•ISSUE NUMBER ONE • 1887 • enty three entries are con- tained in the book. Each of the four sections has an Au- thor Index which indicates the name of the author fea- tuFed, the number allocated to the book(s) written by him. See also references are made where necessary to facilitate easy reference in the book. A full entry consists of the following details where avail- able: Author, title, subtitle, vol- ume or part edition, year of publication, edition (if, other than the first), the size of the book (length and breadth in cm) number of pages, ISBN, series statement (including the number of publication if part of a series), and language (if the text is in other language other than English). The date of publication for each entry is given as sup- plied by the publisher or as available in the source. Prices of the materials are not included in the publica- tion because of inflation and fluctuation in prices. Some titles merely distributed by reputable publishers are listed along with the publications of such publishers. Publishers' names are ab- breviated in some entries. The full meaning of these abbrevia- tions, as well as their ad- dresses, are contained in the publishers' directory. Many of the entries by the apex publishers carry Interna- tional Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) issued by the Biblio- graphic Section of the National Library of Nigeria, Ijora, Lagos. Those wishing to order are advised not to use the ISBN alone while ordering. An author index to the work is con- tained in pages 446-56. The name of the author whether single or jointly authored, along with the number allo- cated to the publications in the serial numbering of entries is given in the Author Index. With the exception of a few anomalies, (for example some entries are made under editors which negates the provisions of the Anglo-American Cata- loguing Rules Second edition, 1978 now revised 3rd edi- tion), the efforts of the NPA is commendable. It is hoped that the errors in the first edition will be corrected in subsequent editions and that the publication will be revised frequently. The publication will no doubt create a national and International awareness of what educational books and data are actually available in Nigeria and where they can be procured. Nigerian Books-in-Print 1996 like its counterparts British Books-in-Print, Afri- can Books-in-Print, etc. will make a unique contribution to the book trade in Nigeria especially for the identifica- tion and acquisition of mate- rials. The work is valuable ac- quisition for libraries and book traders. L. I. Ehigiator is a Senior Librarian at Edo State University. Ebpoma. Nigeria. In Pursuit of Publishing Wumi Raji Hans M. Zell & Cecile Lomer, PUBLISHING AND BOOK DEVEL- OPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: AN ANNOTATED BIBLI- OGRAPHY, Hans Zefl publishers, Oxford, 1996. W HEN a definitive history of Af rican publishing is written, Hans M. Zell, one of the two au thors of the volume under re- view will stand out. Directly, Hans Zell repre- sents our reason for adapting In Pursuit of Pub- lishing the title of the autobiography of the late Alan Hill, initiator and facilitator of Heinemann's African Writers Series (AWS) as the headingifcr this review. Zell was the direc- tor of the Ife University Press for much of the Seventies. In that period, the press became the model for University presses in Nigeria as well as in Africa - in the light of its distinguished scholarly publications and particularly then once famous but now deceased annual book fair it originated. In 1973, the press organised an international conference on the theme, Publish- ing in Africa - a Dialogue for the Seventies, an event that pulled participants from all over Africa and Europe and America. Zell later left Ife to found his own publishing company in the UK which is unambiguously focused on Africa publishing and book development. But Zell also functioned as the intellectual, editing since 1975, The African Book Publish- ing Record (ABPR) a bibliographic journal pro- duced in cooperation with well over one thou- sand publishers and research centres, learned societies and professional bodies spread over the continent. ABPR has listed titles in English, French and indigenous languages as well as publishing reviews, interviews and essays. Beside. Zell has written, compiled and edited Glendon Books Supplement ISSUE NUMBER ONE • 1997 • more than twenty books of mainly bibliogra- phy and directories on book development in Africa. Indeed the majority of materials listed in this fresh volume are built from his own personal archive which has now been donated to the recently commissioned resource centre of The African Publishing Network (APNET) in order to, in his own words, 'make it widely accessible for research and teaching'. Publishing and Book Development in Sub- Saharan Africa is ambitious in conception as it is grand in execution. Containing 2,267 cita- tions, the project represents a great improve- ment on Hans Zell's earlier work on the same subject, Publishing and Book Development in Africa: a Bibliography published along with a French edition under UNESCO's 'Studies on Books and Reading Series' in 1984. Despite the 06.1 Central Business District, Harare, during Zimbabwe Boob Fair. 1996. fact that the latter contains only 685 references, most of the entries in the former are also pre- sented with brief and precise annotations. Ad- ditionally, the scope of the new volume is very wide in both depth and breath covering not just the general and specialist aspects of book pub- lishing (textbook publishing, children's litera- ture, Christian publishing, journals and maga- zines, tertiary books and indigenous language publishing) but other segments intimately con- nected with the industry including sales and distribution, promotion, the retail market, copyright, reading habit, training programme, and national book development policies. Ar- ranged in an alphabetical order, the bibliogra- phy concentrates on published materials - books and chapters in books, journal articles, Glendora Bosks Supplement earlier bibliographies and directories, reports, reviews and official government publications and gazettes. A small proportion of unpublished materi- als such as theses and dissertations, conference papers and commissioned articles are also in- cluded. Ultimately, what makes this aspect the more salutary is the manner in which the au- thors have made sure to provide full informa- tion on the availability and accessibility to the works. There are three major divisions to the vol- ume with General, Comparative and Regional studies as one; Country