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PUBLISHING FORUM: BOOK CULTURE IN A MULTILINGUAL SOCIETY

Time of the Writer Festival (Durban, March 2002)

Dr Francis Galloway

Co-ordinator: Post-graduate Programme in Publishing Studies
Department of Information Science
University of Pretoria

Tel: 012-420-2426
fgallow@postino.up.ac.za

Notes on: SOUTH AFRICAN BOOK PRODUCTION DURING THE 1990s

I am not speaking as a publisher but as someone involved in publishing training and research. My contribution focuses on one aspect of the production link of the book publishing chain, namely annual book production figures. In order to contextualise these figures I have to refer to general trends and developments during the period under discussion.

BOOK PUBLISHING AS A CULTURAL INDUSTRY
The South African publishing sector is a strategic cultural industry (DACST, 1998:12). Book publishing should be linked to the existence of a vibrant and thriving cultural milieu. It is a source of information and knowledge and a vehicle for political, social and cultural expression (this is important in a context where expression has been suppressed and creativity discouraged) as well as a source of existing and potential economic growth and employment and a strategic resource provider.

Book publishing is a process of value creation, which consists of a series of steps: creation, packaging and production, distribution and delivery, consumption and feedback of content. All these value-adding steps contribute to the quantity and quality of the output of books (cultural products).

One indication of whether a developing local industry is growing or not is the number of new titles published over a specific period of time. The research project in which I am involved currently focuses on the 1990s, which was a Rubicon era for book publishing in South Africa (Galloway, 2001). Before I present some figures I must, however, provide a context for their interpretation. Production figures cannot be isolated from other indicators in the value chain and the publishing environment.

BOOK PUBLISHING BEFORE THE 1990s
Four strands of indigenous publishing could be identified during the apartheid era:

Book publishing in Afrikaans grew out of liberation from the Dutch linguistic heritage and the struggle against Anglicisation. It became politically and culturally entrenched with the National Party in 1948, after which Afrikaner-owned publishing houses played the dominant role in providing school textbooks that perpetuated the dominant ideology. On the eve of the 1990s the Afrikaans literature was the most flourishing literary legacy of the colonial era.

Book publishing in African languages benefited from missionary patronage until 1948. After that its growth was controlled and directed towards providing a brand of didactic and moralistic literature for the school market. The apartheid system of Bantu Education included Language Boards created to “develop” African languages and to recommend prescribed books. In the words of an African languages scholar, N Maake, literature in these languages “has been under siege since its birth” (2000:127).

By the middle of the 1960s English writing in South Africa had become, according to the writer Richard Rive, “virtually white by law” (1982). English writing by black South Africans was systematically repressed through bans, arrests and exile. Overseas publishers provided outlets for anti-apartheid voices within the country as well as for revolutionary literature written in exile.

During the 1960s and 1970s local oppositional publishing grew in spite of the repressive political atmosphere, under alternative or independent imprints such as David Philip, AD Donker, Ravan and Skotaville; Taurus published the work of dissident Afrikaans writers.

ON THE TRHESHOLD OF THE NEW POLITICAL DISPENSATION
During the past twelve years the book publishing industry had to make the transition from functioning in a colonial and apartheid context to operating in a fledgling democracy. On the threshold of the 1990s, industry leaders (both mainstream and independent) had been looking forward to the challenge. At a conference (South African Library, 1991) they stressed the enormity of the task ahead in order for the NSA (New South Africa) to spawn a NBC (New Book Culture), based on a unified, multilingual education system. David Philip predicted:

The 1990s are going to be extremely challenging to South African authors and publishers, full of exciting opportunities, especially in education — the one most crucial important problem that has to be resolved if our future is worth having. It will require a different kind of courage, a different kind of energy and commitment and expertise.

What became of the independent book publishers during the 1990s and the dream of a new order for the publishing industry? Did a great new era dawn for school textbook publishing? What became of the bad cultural engineering habits of the previous era? What happened to the vision of a multicultural and multilingual celebration of home-grown books? Did the relationship between the industry and government change? Did the industry grow during the 1990s? The answers to these questions are, unfortunately, mainly negative.

BOOK PUBLISHING CULTURE DURING THE 1990s, THE RUBICON ERA
High hopes were pinned on the growth and vitality of independent publishing houses in the post-apartheid era. However, mergers and acquisitions during the 1990s changed the complexions and cultures of companies and blurred the distinction between mainstream and independent publishers and, to a large extent, also between local and international concerns. Alternative publishing houses faded as a result of under-capitalisation, changing market profiles, funding problems and loss of staff through the dispersal of intellectuals into the new ANC government departments (Cloete, 2000:68). The decline of the independents was a major loss, since mainstream publishing cannot perform the role of innovation and renewal in the same way.

