SABDET RECEPTION LONDON BOOK FAIR
13 March 2005

Good evening. Firstly I want to welcome you all to this event, which we have organised with Book Aid International, African Books Collective and, a very welcome newcomer, the Alliance of Independent Publishers. Before we hear from ABC and AIP, I would like to say a few words to reflect on the occasion, why we are here, and why we all need to work together in the UK, Europe, and obviously in Africa with APNET, PABA, ZIBF and many other large and small organisations.

Over the years SABDET has tried to act as a catalyst, organising a number of events at the London Book Fair that have brought together people concerned with the book in Africa. Together we have opened up important issues and sometimes kept these issues alive, and we all continue to work in our different but complementary ways, to make sure that others do not forget the issue of the book in Africa - writing, publishing, translating, bookselling, reading promotion and libraries. While there is no seminar this year, we felt it important to get together at the London Book Fair – and others felt the same.

A few days ago in this country there was extensive media coverage of a report issued by Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa. Like many people, I was immediately keen to read what this report might add to the debate of the past fifty years. As one might expect, the report makes several extravagant claims, but I will quote just one made in the Introduction.

“The measures we propose constitute a coherent package for Africa”

So I downloaded the several pdf documents (a total of 460 pages) that make up the entire report and looked expectantly to see what it would say about the world that specifically concerns us – the realm of the book, publishing, libraries. I searched the documents and came up with the following: two references to textbooks, one to libraries, and … as for publishing there is one footnote (number 149 in chapter 8) to a brief section on TRIPS – Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights.

I don’t think any of us here could imagine a “coherent package” for Africa that paid so little attention to the book – still the major method of acquiring and transferring knowledge and skills, culture, ideas, emotion and aspiration.

We all obviously still have a lot of work to do in working with our governments to persuade them of the importance of the book.

In relation to this, I have been asked to say a few words about BAI’s current campaign.

Many of BAI’s staff members are here tonight, and have brought with them copies of a new research paper, by Ruth Makotsi of the East African Book Development Association, and you are urged to take a copy with you, and to read it.

The paper was commissioned by Book Aid International last autumn to highlight the many ways in which libraries in Africa are supporting literacy and learning. The problem that showed up is that there are huge gaps in library service provision due to lack of coherent policy and years of declining funding.

All of us at the book fair have an interest in sustaining libraries, since they are a crucial part of the book trade, when they receive proper investment and have adequate book buying funds. They are also the only means by which poorer communities, in Africa and throughout the world, can gain access to books. They support readers of all ages in their quest to learn about and understand the world around them.

Please take some time to read this report and see how you can work to get the message across in the context of the current focus on Africa. I quote just one small section – the last sentence of the Executive Summary.

“This paper argues that investing in books and libraries as a part of strengthening the whole book sector is central to educational reform, literacy enhancement and subsequent poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa.”

So there you have in one sentence a coherent statement on the importance of the book sector – something sadly missing from the entire 460 pages of Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa Report. If you do nothing else after the 2005 London Book Fair, send a message to your representative in government, or directly to Tony Blair and his commission that they have left out a very important part of the development tool box - books are important for Africa.

In a few minutes we will hear from Reagan Kuhn who is working with the Independent Publishers Alliance in Paris. They have a number of members in Africa, and AIP has been in London to develop co-publishing projects among their members, and to strengthen the English-speaking section of their network of publishers. Some of you have been at their conference over the past few days.

But before that I would like to ask Mary Jay of African Books Collective to say a few words.

Thanks