(PDF) The Status of Writing: Towards the Nurturing of the Book Industry in Zambia

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The Status of Writing

Towards the Nurturing of the Book

Industry in Zambia

Gankhanani Moffat Moyo

Zambia Academic, Textbook and Nonfiction Authors

Association

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Association, and Moffat Moyo, 2021

reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by

any means, including photocopying, recording, or other

electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior

written permission of the publisher, except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain

other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed

“Attention: Editor,” at the address below.

Zambia Textbook, Academic and Non-Fiction Authors

Association

C/O Kalulu Kreativez - Centre for the Arts and Culture

Plot 30220, Off Shantumbu Road, Chalala, Lusaka.

First published 2021

ISBN

Cover Design by Simon Msoni

Typeset by Sydney Muponda

Printed in the Republic of Zambia

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This book is dedicated to all those writers who never wrote;

those who wrote but never got published; those who wrote, got

published but never received recognition as having achieved

something; and to those who wrote, got published, received

recognition but never got financial benefits from their work.

We are fighting for a better Zambia

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Acknowledgments

I am not in the habit of mentioning names of people that have

contributed to anything in my life because I have noticed on

many occasions that by mentioning names, people usually

leave out a lot of people who may have contributed to

something. For example, there are people who contribute to

something by making it difficult for someone to achieve it.

And when that person tries to prove that it can be done, they

succeed in the act. Therefore, I wish to thank all those people

who prayed for this project to succeed. I also wish to thank all

those who prayed for it to fail. Without that prayer for failure,

there would not have been balance and the project would have

been a total failure, detached from the reality of its space.

I wish to thank specifically the executive committee of

ZATANFAA for facilitating the research and also the writing

process of this work. It was so demanding that without this

support, the project would never have seen the light of day.

Let me also thank the Norwegian Non-fiction Writers and

Translators Association (NFFO) which funded this research

and waited patiently for the outcome of the research. We are

also waiting patiently for this publication to contribute to

dialogue in the book industry in Zambia.

Allow me to also thank my wife and my children for enduring

long periods of my absence as I poured my soul into this work.

It was a demanding task considering that it was one of the

many writing projects I was involved in at the same time.

Many thanks go to the people who made comments on this

work before it came to this stage. My colleague who also

happens to be my academic supervisor, Prof Stewart Crehan,

you made invaluable comments on this work. My academic

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older brother and fellow organic intellectual, Hassan

Museshyo, apart from being an assistant on the research, your

comments came in when they were most needed. My wife and

best friend, Bether Belina Mwale-Moyo, your comments and

final edits on every section of the work did so much to help.

The comments were many and varied. Not all were used but

they were all instrumental in shaping this work. My wife

actually, burnt the midnight oil reading through the entire

manuscript correcting every word, phrase, sentence and

section. You are the best editor one can ever have. I do not

have the words to use to thank you all.

Lastly and most importantly, allow me to thank my research

assistants who are actually very close friends of mine who

traversed the very rural of Zambia to talk to writers, publishers,

booksellers and readers among others that created the material

for this work. It is their courage to face people they had never

met before that has enabled you to hold this book in your hands

today. My research assistants were: Hassan Jack Museshyo,

Staric Chapula, Mwaziona Masenga, Amy Nkonjela, Sibeso

Walusiku, Chisenga Kenneth, Alice Mwale and Collins

Mulunga Duli.

I thank all of you so much and I will forever remain indebted to

you.

Gankhanani.

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Table of Contents 
Acknowledgments ............................................................................ vii 
Preface ............................................................................................... xi 
Prologue .............................................................................................. 1 
Writing: Is It Necessary to Worry About It? ...................................... 3 
Education and Writing ...................................................................... 13 
Relations Between Writers and Publishers ....................................... 43 
Books and the Zambian Market........................................................ 63 
The Question of Language in Zambian Writing ............................... 68 
Epilogue ............................................................................................ 75 
Selected Sources Used ...................................................................... 77

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Preface

This work was born out of a research project embarked upon

by the Zambia Textbook, Academic and Nonfiction Authors

Association (ZATANFAA). Our desire was to examine the

writing space in the country. For example, we tried to assess if

there was writing activity going on and how that was being

responded to by Zambian readers. We also tried to examine the

relations between writers and publishers and how this could

help grow the literary scene even further in the country. The

research interacted with about five readers, five writers, five

publishers, and five booksellers in each of the provinces of the

country. This was intended to get a general outlook of the

situation.

The research was embarked upon in relation to the position of

ZATANFAA in the literary space of Zambia. The role of

ZATANFAA in writing is to promote writers, link writers to

the publisher, the market and most importantly, help the writer

benefit from the written work that remains the writer’s child. It

is for this reason that ZATANFAA has partnered with other

organisations to achieve this objective. For instance, a research

similar to this was conducted in Uganda by the Uganda

Textbook, Academic, and Nonfiction Authors Association

(UTANA). We also feel that the work being done by our major

partner the NFFO who also have continuously helped us

financially can easily be achieved once there is certainty on the

writing situation in the country.

This research, however, is very far from being comprehensive.

In our view, it attempts to begin a dialogue on research on

writing. It is our expectation that academics and other

researchers will do more research on the subject of this work.

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ZATANFAA will be more than glad to collaborate with such

individuals and institutions.

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Prologue

“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to

write in.”

--Robert Louis Stevenson

Is it possible to read and write at the same time? Well, maybe.

However, it is as important to read as it is to write. To have a

reader, there has to be a writer. If no one is writing for you,

write for yourself. Why not say that when you are not reading,

you are probably writing? Maybe writing is not for everyone

but can we not have as many people writing as we have the

readers?

Readers and writers can be so knitted together that we may not

be able to separate one from the other. We need writers so that

readers can read. We need readers to provide a tangible outlet

for writers. However, how much do we know about our

writers, our readers, the writing situation and book production

in our space? Let us start with a very small exploration of the

subject of writing.

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Writing: Is It Necessary to Worry About It?

This work attempts to study the writing situation in Zambia.

The thought behind the work was necessitated by the

unavailability of information on the status of writing in

Zambia. The information challenge should be dealt with as it

can affect so much in relation to the entire discipline of

literature. For example, the determination of how much

resources should be invested in literature and which particular

aspects should be focused on? Should the focus be on writing

for children or for adults? Should it be on creative writing or on

academic works? Should it be language centered? Should the

role of the publisher also be given attention or focus should be

on the writer. Does there exist a vacuum between the writer

and the publisher? How about the language of the literary

world? Is it necessary to think about the language through

which to present these works? While considering all these

aspects of the writing business, is it not necessary to also think

about the major player in the business of literature, that one

being the reader? Would it make any sense at all to write when

there is no one to read the written work? These questions are

intended to show that this work has a seriously challenge of

what to be based on. Just developing this work was hampered

by insufficient material to discuss the work.

This work had several objectives the time it was

conceptualized. The objectives included to ascertain the

relevance of writing to society; to examine the relationship

between writing and education; to assess the relationship

between writing and development; to analyse the availability of

resources for writers; to explore the relations between writers

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and publishers; to examine the relationship between publishers

and the Zambian market; and to interrogate the question of

language in Zambian writing. These objectives led to this work

which cannot in any way claim to be any close to giving a

comprehensive study of the status of writing in Zambia.

However, the study attempts to be a starting point of research

in this field. It is hoped that through this study, a lot more

research will be conducted in writing and probably make a

meaningful contribution to literature.

This work, therefore, begins by questioning the whole idea of

research in literature. Is it really necessary to conduct research

on writing? While many might take it for granted that research

should be conducted on writing, it is also possible that it is not

necessary. It is hoped that examining this question can help

situate this discussion and finally suggest the validity of this

work itself. The presence of newspaper, magazines and books

published locally suggests that there is writing activity going

on in the country. However, the question remains on how much

information on the same is known. On the question of research

on writing, in this work, I attempt to examine various views on

whether research is necessary on writing or not. The various

voices on the subject help justify this present study.

As one may expect, I have proceeded to raise questions on the

relationship between writing and education. This happens

because the history of writing, particularly in Africa, is

strongly tied to western education. In this study, I have tried to

show that the written word is central to learning in the Western

educational space. It is important that as much as there have

been attempts to localize curricula, the learning philosophy

remains largely of a western nature and has failed to be

divorced from Western interpretation. This work has gone

further to question whether it is possible for education, as

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understood mostly in the modern sense, to survive in the

absence of the written word.

Of all this, the question that remains to be answered is why we

should go to great lengths talking about writing and research. It

remains my conviction that everything we do as human beings

is intended to bring about development. One would wonder

why anything that does not bring about development at all

should be embarked upon by human beings. For this reason,

the question of writing and development becomes central to the

discussion on writing. Is it necessary to focus on writing if it

does not bring about development? Maybe we should begin

from the understanding of development itself. How should

development be understood?

After exploring all these aspects of writing and the world that

shapes it which it also shapes, the focus shifts to the creative

space by examining the resources available for writers. Since it

has been assumed that writing activities are taking place based

on the presence of literature around, it has been assumed

further that writers use specific resources for writing and also

publishing. The key argument by this discussion is that writing

resources have to be made available by those responsible for

such in order to enable key players in the writing sector to

perform their functions successfully. For example, the writers

resources have to be available for the writer to write while the

publisher should also be afforded necessary resources for them

to publish what the writer has written.

This discussion continues with an examination of the relations

between writers and publishers. It is felt that writers and

publishers need to work together for the book industry to

thrive. In the absence of sound relations between the two

groups which, of course, cannot work independent of each

other, there will remain a void in the writing industry and the

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reader will remain hungry for the book as this will not be

available. One of the most burning questions is the protection

of the writer’s copyright. With the writer’s work being so much

open to abuse, the discussion veers into how far the writer has

been protected from exploitation by not only the reader on one

hand, but also both the publisher and the book seller on the

other.

The discussion continues to examine the Zambian book market

by interrogating the relations between publishers and book

sellers and how the two interface with the reader. The

interaction with the reader attempts to establish the extent to

which the published work has responded to his/her desired

readable works. How far have the published books been

available and accessible to the reader? This particular subject is

an extension of a study I did with my colleagues in 2017 and

our findings were presented during the Indaba at the Zimbabwe

book fair. The findings of that study give a background to the

findings of the current study.

And finally, realising that this study focuses on Zambia, a

multicultural and multilingual nation, I have gone on to

interrogate the language question. Language has remained a

thorny issue in many aspects of the Zambian life considering

that Zambia is highly multilingual and generally, almost

everyone feels that their language should be central to their

interaction with their reality. In this work, I have ended up

sharing what many others before me have said in relation to

what can work for the Zambian, particularly in language-

related matters. For example, what language should one use

when interacting with a Zambian?

I have attempted to answer the questions I posed earlier in

relation to the need for research in writing. Allow me to inform

you, dear reader, that though this work touches on other aspects

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such as education, development and language among others as

already noted above, it is intended to strictly discuss the status

of writing in Zambia and make a small contribution to the

debate that takes place mostly in conference rooms with little

information shared with the general public. How much the

general public has contributed to this debate remains a question

seeking an answer. However, this work desires to bring the

debate to the public sphere.

While the absence of well-informed research on the status of

writing in Zambia has led to several questions noted above.

This work further wondered if it is necessary to conduct

research on writing. The fact that little research has been

conducted on writing created an impression that there is very

little need for the research. I wish to argue that there is always

need for research. How does one understand anything without

employing some form of research? To know how many people

are in your home, you will need to physically count which is

almost the same as taking note of them. Asking friends and

colleagues is a form of research that helps with information

that one might not be very much informed about. Similarly,

there is need to conduct research in writing for us to understand

whether there are challenges and what those challenges are. It

is upon understanding those challenges that we can tell how

they can be approached. For instance, writing is seen as being

very important by scholar Gustafson and others as they note

that we encounter it everyday in our lives. The fact that we

encounter writing daily in our lives makes it necessary that

meaningful research is conducted on it.

