Publishing history versus publishing anecdote: the importance of data on the book trade in Africa

In 2013, Hans Zell asked the pertinent question, ‘How many books are published in Africa?’ Noting that the figures for African publishing output had been cited for at least two decades as 2–3 per cent of global production, he traced these back to data from an outdated and incomplete UNESCO survey as well as a number of sources that simply did not exist (Zell 2013). Moreover, the figures had remained static all that time, and he estimated that no national bibliographies existed for at least twenty African countries, a key source of data (Zell 1995; 2018). Based on these shortcomings, Zell (1995; 2019) has repeatedly called for more reliable statistics on the book trade across the continent. A decade later, the picture is not much clearer, and there is still a pressing need for more evidence and data when talking about books in Africa.