ISSUE NUMBER  THREE & FOUR •  1988  •

Boob Market Guide

Chukwuemeka Agbayi

Chukwuemefea  Ike, (ed) THE NIGERIAN DIRECTORY OF BOOK
DEVELOPMENT, The Nigerian Boob Foundation  & Fourth  Dimension
Publishers, Enugu, 1997.

N IGERIAN  Book  Foundation

(NBF)  is  a  non-governmental,
non-profit, organisation  dedicated
to book development in Nigeria. As
an umbrella organisation bringing
together  key  participants  in  the  book indus-
try, NBF ensures that the various links in the
book  chain  function  optimally  and  that  the
state provides an enabling environment for the
growth of the book. This publication is, there-
fore,  in  partial  fulfillment  of its responsibili-
ties.

The Directory has four segments: Directo-
ries,  The Nigerian  Book Foundation, Appen-
dix, and Indexes. The first, Directories, is  fur-
ther subdivided into five parts. Spanning some
190 pages, it forms the trunk of the book. Each
of the five parts is a major directory on its own.
The first part, Authorship, begins with a brief
essay, 'Authorship in Nigeria', which outlines
the state of writing in Nigeria. The essay man-
ages  to  alight,  like  a bird  ever so briefly, on
such topical issues as the emergence of small
scale 'publishers' and the spate of memoirs/au-
tobiographies by distinguished, retired public
servants and army officers  in the past twenty
years or so. Brief as it is, the attention given to
the Association of Nigeria Authors should have
been extended to such bodies as Academic and
Non-Fiction Authors Association of Nigeria, the
Association  of West African  Young Writers,
Women Writers of Nigeria  (WRITA), Writers,
Artists and Kindred Ensemble, Mathematical
Association  of Nigeria, and Science Teacher's
Association  of Nigeria. These were dismissed
in two sentences, and,  except Writers, Artists
and  Kindred  Ensemble,  have  no contact  ad-
dresses. The essay introduces  the Directory of
Published Nigeria Authors, which list 749 au-
thors  of creative,  educational  and  technical
works.  The  listing  was  done  alphabetically,
using authors' names and not according to the
kind  of book* published.  Considering the ex-
istence  of Nigerian Books in Print published
by Nigerian  Publishers' Association  in  1996,
one wonders if this part of the NBF Directory

is not a duplication. It is incisive to note that
Nigerian  Book in  print  is  a  460-page  work
while NBF Directory treats published Nigeria
authors and their books in 105 pages only (pp
11-116). This gives birth inevitably to the sus-
picion that  the NBF Directory  may not have
been very comprehensive. This suspicion is en-
hanced  by the  admission  in  the  introduction
that 'to ensure that staff of tertiary institutions
who had published books were not left out, the
Foundation  sought  the cooperation  of staff of
those  institutions  known  to the  President of
the Foundation...' (emphasis mine). This is an
inadequate method of reaching out to authors.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, uni-
versity  libraries  and  librarians,  Public  Rela-
tions Units of universities  and institutions of
higher learning, would have done the job bet-
ter.

Again, most of the book entries do not have
International Standard Book Number (ISBN).
A few are denuded of such data as place of pub-
lication, name of publishing company and year
of publication, like some trees of foliage in win-
ter. Much as we appreciate the problems asso-
ciated with data collection in Nigeria - the most
fundamental  being our appalling disregard for
data and statistics, it will be expected that since
most  of the  entries  with  missing  ISBN  and
other  bibliographic  information  have  the ad-
dresses of the  authors, these  authors  should
have been contacted for information  on  their
books.

Part  11 of this  first  segment,  Publishing,
features  a  short  essay  which  introduces  the
main  section,  Directory  of Book  Publishing
Houses. Here, as in other segments, the Nige-
rian  Directory  of Book  Development  exists  as
an invaluable  pool of information.  With such
entry as heading, Year, Titles, Number of Titles
in Print, and Distribution Arrangement, data
analysis and cross-comparison are made easy.
A cursory glance reveals that most of the pub-
lishing  houses  have  less  than  fifty  titles  in
print,  despite  their  being  established  over a
decade ago. Most released  less than ten titles