During the 1990s a new school curriculum was introduced, with the intention of shifting the emphasis from rote learning and authoritative knowledge imbedded in the textbook to the development of critical faculties gleaned from a variety of learning resources. This shift caused educational publishers to invest heavily in new projects. In 1996, however, some provincial education departments announced that they would develop and publish their own educational material. State publishing seemed imminent. This threat did not materialise (partly based on successful lobbying by PASA), but by the end of 1997 a new threat had emerged. The National Department of Education announced that it did not have sufficient funds to purchase books. Since the industry was dominated by educational publishing, the blow was severe. Downscaling in production led to many job losses and contributed to acquisitions and mergers that changed the profile of the industry. This crisis highlighted the symbiotic relationship between the publishing industry and the state in a developing democracy.

Academic publishers also faced major shifts during the 1990s. Publishing programmes had to be adjusted according to a new market profile, caused by the increasing numbers of black students enrolling at historically white tertiary institutions; to curriculum change and the adoption of English as medium of instruction at formerly Afrikaans-language institutions. Other factors that impacted negatively on the academic book sector included changing state funding formulas for tertiary education; large numbers of financially disadvantaged students entering the market; a dwindling book buying culture and high levels of illegal photocopying. On the one hand the market for local titles, fulfilling the need for relevant post-apartheid content, grew. On the other hand, however, imported British and American titles continued to dominate the academic textbook market.

General publishing in the 1990s also suffered from the crisis in educational publishing, because many publishers have to subsidise less viable projects from their textbook profits. Local trade publishing was vulnerable because it had to serve a fragmented market speaking eleven local languages and lacking a strong reading and book buying culture. General publishing in Afrikaans seemed to hold its ground due largely to the support of its language community. No new market demand, however, developed for general books in the newly official African languages. English, the first language of only 8,6% of South Africans, dominated the trade book market. At the same time the market was flooded by imported titles from the UK and US, and the cream of local English writers published internationally.

During the transitional era, South Africa was once again faced with the question: What should be the role of the government in book development? Supply and demand cannot be the sole regulators of local book development. It is up to the government to provide a suitable environment for the growth of the book sector (Wafawarowa, 2001:11). But by the end of the 1990s South Africa still did not have a national book policy.

SOME STATISTICS
On the eve of the 1990s there were high hopes that new markets would be created for all sectors and categories of book publishing in South Africa. The expectation of market expansion was linked to the role of independent publishing houses, new educational initiatives and a multilingual language policy, As sketched above, many of these expectations did not materialise during the transitional period.

The stunted growth of the book publishing industry is reflected in statistical data from this period.

It is very difficult to obtain reliable and comprehensive statistical data on the industry, since no central database systems which record and provide book production and sales figures are in place. The only source that contains cumulative data on local publications is the South African National Bibliography (SANB), compiled by the National Library of South Africa (NLSA).

The SANB lists all published material submitted to the NLSA under the terms of the Legal Deposit of Publications Act.

It is primarily organised as a tool for librarians. The ISBN (or ISSN) and Dewey numbers are the key tools used to organise the data.

Entries into the current electronic version of the SANB reflect the date when a legal deposit copy was received and not necessarily the date of publication. Therefore annual production figures cannot be gleaned without intervention from the SANB.

There is a backlog in the capturing of data on the SANB database.

If the NLSA does not receive a legal deposit copy of a publication it will not be reflected in the SANB.

The lack of user-friendly and accessible statistical data regarding the number, categories and language profile of books published annually in South Africa led to the launch of a research project in this regard by the programme for Publishing Studies at the University of Pretoria.

The SANB was used a primary source to develop a prototype database in MS Access format. The statistics presented here were retrieved from this Publishing Trends Database.

Currently this database covers the annual production for the period 1990-1998. It reflects only books deposited at the NLSA. The next phase will be to refine the data (eg by comparing it with publishers’ title lists in order to verify the effectiveness of legal depositing) and to update it.

GRAPH 1

A total of 40 057 books were published during the period 1990-1998. This figure reflected all legally deposited publications carrying a new ISBN — including publications by mainstream and independent commercial publishing houses, research and other institutions, government departments and self-publications. Books published by commercial publishing houses consisted of educational books (which comprised about 58% of all book production); general/trade books (average 30%) and academic/tertiary books (average 12%). Compared with local output elsewhere in Africa, these figures indicated a relatively healthy local industry. Compared with the output in other parts of the world, it was very low.

