Heinemann African Writers Series axed

Bellagio Publishing Network Forum (Bellpubnet)
----------------------------------------------
There has been another stage in the degradation of the Heinemann's African Writers Series. It lays the way open for new work in the African writers Series to be published in Africa. At the beginning of 2003 it emerged that no new titles would be added to the Series. Now, because British government spending on British school textbooks has been cut, 30 members of the the International Division at Heinemann were made redundant in July 2003 by the new Harcourt management. The overseas part of Heinemann which had contributed so much to the development of education in Africa, and had in the boom years made so much money out of Africa, is no more.

Ever since Ngugi's Weep Not, Child was accepted as number 7 in the African Writers Series Heinemann has published new writing as well as reprints of books which had been published by other publishers within Africa and across the world. The Series has introduced all sorts of writers to a world market who would only otherwise have only made a mark in their own countries.

The African Writers Series was founded in 1962 with Chinua Achebe as Editorial Adviser. For the first twenty years, until the Nigerian foreign exchanges closed in April 1982, it sold eighty per cent of copies in Africa. The 'Orange Series', as it was nicknamed, was a delight for people who wanted to learn about Africa through the imaginations of writers.
In the mid-eighties Heinemann was passed in five years between four owners and is now in the Reed-Elsevier Anglo-Dutch media multinational.

For the second twenty years the market for the Series has had mostly to be in the rich world of Europe and America. In the years of structural adjustment the market in Africa itself to some extent revived. Some committed people in the International Division of Heinemann had, until up until the end of the fortieth anniversary year 2002, managed to keep some new writing appearing in the Series.

The last remaining hope is that Heinemann in Johannesburg (who have managed to avoid being called by the new group name of Harcourt) have been negotiating to have the right to take on new writing for inclusion in the African Writers Series. While the British and American companies would continue to profit by selling titles in the African Writers Series backlist the Series could be given new life from Africa. I hope that there will be a new publishing initiative within Africa. It is up to the Africans to seize the initiative and for there to be a new stage in the African Writers Series.

James Currey

James Currey was the editor in charge of the African Writers Series from
1967 to 1984.