AiW Guests: Maureen Masamba, Azafi Omoluabi, Goretti Kyomuhendo, and Mutesi Gasana, with Jessica Powers.

As part of this year’s #ReadingAfricaWeek, in the second part of this publishing series with Africa in Words, Catalyst Press publisher Jessica Powers interviewed four women publishers across the continent – Maureen Masamba for Dzuka Publishing Company Limited (Malawi), Azafi Omoluabi of Parrésia Publishers Ltd (Nigeria), Goretti Kyomuhendo of African Writers Trust (Uganda), and Mutesi Gasana of Ubuntu Publishers (Rwanda) – to gain their perspective on the industry, publishing trends, and reading cultures across the continent.

NB: The first week of December is #ReadingAfricaWeek, an initiative started by US and South Africa-based indie publishers Catalyst Press in 2017, as an annual celebration of African literature. 2023 is #ReadingAfrica’s 7th event – see this link (and more below) for more info…

JESSICA POWERS (Catalyst Press, USA): What brought you to publishing? How has this career been different from what you expected? 

MAUREEN MASAMBA (Dzuka Publishing Company Limited, Malawi): Having trained and qualified as a high school teacher in Languages, instead of going teaching, I took up editorial duties with a Publishing Company. And my first assignment was being a Field Editor, trafficking educational manuscripts from Authors to Content Editors to Designers, sitting and observing in commissioning meetings.

I found it very interesting. It was and has been like being a teacher from another angle because my main area of work has been textbook publishing. Very satisfying and fulfilling. I have actually convinced myself that trained teachers make the best publishers ( ).

AZAFI OMOLUABI (Parrésia Publishers Ltd., Nigeria): I’ve always loved books, and wanting to know the process took me into publishing. Yes, it’s been different. I eventually learned that having a passion for books differs from book production, sales, and marketing. The many tentacles of publishing are akin to having blind men touch an elephant from different sides and having different experiences. 

The Nigerian Literary community is growing, but at the moment, it is medium-sized. It cuts across gender and age. What I find most delightful are young adults who dominate social media as book influencers and reviewers. This group of readers could currently make or break a book. 

GORETTI KYOMUHENDO (African Writers Trust, Uganda): My publishing career started with FEMRITE – https://www.femriteug.org/ which I directed for ten years, 1997-2007.  We started with running programmes and activities aimed at empowering Ugandan women writers to tell their stories, including training in writing skills and personal empowerment workshops. We soon realised, though, that we would need to add the publishing aspect. The stories that the women were writing needed to be published. There were limited publishing outlets in the country at the time. And so, we launched FEMRITE Publications Limited, and started publishing novels, poetry, life stories and others. We did everything ourselves: from writing, editing, publishing, marketing and selling the titles we produced. We learnt on the job, and dealt with the resulting issues, such as storage, as they arose.

My latest publishing project this year is the re-issuing of Whispers from Vera under the African Writers Trust imprint which I founded in 2009. This, too, was out of need. Whispers from Vera was first published in 2002 in Uganda; however, about a year later, the publisher went out of business. Subsequently, the title went out of print. I decided to reissue the novel on the 20th anniversary of its first publication. 

I think because publishing came to me, I really can’t say what I had anticipated or expected. For me, it was a job that had to be done. 

MUTESI GASANA (Ubuntu Publishers, Rwanda): I loved books from an early age, growing up in a teacher’s home but making books and knowing how to venture into publishing wasn’t in my wildest dreams. I was introduced to publishing in 2009 by a regional publishing house, who had come into Rwanda for a market for textbooks in the country. I was hired as a consultant to carry out country-wide marketing of the then approved titles to all government schools in Rwanda. I gained an interest in books then and started a small bookstore in Kigali. I however found it difficult always answering questions from parents and schools that needed more than textbooks but, rather, reading resources. 

Later, I realised that the stories in the market depicted and were telling other people’s stories other than our own and that when I decided to become part of the change I wanted to see and founded Ubuntu Publishers.

