Publication of books in indigenous South African languages and their availability and use in public libraries

This paper presents the findings of a study conducted to investigate the impact of the adoption of the eleven official languages and related democratic policies on the production of books in indigenous languages as well as the role of public libraries in promoting the use of books written in indigenous languages. The study reveals that. despite the provisions of the New Constitution regarding language. it seems that the publishing houses have not made much effort to reduce the predominant status traditionally enjoyed by Afrikaans and English in the South African publishing industry. The findings also show that most libraries have collections published mainly in English and Afrikaans. In addition. it was found that books in indigenous languages made up less than 1% of the collections of most of the responding libraries. The results of this study portray a poor state of publishing in indigenous South African languages. It is recommended that every effort should be made to promote the use of these languages more widely and government support be solicited.


I. Introduction
'In the past African culture was embodied in a rich oral tradition.Conditions have changed, however, and unless a comprehensive published literature is available in the African languages,there is a danger that the languagesthemselves will perish" (Mokgokong, 1982: I).
The purpose of the study was to determine the number of books published in indigenous South African languages.It also evaluated the role of public libraries in promoting the use of these books.More specifically, the objectives of the study were to: • determine the quantity, types, languages of books in indigenous South African languages; • ascertain the problems of authors and publishers of these books; • find out the pattern of provision and use of the books in public libraries; and • make recommendations to improve the publication of books in indigenous languages,their availability and use in public libraries.It is recognised that, like most other African countries, South Africa was colonised for centuries, first by the Dutch and then the British.This prolonged period of colonisation led to the imposition of two foreign languages on the indigenous people of South Africa -Afrikaans (an adaptation of Dutch) and English.Consequently, South African literature is overwhelmingly dominated by publications in these two languages.
The official ending of apartheid in 1994 meant that all South Africans now have equal political rights.Furthermore, in an effort to give equal recognition to all significant cultural and linguistic groups in the country, the government adopted II official languages in place of the former two (Afrikaans and English).The nine new official languages are indigenous South African languages.These nine languages are sePedi, seSotho, seTswana, siSwati, tshiVenda, xiTsonga, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, and isiZulu.English and Afrikaans, the other two official languages, have been widely used for many decades or centuries and so they are well established.As a result of this long standing recognition, substantial literatures in these languages exist.In fact, most South African literature and documents have been published in these two languages.Therefore, they do not fall within the scope of this study whose ultimate goal is to consider how to generate and use more literature in the South African languagesthat have been neglected in the production of published literature.
There are other indigenous languages such as Khoi, Nama and San languages that have not been widely used in publishing literature.However, because of limited resources and the desire to confine this paper to a manageable scope, publications in these other languages will be excluded.The government selected the official languages mainly on the size or population of their speakers.Each of these other indigenous languages are spoken by a relatively small population confined to a relatively very small geographical area of the country.Therefore, these languagesand their literature are not as significant as the official languages.languages?Furthermore, has the public library, as a universally recognised democratic agency, been playing an active role in promoting the use of books in indigenous languages in South Africa?In view of the situation described above, these are legitimate questions to be addressed.

