SURVEY OF PUBLICATIONS AND GRAPHIC MATERIALS AVAILABLE IN AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68-00069A000100100018-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 24, 1998
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: June 16, 1960
• Content Type: REPORT

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TAB B
Survey of Publications and Graphic Materials
Available in Africa
South of the Sahara
ozop,p, 9 9 1, 8 - 8
121222_5 the suimw
? Africa is in a state of remarkable and rapid change. These changes
are being reflected in the publications issued by and about the various
:olonies now emerging as countries. We wanted to see what was available
and where. In our discussions with Foreign Service Officers, we stressed
the fact that it is essential to Washington to have access to publications.
En addition, we re-emphasized the value of the graphics.coordinator program
which provides Washington with films and photographs. Finally, we checked
bn the availability of Communist Chinese publications*
Zonclusions.
1. The independent or near-independent countries (Ethiopia and Ghana)
are publishing very little on their own. Literacy is a priority goal -
except for elementary textbooks in vernacular languages, publishing will
have to wait.
2. The countries under ?Commonwealth aegis (Kenya, the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyaealand? and South Africa) have some local publishing, with
good bookstores. Rich publishing about them is available in London as well.
3. There is no need at the present time for a full-time Publications
Officer to be appointed in any country in Africa south of the Sahara.
4* The ad-hoc Publications Officers and the Graphics Coordinators in
each country should be continuously reminded of the importance of vigilance
and action in their respective collection efforts. They should receive
more personalized attention.
50 Though we saw very little direct evidence of the receipt of
Communist Chinese publications in any of the countries visited, we believe
it is only a matter of time before such publications become more readily
available, particularly in the independent countries* We were told that
officials in some of the countries are on mailing lists and receive some
publications*
6. The full-time Publications Officers in Berlin, London, Moscow,
New Delhi, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo should be instructed to procure all
publications on Africa issued in their respective countries*
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7. In some of the more specialized bookstores in Nairobi and Salisbury,
We found material that has considerable potential for use in foreign language
training programs (Swahili, Kikuyu, Masai,* et0.). Many valuable phrase0bookt,'
grammars and glossaries are available,
8. We recommend that publications procurement activities in South Africa
be centralized at the Embassy in Pretoria, instead of at the Consulate General
in Johannetburg.,
We stressed the importance of current reporting on the newspaper
situation to appropriate USIA and Embassy officials in each country visited.
Washington often needs the most recent information on editors, political
leanings, ownership* etc., of foreign newspapers.
?
Cities Visited.
1. Addis Ababa: By far the best bookstore is the one owned by a
conservative old Greek, G.P. Giannopoulos, with two ambitious young sons
and one daughter as assistants. The store is called International Press
- Agency, Haile Selassis I Star Square, P.O. Box 120, lie suggested that
these people put out a list of all material available on Ethiopia and
copies be sent to the State Department, Library of Congress, National
,Library of Medicines Department of Agriculture and Northwestern University.
The USIA Public Affairs Officer Mr. Stephen W. Baldanza, offered to help
produce such a list. Giannopoulos bought up the entire USSR exhibit of
books and has them on sale, selling Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga in English,
bound in hardcovers, for 90 U.S. cents. This is the same price he gets
for U.S. paperback editions. He also had one issue of an English language
magazine from Peking. There were no other bookstores worthy of the name
in Addis Ababa, where we were told the literacy rate for Ethiopia was 3%.
We visited the National Library and saw Mrs. Pankhurst? the
Librarian, who is one of the three non-Ethiopians on the staff with library
training. The Library has a collection of about 68,000 including duplicates,
with about 450000 items cataloged. A small "manuscript collection" is availa.
able, mostly copies of older originals which they have trouble getting away
from the churches. The Library's book budget is $4,000 per year. There
is no such thing as copyright. With no centralized publishing industry
here, each author is his own publisher, He keeps all copies, may or may
not sell them or allow a bookstore to handle for him. The National Library
has been trying to get a deposit law passed with no success (even appeals
to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor have failed). We were told the local
university (which.is a college) is also building a library and plans to
publish an Amharic bibliography. The National Library has nearly a complete
set of the Italian laws, statutes, etc. from /863-1940, in good bindings,
which it will make available to the Library of Congress on exchange, if
shipping costs can be provided.
