ANANSESEM PUBLICATIONS
AT THE SAN FRANCISCO ASA
by Roger Gocking
Charles Wereko-Brobby and his wife Joyce believe they made history by being the first publishers "out of Africa" to attend an ASA Annual Meeting when they occupied a booth at the San Francisco ASA conference in November 1996. They had tried the previous year, with the help of Ghana Studies Council Chairperson, Jean Allman, to make it to the Orlando Meeting, but there had been insufficient time to work out the details. It meant that they were even more determined to make it to San Francisco.
During a lull in sales, Charles took time out to talk about the challenge of self-financing the trip to America and the difficulties of publishing in Africa. In spite of the cost of exhibiting, over $12,000, which sales at the conference would not offset, he felt that it was necessary to let people know that Africans were publishing about Africa in Africa. He felt that this was vitally important "since so little [that is published about Africa] finds its way back to the continent." With a characteristically expansive smile, he pointed out that it was a "chicken and the egg dilemma" for "if there is no way to publish in Africa there is no incentive [for locals] to write, and no incentive to do research." He conceded that this will not be an easy challenge to overcome since the publishing industry in a country with a relatively low level of literacy, like Ghana, "suffers from a critical mass of readership." The high cost of materials "means high prices" particularly since publishers are "hard-pressed to sell two-thousand copies of a work." Nevertheless, in spite of this limited local market, he was convinced that Anansesem Publications should first focus on Ghana. All too often "people try to jump before they crawl! We must first establish a credible publishing industry in Ghana then talk about the region."
The operation employs six people and is located in the North Ridge area of Accra. It was established about eight years ago, but really began to focus on publishing in the last four years with its first publication a work in political science. However, it is relatively recently, in the last eighteen months, that Anansesem Publications has become really viable. Currently Charles is looking for outlet "avenues" in North America and Europe. Without this he feels that it will be difficult to sustain a commercially viable publishing industry in Ghana. His aim is to develop such markets in the West which can be used to "encourage [him] to publish local scholars." He is particularly interested in having US African Studies Centers taking out subscriptions for Anansesem's publications. It is a strategy that he sees as having more of a long term future than one depending on some aid agency "dumping money" to resuscitate a local publisher, but which inevitably collapses when this money "dries up."
In addition, part of his strategy is to tap into the text book market in Ghana. So far they have had a political science book approved by the Ministry of Education, but they would like to do much more, and add to their offerings that include such publications as John Collins', E. T. Mensah King of Highlife (1996), Peter K. Sarpong's, Libation (1996), Charles' own second John Kubglenu Memorial Lecture, The Fourth Republic of Ghana Will Last for a Hundred Years: True or False? (1996), Ivor Wilks' 1995 Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lecture, One Nation, Many Histories: Ghana Past and Present (1996) and a collection of short stories by Kwesi Yankah, Woes of a Kwatriot: No Big English (1996). Ananse, the folktale-telling spider of Akan culture, is the publication's inspiration. However, it wants to move beyond the oral to the written form to tell stories "on culture, history, politics, folklore or any other topic" to "record Ghana for posterity." Heading an enterprising publications operation is hardly all of Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby's accomplishments. He holds a doctorate from Leeds University in Solar Energy Engineering as well a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Middlesex. For Ghanaians, however, he is best known for his pioneering Radio Eye, the independent FM station that in November 1994 broke the state-controlled monopoly on broadcasting. In recognition of his fight for the right of Ghanaians to own and operate private radio stations, the readers of the Ghanaian newspaper, The Ghanaian Chronicle, voted him "Man of the Year 1994." He told me that the legal case that this challenge resulted in is still before Ghana's Supreme Court.