In your years of publishing, do you have one “highlight” moment? 

MAUREEN MASAMBA (Dzuka, Malawi): Not so much a highlight but something that sticks out, in 2020 (during Covid time), I invested my pension savings into a publishing project solicited by the government only for it to be cancelled at evaluation level. I crashed then – I have not yet recovered from that ordeal.

AZAFI OMOLUABI (Parrésia, Nigeria): Our first highlight moment was when we won the NLNG Prize for Literature with Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Season of Crimson Blossoms in 2013. I can’t fully express the thrill and fulfillment that came with it. In 2019, The Son Of The House by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe won the prize for International Best Fiction at the Sharjah International Book Fair. When it happened, I was in the hall, and I believe I screamed louder than everybody else—the same thing when it won the Nigerian Prize for Literature in 2020 or 2021. One never gets tired of the excitement that comes with these wins. 

GORETTI KYOMUHENDO (African Writers Trust, Uganda): In 2022, we published an anthology of short stories and poems entitled Threads and Faces: Stories about Identity and Belonging under the African Writers Trust imprint, by writers and poets from five African countries. As the editor, a number of factors thrilled me about this collection:  the writers are young people, exploring a variety of themes including love, grief, identity and belonging, sexuality and disability. More exciting is the fact that the stories are written as personal reflections, memoir or autobiographical narratives, a genre we need to see more of in African literature. And perhaps, the greater highlight are the countries represented in this anthology, some of which are seldom visible in African literature, such as Burundi and Sudan. 

With so much turmoil in the world at the moment, I am glad we gave young people hope and the opportunity to amplify their voices, and for their concerns to be listened to, for they are the future.

MUTESI GASANA (Ubuntu, Rwanda): Yes – in 2018, we published 53 picture stories authored by 53 young authors (8-12 years) from 23 districts of Rwanda in the campaign dubbed “Gira Igitabo” (“Have a Book”). We really felt the pride of publishing these authors for the first time.

What’s a book on your list that’s surprised you? Any titles coming up for you that you’re particularly excited about? 

MAUREEN MASAMBA (Dzuka, Malawi): Venturing into a totally new publishing level – children’s stories/picture books –  is exciting for me. It is uncharted territory, and very involving, to bring out high quality and exciting books for the young reader that are unsolicited – a risky and exciting venture.

AZAFI OMOLUABI (Parrésia, Nigeria): The Son of The House. I’m looking forward to the release of our first General Fiction title tiled Cracked Screen.

MUTESI GASANA (Ubuntu, Rwanda): The book that surprised me was a children’s book authored by a young pre-teen child who shared her personal story of a friend who had got pregnant at an early age of 12 years. The story was painful, and her commitment was to protect others from sugar daddies. She crafted the story because her area was an area of teen pregnancies.

We are excited about the children’s travel books coming up; the books will be a series of books that introduces children to travelling and learning about different things and parts of the world, starting from Rwanda.

Do you publish what you read? Or are your personal reading interests different from your professional ones? 

MAUREEN MASAMBA (Dzuka, Malawi): No, our main market, just like most African countries, is educational books and predominantly high school level. My personal reading interests are very different.

AZAFI OMOLUABI (Parrésia, Nigeria): I’ve been accused several times about publishing what I read and the need to be more open to other genres of fiction. I’ve promised several times to listen.

MUTESI GASANA (Ubuntu, Rwanda): I publish both what I read and what my children read, I love children and I love stories so, yes, I publish what I read.

Are readers in your community reading local or mostly international books? 

MAUREEN MASAMBA (Dzuka, Malawi): Local for educational purposes, and international for literature.

AZAFI OMOLUABI (Parrésia, Nigeria): It’s a mixture of both. 

MUTESI GASANA (Ubuntu, Rwanda): I have a variety of readers – the adult literature is international, but the children’s literature is local stories. This is because we have limited local literature for adults here in Rwanda, but we do have local stories in children’s publishing.