Other experts such as Struck writing in his 1999 work,

Elements of Style, suggests that writing is a product of

research. The argument advanced is that there can never be

successful writing without adequate research. For this reason,

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one would expect that even before discussing the importance of

research on writing, we should be talking about the importance

of research in writing. Writing-related research is therefore

broad in the sense that it includes research in writing. Before a

writer, regardless of their discipline, pens their work, they are

expected to do as much research as possible. And when a

reader interacts with written work, they do so in the spirit of

research. Also, when the reader tries to understand the

circumstances of the writer and their written work, they do so

in the spirit of research. The importance of research on writing

therefore cannot be over emphasised.

On research on Zambian writing, it was observed that research

on Zambian writing was not available. It appeared that most

Zambian researchers did not conduct so much research on the

subject of writing. The focus of this section was on ‘research

on writing’ and not reading. What was expected was gathering

of data on what has been obtaining in the writing sector and

how this information could be used to lead to progress in

writing.

However, there was research on literacy and academic research

proposal writing. Nyambe (2018) conducted a research on low

levels of literacy among learners in Zambian secondary

schools. While it is acceptable that literacy includes writing,

the current study is more inclined to writing and not literacy

which is much broader than that. The research by Nyambe

would therefore have benefited this work more if it focused on

writing in its discussing literacy even though it suggests that

poor reading has contributed to poor writing in Zambia. The

work argues that it is only through reading that one’s writing

can be nourished. For this reason, the current study does not

benefit as much as it would from the research under discussion.

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Another work worth mentioning is by Ndhlovu and Mwanza

(2015) that is more concerned with academic proposal writing.

Similar to the work discussed above, the research under

discussion this time is restricted to academic proposal writing.

Our study looks at writing broadly as it includes creative,

academic and non-fiction. Ndhlovu and Mwanza are more

interested in what academics are writing, particularly the

research proposal. While the research showed ‘broad and

unclear topics, failure to state the problem, failure to identify

the gap in the literature, using wrong methodology,

misunderstanding research terminology, wrong referencing

style and plagiarism’ as being the key problems with the

writing by students, it does not show the problems associated

with writing outside the area of focus on their study. The

current study would therefore have benefitted from the study if

it had made reference to work outside academic proposal

writing even though this idea does not in any way intend to

suggest that the study being referred to has this particular

weakness. It cannot be argued as such because every research

has its own area of focus and should be accepted as such.

The research referred to above shows that there is need indeed

for academics to consider researching in writing and publishing

as these contribute to generation, and storage of information. It

also contributes to identifying a people’s culture for

generations that are to come later. Chomba and Mwanza (2018)

suggest that there should be focus on writing and publishing

because of the benefits listed above. This research wishes to

suggest that if, according to the above argument, writing and

publishing is a way of generating information and history of a

people, it follows that a people without literature remain a

people without a knowledge of who they are and therefore are

unable to tell where they are going to. For this reason, it would

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be advisable that academics and writers should pay more

attention to not only writing but mainly conducting research in

subjects relating to writing and publishing. Academics should

create a model that writers could go by for people to find a way

of benefiting from our literature as a people.

While it has been argued that writing benefits the nation at a

high level, it should also be mentioned that the individual

academic actually benefits more from the research as they gain

recognition for doing so. Apart from the individual academic,

the institution that the academic is affiliated to also receives

recognition from the same research work done by the

academic. Therefore, benefits from research, whether on

writing or not, benefits more than just the discipline but also

the structures involved in generating the same data that

includes the individual and the institution. For this reason, it

could be suggested that institutions should therefore consider

creating frameworks that can help encourage research in

various disciplines including ignored disciplines such as

writing which, so far, particularly in Zambia, has not been

given much attention by academics.

Writing and publishing are very important in the learning

process as they help store knowledge, information and culture

to the future generations. Writing therefore helps capture this

information in a form that can easily be decoded by many

people in different times and spaces. The written work

transcends both geography and time. This is one of the reasons

that there should be special attention given to the field of

writing and this attention should start with research itself.

Writing should be researched into so that whatever decisions

are made about writing should be decisions that have been well

thought out and fully examined in different ways.

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I wish to suggest here that for a developed writing industry

whether at an academic or commercial level, we need to focus

on research. Research questions traditions and also helps create

them. The moment we conduct research on writing, it will be

easy for us to know what ought to be written on and why.

These are the strides we ought to be taking now as a country

and also as a people.

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Education and Writing

While acknowledging that it is difficult to define education and

wishing to view education as a kind of learning that helps one

understand the world they live in and identify ways of making

it better for the betterment of both the current and future

generations, this chapter wishes to interrogate the relationship

between education and writing.

On the onset, I wish to mention that the challenge that I face in

this discussion is based on the fact that education and writing

chiefly refer to modern as opposed to traditional education.

This is because traditional education chiefly does not take the

written form while western education is highly tied to the

written word. For this reason, as we discuss writing in relation

to education, it becomes clear that our discussion is chiefly

interested in the education being referred to being modern. I

will still try wherever possible to bring to the discussion

Zambian traditional education and show how it contributes to

the understanding of this relationship under focus.

In this chapter, I will start by investigating whether writing

together with its successor publishing contribute to education

and how that happens if it does. I will also attempt to establish

whether it is possible to adequately educate people without

involving writing and publishing. This will be followed up by

an attempt at establishing how literacy relates to education in

general. Having established the relationship between writing

and education, I will proceed to examine how writing and

education can complement each other while also questioning

how much the education system has emphasised the use of

written works for the success of the system. Finally, I will try

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to establish how access to these written resources has been

viewed.

So, does writing contribute to education in any way? I started

with mentioning that writing is chiefly a modern or western

development. Speech predates the written form. Most societies

that have remained very traditional do not have a very highly

developed writing culture. For example, most Zambian

societies first interacted with the written word on the coming of

Europeans to Africa. The implication of this case is that there

probably would not have been much writing if any had

European missionaries not come through. However, I wish to

still propose that we should not take this as simply as it has

been presented. There is no evidence to suggest that in the

absence of Africa’s interaction with Europe, writing would not

have been employed by Africans independent of Europeans.

For this reason, it is my considered view that writing in Africa

should not be taken as something that could not have been

developed in a purely African form had there been no contact

with Europe when actually it is a well known fact that Africa is

one of the places on earth where writing originated

independent of other parts of the world. As we know, while

writing in all cultures may not be in the form it is today, it

should be accepted that all writing should attempt to ensure

that it leads to communication, the graphical marks emanating

from it are in a durable form and that the graphical marks

represent articulate speech as developed with intent to

communicate.

It is for this reason that writing has always existed in Africa

except that it has not taken the form that is currently known for

it. Therefore, I need to reiterate that while I will talk about

writing and education as well in relation to how it is known in

the world that is highly influenced by Europe and the West, I

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will constantly make reference to the African conception of

both writing and education.

So by looking at education as introduced and championed by

Europe, how can we say education benefits from writing and

publishing? When one pays close attention to the process of

education and the curriculum in particular, it becomes clear

that reading and writing have been set at the centre of

education. Young people are taught to read and write from

young ages. The focus on motor skills as suggested by the

education system is intended to help the young people easily

handle writing equipment, particularly the pencil for writing

and the marker/crayon for colouring, an act similar to writing

as it involves scribbling on a surface. For this reason, it can be

argued that the act of writing itself benefits the education

system. However, what follows when one writes something?

Definitely, it is sharing the written work with others. This

sharing is what we can consider as publishing, whether it is in

print or merely read out or show to others.

Let me go further to also show that interrogating the purpose

of publishing further argues for writing and publishing as

contributing to education in the sense that educational content

is largely stored in written form. From as early as kindergarten,

learners are exposed to the written word as a major way of their

accessing content. This means that it is very difficult for one to

learn without the written word that has also been published.

If the written word is this key to education, we could go ahead

and question the possibility of successfully delivering an

education in the absence of the written word. Some people

argue that it is not possible because they consider the written

word to be central to education as shown above. As brought out

above, almost all content is delivered in written form while the

response from the learner is also captured mainly in written

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form. I still wish to argue that this is purely a narrow approach

to viewing the issue of education. We need to look at education

broadly. The view above is restricted to modern formal

education. However, traditional education, even formal, such

as Mukanda of the Luvale, does not thrive on the written word.

In African education, the learner does not follow a specified

curriculum. The learner learns holistically in that they are

placed in the middle of the world and they start accessing what

is necessary and central to both their survival and enjoyment of

their world. For this reason, while in modern education the

written and ultimately published word is key together with the

learner depending on the skill of writing to show that they have

gone through the education successfully, the traditional African

world does not require the written word to actualise education.

In getting back to discuss the relationship between writing and

education, as I attempt to show that while education benefits

from writing, writing equally benefits from education, I will

pay close attention to literacy and education in general. It

should still be remembered that our focus will be on education

as introduced to Africa by Europeans. By literacy, my focus is

on not only one’s ability to read and write as it has been

traditionally seen but also the understanding of what is being

written and read. I also wish to state that this ability to read and

write with understanding should also be attached to one’s

willingness and enthusiasm to do so. The desire to read and

write shows one’s appreciation of the art. This appreciation

should be understood as also forming part of literacy.

While the reader can easily be misunderstood to be one who

passively receives what the writer has created, we should still

remember that the reader is as a contributor to the meaning of

what has been written as does the writer. The writer encodes

while the reader decodes. In encoding, the writer needs to be

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aware that he is bringing his entire life to what is being written

while the reader also uses his own experiences to interpret what

has been written. The reader will receive what they are reading

by casting it against many other possibilities coming not just

from their world but also from the world of the writers and

other worlds that both may not have interacted with. From this,

one should see that in talking about literacy, it is important to

also look at active engagement, interest, anticipation and

finally that feeling of success after managing to decode the

presented material.

The view I am trying to share here is that the written word,

both in being written and read, is centred around the worlds of

both the writer and the reader. The interpretation of the world

is what I wish to refer to as education. As I mentioned earlier,

as far as I am concerned, education is about knowing one’s

world. I wish to go further to look at this knowledge of one’s

world to include one’s ability to find ways of modifying this

world so that they benefit more from it. One’s knowledge of

their world should also include their knowledge of what they

should do to it to ensure that this world is sustained as

sustaining the world contributes to the sustenance of its

inhabitants. One’s ability to link their world to another’s and

finding ways of not only reconciling the two but also

modifying their world by taking into account what obtains in

the other world so as to better their world is a clear knowledge

and understanding the fact that interactions should lead to

people introspecting and modifying their circumstances for a

better world. It is my belief that this should be at the centre of

education.

If, therefore, at the centre of education is an understanding and

modification of the world for not only its sustenance but also

man’s own sustenance (or survival), how does reading and

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writing get to be at the centre of education? We should

remember that from what has been shared above, what is

central to this is sharing of knowledge, experiences, hopes,

desires, fears aspirations, and so on. In the current age, one

would agree that this is best done once in written form which

can only be accessed by those with the ability to read and

write. Literacy therefore gets to be a cornerstone of education

in this particular instance. Those who read, understand and

interpret in relation to their circumstances benefit from the

written word. For this reason, it should be encouraged that

people write their circumstances if their knowledge skills and

experiences are to be shared with others in the wider society.

On the other hand, there is need to remember the fact that not

all knowledge can be shared in written form. So, while we

argue for the sharing of knowledge and placing education at the

centre of literacy, we should remember that even this should be

received with care. It is not everything that can be written

down and explained accordingly. There are certain attributes of

knowledge and skills that can only be transferred from one

body to another. Let’s take for example, a dance. While one

can explain how a dance is performed, there would still be

need, for purposes of teaching and learning, that both the one

with the skill and the one trying to learn that skill, to transfer

the skills directly from one to another either in the same

physical space or in a virtual space that still accommodates the

physical replication of the body. For this reason, I wish to

suggest that there is need to not assume that it is only through

the written word that education can be facilitated while also

acknowledging the key role played by the same in educational

transmission.

