African academics may perish even when they have published
A weak publishing industry in Africa, including the lack of distribution hubs and an intra-Africa book trade; curricula, pedagogy and learning processes still rooted in the colonial situation and the absence of a scholarship culture, are factors that are undermining the development and production of academic books on the continent.
The shortage of academic books written by African academics has forced African universities to rely heavily on imported works, even for studies with African-specific content such as history, literature, music, politics, sociology and economics.
According to Francis Nyamnjoh, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, various factors, including mediocre content, invisibility (because of the subject matter or because the writer may be unknown and from a developing country), the remoteness of the publisher (which may not have a wide reach) and poor marketi