Several times a week I teach Shona to a group of Ordinary Level students and to my surprise sometimes they struggle to get the meanings of words that should be common knowledge to them. It is after all their mother tongue or at least it is supposed to be. Our language is changing you can hear it in the streets as you pass groups of people conversing in a new language which is neither Shona nor English. I do not speak Ndebele or any of the other local languages but I am sure they are changing in the same manner.
I fear the increasing assimilation of foreign words, some of which are replacing perfectly good local words could signal the death of local languages or perhaps change them the same way Latin was changed to Spanish, Italian and French as each province and locale adopts its own peculiar language. I feel part of the reason for this reason is that local publishers have stuck with traditional publishing methods by only using printed material to distribute their material.
In the world of smartphones, tablets, PCs and ubiquitous internet and apps having local books as ebooks should be a no brainer. Having something a click away is now fast becoming the norm everywhere and we risk being left behind. Digital books are highly accessible and would encourage young minds to read and perhaps would prevent or at least delay the end that faces our vernacular languages. Digitization of set books like Sinjalo and Sajeni Chimedza must be made a priority. This could go a long way in encouraging young people to read and perhaps write as books become more accessible.
Publishing a book is expensive and more often than not the expense is passed on to the customer. Considering the financial squeeze that people often find themselves in, it is much more likely that someone will buy a cheaper ebook than a much more expensive printed edition. The low price of $12 for a set book means a higher proportion of fees are spent on books and more are forced into students sharing a book. Since ebooks cut out the middlemen and do not use paper, they would be cheaper and this might translate into higher sales for the publishers.
Publishing digital copies also has advantages to the publishers. The risk of stock outs and therefore lost sales is eliminated since you cannot run out of digital stock. Things like errata would also be easier to correct than with printed copies. All the publisher has to do is to correct one copy and inform the buyers to download the new corrected copy. Rare books and manuscripts can be availed without risking getting them damaged. For example some of the material at the national archives.
The digitization of local books would increase availability/accessibility to other people and spread our cultural influences, pique the interest of the present generation which does not do books anymore and perhaps spare the vernacular languages and our local culture from what seems to be its inevitable demise. This will also create more local online content.
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I totally agree. At the recently concluded Culture Shift Zimbabwe Challenge, the winning team (OpenBook) had a concept which fits perfectly to this plight. I would be thrilled to hear they have gone far with that concept.
They put up a form for interested persons to join. I completed the form and that was the last I heard from them. Maybe they are busy at it….
Thank you Christopher, since winning Cultureshift we’ve been working very hard to make all this possible. We have gotten some amazing support and interest from potential partners and stakeholders already and we can promise you that we will be making some big announcements soon. We still very keen on meeting and talking to more partners and writers. Please visit our website http://openbook.ziguru.com and leave your email on our home page and we’ll be happy to send you updates as we progress.
Hi Chanyane, We will be sending updates to everyone who signed up shortly.
Thank you Christopher, since winning Cultureshift we’ve been working very hard to make all this possible. We have gotten some amazing support and interest from potential partners and stakeholders already and we can promise you that we will be making some big announcements soon. We still very keen on meeting and talking to more partners and writers. Please visit our website http://openbook.ziguru.com and leave your email on our home page and we’ll be happy to send you updates as we progress.
Thank you Christopher, since winning Cultureshift we’ve been working very hard to make all this possible. We have gotten some amazing support and interest from potential partners and stakeholders already and we can promise you that we will be making some exciting announcements very soon. We are still very keen to meet more partners and writers. Please visit our website openbook.ziguru.com and leave your email on our home page and we’ll be happy to send you updates as we progress.
As long as due process is followed to make sure copyright and intellectual property issues are ironed out.
You raise an important issue here but so long as there are profits to be made people will always steal whether the book is in digital format or not. Thieves are using photocopying machines to illegally copy these books and openly sell these on street corners yet they are not arrested let alone prosecuted. I think the lack of respect for intellectual property is reflective of a deeper problem which might or might not be helped by digitization.
Hi Loyd, We are excited to let you know that we are working on new exciting ways all this can happen while ensuring that the writers collect their due revenue from their work so that they can also earn an honest living. We will be happy to hear more of your ideas if you don’t mind living your email on our homepage openbook.ziguru.com so that we can keep you in the loop.
I couldn;t agree more looking for a bookshop sucks.
Zimbabweans authors are afraid of the internet and digitally publishing. To many of them, who are old actually, digital publishing is synonymous with piracy.
Hi Prosper, From our own experiences talking to our local writers as we work towards this vision, we’re pleased to inform you that our writers including the ‘old’ ones are very excited to share their books digitally with everyone. They are looking forward to prove everyone wrong.