When most western publishers think of Africa—if they do at all—it is South Africa that springs to mind. Commonwealth rights, anyone? Or Nigeria. So many names to choose from. Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tomi Adeyemi…

But beyond Nigeria all but the most ardent western fans of African literature will struggle. Come to that, so will most African literature fans. Because it’s a tragically sad truism that it’s easier for a reader in Nigeria to read the latest books from an author in the U.S. or Europe than it is to read a book by an author in another African country.

It’s not that there is no publishing industry in Africa—there is, and it’s vibrant. But print distribution across this vast continent of 11.7 million square miles (three times the U.S.) and 1.4 billion people (four times the U.S.) is a logistical nightmare. And it doesn’t help that there are 54 countries, and more than 1,000 languages. Or that, so they say, Africans don’t read.

Book fairs for millions

Yet some of the world’s biggest public-facing book fairs are in Africa. Pre-Covid times, the Casablanca International Book Fair would regularly pull in a half-million visitors. The Algiers International Book Fair would attract a crowd of more than two million. And Cairo this year returned to form with footfall of 3.6 million.

So safe to say Africans are fond of books. But print distribution across all those languages and countries…maybe when the internet catches up. No point even thinking about digital books when the continent is at just 43% internet penetration.

Except, that 43% equates to 590 million people online. The U.S. has just 312 million. Opportunity abounds.

In fact, while western publishers and distributors mostly look the other way (Amazon’s Kindle store: South Africa only; Google Play Books: South Africa and Egypt only; Apple Books: not available anywhere in Africa), there is plenty of digital action on the continent.

Home-grown platforms

Home-grown platforms abound. Nigeria-based Publiseer helps authors self-publish and distribute globally. Fellow Nigerian operation Okada has been going longer and focuses on Nigeria, home to 154 million internet users. No wonder Okada has clocked more than 500 million page reads.

From beyond the continent there is growing interest. At Frankfurt 2022 we learned of Beat Technology’s venture with Ghana’s Akoo Books to bring streaming audio to 19 African countries. That will be Ghana, home of the UNESCO World book capital 2023, Accra.

Nor is Ama Dadson’s Akoo Books alone in streaming digital books across Africa. Storytel MENA offers audio streaming across a raft of North African countries. But Storytel and Akoo are both dwarfed by YouScribe, which already boasts more than one million subscribers across 11 African countries. Based in France, it’s no surprise that most are francophone nations—Morocco, Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, DRC, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, and Madagascar. But we can also add South Africa to that list, with more English-speaking African nations to follow.

Webtoons

Nor is it just e-books and audio. Comics are big business in Africa, and increasingly webtoons is the way the comic book industry is heading. This is unsurprising, given that most consumption of comics is on mobile phones.

African comic book publishers are thriving, and the webtoon format is perfect for digital reading. Some African comics publishers include YouNeek Studios (Nigeria), Editions Akoma Mba, Zebra Comics (Cameroon), Comic Republic, Waanda Stoudio (Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso) and Etan Comics.

Finally, we must include mention of Malaysia-based Big Bad Wolf, which in late 2022 made its first venture into Africa with mega-sales in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya.

Africans love their books.

Mark Williams is editor-in-chief of the New Publishing Standard. He lives in The Gambia