Literature review
During the pre-colonial times in the African continent, commUnities preserved and transmitted their cultural and historical experiences through various forms of oral literature.Independent African countries continued to use the languages of their former colonisers as lingua franca.Not only official publications, but also literary works, continued to be published predominantly in foreign languages.Consequently, there is a dearth of books in indigenous languages in most African countries.
In Africa proponents of the use of indigenous languages as official languages claim they wish to break a cultural and economic dependence on the former colonial powers and world capitalism.For example, the Bureau of Language of the Organisation for African Unity claims that the generalised use of African mother tongue languages in place of foreign languages will contribute to freedom and unity in Africa (Weinstein, 1990: 17).
Literary colonialism and hegemony in South African publishing have together resulted in a South African publishing industry which is effectively controlled by white capital expertise.The publishing industry in the country predominantly publishes books that reflect Eurocentric values and culture.
Initially the mission presses carried out publishing aimed at the black reader, both in the indigenous languages and in English.In 1823 the first mission press was set up in the Tyhume Valley in the Transkei, later to be known as Lovedale.A second press was established at Marionhill near Durban in 1887 after the pacification of the Zulu nation (Kantey,I 990:vii).Kantey (1990:vi-vii) further narrates that at the beginning of the nineteenth century indigenous languages were reduced to a written orthography, and missionaries compiled systematic grammars and vocabularies so that they could translate the Bible into the vernacular for the evangelisation and civilisation of the indigenous population.
Despite the undeniable contribution made by Christian societies and publishing houses in many African countries, the literature they provided imposed an ideological and cultural perspective on the indigenous peoples, and reduced a rich and diverse oral tradition to a few centres of literary patronage (Osa, 1987:751).The aim of teachers and missionaries according to Osa ( 1987) was to Europeanise Africans and not to provide a literature related to their needs and interests.
During the 250 years of colonial rule in South Africa, the whites in South Africa were dependent on Europe for most of their books and other printed matter.Early publishers in South Africa, such as Longmans and Oxford University Press, were primarily branches or subsidiaries of overseas publishing houses, and their purpose initially was to distribute imported books.By the twentieth century, British publishers dominated the South African scene and hampered the development of a healthy indigenous press by agreements such as the British Market Agreement.
According to this agreement the English speaking market was divided between the British and American publishers from approximately 1930 to 1970.According to Machet (1993: 167) South African bookshops or distributors could not buy a book from the USA unless there was no British edition, nor would an American publisher sell the rights of a book to a South African publisher unless British publishers had already turned it down.British publishers still dominate the South African market, which is a major market.
The only viable market for books in the vernacular was the educational market, and as a result the only books published in the vernacular tend to be didactic and to lack originality.The majority of books that are made available in South Africa for all cultural groups, in the bookshops, schools and libraries, were selected and published by whites.
Many of these books that were selected for the black community libraries and schools are totally unsuitable, because the values and attitudes reflected in them are those of white selectors rather than those of children for whom the books are intended.Publishers of books in South Africa are unable to ignore the views of those who carry out selection for libraries and the education system, because if the books are not bought for schools and libraries the market is often not big enough to make it viable to publish a book, especially one aimed at the black purchaser (NEPI,1992: 13).
Publishing in South Africa is characterised primarily by the fact that it does not reflect the demographic constitution of South Africa.It caters predominantly for the white market, through English and Afrikaans, despite the fact that the two languages, or for this matter, the white South Africans, constitute a small percentage of the total population.Market viability, and not ideology, determines what will be published Goubert, 1991:9).
The National Party came to power in 1948.As a result of the Christian National and the Bantu Education Acts passed by the nationalist government, publishing for African language speakers came to be dominated by the Department of Education and Training prescription committees, which were controlled by white Afrikaners who supported the government's apartheid policies.& Info Sci 2003, 69(2) From the 1960s, there was a gradual acceptance of Afrikaner literature at the liberal white universities, which provided a market for this literature.This was assisted by the increase of interest in black poetry in the I970s.Small indigenous publishing housesthat were willing to publish alternative literature emerged in this decade.There was a shift towards publishing vernacular literature in the I 980s.In the 1990s publishers who concentrated on publishing for the black market sprang up.Many of them did not publish on a commercial basis, but on an ideological basis to promote indigenous African literature.Their aim was to make a publishing option available to the many different voices that are beginning to be heard in South Africa during this time of cultural change.

SAJnl Libs
In general, publishing in African languageshas often proved to be disappointing in commercial terms (Zell, 1990:19).One of the reasons, as Kantey (1990:vi) reflects on it, is that the reception of this literature has been influenced for years by corrupt and morally bankrupt publishing for schools.Publishing in indigenous languagesis quite a challenging task; a task in which all of the stakeholders must playa role.Thus it is important to pursue the purpose of the study, namely: to determine how many books are being published in indigenous South African languagesand the role that public libraries play in promoting the use of these books.This is important becauseboth public libraries and publishers play an important role in the distribution of knowledge.

Methodology
Three questionnaires were used for data collection.The first questionnaire was targeted at authors of indigenous languages.The second questionnaire was distributed among publishers .The third questionnaire targeted the public libraries.To select the sample for this study, the latest directory of the Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA) (1997 -98) was used to determine those publishing houseswhich publish in the indigenous languagesof South Africa.
With regard to the selection of a sample of the libraries, the latest list of libraries and museums in the Tygerberg Substructure was used to identify public libraries in the municipality.The 23 public libraries which were selected randomly as relevant for the study were within the City of Tygerberg which comprises mixed indigenous language speakers.It was not easy to identify authors of literature in indigenous languagesfor this study.Publishers tend to keep the list of authors who write for them confidential.Therefore an indirect approach of identifying these authors had to be explored.The co-operation of the Departments of African Languagesat the Universities of South Africa (UNISA) and Venda, as well asthat of the Department of Xhosa at the University of the Western Cape (Uwq, was sought in locating these authors.

