I relay this very interesting piece by Maggie Fick, highlightning Nigerian firm Cassava Republic’s great work as well as Nigerian publishing challenging the globalized book world and ancient (not so “evident”) Western monopole.
This short article starts with Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s warning about the danger of unilateral voice on a person, place or area. From this, Maggie Fick reminds us about the issue of monotony in African literature because of Western monopole on African “category”. Then, the article develops with the counter example of Nigeria publishing firm Cassava Republic who recently opened its subsidiary in UK. Doing so, the publisher directed by Bibi Bakare-Yusuf shows itself as a spearhead for Nigerian publishing, developing into Nigeria and abroad since the last 25 years. Here comes the question of intra-African book distribution, more and more often overcomed by African structures such as Cassava. Therefore, new digital formats and experiences take place into a new and exciting defy for African publishing, with the perspective of a more fair balance within international African literature production.
Read this full interesting article published by Maggie Fick on Financial Times [here]
Visit [Cassava Republic’s Website] (limited access for non-suscribers)