THE Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), Harare chapter, held annually from July 31 to August 5 is a special Bira revanyori, unyori, zvinyorwa, nekukosheswa kose kwezveunyori.
Writers, school children, publishers, printers, book sellers and the wider community converged at Harare Gardens to savour this special moment and to trade.
Stephen Chifunyise, in his keynote address at this year’s Great Indaba, traditionally held at the Monomotapa Hotel, suggested this week of the Harare International Book Fair be declared ‘National Book Week’ to be celebrated across the nation with book activities to rouse everybody to this great wealth and to encourage each citizen to participate in the book fest.
A great idea, for, as long as the ZIBF is limited to Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo and Mutare, so many people in the countryside who have the capacity to contribute to the book world and thirst to enjoy books may forever be unrequited.
At the Harare International Book Fair, the Great Indaba is dedicated to the first two days of the fair in which stakeholders in the book world and book lovers are treated to mind-blowing, heartwarming and sometimes heart-rending presentations from Zimbabwe and beyond.
This year’s Indaba was held under the theme ‘Making the Book Pay.’
Presenters came from Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania and the hosts Zimbabwe.
To the faithful who never miss this great event year-in year-out, this year’s Great Indaba must have left them wondering what is happening to this Great Bira.
The first paper, titled ‘Our Commonwealth’, was presented by Dr Irene Mahamba — thus titled because the community is the source for both the writers and the ingredients they write about, the special place where writers originate and are brewed as cultural beings.
And therefore, the community should be taken on board in writing and publishing; should be requited morally, materially for this critical contribution; the writers are the primary producers of book wealth and therefore should be made to feel special morally and materially.
They make the difference and so should be accorded financial recourse to enable them to be at peace so they can continue to give their best.
Not least of all, the readers, those for whom the book wealth is produced, should be accorded the greatest respect because they are the special friends of the writers, the ones for whom they burn the midnight oil by writing what is meaningful to them, ‘zvinovapembedza, zvinovatsvakurudza, zvinovashingisa’, so that they are at peace with who they are, their purposes and goals in life, also by pricing the books so that all can access this wealth.
When this happens, the book pays the community, the writers and the readers materially, socio-culturally and spiritually and book wealth truly becomes commonwealth.
She concluded: “When the book pays morally, ethically, aesthetically and economically, the nation blesses the book industry and the force of the nation stands behind the book industry. When this happens, only the sky is the limit for the Book World.”
Subsequent papers lamented book piracy, a scourge robbing the writers of what they could earn as royalties.
Many lamented that the law is not on top of the situation while others highlighted the over-pricing of books as the main fuel for book piracy.
When it was pointed out that sometimes a book can cost US$1,50 to print but it ends up being sold for US$18, Blazio Tafireyi, owner of the Zimbabwe Publishing House was riled.
Casting the presenter as being uninformed, he argued there are other costs.
Notwithstanding that there are books that can justifiably cost US$18, the question still to be answered is that if the printer can make do with US$1,50 a copy, and still meet costs, surely the book publishers have room to maneuvre to make it easier for the ordinary person who needs the book, who must enjoy the book because the writer wrote it for him/her.
Chifunyise could not agree with those who argued that they have to go to ‘Kotamai bookshops’ (illegal road side vendors) because the books are too expensive.
He underlined that such behaviour is irresponsible and called on each citizen to fight this scourge, and not to just pass by the books spread on the pavements without seeking action to eradicate this malady.
“If the law cannot tolerate that someone should just walk into Chicken Inn and grab a piece of chicken without paying, how is that anyone can just pick a book, stencil it and run it and sell it, robbing the author of his/her wealth?” he asked.
It was, however, very encouraging when someone suggested that Zimbabwe should explore Open Access to school text books as is practiced in South Africa, where the Government has invited publishers to pay for the publishing of a set of selected school textbooks which are then availed free of charge to pupils.
Tafireyi was the lone voice that rejected this idea, dismissing the idea of anything being free.
The idea he missed is that if book wealth is commonwealth, then it is morally correct and honourable for the publishers to give back to the community, where the wealth originates, where the writers originate, where they draw their inspiration from, to recognise the community who, over the years, have bought books from the publishers and with their contributions have built up the publishers.
Sadly though, the majority of the papers did not address the topic ‘Making the Book Pay’.
Mostly, they seem to have been research papers done earlier for some other purposes which the presenters laboured to convince us were about ‘Making the Book Pay’.
Some papers were not only off topic, but went as far as to denigrate unhu hwedu.
A lecturer from Great Zimbabwe University, Dr Godwin Makaudze insisted that writers who castigate prostitution, corruption and other social vices in general are off topic because individuals should not be made to pay for practicing or committing such evils.
He was so totally detached from Zimbabwe’s moral, ethical and aesthetic soul. It was a disgrace.
It was as if one was listening to the NGOs who relentlessly attack our morality because moral rectitude is an impenetrable armour, thus imperialists need to break it in order to subjugate us.
A presenter from Zambia, Dr Cheela H.K. Chilala, hit a brick wall when he condemned self-publishing as trashy. It was difficult to put the fire out as Zimbabweans defended the heart of writing, that it is an art which should not be fettered by gate-keepers.
Though there were these sore moments, there were also scintillating intervals of entertainment throughout the two days.
There was a home grown poet from Masvingo who claims he only spent five hours in Form One — he was the greatest; the humour, the imagery, the incisiveness took you home, to a fireside of folklore.
Book lovers must not give up; art always promises a new dawn, the one thing that never fails to rise from the ashes, never fails to keep each soul searching, afloat, hoping and trusting until tomorrow comes.
Next year they will converge again at the Great Indaba… with hope!