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At the Embassy we discussed our program with the Ambassador, Mr*
Don cp Bliss, and Mrs Thomas Ms Recknagel, let Secretary and part-time
Publications =leers The Graphics Coordinator was not available, but we
answered the qaeatione he had listed, and left requirements. In conversa-
tion with Baldanza, USIA, about locally produced films, we were told
that there were Ames Three years ago USIA produced one called 121122Eil
112V,
20 Nairobi: There are two outstanding bookstores here* One, East
African STENO Ltd., P.O. Box 380, has a fine collection of local,
17-.itit7ET-Pr-giiargiCrGerman publications arranged by subject and language.
It also handles periodical and newspaper subscriptions and will accept
orders for publications available here, including maps. One member of the
staff has sent us a list of available newspapers and periodicals he was
compiling.
The other good bookstores specializing in school books, is the
Educational Supply Association, P.O. Box 360. There is heavy emphasis
EFEFOR-Kfrican sfiagETTETE-text-books in Swahili, Kikuyus Lao, Masai,
etc. For example, dictionaries and grammers are available in English'
Kikuyu. We visited six other bookstores but found them inadequate.
We also called on the Director of the East African Literature
sus Bureau, Mr. Cs G. Richards* Part of the East Africa High Commissioner's
administration, this Bureau was established in 1948 to meet and foster
the demand among Africans for books of all kinds and to encourage African
authorship. Mr. Richards, a truly dedicated individual, told us that ICA
is interested in /As program and may send him to the U.S. Certainly any
African Program in the U.S. should be interested in seeing this man?
*awl
We also saw the High Commissioner's Library which occupied one
room. The various departmental libraries are housed separately.
At the Consulate General we had the opportunity to thank Mr.
Charles D. Withers, the Consul General, for his cooperation in the
graphics program. We discussed the publications program with Mr. Hugh
K. Campbell, Vice Consul, and had occasion also to express our appre-
ciation to Mro Gordon R. Schlubatis, the Agricultural Officer, who has
also done fine graphics work* At USIA, Mr. Edward Stansbury, the Public
Affairs Officer, and Mr. William N. Lyonss the Cultural Affairs Officer,
confirmed our findings aboves We were told by them that Henry Toluzzi
of NBC has produced some documentary films on Kenya. USIA is also
hoping to prepare a film on Tanganyika which it plans to complete by the
end of 19600
3. Dar-es-Salaams The bookstore situation here was similar to that
in Nairobr7--Tre Tanpan 'Ica Standard BookEh2D P.O. Box 9033, is a complete
shop with fairly arge rican-a?seralion, mostly of materials published
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the United Kimgdom. The Dar-esc.Salaam BookshOP, P.O. Box 237, is the outlet
for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and also has basic local
language materials. There is very little published in Tanganyika; what
there is is published by the government. Another small bookshop we visited,
the Tanganyika Mission Press, P.O. Box 2381, had an American young man from
Los Angeles, Frank L. Bohler, running the Store. He told us that this
Catholic organization has three presses in the provinces, producing Swahili
material? He also said that there are over 1,000 Tanganyikans studying behind
the Iron Curtain, Mr. Bohler gave us the halite Of Father van den Houts
(White Fathers), Tanganyika Mission Press Book Dept., P.O. Box 314, Tabora,
who is Most knowledgeable about the availability of other country publications
in his area. We did not see him.
