African Books Collective
The African Books Collective is a non-profit distribution and marketing collective owned by African publishers. Founded in 1989 and based in Oxford, United Kingdom, it enables publishers from across the African continent to reach international markets with their scholarly, literary, and children's books. Different from books by foreign authors, indigenous publishing reflects the history and culture of a people through language, writing, and the arts.
In the 21st century, more than 150 African publishers participate in ABC as a self-sufficient social enterprise to solve the problem of invisibility and dependence on outside distributors. Among ABC's major goals are support for African writers and scholars who are publishing with indigenous African publishers and by this, to give African publishing a noticeable, independent presence in the global book world.
Background
Before independence, most books in African countries were imported from abroad, which meant from publishers in colonial empires including France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany and Portugal, and written in European languages. These books and Eurocentric education were used in missionary or government schools to spread western culture and led to a disregard of African languages and identities. Domestic African publishing companies mainly produced newspapers or commercial printing products. Looking back on publishing in Africa after independence, Philip G. Altbach and Damtew Teffera wrote in their 1998 book Publishing and Development. A Book of Readings:After independence, most African governments adopted a dual strategy for public education: While primary schools are mainly teaching vernacular langages such as Kiswahili in Tanzania, secondary schools and colleges often use English or French. The textbooks, however, have still been mainly produced by international companies, such as Oxford University Press or Macmillan and their local subsidiaries. To produce the large numbers of schoolbooks for African students, international aid was often requested by governments. International aid policies in Africa—especially during the 1980s and 1990s—focused on supplying books to schools without considering their origin, cultural relevance, or developmental impact. These policies, shaped by mechanisms such as international competitive bidding, overwhelmingly favoured foreign publishers. As a result, African publishing houses were sidelined, creating an environment where many indigenous publishers struggled to stay afloat or were forced to shut down altogether.
Other structural challenges for publishers in Africa are copyright infringements and inadequate enforcement of copyright law, as well as few and underfunded public libraries. As books are often too expensive relative to their income, few Africans are reading for pleasure as opposed to practical books, such as dictionaries or required reading for education. Further, bookshops and stationary shops are rare, especially in rural areas, where school libraries are often the only places offering children suitable material for educational reading.
Despite of this, African publishers have been able to produce books locally, but international distribution has been challenging, as books rarely reached readers outside their country. As part of a country's sovereign cultural policy, however, its ability to protect, develop and share its identity, culture and knowledge through books and other media is fundamental.
History of ABC
During the early 1980s, books published in Africa could not be distributed internationally in any standardised way. They either had to be bought locally by interested buyers or shipped from the individual publisher to their customers. In 1985 a meeting of 17 African publishers addressed their shared difficulties in marketing, distributing, and receiving foreign exchange from international sales. To overcome this, African publishers in 1989 created the African Books Collective as a shared solution. Instead of each publisher working alone, they pooled efforts into one collective. They chose to base ABC in Oxford, UK, to make access to global markets, bookstores, and libraries easier than before. With initial support from Northern funding agencies and an initial payment of £1000 by the core group of founder publishers, ABC set out in 1990 to strengthen its members’ economic base and serve the needs of libraries and other buyers.One of the founders was Kenyan publisher and Chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association Henry Chakava. After ABC started, he held a permanent position at the Council of Management of ABC. Another co‑founder and leading member of ABC has been Tanzanian publisher Walter Bgoya. As an example of ABC's role, Bgoya's publishing house Mkuki na Nyota has been able to produce as many as 30–60 titles per year, further strengthening its role in promoting Kiswahili literature on the international level. By 2007s, ABC represented books by more than 130 African publishers and had become self-financing.
Operations
Ownership and governance
ABC is registered in the UK as a company limited by guarantee and governed by a five-member Council of Management elected by its publisher-owners. It also maintains three UK directors who are legally responsible for the entity. In the 2020s, the six members of ABC's Council of Management are Ibrahim Oanda, Kiarie Kamau,, Tapiwa Muchechemera,, Akoss Ofori-Mensah and Francois van Schalkwyk.Distribution and marketing
ABC operates a warehouse in the UK to ship print books worldwide. It distributes over 3,000 African-published titles via print-on-demand both in the UK and the US, and e-book formats to the global market. Through their participation in book fairs and conferences, periodic catalogues, newsletters, social media and their blog readafricanbooks.com, ABC further promotes African books directly to authors, publishers and readers.A bespoke digital library launched in November 2022 contains over 2,000 digitized titles from approximately 75 independent African publishers, making it one of the largest available digital resources of African-published books. The platform includes multilingual content, mainly in English, but also including French, Portuguese, Yoruba and Kiswahili, and employs MARC standard records discoverable via OCLC and WorldCat. Further, it allows institutions to purchase the full library or curated collections. Through the Baobab eBook Service, ABC supplies libraries and consortia directly.