Do you have a target reader in mind when you’re publishing? What are your reader demographics? Are they changing? The younger generations–are they reading? 

MAUREEN MASAMBA (Dzuka, Malawi): Yes – with our main market being educational books, school enrolment figures are the indicative demographics. Due to interest from development partners and NGO or CSOs who are into literacy projects, there is a slight shift of interest in as far as publishing is concerned; there is a demand for young reader materials as supplementary to educational texts as high levels of illiteracy have compelled organisations to invest in young reader materials.

AZAFI OMOLUABI (Parrésia, Nigeria): Discovering demographics has been a learning process for me. At the moment, we are looking to publish more children’s titles because we now understand how important this demographic is. If locally produced books are available for children from the age of five, then you’ll be building a generation of readers who will be invested in reading our stories.

MUTESI GASANA (Ubuntu, Rwanda): Yes, I always have a target reader, one that is a combination of a reader that is targeted by the author. The stories we create are authentic and original stories from the local communities, so we craft stories with the target reader in mind. 

As we keep publishing on diverse demographics, our clientele also keeps increasing. The shift is being determined by the young authors who are coming up and the culture of reading that is improving.

What are obstacles you’re facing that feel unique to publishing in Africa, or in your country? 

MAUREEN MASAMBA (Dzuka, Malawi): In Malawi, publishing is not recognised as an economic activity that would contribute to the economic development of the country. As such, there is no political will to support the industry. The country does not have a national book and reading policy that would guide the industry. The market is donor dependent, so with donor fatigue creeping in, publishers are hardly making sales. Prices of books are therefore high because of low volumes of printing.

AZAFI OMOLUABI (Parrésia, Nigeria): Distribution across the continent.

GORETTI KYOMUHENDO (African Writers Trust, Uganda):  Book distribution, I believe, is still a huge problem. Moving books or content across the continent is hampered by a multitude of obstacles. Transport infrastructure is not fully developed to support the physical movement of books, i.e., rail and road networks, whilst air transport would be prohibitively expensive. Books published in one region of the continent are not easily accessed in another. For readers based in Uganda, for instance, how would they access a book published in Ivory Coast? In addition to transportation problems, we also have to consider a lack of a common language, which continues to fragment the continent. A book published in a Francophone country would most likely be written in French, yet Uganda is an English-speaking country. Taxation on books and other trade barriers, such as lack of a common currency, also hinder movement of books. 

MUTESI GASANA (Ubuntu, Rwanda): The reading culture in my country is not yet a culture. Even though it is developing due to policies and the government’s will to build a knowledge-based economy, we are still struggling to make books that can be a lucrative and growing business. 

A culture of reading that is low is common in Africa, but for us in Rwanda, we have a unique challenge of a lack of mindset change on buying books because we have a lot of free distribution of books in the form of donations. This is an impediment to the market.

Children’s books are hot in the market but children depend on their parents for decisions on their content. Along with the above, this makes publishing children’s books interesting but challenging because it is characterised by donations instead of volumetric sales.

However, due to Rwanda’s economic growth, resilient communities are being built and this comes with improved livelihoods that build economic capacity for purchasing power. 

What do you expect to change in the African publishing world in the next 5-10 years? What trends are you seeing?

MAUREEN MASAMBA (Dzuka, Malawi): In terms of trends, we are seeing improved interaction and communication among publishers across the different African markets which, essentially, have similar industry challenges. 

I expect that industries that have governments’ political will and publications that have the capacity to be cross-border quality will change in the next 5-10 years, e.g. at the Nairobi International Book Fair this year, I found children’s books that would be relevant in our market. 

AZAFI OMOLUABI (Parrésia, Nigeria): I’m hoping that we, as African publishers, begin to buy rights to the books we publish. I also hope we form a bond that will represent us.

