mediadev library

Kiarie Kamau, Kirimi Mitambo (eds.)

Henry Chakava (honoured person)

Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers (2016), xxvii, 288 pp.

Scholarly Publishing in Africa: Opportunities & Impediments

Solani Ngobeni (ed.)

Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa (2010), xxv, 378 pp.

"The proceedings of a conference held at the Africa Institute of South Africa in 2009, this is a major new collection of essays on the state of scholarly publishing in Africa, with a strong emphasis on the situation in South Africa. The conference was convened, and the papers published, in an attemp ... t to influence “policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in developing an enabling environment for scholarly publishing to thrive.” Containing a total of 26 papers – all of them, usefully, preceded by abstracts – content is arranged under seven sections: (i) The State of Research Publishing in Africa, (ii) The State of Scholarly Publishing in Africa, (iii) The Challenges of Book Distribution, (iv) The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Scholarly Publishing, (v) Alternative Publishing Models, (vi) The Politics of Peer Review in Scholarly Publishing, and (vii) Scholarly Publishing and Intellectual Property Development in Africa. While the majority of the contributors are from South Africa, other contributors include Kenyan veteran publisher Henry Chakava, James Currey of James Currey Publishers, Mary Jay, Chief Executive of the Oxford-based African Books Collective, and a number of academics from the West African region. The book is particularly strong in overviews of scholarly publishing in South Africa, covering both book and journal publishing. It offers some interesting discussions and fresh insights about alternative publishing and distribution models, with articles reporting about new initiatives and strategy approaches, and also including papers on the politics and practise of the peer review process, and on South African intellectual property rights. One or two papers, by academics from other regions of Africa, unfortunately are weak and poorly informed about the current state of scholarly publishing in Africa, for example citing literature that goes back to books and articles published in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the book can be seen as a useful companion to ‘African Scholarly Publishing Essays’, edited by Alois Mlambo, and published by African Books Collective in 2006." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2581) more

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Africa Writes Back: The African Writers Series and the Launch of African Literature

James Currey

Oxford; Athens, Ohio: James Currey Publishers;Ohio University Press (2008), 349 pp.

"James Currey was the editor in charge of the African Writers Series (AWS) at Heinemann Educational Books from 1967 to 1984. Together with his colleagues Henry Chakava in Kenya, Aig Higo in Nigeri ... more

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Nollywood: The Video Phenomenon in Nigeria

Pierre Barrot (ed.)

Oxford; Ibadan; Bloomington: James Currey Publishers;HEBN Publishers;Indiana University Press (2008), xii, 147 pp.

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The Theatre of Violence: Narratives of Protagonists in the South African Conflict

Don Foster, Paul Haupt, Marésa De Beer

Capetwon; Oxford: Institute of Justice and Reconciliation;HSRC Press;James Currey (2005), xii, 364 pp.

"If the dominant media stereotype portrays perpetrators as monsters, as ‘Prime Evil’, then the dominant academic image is the opposite. It paints them as ordinary people (gender ignored, but assumed as male) diligently under sway of modern bureaucratic compartmentalisation (the banality of evil ... thesis), or as obedient to authority and conforming to social pressures (the situationist thesis). No monsters here, just ordinary people under rather extraordinary circumstances. The moral message: we co uld all potentially become perpetrators, depending on the situation. There is a competing view: the perpetrator as a willing, even eager, executioner driven by strong negative emotions against the ‘other’. The scholarly world presents us with antagonistic perspectives. What picture do we get from narrative approaches, from stories told by those actually responsible for politically-related violence? First, there are only a few narrative studies. Second, they also paint competing pictures. On the one hand, is a picture of the perpetrator as a victim – of organisational routines, hierarchies, pressures and secrecy, and of dominant ideologies, as well as brutal initiation rites which instil the practice of obedience to authority. These narrative studies support the situationist and ordinary person line of explanation. They also correct the erstwhile neglect of gender issues by placing emphasis on masculinity as an important ingredient. On the other hand, the South African storytelling studies by Marks (2001), Straker (1992) and Campbell (1992) throw up a different picture. While victims in one sense – of Bantu education, poverty and violence at the hands of both state security agents and older vigilante groups – they are also action-oriented moral crusaders in defence of their communities and in politically-minded offensive against the apartheid state and its allies. Once again, we have contrasting and competing pictures of those responsible for political violence. In these particular storytelling perspectives, differences are partly due to the different positions of protagonists across the dividing line of power: state security personnel on the one hand and resistance activists on the other. Apart from the conflicting images from varying epistemological perspectives and different theoretical angles, the very label or category of a ‘perpetrator’ is more muddied, contested and problematic than a first glance would suggest. We described seven grey areas which challenge or disrupt the dominant binaries of victim-perpetrator and the triangular view of dramatis personae: perpetrator – ‘victim’ – bystander/observer. Moreover, in Chapter 4, we raise a number of moral quandaries or dilemmas in the study of those responsible for violence, which again dislodge the simple and tidy categories. Therefore a central component of the present study aims to problematise and disrupt the complacency of the very label and category of ‘perpetrator’. What should be done? In the face of these competing images and explanations we carve out a ‘third space’ beyond, or perhaps better, between the theoretical antagonisms of situationism versus agency (willing killers); among the grey areas between category labels of victim/perpetrator/bystander. Rather than this being seen as an alternative position, it should be read as an attempt at synthesis. Instead of the oppositional pairing of ‘either-or’, it should be seen in terms of the inclusive pairing ‘both-and’ (Foster, 1999).We argue that those responsible for violence should be regarded as potentially both victim and perpetrator, as well as both subject to circumstances/influences and active initiators." (Conclusion, page 321-322) more

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Chinua Achebe, the African Writers Series and the Establishment of African Literature

James Currey

African Affairs, volume 102, issue 409 (2003), pp. 575-585

"In the list of ‘Africa's 100 Best Books’ published in 2002 over a quarter of the books had been published in the African Writers Series. Chinua Achebe is renowned for his novel Things Fall Apart which has sold close on 10 million copies. Much less well remembered is his creative role as the fir ... more

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Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film

Melissa Thackway

Bloomington; Oxford: Indiana University Press;James Currey Publishers (2003), viii, 230 pp.

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Prospects for Rural Radio in Africa: Strategies to Relate Audience Research to the Participatory Production of Radio Programmes

Jean-Pierre Ilboudo

In: African Broadcast Cultures: Radio in Transition

Richard Fardon; Graham Furniss (eds.)

Oxford: James Currey Publishers (2000), pp. 42-71

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African Broadcast Cultures: Radio in Transition
Inspiring Practice

Richard Fardon, Graham Furniss (eds.)

Oxford: James Currey Publishers (2000), xvi, 256 pp.

"Radio has played a pivotal role in situations of conflict, crisis, change and development on the African continent. Local radio stations are as important as international broadcasters being both the barometers and agents of change. This text examines African radio broadcast cultures." (Publisher de ... more

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African Theatre in Development

Martin Banham, James Gibbs, Femi Osofisan (eds.)

Bloomington; Oxford: Indiana University Press;James Currey Publishers (1999), x, 182 pp.

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Oral Tradition as History

Jan Vansina

Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press (1985), xvi, 258 pp.

"I begin this examination with a description of the process we call oral tradition. This allows me to better define what is meant by this expression. Then this can be followed up with a discussion of how a tradition becomes a record, a testimony or a text to which the rules of textual criticism shou ... more

African Broadcast Cultures: Radio in Transition Inspiring Practice

African Broadcast Cultures: Radio in Transition
Inspiring Practice