Yesterday, we published an article - "Dear Contemporary African Writer, We Read; We Just Don't Read You" by Chisom Nlebedum (http://www.nkenu.com/2016/07/in-response-to-dear-contemporary.html) which was on Nairaland's frontpage. Well, Maxwell Unuafe disagrees with some of the points raised.

It is a fact that a society that ignores it past would make the same mistakes its ancestors did, again and again. This shows that such a society is either made up of ignorant people or those that do not just care about growing or moving with the new trends and innovations that the modern world has to offer. You may ask 'why this premise?' The reason is this; Nlebedum wrote that Africans read , but not books written by African authors, reasons being that the works of African authors are either not made available or not affordable to the general public.

He also asserted that most works by African authors are still dealing with issues that hold no relevance to contemporary society. He inferred that writers and publishers of this part of the globe have not yet embraced the potentials that internet publishing offers, innovations and technologies which many African readership have embraced because of its relative ease, and the wide range of audience it covers.

With due respect to Mr. Nlebedum, I admire your astuteness, but beg to differ on some issues you raised. African books are online, and are made available to the emerging African readership, though in a budding stage. It is based on this that websites such as amazon.com; an online sales store where e-books and paperback, are sold amidst a wide range of other products. I happen to have come across books such as Nnedi Okoroafor's 'Akata Witch', 'Who Fears Death' and a list of African authors and books. You get these books in different format for a price, some less than a dollar.

There is also Authopedia, a website that creates a platform for young Africans to share their works and also read works of other authors for free. Another is the Africanbookclub.com. It does publishing and even awards the writers by organizing competitions and more.

Another is Global Grey African Genres E-books that made downloading of books easy and they have a range of African e-books available. Perresia Press, a publishing firm also focus on African books, and have Chika Unigwe's 'Night Dancer' in e-book format. Even Farafina Press as well as Cassava Books also make e-books available. These among many others make books available to the Nigerian readership and Africans at large. To conclude that authors do not make their books available would be a little far from the truth. Indeed we have such experiences in not so long a time, but such are being dealt with, as new young publishers are emerging from the African shore everyday. And yes, they are grabbing the opportunities that current technologies have to offer. Some do it on their personal blog where works of budding authors are made available.

I believe the questions we should be asking are: how many Nigerians have access to such sophisticated devices? Even if they do, how many actually know what to search for online? And how many are ready to go through the rigorous process of purchasing online without the fear of getting scammed, or their credit card getting hacked. We live in an age where so many positive things are made available to us, so are the many negative ones. I also know for a fact that not many Nigerians appreciate good creative fictional works. They would rather go for the random motivational or wealth creation books, which I yet to see such books help anyone in real life. And again, just as you pointed out, most 'big bookstores' only stock religious books - that I believe is based on the kind of society we are in, with over zealous religious folks who I must say are reading African books as well as Western ones.

On the point of relegating some factions of our stories to the realm of oral literature, I don't see how that is possible. This is because our cultures are dying, and we have parents who have no idea about the tenets of the positive aspect of their culture, let me not even mention teaching it to their children. And how many books do we have available that teaches the young about Africa from the African eyes, and not from the Western or religious perspective. So those are still relevant, we should not forget our past so soon.

However, it is a plus to know that as a people from the African continent, we have been able to debunk the biased notion that "when you want to hide something from a Black man, put it in a book". And yes, Africans of the 21st century are embracing the world's development and movements, and so are its writers and publishers. Of notes are works such as Chimamanda's 'Americanah', Ngugi wa Thiongo's 'Nairobi Heat', Nnedi Okoroafor's 'Lagoon',
Lauren Beuke's 'Zoo City' and many others.

We are getting there, and we will.

Source: http://www.nkenu.com/2016/07/in-response-to-dear-contemporary.html

cc Lalasticlala Ishilove

musicwriter surfboard onegai bestestgirl ....this is a response to the previous article

Some of us don't like e-books, gives us eye strain. I wouldn't know where to start looking even.

Uniport Alumni una too dey show yourself sha

Suigeneris93:
Uniport Alumni una too dey show yourself sha

Lol. You know the writers?

Decent counter-argument to the points raised in the first article.

For those who can't stand e-books, I believe Booksellers sell books from African authors. They have shops in Ibadan and Abuja...maybe Lagos as well(not so sure about Lagos).

Azed1 also recommended Terakulture in Lagos.

AnonymX:


Lol. You know the writers?

Yep