GORETTI KYOMUHENDO (African Writers Trust, Uganda): There is a new generation of readers interested in books by African writers that are well-written, in terms of content, and professionally produced books, in terms of packing. I see this trend growing in the coming years. I think this generation of readers are looking to be inspired by such books. Some of the books they are interested in have also been popularised by social media and other internet platforms. Sometimes, these readers feel like they are missing out on something, if they don’t read these books.   

I also see e-commerce and digital publishing as the future for African writing. I think there are many obstacles to print publishing, like distribution, as I elaborate below. In any case, many of the younger readers I mention above are more interested in audiobooks and ePubs, which they can access on their smartphones and other electronic gadgets, as they go about their busy schedules. 

Another change I anticipate is the embracement of more south-to-south publishing collaborations and trade. Publishing is evolving. Publishing is being deregulated. Africa and other emerging economies in Eastern Europe and Asia are beginning to create their own publishing centres, and to own their creative and production processes, rather than looking up to the west as the centre of gravity when it comes to publishing. Book Fairs in Africa and other developing nations are growing bigger, more regional/international, and adopting market-facing strategies such as trading in rights. These are the prerequisites required for trade and other partnerships to happen between low- and middle-income countries and/or trade at international level.  

MUTESI GASANA (Ubuntu, Rwanda): I am seeing a commitment to the development of reading cultures in Rwanda. We have a heavy investment by USAID projects, working in and outside the classroom to improve foundational learning in diverse areas. We also have local initiatives like Soma Rwanda (Rwanda Reads) and the Kigali Public Library that are promoting the culture of reading. eKitabu is also one amazing organisation that is working on availing inclusive materials to people with disabilities, and providing platforms that promote and support the reading culture through subsidising books. 

In the next 5-10 years? I would like to see more crafting African stories in our style. Most of the time, we see authors have been tailored to tell stories according to the international market style of reading, but how about an industry that is publishing stories that respond to our own challenges, in our own way and languages? 

I see an Africa that writes, and publishes, for Africa and beyond, with the focus on supporting the African way of writing and storytelling. The Rwandan market is a virgin and upcoming market to look towards in the coming years too; our stories are based on the bitter past of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the pain, healing, reconciliation that the international market can learn from. 

We would like to see more activities – reading campaigns, festivals and outreaches – that encourage reading and, so, writing, of local content and in our mother tongue. We are committed to supporting local young authors craft their own reading resources focused on local context and challenges. We will continue to work with both government and other stakeholders to build communities that respond to the lack of contextualised content and support young authors to be published for the first time.

Maureen Lynda Masamba (Dzuka, MALAWI): Maureen Masamba is a Publishing Consultant for Dzuka Publishing Company Limited. She has close to 23 years experience of publishing having started as a Field Editor. She is passionate about the publishing industry as a major stakeholder to the quality of education through reading initiatives. Writing for children is her latest passion. She is currently serving as the President for the Book Publishers Association in Malawi and as Honorary Secretary for the African Publishers Network (APNET).

Azafi Omoluabi (Parrésia, NIGERIA) has lived with and has loved books since she could read her alphabet. She has worked as an editor/writer for Goge Africa and freelanced with Soundcity Blast and My Media Magazine before joining Farafina Magazine. Her stint with Kachifo Limited, owners of Farafina Magazine, exposed her to the publishing process. She believes it took her out of the world of just reading books to understanding the process of discovering an author to getting a book published and then sold. She and Richard Ali founded Parrésia Publishers Limited, a publishing company in Nigeria, in 2012 with the aim of publishing books by first-time authors and selling books to the Nigerian reading audience, and promoting the freedom of the imagination and the free press.  Parrésia Publishers Limited was described in 2017 by The New York Times as one of “a handful of influential new publishing houses” in Africa in the last decade. Parrésia is a dream she shares with her co-founder to change the face of Nigerian publishing. She believes a business model can be built that will actually sell books. She strongly believes Nigerians do read, but the books she publishes need help to find their way into the waiting hands of every single Nigerian who would buy a good book to read. When she isn’t thinking of Parrésia, Azafi thinks of ways to conquer the world when her kids are asleep.  

