ngugi wa Thi’ongo from Kenya,
and included many of the local writers, including Ngugi wa Mirii.
Achebe delivered
a handwritten paper on “Children’s Literature in Africa”. He told the story of searching for books for
his four-year-old daughter and finding only what he called “beautifully
packaged poisons” which if they mentioned Africa at all, showed its inhabitants
as witchdoctors wearing feathers and climbing coconut palms. He concluded that,
“We must all get cracking and produce in far greater numbers than we do at
present and at better quality the books that will sustain the imaginative life
of African children.”
We had a short
flurry of children’s books such as Meshack Asare’s beautifully illustrated
story book about Great Zimbabwe, Chipo
and the Bird on the Hill – a tale of ancient Zimbabwe, that followed his
Noma Award for The Brassman’s Secret.
But really, 25 years after Achebe’s plea, have we really progressed much in
producing well-illustrated stories for our children? And if produced, would
these be bought and read anyway? These decisions involve not only parents, but
also nursery schools and the educational system.
There is another
image to give to Minister Dokoro from that visit to Zimbabwe by Chinua Achebe
in 1987. He was so excited and inspired
to be here, in this newly emerging country, and he was treated like a pop star,
by the general population. From the time he stepped off the plane, from the
baggage handlers to customs and immigration, everyone knew him, they had
studied his novels in school, they recognized him and they welcomed an
opportunity to talk to him, and so did he. This happened throughout his short
visit to Zimbabwe. He talked to people, and they talked to him. We mourn his
loss this year, and we remember this legacy of his classic work, but somehow I
wonder if he had come more recently to visit Zimbabwe, whether he and his
writing would have been recognized in the street in the same way…
This was also
the historic year when James Currey, who founded the Heinemann African Writers
Series with Chinua Achebe and Allan Hill, decided to go it alone and establish
the now very successful James Currey Publishers. He told us later that he had
watched us doing book schedules and costings for ZPH in our collaboration with
Heinemann, and he had decided that if we could do that, so could he! All of
these things spun off or were influenced by the Zimbabwe International Book
Fair.
We
had our own teething problems, we had to learn things while doing them. I did
something during the first year, which must have been in my capacity as
Treasurer, that inadvertently generated one of the enduring “moments in
history” of the early ZIBF. I thought that because the visiting writers would
all have per diems to buy meals and drinks, and this socializing was important
when they were all together here in the same city, that local writers, most of
whom didn’t have any money, should also get a small per diem so they could
spend time with the visitors.
Well, we had
recently published The House of Hunger,
and our author Dambuzdo Marechera used up his per diem in a matter of hours in
the bar and spent the night sleeping in a gutter on one of the roads near the
National Gallery. He had not quite slept it off when he woke up and dusted off
to attend the writers workshop on “Communicating through Literature”. He began
talking loudly and interjecting comments during the presentations, until the distinguished
participants were getting very upset. One of them was Dr Eddison Zvobgo, the
Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, and a writer in his own right… and he
eventually took Dambudzo by the arm and led him downstairs and out to his
ministerial car. But on the way down the stairs through the gallery, Dambudzo
spotted me and began yelling racial abuse across the gallery.
I’ll have to shorten
this story because it goes on and on, but briefly, he then started a rumour
that he had been arrested and was in jail, and the visiting writers, who felt
he did not deserve this, got up a petition. The petition was hastily withdrawn
after they discovered the truth of the matter, that he had been driven in a
ministerial Mercedes and dropped off at Africa Unity square. He told me later
that he thought it a more effective literary drama to start a rumour than to
walk back to the workshop.
Suffice to say
that the following week, he knocked on the door of my office in then Union
Avenue (now Kwame Nkrumah) and came in, sat down, smiled and apologized. “I’m
sorry for my behaviour last week,” he said, “I’ve come to get a royalty
advance!”