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Since it has been acknowledged that literacy has a role to play

in education, should it be assumed that education is merely on

the receiving end of education? Does literacy benefit from

education in any way? It has definitely already been shown that

education, as it is being discussed in this section, relies more

on the written word, for this reason, for one to interpret the

education being offered, they need to understand the

mechanism which it is offered in. Since at the centre, especially

in relation to delivery of the education, is literacy, it follows

that the two work together. For one to be educated, they need

to be educated in getting educated. What does this imply? It

means that there is need to prepare people to receive this

education. The preparation of the learner to receive literacy is

education itself. I do not wish to get this discussion into the

‘chicken and egg’ controversy in relation to education and

literacy. However, I wish to argue that to receive education,

people need to be taught to read and write. Here, we see that

through reading and writing, people get to learn. At the same

time, as people learn, they are able to read and write. Reading

and writing therefore are highly interlinked with education

which means that literacy and education are, in this case, two

sides of the same coin.

Having established the close link between education and

literacy, I wish to get back to look at education as one’s

understanding of their world and developing the idea of not

only interpreting but also modifying the world for the benefit

of both the individual and society of both the current and future

generations. This leads to looking at education’s all-

encompassing nature to be a cultural issue. I wish to look at

culture as the sum total of a people’s experience, belief

systems, aspirations, and interpretation and understanding of

their world. Here, it is important to show that education is

20

highly a path to one’s being made aware of his culture and

identifying how to use it for one’s own progress. This view

further leads us to develop the relationship we saw between

education and writing to writing and culture. If education

relates to culture while writing relates to education, it follows

that culture and writing are highly related.

The above relationship we have attempted to show between

writing and culture can lead us to establishing that if writing

attempts to get us education, as much as beyond literacy,

writing helps not only to entertain society but also to teach

society and also duplicate the society, writing should be a

mirror to enable us see the world we live in. Writers are

therefore expected to be deeply immersed in their culture. By

appreciating their culture, writing will help society see where it

comes from, where it is and where it intends to go. Writers

should use their knowledge of their world to appeal to the

desires of their readers. A writer who is unaware of their world

becomes a liability to their society. At the centre of all

literature, with change accepted as it comes and unavoidable as

it is, culture should drive the written works. This does not in

anyway suggest separating mathematics or science or religion

from the cultural reality of a people. All writing should be used

to enhance a people’s cultural heritage and therefore be

beneficial to both the writer and the reader. Writers should

begin to deliberately study their world and examine how far

they can get material from this world. Similarly, they should

revisit and critically examine their works to see if these works

are, in any way, a reflection of their worlds. The ultimate

question writers should ask is: whose world is my work

responding to? My world, a world I so fully understand? An

alien world, a world I am only tangentially aware of? Of course

the answer to this question will determine whether the writer

21

appreciates their world or they are still in the stage of

developing their identity.

I wish to argue further that by focusing on culture, the writer

will deal with issues relevant to the reader. As I mentioned

above that in one’s culture there will one find their knowledge

about their past, their present and their future, it follows that

through the knowledge of one’s circumstances, one will know

what is best for them. One should be able to examine the world

they live, explore the available resources for their progress and

identify ways of using the available resources for them to

achieve their objectives both as individuals and as a collective.

This, I wish to argue, is what should be implied by

development. Development should be defined by one’s space

while the interaction with the outside world should merely help

one situate themselves as a unique being in a broader space of

reality. Writers, while keen on entertaining their readers,

should know that they have a duty to contribute to the

development agenda of the world. Writers should therefore

always think about ways they can use to contribute to making

the world a better place for all humanity starting with the little

private space that they occupy as individuals and a society.

It should be expected that being creators of an alternative

world mirroring the world we occupy, writers should help

readers ask themselves questions regarding their reality.

Readers should attempt to examine their philosophies as a

people and also listen to what writers’ suggestions are. Writers

should help give some direction to what we wish to define as

development. I have aversion to the tradition of listening to

people who are unaware of a space define development for

world they do not understand. It is my belief that every space

has its own circumstances and the space should define what is

22

meant by development. Writers should assist these spaces play

that role.

What is ultimately the gain from this discussion? If there is

need to talk about education especially in the modern day, one

should not talk about it outside the written word. We should

invest as much in writing as we are investing in education.

Similarly, if education is to be meaningful, it should benefit

from writing while also ensuring that the education

environment creates enough room for the growth of the writing

tradition. Ultimately, education should be an appreciation of

one’s cultural space which should further help us see the

cultural space as the material employed by the writer for a

work that will benefit both the society and the writer as well.

Culture should therefore be at the centre of all literary

activities. I take it that once this approach has been taken,

people will be able to tell whether they are on the path to their

development or not. Remember, development belongs to

people in their conception of their world. Writers are there to

help the people actualise that reality of their world.

23

The Writing Space: Availability of Resources for Writers

This section focusing on the author will specifically explore the

various resources available and constraints playing in the

dynamics of authorship. The section will examine how much

resources the writer has at his disposal from information and its

acquisition including availability of time to publishing and

marketing of the published works. The section examines if

these resources are sufficient for the consumer of the book in

Zambia and what could be done to better the situation.

We need to start by identifying what resources Zambian

writers consider necessary for them to successfully write. In

discussion, writers mentioned many. Resources mentioned by

the majority included time, and pen and paper. The argument

was that most writers are professionals in disciplines other than

writing. For this reason, even though they are writers, they

need to get much of the writing time from many other

competing activities. Considering that there is need for

financial stability, which even writing depends on, writers need

to be engaged in activities that can help them attain this

financial stability through both informal and formal

employment. It was observed that, in fact, even for professional

writers, time remained a major resource. This explained why

most writers went on break away from their homes to dedicate

as much time as possible to writing. While some people

thought pen and paper was a resource, others said that with

changing times, resources were not as cheap as pen and paper

as this time around people needed computers for writing with.

Progress in technology has meant changes in term of needs

from pen and paper to typewriters and now to computers.

24

Others have noted that instead of thinking about computers

alone, people should also look at advanced smart phones such

as the Note types that enable one to write in confined spaces

such as being on a bus.

There is also an agreement that the major resource is

knowledge about the subject area. This is coupled with

imagination and skill in writing. It is expected that every writer

should be well knowledgeable about whatever subject they

wish to engage themselves in. It would be folly for an expert in

language to attempt to write a book in physics as this would

require so much research but there is a possibility that experts

would still feel that the work has not been successfully

executed. While research is not reserved for non experts alone,

as even experts in any field still need to conduct adequate

research to successfully write, it should still be seen as being

pointed out, as an element of knowledge. Adequate research

ensures that the writer is well knowledgeable about their

subject. Since there is need for research, it follows that research

materials are equally a basic need in this case. Writers are

expected to have access to research materials. There are both

primary and secondary research sources. In many cases, since

we come from a preliterate society, one is likely to have

problems finding information in books or online. For this

reason, we need to start by making use of human treasures in

our localities. Writers need to have access to oral sources of

information. For example, the writing of this book made much

use of human treasures for information. We interviewed people

from all over Zambia to collect this information we are sharing

now. I, therefore, wish to suggest that as a source of

information, people should be available to writers. This can be

done through information being made available on where

various human treasures can be found.

25

The other resource are secondary sources such as books,

newspaper articles and similar ones. Writers should know that

they are also supposed to be readers. People have argued that

good writers are also good readers. Reading is a good source of

information for writers. While writers are expected to read

extensively on their subjects of interest as they are working on

their writing projects, it is also important for them to read

regularly as widely as possible. Writers are expected to be

highly knowledgeable. They should be able to say something

about most of what we encounter in life. It would be sad to

encounter a writer who is blank on basic information such as

current affairs in the community. For this reason, writers need

access to research resources such as books, people, online

resources, and many similar ones.

On reading, it is important to note that writers would do well

to read as broadly as possible as it has been advised above. The

advantage with broad reading, apart from increasing one’s

knowledge base, is that it helps with ideas of what to write on.

Reading broadly therefore helps with the next key resource in

writing: imagination. Imagination is an important resource that

every writer needs to have. Some people may argue that

literature such as academic and non-fiction does not need

imagination. It should, however, be remembered that

imagination is still important. Every writer should use their

imagination in writing their work before it is written. A lot of

time goes into writing a work in the ‘head’ before one can

begin the actual process of writing the work down. Imagination

alone is not enough as it also needs skill. What is implied here

is that imagination needs to be nurtured to be turned into a

resource that can lead to an acceptable and enjoyable product.

It was also observed that writing being an art, it ought be

treated as such. Writers therefore need to view themselves as

26

artistes as opposed to objective scientists. They need to be

exposed to the world of art. It has already been argued above

that writers need to read broadly, but that reading should not be

meant for broadening the writers knowledge of the world

alone. It should also be used for the writer to understand how

other writers write. While creative writing is viewed as

personally specific in relation to style, it should still be

understood that style itself is informed by other styles. Clever

writers will study other writers’ styles and use that to their

advantage. The ability to use a style that is personal will

require a writer to know the various styles that other writers are

using. It is for this reason, that it should be stressed that good

writers are good readers. Writers should therefore dedicate as

much of their time as possible to reading. The writer should

always read more than the reader. It is this dedication to

various writing forms that will inform great writing.

Even in the face of this talent and research resources being

made available, and in relation to what was raised above that

writers need to read widely in order for them to widen their

artistic expression, there is need for mentorship. Experienced

and successful writers should be available to help upcoming

writers go through the writing journey. It is expected that since

these writers have a lot of experience, they can use this

experience to guide upcoming writers avoid the mistakes they

made. The experienced writers have even reached a level of

experimentation now which can be used to better the literary

profession.

Mentorship ought not to be restricted to giving guidance to

upcoming writers; it should involve co-authoring. Experienced

writers should be able to write together with upcoming writers.

Working together easily helps the upcoming writers to see

what exactly happens. When projects are jointly executed,

27

upcoming writers get the actual writing and publishing

experience. Working together can easily get young writers to

get weaned unlike merely giving them advice. For this reason,

it would be very encouraging to see as many established

writers as possible co-authoring with upcoming writers.

It is important to remember that another resource that writers

need is experience. How then can they acquire this experience

if they are not exposed to the trade. It is this exposure that will

give them the much needed experience. Many people have

argued for instance that by asking employees who are applying

for jobs to have experience, how does one expect young

graduates to gain experience? It is by interacting with those

who have the experience. This experience is shared with the

young ones who also become experts in their own right. Once

they are experts, they can stand on their own. The same applies

to writers. No writer will get experience without interacting

with others. But this experience needs to be deliberately

developed in the young writer through collaboration.

It is also important to note that the era where people wrote

independently is gone. This age is calling for collaborations.

Those who are able to collaborate have a high chance of

becoming more versatile. It is known that some people think

that by collaborating, they could be promoting people who end

up being better than them. However, one still needs to be aware

that the more people they help grow the better as this helps

with the growth of the literary arena. It is only after the

profession has grown that it can give the best benefits.

Mentorship therefore helps both individuals and disciplines to

grow. Established writers will sell themselves even better when

they are acknowledged as the godfathers of these upcoming

writers who could even become better than them. Readers may

not even pay as much attention to the writing craft as they

28

would to the narrative surrounding the individual writer. When

a writer’s profile is raised high, the name becomes a brand. At

this stage, the name begins to sell more than the works. This is

another reason that I wish to argue that by raising other writers,

established writers are raising themselves even more. It is a

very selfless selfish action. However, I must mention that

collaboration in writing is usually in academic writing as

opposed to creative writing. In creative writing, what exists

more is editorship or mentorship.

