African Publishing

The Pluto Educational Trust is committed to supporting publishing in Africa and helping to redress unequal access to information, opportunities and audiences. 

As part of this project we’re delighted to start a collaboration with the African Books Collective. In 2024 PET will be supporting their activities by hosting and managing a grant to build on their already impressive work. The grant has generously been provided by the Hawthornden Foundation under their rubric of supporting ‘organizations that serve underserved literary communities, including in parts of the world with weak or non-existent literary infrastructures.’

African Books Collective

African Books Collective (ABC), founded, owned and governed by African publishers, seeks to strengthen indigenous African publishing through collective action and to increase the visibility and accessibility of the wealth of African scholarship and culture.

ABC was established over 30 years ago as a collective non-profit organisation by African publishers to make their books available outside the countries of original publication. It supplies the books of over 150 publishers from the African continent including literary, academic and children’s book publishers and titles in multiple languages. 

ABC’s core ethos is supporting African publishers and promoting African publishing and writing. It believes that literature is empowering for personal and cultural development in any society, and that this is particularly so in societies and/or languages that have suffered the consequences of marginalisation or oppression whether because of colonialism, apartheid, war, displacement or severe economic disadvantage. As part of this mission it remits 50% of net income from book sales back to African publishers. 

This project will support ABC to increase its representation at international book fairs, recruit new publishers, engage in further cultural outreach and improve its marketing and digital communications.

More information and a more detailed history is available at: https://www.readafricanbooks.com/publisher-profiles/african-books-collective-timeline/