NIGERIA’S MULTI-CULTURAL SET UP AS A BANE OF BOOK PUBLISHING
Publishing is a branch, and in fact, the oldest form of Mass Communication in history. Little wonder Albert Lasker, regarded as father of Advertising defined Advertising as “salesmanship in print”. Those handy holy writs we bear and recite, in form of Holy Bible and Al-Quran have passed through several crude stages before they eventually found their ways into our handheld android gadgets. And the various propositions of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, down to Descartes would not have made it to this age if not for the profession f publishing.
The prospect of book publishing has been given a fillip through ever-advancing technological sophistications in recent years. However, the paradigm shift in book publishing has not come with such impeccable glory; it has come with a threat to the conventional book publishing. From all indications, the profession can be said to be susceptible to the vagaries of change in technology, and will always be.
Content-wise, peculiar to book publishing in Nigeria are more of contextual/conceptual and management issues rather than technology. The country is blessed with over two hundreds of tribal tongues, and with their differing idiosyncrasies. The blessing is a plague to book publishing as medium of mass communication. Yes; English is the official language in the country, but do we have to publish only officially? Or do we subject all publications to multi-lingua publishing? Do we have apt mechanisms to do this without offending the sensibilities of these myriads of culture? I bet the lone answer to these resounding questions is NO.
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH BOOK PUBLISHING IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF MULTI-CULTURAL SET OF NIGERIA
Misfit Illustrations: book publishing is a composite of diction and illustrations to crystalize an idea being portrayed. Often times, cultural distinctions do cause misconceptions and ambiguity as per the use of illustrations in book publishing. Despite the depth of research undertaken before the arrival of the final book, there are various cultural quarters that oppose to certain uses of illustrations that are deem modest and illustrative in other quarters. This is a common problem associated with publishing of literacy materials for levels of education, especially at primary levels.
No relatable concepts in contents: Book publishing, though, is an instrument of bridging and synthesizing cultures; little can be done without addressing frame of differing references peculiar to various cultures in Nigeria with respect to morality and propriety.
Another aspect to this is that, local content developers are often in the dilemma of what best ways to communicate their messages in book publishing. We do not have much book in the shelves that are spun in dialects because delineation of demographics that can guarantee best economic values is the cardinal purpose of private book publishing firms. Governments at various levels have done little to enhance parallel communications through publishing by adaptation.
Inadequacy of interpretative language: There is no enough synonyms in translative languages that can capture the exact intended meanings of the concepts and contexts. Even, English language that is the official code of communication in Nigeria is replete with denotative and connotative meanings. Mastery of meanings alone is not enough, there is also need for understanding of peculiar figurative and idiomatic expressions that gives aesthetic values to communications. This is not easily come by in a system that chunks out largely educational matters (about 61% of the book published in Nigeria) at interval as required by the educational system.
Wane in the quality of our valid culture as a result of poor disposition to our local language by publishing industry: As mentioned earlier, that game plan of a private publisher is to maximize profit by targeting the market segment that can guarantee the most cost-effective and efficient deals. Hard to come by are publications on cookery that can furnish the finesse of our local foods, medicines (herbs), and a deluge of other paraphernalia of our culture. The effect of neo-colonialism is weighing on our local structures and eroding our values, while paving way for inordinate development that do not benefit the existing structures. Any development that does not have at its core, the intent to sustain and develop the existing structures is erosion.
Focus on educational publishing: Nigerians are compulsive book buyers/readers. The lone raison why educational publications thrive more than other soft aspects of publishing. Fewer Nigerians kill boredom through reading at leisure. Most people can afford not to wink an eye to see to the end, a movie that has captured their interest, even in the depth of the night. The same people usually get drowsy when reading. We derive more pleasure in audio-visual matters, which floods in and floods out of our memory. Whereas, literacy materials, in form of books, that can advance critical thinking, which in turn would facilitate development are either catching dusts on the shelves or, still in manuscript stage begging for a shot at the limelight.
It is not enough to highlight few of the problems that have stunted the growth of book publishing in Nigeria’s context, a few cause to chart a way out of the quandary is worth our thoughts.
Glocalization is a concept popularized by the profession of PR to mean ‘thinking globally to solve local problems’. It is high time we started appreciating the nature of Africa, which we often perceive as crude and unrefined. No sophistication rained from heaven; it is sustenance and desire to improve standard of living that drive innovations. Africa was blessed with nice cultural perspectives that commensurate with the nature of the people. Infusion of morality and propriety is the desire that should drive our handing down our cultural heritage to our progenies. Books are necessary to keep the ancient aura of those charitable cultures that are blown away in the whirl wind of neo-colonialism. We can adopt various trends in book publishing to nurture our culture in line with international standards, i.e. specialized publications that would serve the interests of minority local groups should be accessible online.
The western world countries are daily projecting their culture one the virtual media through media contents. The crux is not just the fact that they are permeating the hearts of the young ones world over, but the fact that we have accepted and adopted their content as the yardstick to adjudge the standard of publications content-wise.
As we know, the kernel of online communication is pictorial representations for aestheticism (because virtual readers love to surf, there is need to use concrete images and info-graphs that can communicate faster and clearer), we can glean various local communicative pictorial contents and have more than enough in our arsenal like getty-image, that can project the frontiers of our culture.
Local stories that extol heroic feats of figures, peculiar to our culture could be serialized and publish online. The idea is to propagate our culture through literature in local language; online media can curry spontaneous responses online by readers who find the contents interesting, and this guarantees continuity and extent market frontiers for such publications.