Discussion of major findings
This section reflects on major findings received from authors, publishers and libraries.

The authors
Of the 71 copies of the questionnaire mailed to authors of literature in indigenous South African languages, 19 were completed and returned.This represents a response rate of 26.8 %.Of this number, one was rejected because the respondent provided no evidence that she had written a book.Therefore, there were 18 usable responses.The respondents consisted of 12 male and 6 female.All the writers were over 25 years of age.In fact, the majority (10) were over 40 years old.All the respondents were university graduates.Two had masters and doctorate degrees respectively.Though one female author studied the natural sciences (Chemistry and Zoology), the respondents studied mainly in the humanities for their respective degrees.linguistics and languages (indigenous South African languages and English) featured very prominently among the main subjects they studied at university.Zulu and Xhosa had the largest numbers of speakers (I I and 8 respectively) among the respondents.They are followed by Sotho (7) and North Sotho (6).On the other hand, Swati is spoken by only one person.Similarly, the number of indigenous languagesspoken by each author ranged from one to five.
At the other end of the scale,two men spoke five languageswhile another two spoke four languageseach.Eachof the six women in the group could speak either two or three languages.Nine respondents (six men and three women) are members of various authors' or language associations.One author is a member of three associations while another belongs to two.The associations are African LanguagesAssociation of South Africa or ALASA (2 authors), African lexicography or AFRILEX (I), Bhala Writers' Guild (3), Congress of South African Writers or COSAW (I), Lekgotla la bangwadi ba dipuku or LEBADI (2), Lesiba (I), Southern African folklore society or SAFOS (I), and Xitsonga Writers' Association (I).

Book writing
Among the 18 authors, a total of I 19 books have been written in indigenous South African languages.This gives an average of 6.6 books each.The 12 male authors wrote 69 of the books, while the six female authors wrote 50.This works out to an average of 5.8 books per male author and 8.3 books per female author.In actual fact, the most prolific male author wrote 24 books while the two most prolific female authors wrote 15 books each.Four authors (one man and three women) have also written a total of 25 books in other languages, mainly English and Afrikaans.One woman wrote I 7 of these books.
The language in which the largest number of books was written is Xhosa, followed by Zulu and Venda with 25 and 21 books respectively.There were no books written in Ndebele, Swati or Tswana.
The books written in indigenous languagescover a wide variety of genres, ranging from poetry to fiction.Fiction is the genre in which the highest number of authors have written; this is followed by academic books, children's books and then school text books.The smallest number of authors (3) have written poetry.Fiction was written in five languages.School text books and poetry were each written in two languages.

Problems
It is a well-known fact that authors do face some problems in writing books.This is particularly true in developing countries where the reading culture is not widespread or strong among the populace, and the publishing industry itself is not well established.The impact of such problems is increased many fold in the case of writers writing in indigenous languages that are not spoken by the whole population, and so books published in them have a restricted potential market.Though the languages involved in the present study were given the status of official languages a few years ago, it will take many more years before these languages are used widely and attain comparable status to the traditional South African official languages of Afrikaans and English.
In view of the foregoing, it would seem that the three major problems confronting the responding authors are inadequate public interest in books written in indigenous languages, insufficient income from writing books to make it a full time occupation, and lack of government support.Similarly, the most outstanding minor problems for this group of authors are finding publishers for their manuscripts, lack of encouragement from publishers, working with editors or publishers, and the fact that writing books in indigenous languages is very demanding in terms of effort, time and/or resources.

Suggestions and comments
Finally, respondents were requested to suggest how to increase the publication of books in indigenous languages and to comment freely on any aspect of the questionnaire or subject.Many comments highlighted the fact that the role of the government is critical to increasing the production and reading of books in indigenous languages.As perceived by the respondents, nearly as important as the role of government is the role of publishers.Therefore, the following are some of the activities publishers can undertake to increase the quantity and sale of books in indigenous languages.
• Publishers can use mass media to advertise their books, e.g.TV and radio.
• Specimen copies can be donated to school or university libraries.The publishers currently concentrate on school material.Any literature that is not school material is totally neglected and this hampers the process.