Mr. William R. Duggan, our Consul here, was sick and back in Washing-
ton* Miss Rath Torrance a Consul from Nairobi, was detailed here. 'We saw
her and Mr. Robert Huddleston, Vice Consul and ad.hoc Publications Officer
and discussed our programs.
4. Sail : Le reviewed our list of bookstores with the part-time
Publications Off3er, Vice Consul John M. Dupont at the Consulate General,
and also with two local librarians. Out of ten bookstores visited, the
best one according to all available evidence, is the Book Centre, P.O. Box
8220* Mr. Victor Tarica, the proprietors is a locally torn individual who
got a degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Tech, decided to return
to Salisbury, 5 years ago opened his bookstore, and has already expanded
twice. In addition to his job as a bookseller, Mr. Tarica is also a member
of the City Council, which gives him an added advantage on official publica-
tion sources. He will undertake to get anything published South of the
Sahara, including back issues of professional journals. Mr. Tarica
impressed us as a real bookmans energetic and able.
Extensive visite were made to the Legislative Assembly, where Mr.
Norman Wilding is Librarian of the Federation Library, and the Legislative
Assembly of Southern Rhodesia Library, Mr. Philip Laundy Librarian. These
two libraries serve as legislative reference services for their respective
parliamentary bodies. The two librarians are both British trained, have
good control of their collections and are capable.
The National Archives here is a most progressive institution, with
a modern records management program (their man trained in the U.S.), Records
Center and a good photo-reproduction plant. The Archives offered to honor
requests for back issues of government publications from U.S. libraries.
There seemed to be a conflict as to which of these three institutions
described above is or will be the National Library for the area,
Mr. Joseph Palmer, our Consul General, was on leave, so we discussed
the purposes of our visit with Mr. Edward W. Mulcahy, Consuls in addition to
Mr. Dupont, who is also Graphics Coordinator,
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5. Johannesburg: Of the many bookstores in this area, two are most
significant. The Central News Agency, Ltd., Commissioner St., has the
largest organizatiaVaTE-FOTTREERrEhroughout the city. One of its
branches is located at the University of Johannesburg. Not only is this
firm a bookseller, but it also publishes and lista its publications? The
other fine bookstore is Vanguard Booksellers, Ltd., 23 Joubert St.,
specializing in quality bociEs in the field of art, sociology, anthropology
and Africana. Both of these firms offered to search for items not readily
available.
We discussed our programs with Mr. Arthur E. Beach, Consul General,
and Vice Consul N. Hunt Heubeck6? the part-time Publications Officer, Mr.
Beach is also the Graphics Coordinator* We also visited our Embassy in
Pretoria* The Ambassador and some senior staff members were at Capetown
for sessionsApf the Union Parliaments so we conferred with Mr. Paul E0
Eckel, ChargE. It was evident to us that the Embassy was not aware of the
publications procurement responsibilities of the Consulate General in
Johannesburg, nor did it have any record of its fiscal responsibilities in
this program. We are recommending that the situation be rectified by assign-
ing the procurement responsibility to the EMbassy in Pretoria*
6. Accra: There is very little publishing ,being done in Ghana, except
Jill., that by tErFivernment. Accra itself has not a single bookstore worthy of
the name. The University College of Ghana, about 15 minutes/ drive from
Accra, has a good bookship where publications of the College and local
societies are available.
? At the Embassy, we conferred with Ambaesador 'Wilson C. Flake,
Counselor Ernest de W. Mayer, and 2nd Secretaries Stephen G. Gebelt and
Earl H. Link. Mr. Gebelt is the ad-hoc Publications Officer and Graphics
Coordinator. 1%e left with him our requirements, including a request from
the Library of Congress to see whether an executive agreement should be
set up between Ghana and the U.S. for an exchange of official publications*
Mr. Gebelt also reported that a project is underway to revise and print
the laws and statutes of Ghana within the next 18 months?
7. Conakry: We were refused a visa by the Republic of Guinea and
therefore could not visit this city.
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