There may not be anything new under the sun, but some things haven't received much exposure. And that's what makes the wide-ranging anthology of written and oral works Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region such a landmark publishing enterprise. "Almost all of the material in this book has gone unpublished [in the U.S.]—and in some cases, even in southern Africa," said Jean Casella, publisher and director of the Feminist Press of the City University of New York.
The first fruit of a decade-long undertaking that involved more than 200 scholars, writers and other participants who meet periodically around the world, the book is rooted in the Women Writing Africa cultural reconstruction project, funded by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. It's the first of a series that will include three additional volumes, organized by region, to be published in fall 2005, 2006 and 2007.
One of the series' unique qualities is its broad definition of literature, which includes "things that have been recovered from all sorts of sources. There's a lot of oral literature, women's traditional songs, letters, newspaper accounts and political documents," Casella explained.
Entries date from 1842 to the present, and have been translated from more than a dozen languages. Introduced by notes on their cultural and historical context, the selections include works by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nadine Gordimer, Doris Lessing and Winnie Mandela, as well as initiation songs to celebrate a girl's first menstrual period, an excerpt from a work by South Africa's first novelist and testimony from a hearing on human rights violations conducted by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
James Fugate, owner of Esowon Books in Los Angeles, agreed that the book is one of a kind. "I haven't seen anything this comprehensive on the subject," he said. "I know once customers see it, we'll definitely have demand for it."
While many of the writings are new to print, the paperback edition of the 608-page title, coming in September, is actually the book's second incarnation. Last year, the press published a $75 hardcover edition aimed at libraries and other institutions, which has sold half its 3,000-copy print run. The Feminist Press expects a stronger performance for the $29.95 paperback, so a 4,000-copy printing is planned, along with a launch party in New York, and a related event in Washington, D.C., coordinated by the Congressional Women's Caucus.
Though this title is singular, it is not unprecedented. With similar funding from the Ford Foundation, the Feminist Press compiled two volumes on Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the Present, which are also available in paperback and cloth. Both volumes sold out of their 4,000-copy first printings and continue to sell steadily today.
Florence Howe, co-founder and former publisher of the Feminist Press, and one of three co-directors and series editors for the four-volume African project, explained that approximately three times more material had been collected for the southern volume than could ultimately be included. The bulk of those materials will be housed in an archive at Brown University.
Asked whether she plans to continue this kind of monumental research on other continents once the Africa project is completed, Howe sighed. "You could do two dozen volumes on Asia," she said, "but by the time this is finished, I'll be 77. Enough already. I really want to write my memoir."