The publishers
Of the 133 publishers in the Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA) directory, 23 were selected for the study and only six (6) of them responded.This represents a response rate of 26.1%.The responding publishers were: David Philip, Human & Rousseau, Lovedale Press, Maskew Miller Longman, Tafelberg and the Witwatersrand University Press.With the exception of David Philip, which has been in existence for 21 -30 years, these publishing houses were all established over 40 years ago.In fact, Lovedale Press has been publishing for 175 years.All six publishers have been members of the PASA since its inception five years ago.Prior to this they belonged to the South African Publishers Association (SAPA).Publishers often specialise in particular subjects and types of books when it comes to publishing.Most of the publishers under study are general, commercial publishers.Therefore it is not surprising that virtually all of them are involved in producing popular fiction, non-fiction and children's books.These publications attract the largest market and are most lucrative from a commercial point of view.Three are also engaged in publishing school text books and five, in higher education books.The academic press among them (Witwatersrand University Press), while presumably specialising in publication of higher education text books and plays, nevertheless publishes fiction and (popular) non-fiction -perhaps to be economically viable.
The approximate total number of book titles each company has published since it started operating ranged from less than 500 at the Witwatersrand University Press to over I 000 at Human & Rousseau, Maskew Miller Longman, and Tafelberg.It is not unexpected that Witwatersrand University Press, as an academic press, has the lowest output in terms of number of titles published.Academic presses are normally very selective in the quality of manuscripts they publish.
Lovedale Press, because it has been publishing books for nearly two centuries, seems to have lost count of the titles it has published, hence it could not answer the question.On the other hand, Witwatersrand University Press compares favourably with David Philip and Lovedale Press with regard to the number of titles currently being published.Each has no more than 250 current titles, while the rest published over 500.

Publishing in indigenous languages
The questionnaire was meant to collect data on the publication of books in indigenous South African languages.According to the new South African Constitution (Act 108 of 1996): Recognising the historically diminished use and status of the indigenous languages of our people, the state must take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages.
The Constitution goes on to state that everyone has the right to use the language and to participate in the cultural life of their choice, but no one exercising these rights may do so in a manner inconsistent with any provision of the Bill of Rights.
The publishing companies were selected according to their profiles as they appear in the PASA directory.According to these profiles, they were all publishing in the nine (9) official, indigenous South African languages.However, the responses received indicated that David Philip, Lovedale Press and Witwatersrand University Press publish mainly in English, while Human & Rousseau, Maskew Miller Longman and Tafelberg publish mainly in Afrikaans and English.Thus, despite the provisions of the new Constitution regarding language, it seems the publishing houses have not made much effort to reduce the predominant status traditionally enjoyed by Afrikaans and English in the South African publishing industry and other spheres of the economy.
Nevertheless, all six publishers under study have made some effort to publish in South African indigenous languages.
By far the leading publisher in this direction is Maskew Miller Longman, which has published books in all nine languages.It is followed by Tafelberg and Witwatersrand which have published in five and four languages respectively.Xhosa and Zulu are the overwhelming languagesof choice, having been used by six and five publishers respectively.
Of the six publishers, Lovedale Press, the oldest, has been publishing books in indigenous languages for a far longer period than the rest.It started publishing in indigenous languages in 1834 -that is 165 years ago and 10 years after it was established.It is followed by Witwatersrand, which started publishing in indigenous languages in 1960, andDavid Philip, in 1980.The rest started in 1994 -apparently in view of the dramatic changes anticipated to follow the first democratic elections held that year and the accompanying new government.
The results show further that Xhosa and Zulu are the most popular indigenous languages for publishing.Virtually all the publishers have produced books in these languages.The only exception is Lovedale Press, which, it seems, has not published any book in Zulu.As stated earlier, most publishers started publishing in indigenous languages in the I 990s.
Judging by the total number of titles published so far, the output of books in indigenous languages by these publishers is not impressive at all.The majority have each published fewer than 10 titles in each language.
Though it did not provide most of the details required, Maskew Miller Longman is currently the most aggressive in publishing in indigenous languages.It stands head and shoulders above the rest.It now publishes books in all nine indigenous languages.Furthermore, the normal print runs of its titles in these languages range from 4 000 for books in Ndebele to 20 000 for books in Zulu.This is a highly commendable achievement, especially in view of the fact that the other publishers are finding it difficult to establish commercially viable markets for books in indigenous languages, hence their lack of enthusiasm in this field.
The range or variety of books in indigenous languages produced by each of these publishing houses is very limited .Lovedale Press is the only publisher which has published books in all the five categories listed, except non-fiction.It has even published another type of literature -religious books.Lovedale Press is also the only publisher which has published higher education (academic) text books.The most common are fiction (3 publishers), children's books (3), and school text books (2).Surprisingly, Witwatersrand University Press does not publish higher education text books, but rather fiction and school text books.None of the six publishers undertakes the production of (popular) non-fiction or general books.
Two publishers, Lovedale Press and Witwatersrand University Press, stated categorically that they did not have a (written) policy on the publication of books in indigenous languages.It is slightly surprising that Lovedale Press, which has been one of the most active of the publishers in this respect, does not have a formal policy on the subject.The rest seem to have unwritten policies or vague notions of policy.