The annual production of 4 601 titles during 1990 fell to 3 546 during 1998 (a drop of 1000).

There was a peak of 5 032 in 1995; the figures for 1993-1995 reflected new material developed for the anticipated restructured school market.

The marginal growth during the first five years was reversed from 1996, reflecting the effect of the educational crisis.

The breakdown into languages is reflected in the next graph.

GRAPH 2

Book publishing in English remained the strongest, rising from 47,75% of the total to 58,23%. (Total: 21 060 titles.)

Afrikaans books declined from 28,15% to 20,67% during this period. (Total: 9 537.)

There was a combined upward trend in African languages until 1995 (reflecting some optimism) and then a downward curve as reflected in the next graph:

GRAPH 3

A breakdown in production figures according to the nine African languages reflected the overall dominance of books in isiZulu and isiXhosa. Compare, however, the total of 1 052 isiZulu titles (the most spoken language in South Africa) with the totals for English and Afrikaans.

Literary publishing presents its own complexities. Compared with the relative strength of the local book production figures, the output of South African literature in all genres is rather meagre. The statistics for adult literary titles published during the 1990s testifies to this. The figures include both “high” and “popular” (we do not really have “mass”) literature.

GRAPH 4

The combined production of literary titles in all languages amounted to 5 207 out of a total production of 40 057 titles during the period 1990-1998.

The annual production of 594 in 1990 declined to 309 in 1999.

GRAPH 5

Afrikaans remained the dominant language in local literary production (more than half of the output). Afrikaans literary publishing was, however, no longer politically and institutionally protected and declined numerically.

The combined output in African languages compared well with that of English. But when broken down to the nine individual languages the literatures in African languages declined drastically in all genres. In spite of the new official status afforded by the Constitution, literature in the indigenous African languages remained trapped in the school-based market. Production statistics did not reflect the development of a new general adult readership. (What happened to the courageous Heinemann SA initiative of the Mamela Afrika Series?)

GRAPHS 6 & 7

Local English literary publishing produced the majority of poetry titles (mostly by independent or self-publishers); more English dramas than Afrikaans ones were published; drama (specifically radio drama) titles dominated the African languages.

GRAPH 8

Story-telling in Afrikaans dominated the literary scene during the 1990s. Locally published English titles declined steadily from the early 1990s.

A breakdown of the Afrikaans titles published during 1999 reflected the fact that the market for Afrikaans fiction expanded beyond “high” literature. The 216 titles included 100 large print editions for the library market; 79 popular editions for the book club market; 31 high literature titles and six self-publications. The same trend did not develop for local English literary production (imported titles provided in abundance for the needs of both sophisticated and mass readership) or for the African languages.

CONCLUSION
Production figures for the era reflected regression in local book publishing during the 1990s. There was also regression in variety — pertaining to language and categories — of books. We cannot ignore the facts. The next few years will be the real test for post-apartheid publishing. Will the scales tip towards the fostering of indigenous knowledge, local content and the development of a strong multilingual book publishing culture? Or towards new reading communities transcending language and cultural groupings with the spread of globalising factors?

In ten years’ time new statistics will reflect developments during the 2000s. In the meantime I’ll bet on:

— Innovative and courageous local publishers opposing the order of the day
— The initiatives launched by PASA and other role-players to really change the shape and size of the industry
— The power of language communities to shape their own literary destiny in a democratic environment
— The creative groundswell of new voices clamouring to be read
— The positive development of a book culture in the context of a well-structured and managed National Book Development Policy.

REFERENCES

Cloete, D. 2000. Alternative publishing in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. In: Evans, N. & Seeber, M. The politics of publishing in South Africa. Scottsville: University of Natal Press: 43-72.

DACST (Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology). 1998. The South African publishing industry report. [Online] Available: http://www.dacst.gov.za

Galloway, F. 2001. Statistical trends in South African book publishing during the 1990s. Paper delivered at the international conference Colonial and post-colonial cultures of the book, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6-8 August 2001. (Submitted for publication)

Maake, N. 2000. Publishing and perishing: books, people and reading in African languages in South Africa. In: Evans, N. & Seeber, M. The politics of publishing in South Africa. Scottsville: University of Natal Press: 127-159.

Rive, R. 1982. Books by black writers. Staffrider, 5(1):12-15.

Wafawarowa, B. 2001. Book policies and book development in Africa. Cape Librarian, May/June: 10-13.

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