Note: this article by Hans Zell first appeared in The Book & The Computer online symposium "Book Culture at the Crossroads" (November 12, 2003) at http://www.honco.net/os/index_0310.html. Details of Web pages/URLs of all the organizations, initiatives, projects, and papers mentioned in this article can be found (in alphabetical order) at the end of the article, with update notes (as at March 2005) on a number of them. Also included are links and short descriptions about a small number of other resources, projects, and initiatives that have emerged since this article was first published, and which will be of interest to the African book professions. Digital Media and African Publishing by Hans M. Zell In its "Strategic Plan 2002-2006," the African Books Collective (ABC) described the publishing situation in Africa as "one of extreme underdevelopment." Based in Oxford, UK, the ABC is a pioneering not-for-profit organization of independent African publishers, and certainly there is truth to their assessment. But it strikes me as being a bit overblown (and this despite my own long association with them). While it is true that, in much of the continent, a viable indigenous publishing industry capable of producing books on a scale that matches local needs is still something of a dream, there has been significant progress in establishing African- owned publishing enterprises. Publishing in Africa does indeed face serious obstacles, and the support of African governments remains patchy. Nonetheless, new independent imprints continue to sprout up, and publishers have initiated numerous creative measures to promote and strengthen their industry. One might say that African publishing today is buoyant even while in the midst of adversity. The adversity is, of course, considerable. Most parts of the continent are afflicted by progressively deteriorating economic conditions. Social, cultural and infrastructure problems abound. Low literacy levels, the multiplicity of languages, limited access to books and to library services, poor transport and communications networks, underfunded educational systems, shortages of capital and skills, high manufacturing costs -- these are some of the items that head a very long list of factors that hinder the development of African publishing. Some of these problems are relatively recent developments; others have constrained book publishing in Africa since its inception. Africa's association with printed literature goes back several centuries. Many African countries have a long and prolific artistic and literary history, but it was not until the early 19th century that the book made its first real impact in sub-Saharan Africa, largely through the influence and activities of Christian missions. The missionaries were probably the first publishers in the modern sense, bringing with them printing presses, which thereafter began to operate in many parts of the continent. As publishing expanded, it became, through the first half of the 20th century, the domain of British and French publishing houses. Following the Second World War, the newly won independence of many African countries created an education explosion. As a result, educational publishing for Africa became big business, and state-owned publishing houses and foreign firms scrambled for shares of this lucrative market. By the 1960s, multinationals came to dominate the African publishing scene, but this began to change by the end of the decade, with the emergence of a significant number of genuinely autonomous private-sector publishing companies. 1