Problems
The responses clearly showed that there were two major problems confronting the publishers of books in indigenous South African languages.These are an inadequate market demand and lack of government support or encouragement, which were each considered major problems by five of the six responding publishers.Two significant minor problems are inadequate trained personnel and insufficient number of authors.Other problems identified by one of the respondents are cutbacks in library purchases, and the lack of reading and book purchasing culture.

The libraries
Of the 23 public libraries in the Tygerberg substructure that were selected for the study, eight(8) of them responded.This represents a response rate of 34.8%.
The estimated population of the communities served by these libraries range from 16 120 in Valhalla Park to 60 000 in Belhar.The total number of currently registered users, on the other hand, varied from I 054 in Huguenot Square to 17 83 I in Goodwood.Therefore, in terms of the number of the community who use the public library, this ranged from 2% in Huguenot Square to over 30% in Bishop Lavis and Durbanville.
From all indications, the collections of these public libraries are modest.They range in size from 20 000 in Valhalla Park to 62 000 in Durbanville.As expected, the books in these collections are predominantly in English and Afrikaans.
The collections of these libraries show that it will take some time before these new official languages are firmly rooted and receive due recognition even in public libraries.Bishop Lavis's collection is unique in that it consists of books in English only.
The linguistic composition of the collections of the public libraries under study is in sharp contrast to the linguistic structure of the communities they serve.According to the respondents, in all of the communities served, except Bishop Lavis, at least one indigenous language is spoken.This language is usually Xhosa.Zulu is also spoken in Bellville South and Huguenot Square, while four indigenous languages (Sotho, Tswana, Xhosa and Zulu) are spoken at Masakhane.Thus most of the public libraries whose collections are still predominantly in English and Afrikaans do not seem to serve the needs and interests of the cross-section of their communities.Furthermore, as social services supported by public funds or tax payers' money, they do not seem to fully reflect changing government policies and practices in a post-apartheid, democratic South Africa.This may bring to question justification for continued government support to such institutions.

Booksinind~enouslanguages
Bishop Lavis is the only library with no books at all in indigenous languages (Table 5).The other seven (7) libraries have some books in Xhosa, which is the predominant indigenous language spoken, not only in their communities, but also in the whole of the Western Cape Province.Belhar, Bellville South, Durbanville and Valhalla Park have books in only one indigenous language -Xhosa.Goodwood and Huguenot Square have books in both Xhosa and Zulu, while Masakhane has books in four indigenous languages, namely Sotho, Tswana, Xhosa and Zulu.
Respondents were asked to indicate the libraries in which the largest collection of books written in indigenous languages were stocked.They were also requested to give an estimate of the quantity of books in the language(s).They were then asked what percentage of their library's total collection has been published in indigenous language(s).
There is a small quantity of books in indigenous languages in all these libraries.Naturally, the books are virtually all in Xhosa.Less than I% of the books in nearly all the libraries are written in indigenous languages.The only exception is Masakhane, where the books in indigenous languages were estimated to make up I -5 % of the total collection.The library books in indigenous languages cover a wide variety of genres.They range from fiction and children's books to higher education textbooks.However, the most prevalent are children's books, fiction, and non-fiction (popular or general books) which are found in at least half of the libraries.
Durbanville and Huguenot Square libraries did not specify the types of books in indigenous languagesthey hold in their collections.Though Masakhane is not the library with the largest number of books in indigenous languages, its collection covers more titles in indigenous languages.As a result of this, indigenous languages constitute a higher proportion of its total collection.It is therefore not surprising that its indigenous language collection is more read than those of the other libraries.
It is appropriate to observe here that none of the libraries has a (written) policy regarding the acquisition of books in indigenous South African languages.This may seem to suggest that these libraries do not regard it as a policy issue or service goal deserving serious attention.In other words, with the exception of Masakhane perhaps, these public libraries do not seem to be making serious efforts to cater for the reading needs of members of their communities who are only literate in, or want to read books in, indigenous languages.
The questionnaire provided a list of possible problems that might hinder the provision of books in indigenous South African languages in public libraries.Respondents were requested to indicate those problems they consider major and minor respectively.For these libraries there are clearly two major problems of acquiring books in indigenous languages.These two problems are the fact that only few books are published in indigenous languages, and a lack of interest in reading these books by library users.Notable minor problems which were identified were that most books in indigenous languages are not suitable for public library collections, and books in indigenous languages are expensive.It would have InfoSci 2003, 69(2) been interesting to find out why these books were considered unsuitable for public libraries and how expensive they are in comparison with books in Afrikaans and English.

