Nigerian author and journalist Molara Wood has drawn the attention of book lovers to a Google Drive link containing over 200 novels from the Heinemann African Writers Series.
The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians.
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Published by Heinemann, the series comprised 359 books between 1962 and 2003.
True to her words, the link in circulation includes titles like Ayi Kwei Armah’s ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born’, Buchi Emecheta’s ‘The Family’ and Chinua Achebe’s ‘Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories’.
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Others are Cyprian Ekwensi’s ‘Restless City and Christmas Gold, with Other Stories’, Eddie Iroh’s ‘Forty-Eight Guns for the General’ and ‘Toads of War’, Elechi Amadi’s ‘The Slave’, Flora Nwapa’s ‘Idu’, Gabriel Okara’s ‘The Voice’ and many others.
Describing it as piracy on a grand scale and a gross violation of IP by ‘supporters’ of African writing, Ms Wood said that it is truly surreal to see someone so brazenly offer to share it and for so many to express interest in getting the link.
Argument
In a follow-up post, the ‘Indigo’ author pointed out what she called the bitter irony of people debasing the work and vision of scores of writers and thinking they’re showing love.
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According to her, it is no different from pulling down someone’s house or torching their car.
“If you love art, pay for it, show it some respect. It’s a question of ethics and morality, legality, too. If you are among the many who raised their hands here to say they wanted that link, be ashamed. Be very ashamed.
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“The whataboutism won’t wash. AWS books we had lying about as kids, where are they now? Gone – because people did not sufficiently regard books to care for & keep them. Everyone feels sudden pangs of nostalgia for them now; it doesn’t mean they’d still do right by those books today,” she wrote.
She further noted that those who really care about AWS, school libraries have them and that the goal is to push for better access to books.
“Someone said entities folks think writers’ labours are disposable, and that is really it: You think our work is disposable, an act of charity to toy blithely with. Also, know there’s lots of free writing on the net, if all you want to do is read—no need for unlawful AWS links.
“Few writers can live off their books; most earn little, if at all. The same applies to AWS writers. Many are dead, but they have estates, dependants,” Ms Woods pointed out.
Counter arguments
Countering her argument, an X user who goes by Foxygen questioned why African classics are so rare despite their importance, and why books we grew up reading locally are either inaccessible or sold for exorbitant prices on foreign sites.
“From a place of privilege, it’s easy to criminalise readers who try to access these books digitally, for lack of funds or access. Some people are going to go their entire lives and die without reading some quintessential African literature because of a lack of accessibility—and that has a ripple effect on our collective reading culture,” Foxygen said.
They further posited that classics should not be held to the stringent standards of piracy, except for everyone who can access those works.
Foxygen said in another post, “My father wrote the history of his tribe (a rich history that dates back to the spread of the Bantu into West Africa), extrapolated by oral history from a few elders and sages (who are now dead), and published a few copies, which are now nowhere to be found.
“The hurt in his voice when he told me about how he painstakingly went round the whole of Nigeria looking for these few copies. I would give my life and soul right now to anyone who had pirated it, scanned it, and sent it to me. This is how our histories get lost, cultural artefacts, almost without a trace. Of what use is hoarding these classics when they’re out of print and would most likely be sold for the same amount as our minimum wage on Amazon, etc?”
More arguments
Toeing Foxygen’s line of argument, Many X users have been advocating greater accessibility for African literature.
@cremechic11 likened the ongoing debate to what happened with old Nollywood.
“Fought piracy without fixing distribution. Now we can’t find complete box sets of the New Masquerade & Co. Meanwhile, our veterans are now seeing renewed fame from the YouTube pirated versions of their work; otherwise, they die in penury,” she wrote.
Delonix Regia pointed out that “any writer who grew up in poverty, while hoping to make a living from their work, will not take an absolutist stance on piracy, because they know how they got their skill.
“Writing is tedious, but I’d rather be read by all who want to read me than only by those who can afford to,” she noted.
@mwende_kyalo_ o pined that piracy applies only when the books are in circulation.
She wrote, “If they are not, no one is being disadvantaged by not getting royalties. Also, Western libraries have already digitised their copies of AWS. So white readers can access African books..but when Africans do its piracy?”
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