Histories of Publishing under Apartheid: Oxford University Press in South Africa

Davis, Caroline

doi:10.1080/03057070.2011.552545

Cited by 40 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Unable to go back to Kenya after three years in solitary confinement for a political pamphlet in 1972, Mombasa-born poet and activist Abdilatif Abdalla joined the Institute of Kiswahili Research at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), where he spent seven years (see Kresse 2016). He met Bgoya through his Nairobi-based brother Abdilahi Nassir, then Swahili editor of Oxford University Press (OUP) in East Africa, which had a branch in Dar es Salaam (on OUP in East Africa, see Davis 2011). Abdalla and Bgoya became friends.…”

Section: Tph: the Golden Period Of Tanzanian Publishingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Debates on African publishing and book history have revolved around writers’ and publishers’ autonomy, international trends, copyright, the language question, textbooks and scholarly publishing, and hopes for the future (Altbach 1987; Kamau and Mitambo 2016; Larson 2001; Ngobeni 2010; Van der Vlies 2012). Important interventions have been made by scholars and publishers from the global North with an acute awareness of African constraints (Currey 1986; Davis 2011; Zell 1990; 1998; 2016). Henry Chakava, founder of East African Educational Publishers in Nairobi, and James Tumusiime, creator of Fountain Publishers in Kampala, have addressed these issues in their autobiographies (Chakava 1996; Tumusiime 2014).…”

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Dreams and constraints of an African publisher: Walter Bgoya, Tanzania Publishing House and Mkuki na Nyota, 1972–2020

Suriano¹

2021

Africa

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This article explores the history of two Tanzanian publishing houses and the remarkable life and career of Walter Bgoya, former general manager of Tanzania Publishing House (1972–90) and managing director of Mkuki na Nyota, which he founded in 1991. Using the lens of microhistory, and drawing from extensive interviews with Bgoya and conversations with two colleagues and three authors, the article first chronicles his early life and ideological formation and what influenced his career in book publishing. It then examines the key achievements and challenges faced by these publishing houses in different times of austerity (e.g. Structural Adjustment Programmes, foreign investment with conditionalities, declining state support and high printing costs), along with the complex ways in which Bgoya has navigated the shifting, often uncertain, political, financial and legislative landscapes, while retaining his intellectual freedom and core Pan-Africanist beliefs. Constraints have not hampered Bgoya's pursuit of ambitious projects or his commitment to publishing relevant and progressive books, either written by African authors or on African matters. I suggest that reducing the scale and identifying how specific conditions of austerity have affected the choices made by a publisher over time can yield insights into the ways in which cultural institutions have contributed to knowledge production and dissemination in postcolonial Africa.

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Section: Tph: the Golden Period Of Tanzanian Publishingmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dreams and constraints of an African publisher: Walter Bgoya, Tanzania Publishing House and Mkuki na Nyota, 1972–2020

Suriano¹

2021

Africa

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“…The Customs Act of 1955 strictly controlled the import of material that was deemed to be objectionable in any way, the particular target of the customs officials being anti-apartheid work in cheap editions (Merrett, 1995: 34). In addition, after 1970, the Cape Town branch was instructed by London to cease liberal, oppositional publishing and focus instead on more profitable educational publishing, under the management of Neville Gracie (Davis, 2010: 94). Despite these constraints, Gracie urged rapid publication of the book in London:We are delighted that you are to publish Fugard’s three new plays.…”

Section: Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Publishing anti-apartheid literature: Athol Fugard’sStatementsplays

Davis

2013

The Journal of Commonwealth Literature

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This article addresses the creation of Athol Fugard's plays not as performances or as texts, but as material objects, and examines how the meaning and value of his plays were constructed through the interventions of his publisher. The paper draws attention to the sharp distinction in the way that Fugard's performances and published plays have been received, most acutely with respect to the plays Sizwe Bansi is Dead, The Island and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. These plays directly addressed and attacked apartheid legislation and enforcement. In performance in South Africa between 1972-1973 they were regarded as radical and subversive by the South African authorities as well as by audiences and critics. The Oxford University Press edition of this trilogy, Statements: Three Plays (1974), was by contrast packaged as a literary and commercial product that circulated free from censorship. This essay explores the reasons for this dichotomy through a detailed author/publisher case study of the publication history of the plays. It analyses the means by which Fugard was re-branded as an "Oxford author" through the book's publication in the Oxford Paperback Series, and assesses the impact of this brand on the reception of Fugard's plays. The published book was also a more individualistic creative product than the performances of the plays: the Press applied a conventional model of authorship which served to defuse the radical, interracial partnership between Fugard and his co-writers Winston Ntshona and John Kani. Likewise, the political content was neutralized as the plays were promoted as allegorical literary works of universal significance. By these means, it is argued, Fugard was successfully incorporated into the literary establishment in the UK, the USA and South Africa under apartheid.

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2016

Postcolonial Studies

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Histories of Publishing under Apartheid: Oxford University Press in South Africa

Abstract: Journal of Southern African StudiesPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:

Cited by 40 publications

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Dreams and constraints of an African publisher: Walter Bgoya, Tanzania Publishing House and Mkuki na Nyota, 1972–2020

Dreams and constraints of an African publisher: Walter Bgoya, Tanzania Publishing House and Mkuki na Nyota, 1972–2020

Publishing anti-apartheid literature: Athol Fugard’sStatementsplays

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