Goretti Kyomuhendo (UGANDA) is one of Uganda’s leading novelists and founding director of the African Writers Trust. She is the author of four novels: The First Daughter (1996), Secrets No More (1999), which won the Uganda National Literary Award for Best Novel in the same year; Waiting, published by The Feminist Press in New York, in 2007, and translated into Spanish, in 2022, and Whispers from Vera, republished in August 2023. In 2014, she published the Essential Handbook for African Creative Writers. She has also published several children’s books and short stories, including Lost and Found, published in New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent (2019), which was edited by Margaret Busby. 

Goretti holds an MA degree in Creative Writing from the University of KwaZulu, Natal, South Africa, and taught creative writing in the same university in 2004. The first Ugandan woman to receive the International Writing Program Fellowship at the University of Iowa, Goretti has been recognised for her work as a writer and literary activist nationally and internationally, and has participated in numerous forums worldwide. In 2021, she was appointed to chair an international panel of five judges for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. She also served as one of the five global judges for the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2012. In 2019, she was featured among the 100 Most Influential Africans by the UK-based Magazine, New African.  Goretti is a founding member of FEMRITE – Uganda Women Writers’ Association and Publishing House – and served as its first director for ten years (1997-2007.)   

Gasana Mutesi started her career in Book Publishing in 2010 looking for opportunities in the market. She was introduced to publishing for Rwanda through different regional publishing houses where she held various roles. In 2013, she initiated her first business, a bookstore in Kigali, Arise Education.  Late in 2014, she joined Oxford University Press during the development of textbooks for the Rwanda Education Board, the then newly designed competence-based curriculum. She became the country coordinator and she focused on developing the English materials for schools.  

All through her working experience, she found there was a need that no one else appeared willing to meet, and this led her to make a decision to quit and focus on starting Ubuntu Publishers in 2016. In 2017 through her bookshop (Arise Education), she was the recipient of a partnership to run a campaign dubbed “Gira Igitabo Aho Uri” with Mureke Dusome, a USAID project implemented by Save the Children, together with the Ministry of Sports and Culture and the Ministry of Education, still running to date.

She recently started a TESI Foundation, channeling her passion to promote reading and social transformation for the wellbeing of the less privileged in our communities, especially women, teens and youth, to bring a social economic transformation of the country.She is also a passionate gospel artist and preacher! She has now founded and is running Goshen Revival Ministries.

Jessica Powers (UNITED STATES) is publisher of Catalyst Press, a North American and South African based company that specializes in publishing African writers and African-based books. As J.L. Powers, she has written and published nine award-winning books for children and young adults. She can be found online at www.jlpowers.net and at www.catalystpress.org.

Catalyst Press started Reading Africa Week in 2017 as an annual celebration of African literature. Each year, book-lovers of all kinds can use the hashtags #ReadingAfrica or #ReadingAfricaWeek across social media on posts that spotlight African literature. The campaign brings attention to writers who are doing diverse and genre-spanning work from every corner of the African continent. The first year was small but from that first campaign, #ReadingAfrica has only grown in scope and reach. Now there are events, with participants from four continents, spanning fields and organizations such as libraries, schools, publishers, writers and more. 2022 also marked the first year including a companion #ReadingAfrica playlist curated by a member of acclaimed Afro-funk band, Sinkane.

For more information and to register for the remaining panels this year, follow this link. 

From Catalyst: “Each year, we find ourselves overwhelmed by the support of readers and publishers from around the globe, each eager to celebrate African literature. Africa is a place with incalculable stories to tell, and our goal each year is to prioritize African voices, spark conversation, and to resist the flattening of a place with limitless possibilities.” 

Categories: AiW Featured - archive highlights, Conversations with - interview, dialogue, Q&A

Tags: #indypublishing, #ReadingAfrica, #ReadingAfricaWeek, Azafi Omoluabi, Catalyst Press, Goretti Kyomuhendo, Jessica Powers, Maureen Masamba, Mutesi Gasana