Publishing is a branch, and in fact, the oldest form of Mass Communication in history. Little wonder Albert Lasker, regarded as father of Advertising defined Advertising as “salesmanship in print”. Those handy holy writs we bear and recite, in form of Holy Bible and Al-Quran have passed through several crude stages before they eventually found their ways into our handheld android gadgets. And the various propositions of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, down to Descartes would not have made it to this age if not for the profession f publishing.
The prospect of book publishing has been given a fillip through ever-advancing technological sophistications in recent years. However, the paradigm shift in book publishing has not come with such impeccable glory; it has come with a threat to the conventional book publishing. From all indications, the profession can be said to be susceptible to the vagaries of change in technology, and will always be.
Content-wise, peculiar to book publishing in Nigeria are more of contextual/conceptual and management issues rather than technology. The country is blessed with over two hundreds of tribal tongues, and with their differing idiosyncrasies. The blessing is a plague to book publishing as medium of mass communication. Yes; English is the official language in the country, but do we have to publish only officially? Or do we subject all publications to multi-lingua publishing? Do we have apt mechanisms to do this without offending the sensibilities of these myriads of culture? I bet the lone answer to these resounding questions is NO.
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH BOOK PUBLISHING IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF MULTI-CULTURAL SET OF NIGERIA
Misfit Illustrations: book publishing is a composite of diction and illustrations to crystalize an idea being portrayed. Often times, cultural distinctions do cause misconceptions and ambiguity as per the use of illustrations in book publishing. Despite the depth of research undertaken before the arrival of the final book, there are various cultural quarters that oppose to certain uses of illustrations that are deem modest and illustrative in other quarters. This is a common problem associated with publishing of literacy materials for levels of education, especially at primary levels.
No relatable concepts in contents: Book publishing, though, is an instrument of bridging and synthesizing cultures; little can be done without addressing frame of differing references peculiar to various cultures in Nigeria with respect to morality and propriety.
Another aspect to this is that, local content developers are often in the dilemma of what best ways to communicate their messages in book publishing. We do not have much book in the shelves that are spun in dialects because delineation of demographics that can guarantee best economic values is the cardinal purpose of private book publishing firms. Governments at various levels have done little to enhance parallel communications through publishing by adaptation.
Inadequacy of interpretative language: There is no enough synonyms in translative languages that can capture the exact intended meanings of the concepts and contexts. Even, English language that is the official code of communication in Nigeria is replete with denotative and connotative meanings. Mastery of meanings alone is not enough, there is also need for understanding of peculiar figurative and idiomatic expressions that gives aesthetic values to communications. This is not easily come by in a system that chunks out largely educational matters (about 61% of the book published in Nigeria) at interval as required by the educational system.
Wane in the quality of our valid culture as a result of poor disposition to our local language by publishing industry: As mentioned earlier, that game plan of a private publisher is to maximize profit by targeting the market segment that can guarantee the most cost-effective and efficient deals. Hard to come by are publications on cookery that can furnish the finesse of our local foods, medicines (herbs), and a deluge of other paraphernalia of our culture. The effect of neo-colonialism is weighing on our local structures and eroding our values, while paving way for inordinate development that do not benefit the existing structures. Any development that does not have at its core, the intent to sustain and develop the existing structures is erosion.
Focus on educational publishing: Nigerians are compulsive book buyers/readers. The lone raison why educational publications thrive more than other soft aspects of publishing. Fewer Nigerians kill boredom through reading at leisure. Most people can afford not to wink an eye to see to the end, a movie that has captured their interest, even in the depth of the night. The same people usually get drowsy when reading. We derive more pleasure in audio-visual matters, which floods in and floods out of our memory. Whereas, literacy materials, in form of books, that can advance critical thinking, which in turn would facilitate development are either catching dusts on the shelves or, still in manuscript stage begging for a shot at the limelight.
It is not enough to highlight few of the problems that have stunted the growth of book publishing in Nigeria’s context, a few cause to chart a way out of the quandary is worth our thoughts.
Glocalization is a concept popularized by the profession of PR to mean ‘thinking globally to solve local problems’. It is high time we started appreciating the nature of Africa, which we often perceive as crude and unrefined. No sophistication rained from heaven; it is sustenance and desire to improve standard of living that drive innovations. Africa was blessed with nice cultural perspectives that commensurate with the nature of the people. Infusion of morality and propriety is the desire that should drive our handing down our cultural heritage to our progenies. Books are necessary to keep the ancient aura of those charitable cultures that are blown away in the whirl wind of neo-colonialism. We can adopt various trends in book publishing to nurture our culture in line with international standards, i.e. specialized publications that would serve the interests of minority local groups should be accessible online.
The western world countries are daily projecting their culture one the virtual media through media contents. The crux is not just the fact that they are permeating the hearts of the young ones world over, but the fact that we have accepted and adopted their content as the yardstick to adjudge the standard of publications content-wise.
As we know, the kernel of online communication is pictorial representations for aestheticism (because virtual readers love to surf, there is need to use concrete images and info-graphs that can communicate faster and clearer), we can glean various local communicative pictorial contents and have more than enough in our arsenal like getty-image, that can project the frontiers of our culture.
Local stories that extol heroic feats of figures, peculiar to our culture could be serialized and publish online. The idea is to propagate our culture through literature in local language; online media can curry spontaneous responses online by readers who find the contents interesting, and this guarantees continuity and extent market frontiers for such publications.
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