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ISSUE NUMBER THRS & FOUR •  1988  •

in the preceding year (1996, or in some case,
1995).  In  all  there  are  sixty-six  publishing
houses.  University  Press  Pic,  Ibadan,  estab-
lished in 1978 and with more than 1,000 books
in  print,  could  release  only fourteen  titles  in
1995.  University  of Lagos  Press, established
in 1980, with  102 titles in print, released only
three  books  in  1996. Again  in  1996,  Evans
Brothers,  established  in  1966 and  with  over
2,000 books in print, released only ten books,
and  Fourth  Dimension,  established  in  1977,
with over 800 titles in print, released only ten
books. The  deduction could be reached  that
the decay in publishing hit an all-time high in
the past ten years. If the companies above were
publishing  ten  books  or less  annually  since
their  establishment  in the  60s and  70s, they
could not have released such large number of
titles that they have. While the contemplation
of this landscape of decay depresses us, Spec-
trum Books, Kraft Books and Zim Pan African
Publishers  come,  like  unravished  maidens
bearing  a bouquet  of hope, with  their  36, 16
and  15 new titles  respectively in 1996.

Another  interesting  fact  emerging from  a
study of the entries in this part is that Nige-
rian publishers have not yet come to grips with
the mechanics of international  book distribu-
tion.  Most  of the  companies  distribute  their
books  through  one  outlet:  their  showroom/
warehouse/office.  Almost  all  the  publishers
have no  overseas distribution  agent/channel;
only a handful  have an arrangement with Af-
rican  Books Collective, and  because ABC ac-
cepts a very limited number from one publisher
at  a  time,  this  arrangement  is  grossly  inad-
equate.

The other parts of the segment on Directo-
ries  (parts  111-V) feature  the  directories of
Book  Printing  Presses;  Bookshops  and  Book
Distribution  Organisations;  and  Libraries  in

Nigeria. Statistics from the entries here show
some sixty-six book printing presses, seventy
bookshops  and  book distributors,  and  824 li-
braries. The libraries include state, national,
school and special libraries.

Two most thoughtful  inclusions in the Di-
rectory are the last two segments entitled Ap-
pendix  and  Indexes.  The Appendix  features
questionnaires on all the directories. This will
enable those who were not included to furnish
information for inclusion in a future edition; it
could also be used to update already published
information. The Indexes - listed alphabetical
by surname for  authors, and business names
for publishers, printers, etc.,- make tracing any
entry in the Directory a delight.

Directory of Nigerian Book Development is
a well laid-out and timely publication that at-
tests  volubly  to  the  editorial  skill  of
Chukwuemeka Ike. Hopefully an update would
follow  soon.  Perhaps,  the  Directory  of
Organisations Involved in the Production, Im-
portation, and Distribution of Paper and other
Materials  for  Book  Development  in  Nigeria,
and the Directory of Nigeria  Book Publishing
and Distribution Personnel shelved for lack of
adequate data will be included then. For that
future  edition,  the  segment  on published Ni-
gerian authors should indicate the type of book
written/edited  by  an  author,  and  the  ISBN.
These pieces of information  would help inter-
national  acquisition  librarians  immensely. In
its present state, however, with five directories
(on Authorship, Publishing, Printing, Distribu-
tion - bookshops - and Libraries) the Directory
of Nigerian Book Development is a unique  ref-
erence material on the book industry in Nige-
ria.

Agbayi. a writer,  is on the editorial team of Obifee

Krydz 

Under Western Eyes
IkwuemesiSINCE  the  beginning  of this  decade,

there has been a re-newed interest in
African art within  Western art circles.
This has given rise to a number of ex-
hibitions and other projects  focussing
on African  art in Western Museums, galleries
and  related  institutions.  Such  international
shows  as  Africa  Hoy! Africa  Explores,  Les
Magiciens de la Terre, Contemporary African
Artists: Changing Traditions, Africa  '95, The
Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the  Nsukka
Group, and Transvangarde are very familiar.

They are interesting, too, not so much for
their scope and ambition as for the history  they
generate.  In  the  characteristic  Occidentalist
tradition,  each  of these exhibitions  is accom-
panied  by quality publications, some of them
grand  narratives, which  extend  the  frontiers
of  what  could  be  seen  as  internationalist
monologic artistic  discourse  led  by the West.
Out of the exhibitions cited above, The Poetics
of Line and Transvangarde are the most recent
and, in line with tradition, they have given rise
to two  separate  books. The first, written by

Giendon  Baoks  Supplement

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