Conclusions and recommendations
The books written by authors in indigenous languages cover a wide spectrum of genres, ranging from poetry to fiction.Fiction is the genre in which the largest number of authors have written, followed by academic books, children's books and school text books.It is well known that authors face some problems in writing books.This is particularly true in developing countries where the reading culture is not widespread or strong among the populace and the publishing industry itself is not well established.The Language Boards killed talent, individual expression and creativity among the indigenous South African writers.Today, eight years after the first democratic elections in South Africa, things have not yet changed drastically.This study found that the most serious problems confronting authors of books in indigenous South African languages are inadequate public interest in books written in indigenous languages, insufficient income from writing these books, and a lack of government support.
By virtue of the market, all the publishers that responded in this study were involved in producing fiction, popular nonfiction and children's books.These are publications with the largest market and therefore lucrative from a commercial point of view.
The approximate number of book titles each publisher had published since it started operating ranged from less than 500 to 1000 titles.During the British colonial rule religious missionaries dominated the publishing market.During the apartheid government, language Boards were established for each African language.One of the main functions of these Boards was to recommend prescribed books for schools and colleges.Despite the provisions of the New Constitution regarding language, it seems that the publishing houses did not make much effort to reduce the predominant status traditionally enjoyed by Afrikaans and English in the South African publishing industry, perhaps because of their commercial orientation that is still in favour of the two languages.
Regarding the libraries, it is observed that most libraries in the Tygerberg substructure serve less than 30% of their target population.Most have collection sizes of 20 000 -40 000, mainly in English and Afrikaans, though the majority of the population that they serve in some cases are people who speak indigenous South African languages.
The nature of books in African languages read at schools today are the same as those which were read years ago.The reading culture that assisted African language books in the past has not developed.Black people hardly buy and read books in African languages.This come as no surprise, because English and Afrikaans have been the official languagesof the country throughout the apartheid decades.South Africa's I I official languages do not have equal status, either official or otherwise.In this study books in indigenous languages made up less than I % of the collections of most responding libraries.Most of these books were written in Xhosa.Furthermore, there was evidence that the circulation of books in indigenous languageswas poor; these books were not popular with library users.
It is necessary to acknowledge the efforts that have been made by librarians, publishers and writers in producing and encouraging the use of indigenous language books in South Africa.It is however regrettable to note that the formerly disadvantaged status of indigenous languages has continued to make it difficult for writers to produce and publish works in indigenous languages.
The results of this study indeed portray the poor state of publishing in indigenous South African languages, despite the fact that government has instituted a policy of recognising some of these as official languages with the same status as Afrikaans and English.It is therefore strongly recommended that every effort should be made to promote the use of these languages more widely.More specifically, authors and publishers should be encouraged to produce more books in indigenous languages by promoting the languages at all levels of education, setting up government subsidised publishing houses and facilitating the marketing and use of the languages.They need all the support from government.Similarly, public libraries need to be encouraged and supported with funds for collection development.Guidelines on the proportion of indigenous literature in a public library collection should be urgently provided.
This paper ponders the following questions.What changes has the adoption of I I official languages and other democratic policies, as well as other recent social transformations, brought to the production of books in indigenous SAJnl Libs & Info Sci 2003, 69(2)