Hundreds of school and college students plus their teachers and parents heaved a sigh of relief when Nairobi International Book Fair resumed after a two-year break because of Covid-19 pandemic.
Also smiling all the way to the bank, literally, were the multitudes of book publishers, sellers and marketers who seized the opportunity to make a quick sale during the five-day extravaganza, from September 28, 2022.
The 23 annual Book Fair’s theme was Publishing in the New Era, and was the regional marketing place for both textbooks and none educational books that brought together publishing professionals, authors, booksellers, print suppliers, media and readers from within and outside the country.
It was a hybrid event with in-person and virtual meetings organised by the Kenya Publishers Association, whose chairman is Kiarie Kamau who says: “This futuristic thinking has seen players in the industry embrace the various forms of digital book – from conventional ebook to the interactive digital content.”
Thus, most publishers have adopted the model of simultaneously releasing both print and digital versions of their books, thereby serving the preferences of all potential readers, says the KPA chairman. In addition, Kamau asserts, online selling has gained impressive traction the last few years, with book sellers operating online platforms alongside their physical bookshop outlets.
I had blocked the Saturday afternoon and visited most of the book exhibition stalls with a nephew of mine where I met and talked to some of the publishers, editors, marketers and sales executives as a journalist, media consultant, blogger and biographer. We were amazed and impressed by the variety and big number of books and magazines on display which reminded me of a saying: “Your mind is a garden; your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds!”
That quote took me down memory lane of my high school days when we studied Things Fall Apart, as one of the set books in African literature. It was authored by celebrated Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, which was later adopted at University of Arizona, my alma mater. The book was quite a gem with quotable quotes like: “The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did.”
By the end of our tour of the various well branded and organised stalls, I felt inspired by the many books beckoning me to buy and read them. The feeling also reminded me of a saying by a former pastor and friend of mine, Rev. Noah Nsubuga, saying: “There are two places in the world that I dread to go to; the library, because the books staring at me and reminding me how unlearned I am; and the public cemetery where I see tombstones with names and titles of professors, doctors, lawyers, engineers among others who have died and been buried with all that institutional memory!”
The venue at Sarit Centre Expo hall was a beehive of activities and included: workshops and seminars on topical issues; book launches; children’s activities; accomplished and budding authors seminars on how to get published; books clearance sale and raffle for books; books exhibitions; and forums for unlimited business opportunities and networking.
The climax of the fair was presentation of the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation Prize for Literature, sponsored by Madison Insurance Ltd. by Prof Laban Ayiro, Day Star University Vice-Chancellor, who was the guest of honour. Shullam Nzioka was declared the winner of the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation Prize for Literature for his book, Mbona Hivi? Published by Oxford University Press. It was best in the Kiswahili category.
According to Kenya Publishers’ Association chairman: “It is often taken for granted that when people read, positive change is the inevitable outcome. However, when one looks at the social ills afflicting our nation, it is easy to conclude that even though we read, the results to a large extent do not seem to suggest that the desired change takes place.”
Indeed, books, whether creative works or factual texts, serve as a reflection of the society from which the writers are drawn.
Throughout the event, businesses at Sarit Centre, in Nairobi’s Westlands area, also cashed in on the goodwill as the students, teachers, parents and book-lovers flocked to the venue and patronised the restaurants, entertainment outlets, toys, clothes and other shops in the mega building.
The event coincided with Nairobi International Trade Fair held at Jamhuri showground, on the West side of town along Ngong Road, which had also been suspended for two years because of the pandemic which had forced the government to suspend most public gatherings, directed a mandatory wearing of masks in public and keeping safe distance among other stringent measures to curb the virus.
The students had the opportunity to mingle and meet budding and accomplished writers like award-winner Prof Peter Kimani (Dance of the Jacaranda) and Nganga Mbugua (Different Colours). Others were Lee Njiru, former Head of the Presidential Press Service under President Moi, who launched his book, The President’s Pressman; John Sibi Okumu (Collected Plays 2004-2014), Swalleh Mdoe (TV News Anchoring – A Guide to Professional News casting), were among the professionals who graced the event and shared their experiences with the students and other book-lovers who visited their exhibition stalls to enquire more about the entire process of book-writing, editing, publishing, marketing and selling.
The array of local talent brought to mind some quotable quotes from the crème dela crème of authors internationally and in Africa as identified by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Stockholm, Sweden, such as 1998 Laureate, Jose Saramago, who said: “Words were not given to man in order to conceal his thoughts.”
And another quotable quote was by 1993 Nobel Literature Prize winner, Toni Morrison: “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
Turning to Africa, Nigerian poet, Wole Soyinka, the only African to ever win the Nobel Literature Prize (1986), had the following gems to share: “Romance is the sweetening of the soul with fragrance offered by the stricken heart.”
Several local and international book publishing firms, book sellers plus parastatals also had stalls where they exhibited some of their new releases and other best selling books. They were Longhorn Publishers; Writers’ Guild; Textbook Centre; StoryMoja; Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press; Kenya Literature Bureau; Jomo Kenyatta Foundation, SpotLight Publishers; Phoenix Publishers and East African Educational Publishers.
Other exhibitors were: World Unknown Publishers; Moran Publishers; Kenya Copy Right Board, Kenya National Library service (KNLS) and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
The afternoon at the book fair was time well spent: As I walked out of the venue I could not help admiring the words of two of my best American and South American authors, Earnest Miller Hemingway (1954) and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982). Marquez, the author of One Hundred Years in Solitude, says: “What matters in life is not what happens to you, but what you remember and how you remember it.”
On his part, Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea) maintains that: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
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