While most of the above are important resources, it should

also not be forgotten that financial resources are also key to the

writing experience. It has been observed above that there is a

lot of work that the writer needs to do and that collaborations

are of great importance. However, it has not yet been

established that writing also calls for a physical space where

the activity ought to take place from. This physical space

cannot be divorced from time as well. These can easily be

accessed in the face of financial capability.

Have writers been accorded enough time and space in which to

do their writing? This section will start by exploring the

physical space before turning to time. Writing is done in a

specific space. While it is understood that writing can be done

on the phone while someone is in a car being driven or on a

bus, this should not be understood to mean that there is no need

for a special writing space. Writers cannot always write from

just anywhere as some writers may argue. Writers need a space

that can be used without too much disturbance. The official

office at work or the bedroom at home may not be the best

place. A writer may need an office or a study room for their

writing at home. Membership to a local library also can help

with writing activities. Sometime, a writer can choose to be

29

lodged in a hotel for specific writing activities. Generally,

writers need space set aside for their writing activities.

Similarly, time is also very important. Without time, no writing

can take place. The challenge faced by most writers is that

writing is not their major activity. It is not their income earner.

It functions like a hobby in their lives which means that it

usually happens after everything else has taken place. Writers,

therefore, start by responding to employment obligations. After

the employer has received their allocation of time, which is

usually the most in the week, the writer will then dedicate some

time to writing. However, this is done with full knowledge that

friends, family and other social events also need an allocation

of time. Some people think that this could be the reason for so

many lonely writers. What is important to note here is that

writers need time set aside for writing activities even though

this time is usually affected by other more demanding needs

such as money to take care of not just the daily life of the

writer but the writing as well.

While the above section has explored resources needed for a

writer to successfully write, it should be remembered that

writers’ work does not really end at having a complete

manuscript; writers look forward to their work being read by

readers. These readers are not just friends who have access to

the work and editors whose work is to help shape the work

with the writer, the reader who the writer is interested in is the

general public. For this reason, writers are keen to see their

work published and made available to readers across time and

space. This section, therefore, explores resources that are

needed for a writer to publish successfully.

The first question on your mind, my reader, right now is likely

to be: is it the writer’s duty to publish or it is the publisher’s?

That is indeed a key question. For this reason, we will explore

30

the question from the angle of what is expected of the writer to

have their work published. The key resource that almost all

writers talked to identified in this case is the manuscript.

Writers would not be expected to complain about publishing

opportunities if they do not have a manuscript. One would

probably wonder if one would call themselves a writer if they

have not written anything. Would one not only know that they

are a writer after they have written something? For this reason,

before talking about being published, all writers need to

produce work that needs to be published. All other resources

related to publishing hinge on the availability of a manuscript.

It should also be mentioned here that a manuscript is not good

enough a reason to get published but a publishable manuscript.

Writers should have work that has reached the standard of

being published. Unfortunately, the idea of standard is not an

objective one. It is generally agreed by writers that a

publishable work should be one that follows the general rules

of writing and the quality is high enough for the work to be

shared with readers. The manuscript should be made available

to others to comment on before one can think of making it

available for publishing. The idea that the work should be

acceptable should not be restricted to the work being in the

written process but publishing process as will be observed

below.

The other key resource to publishing successfully is an editor.

As it has been mentioned above, for a work to reach a

publishable stage, there is need for a competent editor whose

work is to help the writer develop the work to an acceptable

stage. Many writers have credited the editor as carrying a

somewhat co-writer role. This is the case because there are

editors who will not accept a work that is already finalised.

They would rather work from one chapter to another so that

31

they can shape the work together. Other editors, who are in the

majority, work with completed manuscripts so that they have a

full understanding of the work being produced. The editor’s

role is not merely language-related as many would believe. It is

true that editing can be restricted to language use but the reality

is that it involves the whole process. Editors are interested in

the entire literary work from the beginning to the end.

Language use, treatment of subject, general tone of the work

and structure are among the issues that editors are concerned

with in a literary work. It is for this reason that I insist that it is

not just an editor that every writer needs but a competent

editor. In the absence of this editor, which is the case with most

self or vanity published works, the work is usually of a

standard not very acceptable by the reading public. The editor

will therefore be accepted as one of the key ingredients in the

publishing process.

While we need an editor for a highly acceptable manuscript,

the manuscript and editor alone are not enough. The writer

needs most of all a publisher. The publisher’s role is to ensure

that the work has been made available to the reader. The

publisher is actually responsible for the editing process. It is

important to mention that there has been a misconception that

publishing is printing a manuscript when actually publishing

involves far more than that. Publishers are responsible for the

whole process of editing, typesetting the work, layout and

design, printing and marketing too. In short, the publisher in

responsible for bringing the work to life. Without the

publisher’s role being actualized in a work, the manuscript

remains a manuscript.

Many people will argue that the role of the publisher is best

actualized in a case where the traditional publishing is

followed. This refers to a kind of publishing where the writer

32

merely writes the work and gives it to a publisher who, in

many cases makes a payment upfront for the work, and later

upon completion of the process, pays royalties to the writer

from all sales of the work. This system seems to have lost

steam with time and many writers are paying publishers to

have their work published. This means that money is a resource

that writers need apart from what has been listen above to have

their work published through the self-publishing method.

Without financial resources, writers have little access to quality

publishing and instead will just go for mere printers which is

vanity publishing.

The fact that writers also need money to publish their works

means that writers are, in a way, publishers as well. However,

it is not many of these writers that are publishers and it is not

necessary, as it was stated at the beginning of this section, that

writers should be too much concerned with the publishing

process whose experts have already been identified.

All in all, what is observed here is that to successfully publish,

writers need an array of collaborations with editors, publishers,

other technical people and, most importantly, financiers.

This section started by attempting to identify resources that are

needed for writers to successfully write. While resources were

identified, the resources that are currently available were not

identified. The resources that are readily available for writers to

write are imagination, creativity, content, knowledge in the

subject area, and some financiers among others. Most of these

resources are largely within the writer as it is remains highly

questionable if a writer will be regarded as one in the absence

of resources such as imagination, creativity, and some

knowledge in the subject area. If these are lacking, it would be

advisable that the writer who is a subject of such a case serious

self introspect as to whether they really are a writer or they

33

merely wish they were one. As we say there are other resources

available such as financiers, it should be clearly stated that

there is an extent to which these financiers are available. The

same can be said of other resources that subjects of this

research identified as being available such as stationery,

internet connectivity, individual to consult with and finances.

These resources cannot easily be classified as being readily

available as not all writers have them in similar amounts. In

other cases, writers still write with pen and paper and have

large volumes of work that remain unexposed. We shall

therefore not take it for granted that all the above resources are

available to enable writers to write.

Similarly, various resources needed for writers to publish are

readily available such as manuscripts, publishers who are a

collection of all experts technical and otherwise in the book

production industry, and financiers. Similarly, the most readily

available resource that can be pointed out is the manuscript. It

is for this reason that there was a question on how a writer who

has not written anything can claim to be a writer. It is also

important to note that, as it was pointed out earlier that writers

also need space to write, availability of manuscripts can also be

a problem if this resource is not deliberately availed. I will

show later who, apart from the writer, can help with the

harnessing of this time and space resource to facilitate the

writing process which ultimately leads to the production of the

basic input for the publishing process, the manuscript.

As we agree that the writer is largely responsible for arguing

that the availability of the manuscript is always within the

means of the writer, the idea that other resources such as

publishing and financial resources are readily available is

highly contested as this still has to do with the extent to which

the resources are available.

34

To make it clear on the resources that are available and how to

make them more available to writers, there is need now to

explore the key players in the industry responsible for

harnessing these resources. Most of the writers generally agree

that the key player in the industry is the writer as he is the basic

provider who all players from publishers to readers depend on.

Other players, however, include writers associations, which

some writers said do not exist anymore. Apart from writers’

associations, other players in the industry identified by writers

are Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and

Government chiefly through the Ministry of Education and the

National Arts Council. However, the major view by writers is

that the player that can easily be considered available in the

industry is the writers as the rest are highly unavailable to

writers.

At this point, I wish to examine the actual roles that these

players are responsible for in the industry. For example, to help

writers write, the main player is the writer. Without the writer,

no writing can take place. However, publishers have to find

writers either through agents or directly. While the idea of

literary agents has not taken root in Zambia as very few like

Thorn Bird Literary Agency are in the industry who

interestingly are doing so well in getting writers published,

selling the writers’ works and actually getting the writers to

receive money for their writings, most writers have to deal with

publishers on their own. There are very rare cases of Zambian

publishers calling for manuscripts from writers in various

literary genres. It would be good to hear of publishers having a

publishing programme where writers are invited to submit their

manuscripts for possible publication. Writers can also be

invited to specific manuscript creation or development sessions

35

with a view to publishing them. This is also part of the role of

publishers.

Manuscript creation and development should also be taken up

by writers’ organisations whose chief responsibility is to link

their writers to the reading public. There are many writers’

organisations in Zambia. It is interesting to hear writers say

that there are no writers’ organisations anymore. This suggests

that writers’ organisations are not doing enough to make

themselves available to writers. If these writers’ organisations

are not available to members then what is their mandate and

who are the members? Of course, there is a challenge of the

belief that Lusaka is the melting pot for everything. Most

organisations are focussing their efforts on Lusaka and leaving

out the many writers in the rest of the country who do not have

access to Lusaka. The associations that have a national appeal

should indeed have a national presence. They are not expected

to have a national appearance yet be restricted to serving the

interest of a small community, chiefly Lusaka or urban based

membership. This could be the reason that some writers think

that there are no longer writers’ organisations in Zambia.

The examples made by PEN Zambia of a radio programme on

a nationwide radio station is a good example of writers

associations that attempt to interact with the entire nation.

However, the radio programme is not enough. The association

should find ways of deliberately focusing more on writers

outside the advantaged spaces such as the line of rail.

Similarly, the Zambia Textbook, Academic and Non-fiction

Authors Association has taken up the idea of running

international festivals in rural towns of Zambia. This helps the

writers in these places to have international exposure and also

learn other practices. However, even this is not enough. Writers

should have activities in their localities that are locally

36

controlled and not championed by a select few writers based in

Lusaka in the typical colonialism framework.

What the above two examples entail is that there should be

writers’ organisations wherever there are writers so that these

groups can easily interact with other stakeholders in the book

industry. These associations can not only help link writers to

book publishers but also play the role of publisher in many

cases. Writers associations like Zambian Women Writers

Association have published their writers before. This can be

followed up by other writers associations. Even though it was

stated earlier that publishing is a preserve for publishing

organisations, writers organisations can also easily play that

role as they are a major stakeholder and can easily get expertise

in many aspects of the literary world. These organisations

should therefore help writers with manuscript creation,

development and finally submission to the publisher if not

publishing it themselves as organisations. Writers’

organisations are the best to champion the cause of writers as

they are made up of writers themselves who understand their

circumstances best.

Non-Governmental Organisations should also be seen as key

players who have specific roles to play in the country. These

include communication with the masses and governments too.

These organisations can work with writers and writers’

organisations to achieve their objectives. As they achieve their

advocacy, development and other objectives, writers also

achieve their objectives of being published and finally

interacting with the reading public. For example, NGOs

interested in issues of climate change can work with writers to

produce magazines, books, pamphlets and publications on

climate change related subjects. The advantage with writers is

that they are so versatile that even if they wrote on climate

37

change, their works would still relate to other aspects of human

life too, making the works contribute more to human lives both

aesthetically and didactically. The NGOs can therefore develop

writing programmes for their areas of interest and get writers to

develop on works on such and finally contribute to the writers

as the writers and the organisations themselves also grow.

There are organisations interested in such areas as community

health, gender, climate change, human rights, education,

children and many others. It is also the role of these

organisations to not only work with writers but also contribute

to their work through the writers.

