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BOOK PUBLISHING IN ANGLOPHONE MIDDLE AFRICA MUST BE INTERPRETED AGAINST A BACKGROUND OF ILLITERACY, AN EMPHASIS ON ACHIEVEMENT READING, & OTHER SOCIAL & INFRASTRUCTURAL ELEMENTS. INTERNATIONAL MARKET FORCES ACTING THROUGH METROPOLITAN PUBLISHERS DETERMINE GENERAL & NONFICTION PUBLISHING, WHEREAS THE MAJOR MARKET GOVERNING AFRICAN CREATIVE WRITING IS FOUND IN AFRICAN SCHOOLS & U'S. THE ACTIONS OF BRITISH PUBLISHING MULTINATIONALS ONLY DIVERGE SLIGHTLY FROM THE PATTERN OF MULTINATIONAL ACTION IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING IS DOMINATED BY THESE MULTINATIONALS WHO THROUGH LOCALIZATION & BECAUSE OF BARRIERS TO AFRICAN EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING HAVE GENERALLY RETAINED THEIR POSITION. STATE PUBLISHING HAS NOT YET PROVED VERY SUCCESSFUL. ONLY LIMITED GOVERNMENT ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN TO ADJUST THE BALANCE IN FAVOR OF INDIGENOUS PUBLISHING BECAUSE A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP EXISTS BETWEEN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, MULTINATIONAL PUBLISHERS, BUREAUCRATS, & TRANSNATIONALISM. 2 TABLES. MODIFIED HA.

Book publishing in anglophone middle Africa must be interpreted against a background of illiteracy, an emphasis on achievement reading, and other social and infrastructural elements. International market forces acting through metropolitan publishers determine general and nonfiction publishing, whereas the major market governing African creative writing is found in African schools and universities. The actions of British publishing multinationals only diverge slightly from the pattern of multinational action in less developed countries. Educational publishing is dominated by these multinationals who, through localization and because of the barriers to African educational publishing, have generally retained their position. State publishing, retarded by problems, has not yet proved very successful. Only limited government action has been taken to adjust the balance in favor of indigenous publishing because a symbiotic relationship exists between the educational system, multinational publishers, bureaucrats and transnationalism.

The distribution of personal incomes in contemporary African societies is powerfully influenced by public-sector salary and wage structures. Even where capitalist and hence pro private-enterprise development strategies have been openly pursued, as in Kenya, the public service accounts for over 40 per cent of total employment in the modern sector. Where more statist, quasi-socialist strategies have been abopted, as in Ghana and Tanzania, this percentage rises to over 70. Clearly, then, any discussion of income distribution and the potential rôle of incomes policy hinges on an adequate understanding of the processes that determine remuneration in the public sector. And this in turn requires a comprehensive historical analysis of the political economy of each society – in particular, the process of class formation and the rôle of the state.

The remarkable production of fiction in Lebanon emerging from the long years of civil violence (1975-1990) and an ongoing restless aftermath is by no means confined to the Arabic language. Proliferating in a number of other languages, English has arguably become the preeminent non-Arab language in which contemporary diasporic Lebanese fiction is composed.