"Writing, for serious writers, is transcendent work; there is a spiritual quality to it. Great publishers share this commitment, but not always - at least in the view of writers. But what of publishers who are themselves writers, or who indeed started their careers as writers? A good number of publishers have issued excellent memoirs, but this is not what I am talking about. Politicians and thieves and monks also publish memoirs, but no one therefore consider them writers."
By Lans Gberie.
The publishing industry is an arcane world, with its own rules and logic. Commercial consideration, of course, has always been paramount, but publishers who consider themselves serious - that is dealing in books with more exalted appeals: they all like to call this ‘academic’ these days - are careful not to sound or appear philistine, though philistine is exactly the word that has been hurled at book publishers throughout the ages, by outraged authors. The legendary Samuel Johnson had some unpronounceable things to say about them, as had, more recently, such famous names as VS Naipaul and Paul Theroux (who tend not to agree on much else).
Writing, for serious writers, is transcendent work; there is a spiritual quality to it. Great publishers share this commitment, but not always - at least in the view of writers. But what of publishers who are themselves writers, or who indeed started their careers as writers? A good number of publishers have issued excellent memoirs, but this is not what I am talking about. Politicians and thieves and monks also publish memoirs, but no one therefore consider them writers. My knowledge here is limited, but I can think of very few publishers who started as writers. Osman Sankoh (aka Mallam O), a Sierra Leonean biostatistician, Epidemiologist, and environmental researcher (you read me right), is one such. Sankoh is the founding publisher of the Sierra Leonean Writers Series. The aspiration itself - setting out to publish books on Sierra Leone by mainly Sierra Leoneans - demands a certain brio.
Books have to be sold and read and reviewed. They call for a certain industry and an associated culture: a reading, appreciative public; an economy that allows books to be bought; and a culture of universities and book reviewers and book stores. None of this is true of Sierra Leone at the moment. So why did a smart and successful young scientist think establishing a publishing series for Sierra Leone makes any sense? Why invite the pain?
“I find interesting parallels with the now defunct African Writers Series which got started with Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,” Sankoh tells me in his quiet but passionate way. “I started the Sierra Leonean Writers Series after the publication of my book, Hybrid Eyes - An African in Europe, and the overwhelmingly positive reaction to it. I wrote and published this book also in German as Ein Vermittler zwischen zwei Welten - Afrika und Deutschland.” Sankoh was then a doctoral student in Germany, and the German edition gave him “a surprising exposure in Germany. I got invited by key newspapers to contribute articles; and by intercultural organisations to do readings and talk about the theme of the book. All this was unexpected. I only wanted to tell a story. I knew many Africans had had or were still having not-too-dissimilar experiences that had gone untold. I wanted to tell a credible story with me at the centre. I tried it; it worked. But it was not easy for me to find a publisher.”
He eventually found one, but the publisher made it known that he was taking “risk”: it might not pay off in financial terms. The narrative is very familiar. In fact the publishers made a huge profit out of the book. It was then that “I realised that there were probably better writers of Sierra Leonean descent both at home and abroad who should be given an opportunity to publish their works. Many such works would be thrown aside because there are not many publishers willing to take the risk of publishing budding writers or those less well known. I wanted to do something to change that situation. Fortunately my family allowed me to use our meagre resources to establish the Sierra Leonean Writers Series, SLWS.”
Sankoh is now based in Accra, Ghana. I read his Hybrid Eyes (and actually reviewed it) when it came out, and when I moved to Ghana in 2004, for a one-year stint, he was among the first people I wanted to meet. An hour or so after I phoned him, Sankoh came to my flat in Osu: a neat, semi-suburban part of Accra with a street called Oxford, where some of the city’s best restaurants and bars and casinos are located. With his smooth, anodyne face, the goatee neatly trimmed, he looked less the academic than a mildly successful businessman. I was slightly taken aback. We instantly became friends, and he would drop by for a beer and bit after work almost every evening thereafter.
The publishing house he established after the success of Hybrid Eyes is called Africa Future Publishers, which was registered in Germany by his wife of many years, Jariatu, a wonderful hostess (as I, a frequent weekend visitor at their East Legon house, remember it). The couple are now working on moving Africa Future Publishers to Accra, and subsequently still to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Africa Future Publishers focuses on academic, fictional, and scientific writing that, Sankoh says, “will complement other relevant materials used in schools, colleges, universities and other tertiary institutions. The Sierra Leonean Writers Series aims to promote good quality books by Sierra Leoneans, writers of Sierra Leonean descent from around the world, and writers writing on or about Sierra Leone.”
There is something deeply moving about Sankoh’s efforts, the purity of his dedication. “Even if the initial readership [of SLWS books] is made up of people outside Sierra Leone, it is our hope that students and other readers in Sierra Leone will eventually be among the primary beneficiaries of these new works,” Sankoh says. “Not only will people in Sierra Leone be able to read materials that relate to their own lives and experiences, budding writers will also be able to draw inspiration from the efforts of their compatriots and other established writers.”
There is, of course, no money in it - yet. The SLWS has issued about a dozen titles, including memoirs, poetry anthologies, and a recent novel by Yemah Lucilda Hunter, author of the successful historical novel Road to Freedom. While these interesting titles have done well abroad, few in Sierra Leone, which does not have a serious bookstore, have heard about them. Sankoh makes his living as Deputy Executive Director of the scientific NGO INDEPTH Network, which he joined in 2002. The group recently won millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and it coordinates thirty-four demographic surveillance system (DSS) sites in Africa, Asia, Central America and Oceania (see www.indepth-network.org).
Sankoh has continued to publish researched papers in a range of journals. His work on epidemiology and biostatistics has been published in Tropical Medicine and International Health and the International Journal of Epidemiology. He once dropped off a package of these publications at my Accra flat, recondite pieces beautifully jacketed, which I proudly placed on my book shelves, aside a half dozen or so Nkrumah hagiography (all published in Accra) and a valuable collection of essays on African security (an enduring interest of mine) edited by my good old friend Ismail Rashid (and another academic). I included the Rashid collection in a review of books on Africa for the journal African Affairs. I regret to report that I have still not been able to read through Sankoh’s papers, and I hope he understands. Still, I would proudly point at these collections to my visiting Ghanaian friends - academics, journalists and university students (not all female) - as the work of a distinguished compatriot.
I notice that I have mentioned the lack of a bookstore, which no doubt partly accounts for the sad contraction in the reading habit, in Sierra Leone twice. I understand that President Tejan Kabbah has finally noticed this. At the recent launch of the fascinating novel The Wind Within (by Sierra Leonean author Rachael Massaquoi), a government minister announced that the President plans to set up a decent bookstore in Freetown on his retirement. I know the President quite well (even before he became President). Doubtless he has been less than effective as a national leader, but he is refreshingly literate. He even has culture: he can lay claim to being responsible for the booming music industry in the country - by the singular act, at the launch of a new CD by Jimmy B, of calling on all radio stations in the country to give priority to Sierra Leonean music. That was, I think, in 2002. Now look at the result...
All of this came to me on learning that Sankoh’s publishing house will be issuing a book by Joe A.D Alie, the head of the history department at Fourah Bay College (FBC) whose exalted teaching career spans several decades. Alie is already the author of an acclaimed history textbook (used in schools and colleges) as well as several ‘pamphlets’ (which surely should also have been published as textbooks). His forthcoming Sierra Leone since Independence is very much anticipated.
One hopes that President Kabbah will mark this on his calendar (the book appears before the July national elections)...and one hopes that the event finally gives a much-needed fillip to the Sierra Leonean Writers Series.
Photo: Mallam O Sankoh.
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