One other major player identified above is Government chiefly

through the National Arts Council and the Ministry of

Education. These two are directly in the line of the writing

industry. These institutions are responsible for creating a good

working environment for writers and also getting the writers to

see their work reach the readers through learning institutions at

all levels. They are responsible for the writing environment

through formulation of policies that will help writers perform

their work in a more beneficial manner. The National Arts

Council is, for instance, expected to be at the forefront of

getting the Book Policy out by working with various

stakeholders key of whom are the writers through their

organisations. The Book Policy should make the writers know

the framework within which they work. They should know the

available opportunities and benefits of being writers. The

policy should also play the role of creating these opportunities

for writers and, in short, make writing a lovable craft and not

an opportunity for writers to share their tears only.

The Ministry of Education would do better to ensure that the

majority of publications being used in the industry are Zambian

authored. This should not be taken to mean only in literature

38

courses. This point is intended for all books used in academia

both formally and informally. From kindergarten to

postgraduate levels, the major works would better be local,

rendered in a form that will most likely easily be understood by

the consumer. This point will be revisited when I talk about the

language of writing. Government should also therefore create a

deliberate programme where writers are commissioned to write

for the nation at all levels. Writing opportunities created by

Government are more likely to benefit more writers because of

the reach that Government has. Even writers in the very rural

parts of the country are likely to benefit through such initiatives

by Governments.

What is ultimately expected is that these players identified

should be instrumental in ensuring that writers develop

manuscripts and that the manuscripts are published and, finally,

the writers are paid for their work.

What needs to be done immediately is for the writers

themselves to begin writing without worrying so much about

their work finding an outlet to the reader. The major role the

writer has to play in this industry is to write. Everyone else will

have to perform their role. The writers’ organisations should

also keenly be involved in ensuring that their writers are

writing. But writing alone is not enough; writing good quality,

appropriate and socially acceptable works that contribute to the

growth of the people and the country is key. The associations

should have workshops that are meant to develop skills in the

writers and also critique already written works to raise the

standard of the works. The associations should interface with

academic institutions so that training programmes to develop

writing and writers are introduced. As it has already been

claimed, studying literature is not primarily meant to develop

writers; writers need to be trained through writing classes

39

which will grow the craft in them and make them better writers

at all times. The writers’ organisations should also help the

writers upon creation and development of their quality works

to have the works professionally edited and published in a way

that will make them not only acceptable but also attractive to

the reader. Readers would not want to read works that are not

‘inviting’. All works should be inviting to the reader from title,

design and feel in the hands, especially physical copies for the

last point. These organisations should ultimately ensure that

their writers are not only paid for their works but also

celebrated for their art. Look at how writers like Shakespeare,

Roald Dahl, our own Stephen Mpashi and Julius Chongo

among others have been celebrated. We can make these writers

be celebrated once we have helped them produce high quality

works that are highly appreciated firstly by our own citizens

then the rest of the world. I wonder how much we, ourselves,

as a country, have celebrated globally acclaimed writers like

Ellen Banda-Aaku and Namwali Serpell. Celebrating these

writers begins with their fellow nationals. The writers’

associations should take this up as one of their major mandates

to expose to both the local and global reader their writers. The

country is not short of writers to celebrate.

While the writers’ organisations are doing that, publishers are

also expected to get actively involved in promoting all genres

of writing. As much as it is appreciated that publishers can

choose which genres they wish to work with, it is here argued

that citizens are meant to read all forms of literature from

poetry, through prose and drama to nonfiction and academic

works. A well-read person should not be restricted to their

discipline but be able to have something to say on many

aspects of life as the life we lead is not segmented; it is a

40

complete whole that also needs to be approached and

appreciated accordingly.

Publishers can basically have departments that deal with

different genres but should all be treated as equally important

as they all work towards edifying the same being in every

aspect of his life from entertainment to health and general life

skills. Publishers need to know that their role is not merely to

make money but also to contribute to the growth of the society.

All in all, publishers also need to take a role in ensuring that

high quality literature is produced through commissioning

works with clear guidelines, sponsoring writing workshops,

employing highly qualified, skilled and experienced editors,

developing mechanisms to influence the reading public to read

Zambian works more and ultimately to have as many Zambian

works as possible available to readers.

The Government, on the other hand, has the most work to help

the world of writing. Unless the Government has a deliberate

policy to grow the sector, writing will remain a past-time

activity for most writers and this will make it difficult for

Zambia to boast of a mature literary culture.

The most urgent action by the Zambian Government is to enact

the book policy which should centre on book production,

marketing, and payment for authors. It should focus on helping

with the development of tradition in the field of writing. The

culture of writing and reading is something that the Book

Policy can help cure the problems faced by our writers. The

Policy will be responsible for creating an enabling environment

for the writing space, availability of writing time, provision of

resources such as editing and ultimately creation of a more

friendly publishing environment that will also have a readily

available market through chiefly the Government itself which

41

is responsible for stocking most of the learning institutions

with books in the country.

If the Government mandated writers and publishers to write

books for use in schools and the Policy made it mandatory that

the available books written by Zambians are primary to

education in Zambia, a lot of writers would be able to

contribute to the growth of the country’s education sector apart

from the literary sector. Teachers and lecturers have the ability

to produce high quality books in all fields in Zambia. The

Government needs to take advantage of these resources to

grow both the education sector and the book industry.

The Government should also realise that what writers have

produced over the years, whether published or not, has a lot of

monetary value that writers can use to source for funds.

Zambia needs to start moving towards valuing both published

and unpublished works that writers can live on. It is not a

secret that there are writers in this world whose works were

only published and had a huge success after the deaths of the

writers. Why should writers not place value on their

unpublished works and receive benefits from the unpublished

works? Is it the writer’s fault that the works have not been

published or it is the environment that has not done much to

help writers benefit from their lifelong toil? I wish to make a

case that writers should be paid for their unpublished works

provided the works meets standards set though guidance from

the policy. Writers are artistes who should live on being writers

and not depending on jobs elsewhere or being paupers when

they have such a huge talent.

As Zambia, we have to focus on making writing be an

admirable art and encourage as many people as possible to be

involved so that all those ideas, hopes, fears, and plans among

42

others are shared. It is my hope that this will help us grow the

country to unprecedented levels.

43

Relations Between Writers and Publishers

So far, it has been realised that there is a very strong

relationship between writers and publishers. The last chapter

showed that both writers and publishers are a key resource not

only for the writing process but also for the production of the

written work until it reaches the reader.

This section goes further to examine how the two stakeholders

view each other, how they work together and what should be

done to better their relations for the development of the book

industry. The section is also concerned with issues of royalty

and examines what has been being done about it for the benefit

of both the writer and publisher.

In opening the section, this work starts by exploring the

relationship between writers and publishers. This study sought

to understand if there were publishers who worked with writers

in the writing process. It was argued above that there is need

for the two to work together through the writing process. It

was, however, reported that most publishers are not involved in

the writing process. This, it was agreed, happens because

writers have a specific role while publishers’ role is to get a

completed manuscript and begin the work from there.

However, it was not forgotten than publishers also have interest

in works that are being produced by writers in their private

spaces. It is for this reason that publishers should also be part

of the writing process through the commissioning of works and

overseeing the production of the works. Most writers who

agreed with this view bemoaned the absence of the publisher

from the creative process. It was reported that most publishers

do not help at all.

44

Writers observed that, for instance, no work can come to life

without external input. Writers have therefore taken to

consulting fellow writers on the writing process. While this, in

itself, is not a problem, the role of the publisher in this work

should not be underestimated. It is advisable that as writers

work in private spaces, and publishers are also going about

their business of publishing, the two need to create synergies

from the very point of creating this product which depends so

much on their relationship for it to have life.

Some writers are happy with publishers such as Gadsden

Publishers, Zambia Educational Publishing House, Maiden

Publishers, Butali Publishing House, Longman Zambia,

Mwajionera, Oxford, Macmillan, and Longman. These were

identified by many writers as being very helpful to writers

during the writing process. However, it was not very clear on

the extent of their help in the writing process. Maybe, this

could be the starting point for both publishers and writers to

think about fostering a cordial relationship for the growth of

the book industry which both depend on.

Even though the focus above is on how writers perceive their

relationship with publishers, there is still need to understand

the relationship between writers and publishers. This is so

because not all writers work with publishers. However, all

writers are expected to work with editors. On the role of editors

in the book production process, most writers argue that editors

are expected to concern themselves with language use and the

flow of information in the work. They argue that the presence

of grammatical and spelling errors, lack of cohesion and

coherence, and inaccuracy in information is largely due to the

absence of an editor or the presence of a failed editor. Editors

are encouraged to give an honest opinion on the work of the

writer while they should not be interested in changing the

45

overall creation of the work. Writers argue that some editors

think that the work they are editing is theirs when they are

actually working with someone’s product. Editors should

therefore work within making the work better and not making

it their own. Therefore, they should think about striking a

balance between editing and taking away the author’s craft.

Other writers feel that editors should also help with provision

of marketing services. While this may not really be an area that

editors have expertise in, what could be advisable is that from

their extensive experience working with writers, editors can

share the experiences of the writers they have interacted with

overtime. They can therefore advise on paths that have been

taken by other writers on the marketing of their works.

Some writers argue that editors should be key to making a

work more interesting and attractive. This is an interesting

view that takes into account that the role of the editor should

not be restricted to making corrections; the editor should

attempt to make the work better than it was originally done by

the writer. The editor should not be associated with

substandard works. The success of any work is largely

associated with the amount of work put in by the editor. If the

writer is the mother of the work, the editor should be seen as its

nurse, nurturing it to maturity and independence. Editors are

not teachers whose role is to mark and write a grade on the

work; their role should be to develop the work to levels where

the work begins to be celebrated by both the editor and writer

on one hand and the reader on the other.

On academic writing, it has been noted that editors work more

like academic supervisors. They help the writer avoid serious

academic problems such as the ‘fatal’ plagiarism. The editor

has to see to it that the language used is appropriate and that it

also reflects the level it is intended for. The work has to show

46

consistency in terms of referencing style and language use. One

cannot work without an editor especially in academic circles.

In academia, the system has gone further to make peer review

mandatory. Peer review is a case where a work is shared,

usually anonymously, with other academics for their comments

on it, including it suitability for publication. This is a

gatekeeper in quality in academia. Those journals that publish

work that has not undergone peer review are frowned upon by

serious academics.

As much as writers have those views about the role of the

editor in the writing process, what is of utmost importance is

the relationship the writers have had with the editors. It is

generally expected that all published writers, at least in the

majority, have had at least one encounter with an editor.

However, most writers who have self-published rarely use

editors. They say they hardly have a relationship with editors.

This could probably be attributed to the fact that most editors

are affiliated to publishing houses while freelance editors do

not advertise their services so much.

On the other hand, some writers argue that to some extent

editors are not very necessary as some of them do not give an

honest opinion. This could be coming from the fact that most

people have mistaken proofreading for editing. There are

people who believe that editing is merely proofreading. They

think it is about correcting language used wrongly. Little do

they notice that the general picture of the work is in their

hands. One will therefore notice that people think that to be

editor one needs to have studied language. How can a student

of language be an editor? Even though editing can be learnt,

those who aspire to be editors need to take more time to

understand what editing involves. They can take online courses

at very affordable rates. Most importantly, our learning

47

institutions should provide courses in editing to deal with such

problems. The argument that editors do not give an honest

opinion suggests that the editor is merely trying to find

something to say about the work but due to their incompetence,

they fail to give valid observations. On the other hand, we

should also be able to take into account the fact that what

determines honesty in opinion is best known by the one who

develops the opinion. Is it also not possible that the writer can

argue that the opinion is not honest simply because it is not

according to the wishes of the writer? Sometimes, people are

bent of hearing what they are prepared for and not an honest

opinion. They end up labelling honest opinion dishonest.