Dambudzo was
very disarming, he had a wide smile and he certainly needed his royalties. But
first, I asked him why he did it, why racial abuse directed at me? “Well” he
said, “its an easy way to get attention isn’t it?” And what about the rumour
that he was in jail? Oh, he was very proud of that one, he thought it was a
good dramatic stroke. And that was the point about the late writer, Dambudzo
Marechera. It was like he threw pebbles into the water to watch the ripples. He
wasn’t crazy at all except when he was drunk, but he was an exceptionally good
actor and he used his skills to effect, including disrupting the first book
fair and the writers workshop. He would like this, the publicity he’s getting
now, and he is part of the story of the book fair.
There was
another incident, not involving Dambudzo but one of his books, that the
Minister should take note of. This was the period of trying to Africanize the
literature curriculum which was still inherited from Cambridge and mostly
European, so there was a process of pushing through literature by African
writers for use in schools. It was a hard struggle to begin with but after the
decision was taken, the trickle turned to a flood. One day we got the happy
news that another of Dambudzo’s books which we had licensed from Heinemann,
called Black Sunlight, was approved as
a resource book for primary schools. I was apparently the only person in the
publishing house who had read this book, so I took it up with the editors and
with David and Charles, and they sent me off to find the relevant official in
the Ministry of Education. Black Sunlight
contains lurid descriptions of explicit sex, and it was lucky to pass the
censor board let alone get into primary schools. Like the Ministry, we had
published initially without reading the book! So they had another look and
raised its rating to secondary and tertiary study only….
The small but
hard-working staff of the newborn Zimbabwe Publishing House which we had
started were all key in the initiation of the book fair in various ways, and I
mention among them notably Charles Mungoshi, who was then a ZPH director; and
Taine Mundondo, who became the marketing director and later, as you know, was
for many years the Executive Director of the African Publishers Network (APNET)
where she worked tirelessly to promote publishing in Africa. She is now at
Zimbabwe Women Writers and I hope she is here with us today. I’m sorry to
mention you Taine, I know you’re not old enough to have been involved in book
publishing for 30 years, but neither am I! We started young…
The Zimbabwe
International Book Fair has had its ups and down over the period, and in many
ways, it is a miracle that it has survived. However, that miracle, in my view,
is human-generated, based on the vision and hard work of the publishers and
writers among others, and those who continued the work and expanded the fair. I
hesitate to name names because I will certainly miss some, please know that you
are included, but I must mention in chronological order, the book fair
directors, including Anne Knuth, Hugh Lewin, Trish Mbanga, as well as all of
those who later formed and lead the Zimbabwe International Book Fair
Association, including Greenfield Chilongo of ZimCopy who organized the book
fair for several years under very challenging circumstances, and later Dr
Carelse and Musaemura Zimunya as mentioned earlier, and Ruth Shato, the events
coordinator, your sterling work is recognized and appreciated. The support of
the local publishers and writers has been essential in keeping their book fair alive
and growing …
Thirty years is
a good age for introspection and reflection on where you have been and where
you want to go. The book fair is no exception to that, and I want to offer you
a short closing thought that essentially sums up what you are doing, and
confirm that this continuing vision was the vision of the founders of the book
fair….
I hope you can
draw ideas from my presentation, and dust off the archives and see what gems
you can find there. Moving the book fair around the country to other cities was
always a dream and it is now a dream that you have made into reality. Having a
permanent home with year-round organizing staff with long-term planning capacity
was another dream, now reality. The achievements are many, you have come a long
way….
Moving with the
times into technology and digital publishing is essential for the survival of
the industry, or we will lose the content battle for young African hearts and
minds who want to know who they are. That is a challenge not only to the ZIBFA
but also to the writers and publishing industry. Sustaining and strengthening all
of the links in the publishing chain right through printing and distribution,
is important to us here in Zimbabwe, where this vital, competitive publishing industry
is admired in other countries who do not have this luxury of working together
to develop education and youth, literature for children and adults, and
Reading…
We must all
continue to write, publish and communicate, as noted by the founder of ZIBF,
David Martin, to “increase understanding, cooperation and development in
Africa”.
+ This was presented on 30 September 2013 at the ZIBF
Indaba in Harare. We reproduce it here with the author’s permission.