Publisher returns and sustainability
ABC seeks to maximize income remittances to African publishers. It raised the remittance share from 35% during the 2007 self-financing transition to approximately 50% in the 2020s. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of both digital and print titles grew, particularly from libraries seeking to diversify collections, helping ABC and publishing members withstand industry pressures.Reach and growth
In the 2020s, ABC's collection spans books from more than 150 publishers from over 20 nations, with a strong presence in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa and Nigeria contribute a particularly large share of the titles. They come from a diverse range of sources, including academic and university presses, research centers, commercial publishing houses, NGOs, and publishers specializing in literature for children and young readers.According to a 2020 interview with CEO Justin Cox, ABC had become independent of donor funding in 2007 after 15 years. It has since become a self-supporting social enterprise. Since 2002, ABC had started to produce books by print on demand and later also e-books, developing the digital tools for production and marketing along the way. Through this, the numbers of publishers and books sold have increased and ABC has been able to focus on additional marketing tasks, such as sending complimentary copies to reviewers or authors. ABC’s biggest market is in the United States, with Michigan State University Press as ABC's distributing partner. Other important markets are in China, Hong Kong, the UK, Germany, Canada, Japan, India, the Netherlands, France, and to a lesser degree, South Africa – particularly in digital sales.
Even though ABC is self-supporting, they announced receiving project-related grants in 2024 from the Hawthornden Foundation to support African publishers in countries with less developed literary production such as Mozambique. Another fund was awarded ABC by the US organization Lyrasis to publish some African books openly accessible.
Support for African creative writing
To support aspiring African literary writers, ABC and the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation organised the African-Writers Publishers Seminar in Tanzania in 1998. Based on this, writers James Gibbs and Jack Mapanje published The African Writers’ Handbook, providing practical information and resource materials about writing and finding a publisher, literary prizes, writers’ organisations, magazines, vanity and self-publishing, literary agents, censorship, book fairs, resources for writers on the Internet and more. Another manual for this kind of readership is the 2022 publication Become a Better Writer from South Africa. Further, ABC periodically publishes catalogue lists of new literary titles.Notable African literary authors and their publishers, including African women writers, whose books are distributed by ABC, include among others:
| Country | Works | Notable as | |
| Mariama Bâ | Senegal | Barua Ndefu Kama Hii, Kiswahili translation of So Long a Letter | Novelist |
| Ellen Banda-Aaku | Zambia | Wandi’s Little Voice, Patchwork | Prize-winning novelist and children’s author |
| Edwige-Renée Dro | Côte d’Ivoire | Contributions to Africa39, New Daughters of Africa | Literary activist, translator |
| Abdulrazak Gurnah | UK/Tanzania | Peponi | Writer, Nobel Prize Laureate |
| Aniceti Kitereza | Tanzania | Mr. Myombekere and His Wife Bugonoka | Novelist |
| Goretti Kyomuhendo | Uganda | The First Daughter, Promises | Writer, Femrite & African Writers Trust founder |
| Taban Lo Liyong | South Sudan/Uganda | Three Poems from The Cows from Shambat | Scholar-author |
| Azanwi Nchami | Cameroon | Foot Prints of Destiny | Historically-themed novelist |
| Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o | Kenya | Mtawa Mweusi, Kiswahili translation of The Black Hermit, Shetani Msalabani | Writer and academic |
| Francis B. Nyamnjoh | Cameroon/South Africa | A Sweet-Footed African | Scholar-author |
| Okot p'Bitek | Uganda | The Defence of Lawino, Song of Ocol, White Teeth | Poet and novelist |
| Hilda Twongyeirwe | Uganda | Fina the Dancer and other works | Literary activist, editor, FEMRITE coordinator |
| Ayeta Anne Wangusa | Uganda | Memoirs of a Mother, Tears of Hope | FEMRITE founder, contributor to New Daughters of Africa |