Some editors have been said to do a very good job once they

are paid well. This suggests that the input of the editor is

chiefly determined by how much they are paid. Does it mean

that editors are lowly paid by some writers? This is a serious

challenge. In the first place, why should an editor accept to be

paid lowly when they are engaged as an expert in a task that is

involving whose product should be unquestionable? If an editor

accepts to be paid less and then do a poor job, they are merely

showing how unqualified they are for the task. If what has been

offered is not enough for one to perform the task of editing,

would it not be wise for them to turn the offer down and still

have integrity? The argument that editors who are paid less

than what they are worth perform poorly does not seem to

carry much weight in relation to professionals. It would also be

good to consider that maybe it is due to the economic situation

that editors will accept anything on offer regardless of whether

it reflects the level of their expertise, qualification and

commitment to the work or not. This can therefore be blamed

on the entire economy where it is not easy to have any income

48

because there are few editing jobs and, therefore, individuals

will accept anything that comes their way.

There was also an interesting and conflicting observation that

editors who are paid in full in advance perform exceptionally

well while another observed that those not paid in full

performed better so that they could finish the work and receive

the rest of the payment. Though conflicting, these views,

including the issue that we discussed in the preceding

paragraph, show that being an editor is a job that goes with

financial reward. To get the best out of an editor, one should be

ready to pay enough and in a timely manner. On the other

hand, editors also need to learn that theirs is a profession like

any other and needs to be treated with the seriousness it

deserves. As much as the work is meant to be remunerated

accordingly, the professional should know that delivering

anything below standard is tantamount to lack of

professionalism and should be strongly discouraged.

One of the strongest points coming from writers’ experience

with editors was that due to poor writing skills by writers,

editors do more than enough work. It was suggested that due to

this, writers feel that the editors are exaggerating their input

hence making it difficult for them to work together. It is

difficult to completely dispel this as it has already been stated

in the earlier part of this work that writers need skills in

writing. This is in opposition to the fact that most writers

depend entirely on talent. While talent is key to becoming a

writer, there is need to nurture this talent through continuous

training activities. These training activities will increase one’s

writing capacity while also helping the writer develop into an

individual that can easily work with others, particularly,

editors.

49

It should be pointed out that even though some writers reported

never working with editors due to being self published, no one

said that the editor’s work is not important in the writing

process. This suggests that writers are aware of the importance

of editors in the writing process. Editors are appreciated by

writers but the major challenges are finances and the writers

skill in writing. In the event that these two are improved on, it

would be easy to say that writers would develop better working

relations with editors.

Realising that writers interact with many other bodies apart

from editors, this work further sought to interrogate the

relations that had developed between writers and publishers in

the writing process. It has already been pointed out that there

are writers who have dealt with editors but not with publishers

while it is very unlikely that there are writers who have dealt

with publishers but not with editors. It is very unlikely that a

publisher can work without an editor.

While earlier it was stated that there were publishers that had

worked well with writers, some writers stated that there were

no relations with editors. Whether this is coming from the fact

that traditional publishing (a case where the writer’s role is

merely to write their work while everything else is done by the

publisher) seems to be failing slowly and being overtaken by

self-publishing (where the writer pays for all publishing

activities including designing, editing and printing, among

others) or not, cannot be stated. However, what can be noted is

that many writers think publishers have disappeared from the

writing space. It appears to them that writers are slowly losing

trust in working with publishers.

Since this current work, even at research level, would not have

been completed without publishers, it becomes clear that

publishers are not absent; they are everywhere. The only

50

challenge is that there has not been much interface with writers

hence writers saying that publishers are not there. What this

calls for is improvement of relations between writers and

publishers. It would be folly to believe that they would work

without each other. Publishers need writers to work while

writers need publishers to have their works reach the reading

public.

Similarly, as much as the publisher is seen as the producer of

the work together with the writer, the work does not end at

being printed; it needs to be printed and sent to bookstores. The

publisher whose role would be taken to end at publishing is

actually also responsible for distribution and marketing as well.

This is one of the most difficult parts of book production.

Those writers who have chosen to self publish have serious

challenges distributing and marketing the book. It is expensive

and cannot easily be done by an individual. Since there are

very few Zambians publishing using the traditional method, it

follows that most Zambian books are poorly distributed and

marketed. For this reason, the overall impact of Zambian

written works on both the national and international scenes

remains compromised.

Most writers agree that the publisher offers more than editorial

and designing work in the process of the production of the

book. They have observed that the publisher makes the process

come alive in that it is only through the publisher that the

process becomes commercially sustainable. The publisher,

therefore cannot be removed from the publishing process

regardless of the changing times. Writers have observed that

even with digital publishing, a professional publisher will have

links with global distribution and marketing platforms. A

publisher who does not have these links does not provide the

best service for his writers. At the same time, it is difficult for

51

individual writers to break through these links and, ultimately,

sell their works to a global audience. In a discussion with my

editor of this work, we observed that the success of most works

is highly tied to the publisher. We observed that highly

influential publishers, especially those based in Europe and

America, send their books to influential journals, magazines

and reviewers around the world. When these reviews are

received, they play a major role in the work being received by

the reading public. A book that has been favourably reviewed

by outstanding writers such as Wole Soyinka, Margaret

Artwood and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, among others will

generally be taken to be a very successful book and will

receive a wider readership. The reviews shape the response

from the general reader and, therefore, these reviews make or

break the book. How far have Zambian writers been highly

reviewed with the reviews being printed on the cover of the

book as the book is being first issued to the public? How

influential have the reviewers been and how has the public

been moved by the reviews? How many Zambian writers have

been published by a major European or American publisher

and has been so favourably reviewed that the reviews have

turned them into a global writer? How many Zambian

publishers have a global appeal that can lead to Zambian

writers gaining global recognition upon being published with

them? How many individual Zambian writers have received

international acclaim after self publishing to such an extent that

they have received positive reviews from internationally

acclaimed reviewers?

From the above exploration, two points clearly come out: it is

very difficult for a writer to work without a publisher, and it is

difficult to gain global recognition without working with

globally recognised publishers. The main point, ultimately, is

52

that the publisher plays a key role in the success of both the

author and the work.

As all this is being appreciated, it is important for both writers

and publishers to accept the fact that publishers generally make

their profit from the sales of the books published. However, as

they make this profit, they have to ensure that writers also gets

what is due to them as the industry falls apart in a case where

writers, the basic ingredient of the industry, do not get what

they deserve. Most writers have complained of not receiving

any of their royalties regardless of the fact that their works

have sold out. Other writers, on the other hand, feel that there

are publishers who have honoured agreements with writers by

ensuring that writers are paid accordingly whenever payment

falls due. It is expected that this can be done by all publishers

as the key obligation from writers is provision of the literary

product. In fact, it has been reported that most writers are

awarded only ten percent of the total sale of each copy of the

published book. While most writers think this is not enough, it

is saddening to hear that some writers do not even get it.

Even though the above case can be understood as probably

ignorance on the part of writers on the rate of sales of their

books, considering that the reading public has been accused of

not prioritising books, some writers have complained that

publishers are in the habit of reprinting books several times

without the knowledge of authors. For this reason, writers will

receive royalties only on copies that have been agreed on while

the rest of the copies that are ‘pirated’ by the legal publisher

remain theft of the meagre ten percent that the author is entitled

to. These allegations are serious and would do well to have

evidence. However, these are allegations that writers who wish

to remain anonymous make. As much as it can be stated that if

the said allegations were true, the writers would come out in

53

the open with evidence, it is still important that there is a

possibility of this really being the case. And, if indeed it is true,

then this could be considered one of the reasons for poor

relations between authors and publishers - dishonesty. What

remains a challenge is developing mechanisms that can not

only protect writers but also ensure transparency on the part of

publishers. This is a very important element that is central to

quality assurance in relation to author-publisher relations. For

as long as authors feel there is no way of telling with certainty

how any copies of an author’s work are printed by the

publisher, and everything being left to mere trust, that becomes

a problem. It is important to have a clear method of dealing

with this matter so that nothing remains questionable.

Publishers’ associations should start working on developing

these systems that will ultimately benefit publishers as well

since this will help a lot more writers to easily work with them.

Related to the problem of payment of royalties and reprinting

of books without the knowledge of the author is that of

copyright infringement. Many cases of copyright infringement

were reported. Most authors said their work had either been

turned into movies, reprinted by other printers and money was

being made from them without the consent or benefit of

authors. This was seen as a problem coming from not only

developments in printing technology but also an economic

collapse where people were trying to make a living out of

every available opportunity. It was however noted that

illegalities were not the best way of survival, let alone

depriving others what they had earned through hard work.

Most of the cases once reported to relevant authorities were not

acted upon at all. The law does not seem to have enough

resources to protect creators. Most writers suggested that not

only should laws be made more responsive to such cases but

54

other methods should be put in place to prevent reproduction of

works. An example was given of the hologram that is used in

music. It was, however, pointed out that even in the use of the

hologram in music there was little control as the hologram was

for identification purposes. The main issue is to produce a

work that cannot easily be reproduced unless the author gives

permission and other technological issues should be used to do

so such as a code that enables the work not to be reproduced.

The solution still remains that law enforcement should also be

heightened in identifying and dealing with these problems

without waiting for someone to the report the matter.

The problem identified above is best dealt with by experts in

copyright such as the Zambia Reprographic Rights Society

(ZARRSO). Zambia Reprographic Rights Society (ZARRSO)

is a nonprofit making organization which belongs to authors,

creators and publishers of literary and artistic works who

together with stakeholders established it to address the problem

of unauthorized reproduction of their works in Zambia. The

Copyright and Performance Rights Act Chapter 406 of the

Laws of Zambia provides for the creation of Collecting

Societies such as ZARRSO which operate under the direct

supervision of the ‘Office of the Registrar of Copyright’ under

the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry. It is a Society

registered under Section 7 (2) of the Societies Act Cap 119.

ZARRSO manages copyrights of writers who deposit their

registration form to them. Those individuals or institutions who

wish to reproduce works by writers are supposed to get

permission from ZARRSO through a licensing agreement.

ZARRSO offers this service on behalf of the writers.

ZARRSO, therefore ensures that rights of original authors are

not infringed upon through unlicensed reproduction of their

works.

55

In this regard, ZARRSO has scored some success through the

awareness that has been created among stakeholders. ZARRSO

has had several awareness raising activities to ensure that

authors know the process of their work being protected and

also how they can gain returns on their work. Generally, their

awareness has been on the importance of respecting intellectual

property by both creators and consumers.

ZARRSO has also managed to push the copyright agenda to

Government. This is upon acknowledging that Government

was key to the successful implementation of the copyright law

and public awareness and respect for the same. From the

pushing by ZARRSO, a number of circulars on the same have

been released by Government. This is evidence enough that

there has been some success on the part of ZARRSO and the

industry at large.

It is also important to note that apart from the above, ZARRSO

has also managed to get a number of public universities to

agree to respect the copyrights of authors. This is in

recognition of the fact that academic institutions, most notably,

public institutions of higher learning, are among the most

exploiters of these resources created by writers. Once the

universities agree to respect the copyright of authors, the

authors begin to benefit from their work. This is the major

reason ZARRSO is there, to help authors benefit from their

work.

Even though there have been these successes, ZARRSO has

also had serious challenges one of which is the fact that writers

themselves do not understand their rights. This is a serious

problem considering that writers are the major stakeholder in

copyright issues. Due to this lack of information and

knowledge on the part of writers, ZARRSO has had challenges

getting them to join the association. Without members joining

56

the society, the mandate of the society is threatened. This, it

appears, can easily render the society non functional and

writers who are the major beneficiary will continue

complaining of copyright infringement.