Studies as two, and Studies by Topic or Subject as three. Also, a small but nonetheless important section com- mences the bibliography. It contains the cita- tions on serials, bibliographies, directories, in- dexes, biographies and autobiographies as well as handbooks for writers and teaching guides and texts. Preceding this is an intro- duction by Hans Zell himself, a list of the periodicals cited in the work and a directory of book trade and other organisations interested in, or supporting, African book development and publishing. As must be obvious from the description, the first ma- jor section is sub-divided into three rough groups. The first, sub-titled Comparative Studies, lists publications which examine issues on, and developments concern- ing, African publishing in relation with either the rest of the Third World or coun- tries of Europe , Asia and America. Examples here in- clude the Philip Altbach ed- ited Publishing and Develop- ment in the Third World (155), a landmark publication on book publishing in Africa and Asia; Urvashi Butalia and Rita Menon's Mak- ing a Difference: Feminist Publishing in the South (169) which in the words of Zell and Cecile Lomer 'examines feminist publishing in the North, South and South-east Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific'; Ivor Kemp's Books and Library Development for'Develop- ing Countries (182), a paper reporting the ac- tivities of the British Council, the World Bank and the Overseas Development Administration in the area of textbook development specifically in Nigeria, Tanzania and Indonesia; and UNESCO's Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materi as a distortion of the intellectual essence of the book and a corresponding valorisation of wan- ton materialism. There then ensued a Lively debate which was joined by other writers and commentators including Dimgba Igwe: 'Writ- ers' War on Book Launching' (824) ANA Re- view, 1989, Eddie Ayo Ojo 'Against Book Launching'(817) The Guardian April 22, 1989 and Wale Are Olaitan, 'Attending Ofeimun's Book Launching' (824) ANA Review 1989. A number of countries however record very low entries - Cape Verde, Central African Repub- lic, Niger, Sao Tome, Seychelles, Swaziland and Sudan have just an entry recorded on each of them. It is difficult to ascertain the reason for this: whether for example, it is due to the low level of book development in the countries or that the authors could not lay hands on litera- ture from those areas. The third major division focuses on the spe- cialist and other aspects of the industry earlier identified and constitutes over half of the total entries in the bibliography. There now are ci- tations on all the factors identified in the in- troduction as representing major landmarks in the development of independent publishing in Africa. The first of the factors is the Noma Award. Twenty citations on this single devel- opment are taken including Niyi Osundare's 'The Possibilities of Hope' (1986), the text of the speech he delivered while receiving the 1991 award in Harare, Zimbabwe. The other factors are the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) which pulled thirty-eight entries; the African Books Collective (ABC), twelve en- tries; the Bellagio Publishing Network, six en- tries; and the African Publishers' Network (APNET), ten entries. Publishing and Book Development in Africa is particularly difficult to fault, more so when the authors are so self-critical. They are aware that the literature on Francophone Africa is not comprehensive and that of German limited. They therefore request that omissions be brought to their notice in order to include them in subsequent editions. Wumj Raji teaches literature in the Department of Modern European Languages. University of llorin, Nigeria. ISSUE NUMBER ONE* 1 9 9 7* als: a Guide to its Operation (199) published in 1958. The second sub-section focuses on Gen- eral Studies on Africa and includes Mokwugo Okoye's Books and National Development (325), a paper presented at the national conference of University Bookshop managers held in Nsukka, Nigeria in 1980 and eventually pub- lished in Pan-African Book World Vol.2, no. 1 1982; Gabriel Onibonoje's deliberately provoca- tive paper 'Wanted! A Cultural Revolution, not a Dialogue on Publishing in Africa in the Sev- enties and After' (335) included in Edwina Oluwasanmi's, Eva Mclean and Hans Zell ed- ited Publishing in Africa in the Seventies: Pro- ceedings of an International Conference on Pub- lishing and Book Development, held at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 16-20 Decem- ber, 1973 (331); Helena Smith's Land Without Books T351), which examines the state of the book in Africa; Alex Tetteh-Lartey's Interview with David Martin and Louis Taussig about publishing and book marketing on the conti- nent; and Scott Walter's Manchester Conference on Textbook Provision and Library Development in Africa a Report published in the Bellagio Publishing Network Newsletter no.l, 1992. The third and final sub-section divides Africa into regions: Africa, East on which there were nine- teen citations; Africa, Francophone where most of the entries in French are concentrated; Af- rica, West; and finally Africa, Southern. As the title of the sub-section has indicated, the list- ings are focused on general issues affecting the book industry in each of the regions. The second major division lists the forty- four countries of Africa, South of the Sahara in alphabetical order. Nigeria has the highest number of entries of one^hundred and forty. Directly, the high entry on Nigeria repre- sents a reflection of both the size and popula- tion of the country as well as the degree of in- tellectual activity. Certainly, the country gen- erates a lot of concern as it regards the book. With a history of virtual indifference to literacy by successive governments, Nigeria stands as a classic case of unbridled philistinism, an enor- mous, yet unharnessed book market and fount of authors. Expectedly, many of the entries on Nigeria are focused on the different dimensions of this problem. An interesting sampler is the debate on what Zell calls the 'Nigerian-style book launches' first generated by Odia Ofeimun in his column on the Nigerian Guardian, No- vember, 1988. The article titled 'Come to Our Book Launching'(812), presents Nigerian book launches as a potentially viable 'strategy for entrenching or at least instigating commitment to book culture'. The late Ken Saro-Wiwa, scandalised by Ofeimun's, replies in 'The Odd, the Odious and our very Odia' (846) The Guard- ian, January 5, 1989, dismissing his argument Gleiliri Btakt