Al Qasimi critiques Conrad's 'racist ideas' at IPA's Nairobi congress

Joseph Conrad had “racist ideas” and National Geographic magazine is guilty of “generalisations” about Africa, said the United Arab Emirates’ Sheikha Bodour al Qasimi, vice-president of the International Publishers Association (IPA), at the IPA’s second conference on African publishing in Nairobi on Saturday (15th June). 

She told delegates that while a new surge of African writers was “taking the world by storm”, they were fighting an unfair battle “against established notions of cultural superiority and universal status quo.  They are doing a great job of sharing Africa’s stories, but they are not enough. We need more Ngugi wa Thiong’os, more Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies. We need more books that challenge the racist ideas of the likes of Joseph Conrad, and generalisations of the likes of National Geographic magazine.  Only through your original voices can we fully and truly understand and appreciate your stories.”

Sheikha Bodour believes there is a global audience “thirsty to hear [African] stories” and urged African publishers “to do whatever it takes to support African authors to tell Africa’s story.  Because if you don’t tell your story enough someone else is going to tell it on your behalf”.  She said that the IPA would be there to “support you in developing home grown solutions to challenge and change unnecessary government regulations, create more readers and access global markets”.

Meanwhile celebrated Kenyan writer and activist Ngugi wa Thiong’o earlier told delegates that African publishers should publish more books in indigenous languages to stop their disappearance and to increase the awareness of African writers in their own countries.

He said that the success of English language houses like Heinemann Africa in the Sixties publishing classics such as Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart meant that African writers were “visible in the world, but invisible in the continent”.  The success of these publishers led to a decline in local language publishing, while the years of colonial rule (Kenya was a British colony until 1963) meant that English became the dominant language. 

“This mind-set has affected government policy makers and publishers both African and non-African…Africans will say that African languages will produce tribes, African languages will bring about tribal clashes.  We become permanent prisoners of history, colonial history, many years after the colonial was replaced by an independent flag.  There is no market for African language books, we say,” said Thiong’o.

Thiong’o praised the Kenyan government for re-introducing African languages on the school curricula.  The author, who is 81 and frequently named as a contender for the Nobel Prize, was warmly received by an audience that included UK Publishers Association deputy c.e.o. Emma House and Nielsen Book Research International m.d. Andre Breedt who spoke on the benefits of data, much needed in Africa.