Just as the above has identified writers’ lack of knowledge of

copyright as one of the major challenges that ZARRSO has

faced, another challenge is writers’ signing of author-publisher

contracts that are open-ended. This has been identified as a

problem in the sense that most writers are excited about getting

published. They do not take enough time to consult and they

also have little if any legal representation. They end up signing

contracts that they do not understand and benefit little from the

agreements. For example, speaking at a Pan African Writers’

Symposium in Uganda in 2016 organised by the Uganda

Textbook Academic and Nonfiction Authors Association

(UTANA) which this author participated in, a participant

observed that some author-publisher contracts have no expiry

date. What this implies is that the work published will run

under the publisher for ever. Such contracts benefit the

publisher more than the author especially in cases where

revisions ought to be made to the contract which is best done at

the point where the contract calls for renewal or complete

abandonment. In such cases, the publisher can make such

decisions as are not best for the author but the publisher’s

business gain. Such scenarios make it difficult for ZARRSO to

fight for the writer when it is realised that it is impossible to

defend the writer due to the phrasing in the contract.

It has also been observed that copyright legislation in Zambia

is very insufficient. ZARRSO relies mainly on the Copyright

Act. However, on examination of the Act, it appears to have a

lot of generalisation, definitely an absence of specificity. This

lack of specificity leaves room for not only various

57

interpretations but misinterpretations too. Worse still, these

misinterpretations affect the very section that the society

operates on. Operating within the Act therefore becomes a

challenge and, unfortunately, it is not possible to operate

outside the Act.

The society also has financial challenges as it is not funded by

the Government. The lack of finances affects its daily

operations which is also a threat on both its viability and

effectiveness. For example, due to financial challenges, the

organisation cannot easily go outside Lusaka. It, therefore,

follows that ZARRSO’s impact outside Lusaka remains very

low when the intentions the society has is to be as impactful as

possible throughout the country.

ZARRSO also pointed out that as much as it is an organisation

that is at the centre of copyright and helping writers benefit

from their creation, the society itself does not have the power

to enforce copyright. As a collection society, they have no

authority on groups or individuals who are not complying with

copyright issues. This has made it difficult for the society to

maximise its abilities in the sector.

If the above issues can be addressed, ZARRSO can go a long

way in helping writers benefit from their published works.

However, ZARRSO has also noticed that very few individuals

or organisations are willing to invest in writers. Writers need

special investment as opposed to them investing on their own

as individuals. Without this special investment, very few

writers will publish which further means that very few will

benefit from their writing activities making it almost

impossible to have writers living purely on being writers.

Key stakeholders such as writers’ associations, private

corporate organisations, the Government, the National Arts

58

Council, ZARRSO among others need to work together to

grow the book industry. Like it has already been argued in

earlier parts of this book, the absence of the book policy poses

a serious challenge in the book industry. This is because the

policy should deal with most of these challenges being raised.

The above sections explored the author-publisher relations as

envisioned by authors before examining the role of ZARRSO

in this relationship. The next section examines the same from

the publishers perspectives in an attempt to present a balanced

view of the relationship. Starting with how much relations have

existed between authors and publishers, publishers noted that

there are good relations between authors and publishers in

Zambia. Their observation is based on the fact that writers

cannot publish without publishers and since books are being

published by publishers, the relations between the two parties

become unquestionable. The publishers noted that relations

between authors and publishers are so good that in many cases

they go beyond death. This is because even if an author dies,

the publisher still has an opportunity to continue selling their

work and the estates of the deceased author continues to

receive royalties from the publisher. As much as this

controversial view raises issues already referred to earlier in

relation to contracts beyond death, it should be realised that

such contracts are unavoidable just as death is unavoidable as it

can occur even immediately after the signing of a contract.

Publishers have also stated that they are in constant contact

with writers that they have contracts with. For example, where

there is need for a reprint, publishers inform the author and an

agreement is made on whether the reprint should be done or

not. This is a clear sign that publishers do not take any action

outside the agreement with the author.

59

Publishers have observed that it is important that the

relationship with authors is nurtured as this the publisher is

expected to have full information on the needs of the author

such as what they intend to publish and who the target

audience is while also being informed of the main objective of

the author with their work. It was observed that it is in very

rare cases that publishers commission writers to produce

certain material that they need. However, whatever the writer

presents to the publisher that the publisher is comfortable with,

the publisher ensures that the work is edited in the best manner

possible and they have it published in the most beneficial way

to both the author and publisher. What is key in making this

possible is openness between the author and publisher. Since

publishers are key to most of the stages of the publishing

process, they constantly inform the author and consult them on

what needs their input and progress according to what is agreed

on. Because of this interconnectedness of the worlds of the

publisher and that of the writer, it was argued that there can be

no publisher without an author just as there can be no author

without a publisher.

As much as there is this strong link between publishers and

writers, publishers have complained that working with some

writers is very difficult. They argue that some authors take

their work very personal. They do not want anything to be

changed in their work. This works against the spirit of

creativity. It is understood that writers put a lot of work in their

creativity. However, it is important for them to realise that their

work is never perfect. If they are unable to allow others, such

as editors to contribute to their work, they disadvantage

themselves. While they are responsible for conceptualisation

and final creation of a work of art, writers need to learn that

there are many viewpoints to a work of art. Even if they are the

60

authors, editors may take a lot into account such as consistency

in voice, coherence and characterisation. Editors will also

check for facts in their work and any inconsistency with

generally agreed on scientific knowledge. These are all key to

helping the work receive acceptance among the reading

community, critics included.

While the above seems to be a general observation, some

publishers observed that there are writers who write books that

are out of context. They observed that this can only be

remedied by editors who look at the work objectively. It was

argued that such writers come from a background where they

do not consistently keep themselves up to date with their daily

realities. In the absence of relating works to the world, the

words become irrelevant to society and cannot be accepted for

publication. When these works are rejected, some writers

assume that editors are being personal without objectively

looking at their works. It is advisable that at some point,

writers should allow and expect an honest opinion regardless of

how much they do not want to get that opinion.

Of all this, the most interesting issue that was raised by a

publisher was that while writers have the zeal to write, they did

not have the money to publish. The publisher argued that

writers needed money to publish. This was after observing that

no publisher would want to invest in a work that they do not

believe in so much especially in a country where reading has

not been given remarkable attention. This, it was stated, calls

for writers to finance their own publication processes.

From the fact that not many issues were raised by publishers

regarding their problems with writers, it could be suggested

that publishers are not very uncomfortable working with

writers. This could be interpreted that it is because there are

more writers than publishers. For this reason, while publishers

61

can easily choose who to work with, writers do not have much

of a choice. It could also be interpreted to mean that the

publisher has more power than the writer in the writing process

hence the ability to have few issues with writers.

To address the issues raised above, there is need for writers and

publishers to have a very healthy communication process. It

appears the major problem is lack of communication between

writers and publishers. Both parties need to agree in the first

place on what they hope to achieve out of the relationship. In

the case where the two parties cannot agree, it is important to

discontinue the relationship. Forced relationships are what lead

to serious disagreements and resentments later.

Publishers, being the more advantaged, considering that they

have the financial muscle, should have training activities with

writers on writer-publisher relationships, the style preferred by

the publisher and the standard operating procedures among

others. Writers should be getting into the relationship knowing

fully well what it entails being in such a partnership.

It should still be stressed, however, that key to the success of

the relationship is honesty on both sides. For a success of the

relationship, both parties should be truthful in their

contributions to the partnership. Whatever agreements that are

signed should be fully understood by both parties without no

hidden details. It is for this reason that organisations such as

ZATANFAA have been calling for templates of the contracts.

These templates should clearly state what is expected in all

agreements between authors and publishers. It is hoped through

this that there will be fairness in the agreements and both

parties will end up being winners in relation to their objectives.

However, this should not be taken to imply that it would be the

end of differences even though it would remedy the situation

quite tremendously.

62

63

Books and the Zambian Market

From the beginning of this study, the major focus has been on

the writer and publisher even running the risk of assigning

special roles to wrong entities. This section changes the focus

by turning to the market. Since the objective of writing is to

reach the reader, this section attempts to examine the

relationship between publishers and the market. This time, the

reader and the bookseller are also taken into account as the

reader indirectly gives direction to both the writer and the

publisher as the bookseller engages the reader directly on

behalf of the writer and the publisher.

Before we delve into what books readers are interested in

reading, I will start by examining what books are available in

our bookstores from the perspective of the bookstore. It was

observed that bookshops have in stock books, magazines, and

newspapers among others. It was therefore established that

reading materials are available in bookstores. It was further

noted that both locally and internationally published materials

were available in the bookstores. However, one bookstore,

Zambia Educational Publishing House (ZEPH) Bookstore, had

only locally published books with the exception of educational

materials. In terms of the prices of the books, it was observed

that internationally published books were generally more

affordable than local ones. This made it easy for people to

expose themselves to internationally published materials.

However, regardless of the price challenge, it was reported that

readers seemed to appreciate locally published books more

than the international ones. The problem, however, was that

very few local books were being published. Even though the

argument was that both local and international books were

64

available in the bookshops, internationally published books

were in the majority. It was at this point that it was noted that

very few local books were being published. The majority of the

local books available in bookstores were very old publications

that had been reprinted for contemporary readers to have

access to them. For this reason, it was concluded that reading

internationally produced materials was merely forced on the

reader due to the unavailability of local books. It was suggested

that if the situation changed, there was a possibility that more

people would move to reading more local books. There was

fear, unfortunately, that once people get used to foreign books,

it would be difficult to turn them back to local books if the

local books eventually do start getting published.

It was observed that bookshops were also keen on stocking

local books as readers had shown that they were interested

more in them regardless of whether they were for academic

purposes or not. For this reason, it was suggested that local

books would always have space in bookstores.

Readers, on the other hand had challenges telling the key

difference between local and foreign books. They observed that

both were made available in similar genres. The books come in

fiction, poetry, drama and nonfiction. Even the nonfiction came

in many forms such as the biography and the essay among

others. Academic books and other textbooks are also very

much being produced whether locally or not. This, it should be

stressed, does not mean that they are both available in the same

quantities. Almost every bookshop the readers frequent has

more foreign than local books. This has given them an

impression that foreign books are preferred to local books.

The other reason most readers have said there is no difference

is the use of language. Their observation is that both local and

international nooks use extensively English. Books in the local

65

language are a mere selection. Their argument is that for local

books to qualify to be such, they should chiefly be in the local

language. It is for this reason that they argue that the use of the

English language has made local books be the same as foreign

ones. The issue of language is further revisited later.

While other readers think that there is little or no difference

between the two because of the key reason of genre raised

above, others feel that there is clearly no relationship between

the two, they feel that even with the use of English, there is a

difference in the use of the language. While internationally

written books use English, the way they will the language and

how it explores the cultural space produced of the language is

different from the way Zambians do it. It appears English is

used inadequately by Zambians as it does not fully relate to the

cultural space of Zambia.

The other difference observed by others between local and

international books is appreciation. They felt that local works

are not appreciated so much. It was implied that much

appreciation is for international works by the majority of

readers.

While the above is concerned with differences between local

and international works, this study went further to discuss

challenges encountered by readers in relation to the works in

question. Most readers observed that the major challenge is

language related. If one is unable to operate in the language of

the book, it becomes a serious challenge. Therefore, since most

internationally produced works are in English, those readers

who have challenges with the language find the works to be a

problem while those who are conversant with the language,

who are in the majority, have no problem with the books at all.

The same applies to local books in the local language.

Considering the multiple nature of Zambian languages, most

66

books in local languages are restricted to speakers, particularly

readers, of that language. In relation to language, it would be

argued that local books written in local languages have fewer

readers. English, on the other hand, is a national language

while Bemba, Chewa/Nyanja, Kaonde, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale,

and Tonga are regional languages. This entails that these

languages are more inclined to regions while English has a

national appeal. What this shows is that local books are more

disadvantaged than international ones. To deal with such a

problem, there is need for deliberate measures meant to counter

the situation such as massive promotion of local books.

Related to the issue of language, one of the readers observed

that most international books are very difficult to follow. The

reader’s view is that the books are written in a complex

language that is difficult for an average user of the English

language. They said that the style used is usually difficult for

local readers. The reader went further to point out that most

foreign books have foreign concepts that local readers cannot

easily identify with. All this, it was noted, makes it difficult for

readers to follow foreign books.

