This volume presents new research and critical debates in African book history, and brings together a range of disciplinary perspectives by leading scholars in the subject. It includes case studies from across Africa, ranging from third-century manuscript traditions to twenty-first century internet communications.

An explanation of the unique role of the book and book collecting in South Africa due to the apartheid This book explores the power of print and the politics of the book in South Africa from a range of disciplinary perspectives- historical, bibliographic, literary-critical, sociological, and cultural studies. The essays collected here, by leading international scholars, address a range of topics as varied as: the role of print cultures in contests over the nature of the colonial public sphere in the nineteenth century; orthography; iimbongi, orature and the canon; book- collecting and libraries; print and transnationalism; Indian Ocean cosmopolitanisms; books in war; how the fates of South African texts, locally and globally, have been affected by their material instantiations; photocomics and other ephemera; censorship, during and after apartheid; books about art and books as art; local academic publishing; and the challenge of 'book history' for literary and cultural criticism in contemporary South Africa.

Discover the book that puts a face on happiness In 2009, photographer Joseph Peter traveled through fifty African nations in seventy-five days and shot 150,000 images—mostly portraits of joyous, proud, glorious faces. He photographed presidents and heads of state, soldiers and workers, and children of all ages. He captured their smiles, their laughter, their humanity. He captured their happiness. First collected in a special handmade leather-bound edition, Joseph Peter’s “book of happiness” was originally presented to Nelson Mandela as a heartfelt personal gift. Now you can experience for yourself the joyful spirit of a place and its people—a dazzling and optimistic vision of Africa that is as simple, beautiful, and universal as a child’s smile.

The Hidden History of South Africa's Book and Reading Cultures shows how the common practice of reading can illuminate the social and political history of a culture. This ground-breaking study reveals resistance strategies in the reading and writing practices of South Africans; strategies that have been hidden until now for political reasons relating to the country's liberation struggles. By looking to records from a slave lodge, women's associations, army education units, universities, courts, libraries, prison departments, and political groups, Archie Dick exposes the key works of fiction and non-fiction, magazines, and newspapers that were read and discussed by political activists and prisoners. Uncovering the book and library schemes that elites used to regulate reading, Dick exposes incidences of intellectual fraud, book theft, censorship, and book burning. Through this innovative methodology, Dick aptly shows how South African readers used reading and books to resist unjust regimes and build community across South Africa's class and racial barriers.

EBONY is the flagship magazine of Johnson Publishing. Founded in 1945 by John H. Johnson, it still maintains the highest global circulation of any African American-focused magazine.

In African-Centred Management Education, Professor Abdulai looks critically at the failings of management education in Africa and how that has impacted growth and development efforts, especially at this critical stage in the continent’s positive growth and development trajectory. He concludes that Africa’s current positive economic growth cannot be sustained without a significant contribution from its human capital. He adds that, the outstanding economic record of Asian economies in recent decades dramatically illustrates how important human capital is to growth. These countries lacking natural resources and importing practically all their energy requirements have grown rapidly by relying on a well-trained, educated and conscientious workforce. Professor Abdulai believes that Africa, too, can sustain its current growth and development by effectively combining its abundant natural resources with its human capital to attain its economic development, but this will require an African cadre of well-trained managers at the helm of both private and public sector institutions. For this to become a reality, management education in Africa will have to play a significant role, but the author argues that it cannot be effective by continually mimicking the West in the programmes it delivers. It must come up with innovative and relevant pedagogy that will address the special challenges that the continent faces and deliver an African-centred management education. As well as pointing to the failures of management education in Africa, Abdulai offers suggestions as to how to make management education really contribute to the education of Africans, in order to sustain current and future development.

Sustainable Management Development in Africa examines how African management and business scholarship can serve African and multinational management and organizations operating in Africa. In a broader sense, this book, within an African context, explores how human capital and intellectual capabilities can be organized at the higher education level; describes the cultural, social, and political influencers impacting management and organization; helps conceptualize African management theories to address organizational effectiveness; addresses the current management and organizational practices in Africa in identifying challenges; and provides guidance for more effective management and organizational operation. Aimed at researchers, academics, and advanced students alike, this book lays the groundwork for the application of uniquely African theoretical and practical perspectives for sustainable management and organizational operation, as explained from a contemporary African point of view. In addition and most important, this book contains a uniquely African content that allows for developing new theories and examining new ways of doing business, thus reaffirming the rise of African scholarship in the fields of management, organization, and business.