The final challenge raised by readers was how expensive

foreign books are. The readers observed that the books that are

readily available on the market are so expensive that very few

people can afford them. It was suggested that most people were

buying these books simply because they were required for

academic use. If these books were not required, very few

people would buy them. This view, it was stated, made readers

feel punished in that the expensive books being forced on the

readers were, as noted above, divorced from the cultural

context of the reader. While local books are more affordable

compared to foreign ones, they are rarely available on the

market.

67

With readers clearly showing interest in books, one would

argue that it is shallow to suggest that the best way to hide

something from a Zambian is to put it in a book. Readers are

reading but have a very narrow range to choose from. The

unavailability of locally published books makes it difficult to

encourage more people to read Zambian books. There is need

to encourage more writers to publish. As it has been mentioned

already, publishing services should be made to closely interact

with the needs of writers. Many players should get involved in

enabling the publishing environment so that readers who are

hungry for locally produced materials can have access to the

works. This study has observed that there is market for locally

published works. However, there is need to ensure that the

competition with foreign works is reduced through deliberately

reducing the cost of publishing in the country. The ministry or

ministries responsible for education should ensure that as many

locally produced written works as possible are used in schools.

Events such as festivals and book-related radio and television

programmes should be encouraged to help many people to

become aware of local books but also to ensure more interest in

local books.

68

The Question of Language in Zambian Writing

The question of language in Zambian literature is important in

this study in the sense that it wishes to establish the availability

of the final product to the consumer in whether it is

consumable or not. What this work wishes to argue is that the

language of the work determines the work’s reach as only

people with ability in the language can interact with a work.

Issues of interest in the work and the quality of the work come

later. It is very unlikely that someone who cannot operate in

French can buy a book written in French. However, everyone

who can use Luvale is a likely candidate of a book written in

Luvale. The only people who are likely to read any book are

those who can operate in the language of the work. Those who

cannot operate in the language are completely divorced from

such a union.

The language that most manuscripts are produced in, according

to publishers, is English. There are very few writings in local

languages. Comparatively, the total number of manuscripts in

English is more than double that of all the local languages

combined. The local languages being refereed are almost

entirely the regional official languages: Bemba, Chewa/Nyanja,

Kaonde, Lunda, Luvale, Lozi and Tonga. In fact, of all

manuscripts received by publishers, the largest number is in

Bemba followed by Chewa/Nyanja, then the rest. It appears

that writing is tied to language and policy. The languages that

have been defined as official languages have received a larger

share of literary activity compared to the rest that are treated as

dialects of the official languages. Could this suggest that

writers feel that their works would only receive remarkable

69

attention if they wrote in a language with official recognition?

Could it be because works in official languages have a higher

chance of being used in schools hence having a wider reach

than those in the not so official languages? Could this be

related to the books having a wider market through the

ministries responsible for education that can possibly buy in

bulk copies of the works for supply to schools? This being the

case, it should be understood that the more powerful a

language is in business, the higher the chances the language

has in literary activity.

This view calls for a comprehensive discussion on language

policy. There has not been any language policy in Zambia.

Much of what is known regarding language is the use of

languages in official communication such as official national

business and in schools. This suggests that languages with

official status are English and the seven regional official

languages. However, what does this mean in reference to the

rest of the languages such as Tumbuka and Nkoya? What room

do they have in official business? Of course, it cannot be

denied that not all languages can be used for official business

as this can lead to chaos. However, is it not possible to make

languages official beyond regions up to local communities?

The moment people start using their languages in the official

business of their localities, the languages will get more power

and will therefore contribute to the growth of the language in

economic terms. Therefore to encourage growth in literature in

local languages, the local languages should also be given

enough official room to grow by allowing them strength in the

spaces of their localities.

While there is a policy that local languages should be used as

medium of instruction from Grade 1 to Grade 4, this has been

restricted to the official languages. The argument here is that

70

this policy on language of instruction in schools should be

brought down to the community. The language of the

community should be the language of instruction in schools.

The language of instruction in schools should further be the

language of business transaction in the community. This will

further lead to the need to publish books, instructional

materials and preparation of various official documents in the

language of the community. This will further entail community

participation in community activities as the activities will be

taking place in the language of the community. Ultimately, it

will create a market for the literature produced in that

language.

Most of the publishers in this discussion noted the importance

of the local language in writing. They noted that the local

language is a language that is used and known by the majority

of the Zambian population. For this reason, the best way to

reach this huge population is through its language. It was,

however, noted that the local language has not advanced

together with the changing times. For example, much of the

current technology does not exist in most local languages. This

makes it difficult for the language to be used successfully. For

this reason, there is need to translate much of the new

technology into local languages so that the local language is

not left behind by change and time. By doing this, there will be

no need to force people to use English in instances where they

feel they do not need to use the language. The same applies to

writing; writers will be able to easily produce works in the

local language and explore countless issues in their writing.

For these translations to be done, the Government needs to lead

the way. It is the role of the Government to allow citizens grow

their languages so that they can benefit more from the wider

reality of life through the use of language.

71

Apart from translating these new terms and concepts of society,

there is need to translate works that were done in other

languages, including Zambian languages, into other local

languages. For example in Zambia, ZATANFAA has written a

reader for Grade 4 learners book. This reader has been

translated into the seven regional official languages. This helps

learners from all over the country to interact with the literature

that others also interact with. All those works that were

originally done in other languages should also be translated

into the rest of Zambia’s local languages. This will get writers

like Fwanyanga Mulikita, Julius Chongo, Stephen Mupashi and

many others to be enjoyed by readers from various linguistic

backgrounds.

ZATANFAA strongly believes that literature is meant to be

enjoyed by everyone regardless of their linguistic background

or social status. As it has already been observed that a lot of

local writers are keen on writing and local language books are

more affordable than foreign ones, there is need to take

advantage of this situation to make locals enjoy the literature

produced by their writers.

The challenge that is being faced is mainly with writers as well.

Publishers noted that generally, writers have challenges writing

in the local language. Most writers are comfortable with

English. Writers need to be trained to write in their languages.

Without special training, their work will not be shared in their

languages and many of their readers will be unable to access

their work. It is for this same reason that teaching people their

language is important. Where they do not know their

languages, no matter how well they can write, most writers will

not be able to write in their languages. There is need to teach

the local language now more than ever before.

72

The other challenge that has been observed is with the

languages. It has been noted that writing in some languages is

very difficult because the languages do not have an agreed on

orthography. Without a standard orthography, writers are

unable to write. Being artistes or teachers, writers always avoid

sharing work they are not very sure about. There are very few

writers who will write something that they very well know to

be of sub standard and submit it to a publisher. The same

applies to teachers; they will not want to show their ignorance

or failure anyhow. They want to ensure that their work is of

very high standards before they can release it. The lack of

orthography in this case becomes a huge barrier. Academics

would do well to provide guidance in this case by studying

affected languages and help the linguistic communities to

develop standard orthographies for their languages. To make

this easily succeed, seminars followed by workshops can be

held that can include academics, writers and curriculum experts

to deal with orthography issues. This, as a starting point, can

possibly help grow the culture of writing in local languages in

Zambia.

Just as the publishers have argued, writers also agree that there

are very few writers writing in local languages. They point out

that English has been given so much space in people’s lives

unlike the rest of the languages. The fact that the language

policy in education is that the medium of instruction in the

lower primary only means that the local language is not as

important as English. For this reason, they feel it is difficult to

grow local languages in Zambia. Writers further argue that they

write for readers and that they have noted that most of the

readers are incapable to operate in the local language. This,

therefore, reduces the size of the audience for local language

73

writers. They have observed that even publishers are shunning

local language books unless they are educational materials.

Their proposal is that the language policy should be changed so

that it also supports the local language. Emphasis has to be

placed on the local language because even writers have

challenges exploring certain issues in English when the local

language is what explores them best since they were originally

conceptualised in that language. This justifies the need to write

in the local language. However, it can only be realised if the

local language is given enough power in the communities

unlike the current case where almost all power has been given

to English.

The main consumer, the reader, also observed the inadequacy

of works in local languages which they blamed on both writers

and publishers pointing out that writers are not fully equipped

to write in local languages while publishers who are interested

more in making money are not publishing in a non-national

language. However, they believe that most readers are more

comfortable to use their local languages than English and it

appears that writers, publishers and governments have not yet

noticed that. The proposal is that deliberate measures must be

put in place to focus on local languages.

From the above arguments, it can be noted that there has been

very little attention paid to local language literature. With many

readers expressing interest in reading works in the local

language, writers and publishers ought to take advantage of the

situation and not only contribute to the growth of both the

language and literature in that language but also to access the

market that remains unsatisfied.

74

75

Epilogue

Writing is both academic and not. This work was more

interested in establishing where Zambia stands in terms of

literary activity. This was not restricted to any particular genre

because as ZATANFAA, we are interested in all forms of

writing including issues of copyright and contracts between

authors and publishers. We are looking forward to a time when

writers will benefit from their hard work in writing. We are

looking forward to writers working professionally as writers.

One area of literature that we feel has been neglected and

needs a lot of attention is children’s literature in the local

language. We have taken it upon ourselves to promote

children’s literature and hopefully develop a population of not

only writing but also reading.

We believe that writing for children should not be a preserve

for adults; children need to produce their own art. There is need

to grow the talented child writers to national writers. There is

need to make them be our major writers. Most importantly,

writing should be understood to be not just a talent-laden

activity but an art that can be nurtured and grown. For us to

achieve this, there is need to start talking about training our

writers, particularly child writers. There is need for schools,

even summer schools to develop our budding artistes. It is in

our view that this will grow the book industry in Zambia.

The other area we need to focus on in order to grow our book

industry is exposing our growing writers to our diverse cultural

heritage. These writers, upon being exposed to this cultural

heritage need to further be helped to appreciate the diversity of

76

our heritage. It is our hope that this appreciation of our

heritage, particularly its diversity, will help approach various

writings without judgment. This will help our works reflect our

aspirations and beliefs as a people. Ultimately, it will help our

works take their rightful position in society and let the book

become the source of our identity and freedom.

77

Selected Sources Used

Below are few of the sources that have been used in this work.

Many of the sources used have deliberately been left out as this

is not a key section in this book. Those that have been included

here have been included because some readers may want to

access them and read further on the subject.

Audrey Azoulay, “Importance of Literacy to Education and

Development”. International Literacy Day, 2018.

Chomba, P and Mwanza, D. 2019. Common Mistakes

committed and Challenges faced in Research Proposal

Writing. Lusaka; UNZA Press.

Fischer, S. R. (2001). A History of Writing. London: Reaktion

Books

Francis N.P. and others. 2012. Importance of publishing

research. International Journal of A J Institute of

Medical Sciences 1(2012) 1-2.

Francis N.P. Monteiro, Devan, P.P., Santhosh T. Soans, and

Ashok Kumar Jeppu. 2012. Importance of publishing

research. International Journal of A J Institute of

Medical Sciences 1 (2012) 1-2.)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274925223).

Klimova, B. (2012). Importance of writing. Accessed from

Ndhlovu, D. and Mwanza, D. S. 2015. Common Mistakes

Committed and Challenges Faced in Research

Proposal Writing by University of Zambia

Postgraduate Students. Accessed from

(http://www.arcjournals.org ).

Nyambe, J. 2018. “Education Research on Low Levels of

Literacy Among Learners in Zambian Secondary

78

Schools”. A Case Study of Mufumbwe Day Secondary

School. Accessed from (http://www.academia.edu).

Struck, W. (1999). Elements of Style. New York; Harcourt,

Brace and Company

Subhash Chandra and Parija Vikram Kate. 2017. Writing and

Publishing a Scientific Research Paper. (eBook). DOI

10.1007/978-981-10-4720-6)

79

The Status of Writing: Towards the Nurturing of the Book Industry in Zambia

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