With the consolidation of media into a few conglomerates, the community of African scholars has been increasingly marginalized. There are currently two African-led academic presses in the United States, but only one is based at an academic institution in Europe or in the continental United States. In addition, the majority of works consumed about Africans are not produced by African scholars, and those consumed by Africans are not written specifically for them and do not necessarily contain knowledge that is relevant to their situation.
According to the 2000 US Census, African immigrants to the United States bring with them a wealth of knowledge, collegiate experience, and advanced degrees. However, the opportunities for these individuals to add to the academic discourse becomes limited with their transitions. Separated by an ocean from their former institutions and nations, knowledge outlets for these scholars are not as readily available. The solution is an initiative to get their voices heard and their work into the public eye, with a specific approach towards, but not limited to, a world understanding that has been guided by their shared African heritage.
The burgeoning African Academic Press, an imprint of Tsehai Publishers, at Loyola Marymount University, was established to facilitate the publishing of scholarly works that would not otherwise receive proper attention from mainstream publishing houses. In this respect, priority is given to those works that provide the African perspective from African academic institutions, African scholars internationally, and Pan-African scholars who are challenging the mainstream discourse.
Founded in 2004, the African Academic Press started its operation by co-publishing with the UK-based James Currey Publishers, before its recent acquisition, as well as with the Pretoria-based Unisa (University of South Africa) Press. With the closure of Howard University Press in 2011, African Academic Press and its parent company, Tsehai Publishers, at Loyola Marymount University, remains the only African-led press at any university in the continental United States, Europe, or Asia.
The African Academic Press has continued to strive forward on its own, dedicated to becoming the leading source of academic publications from and about the continent of Africa. Doing so is essential at a time when the American understanding of Africa is stagnating, despite successful African scholars playing a significant role in the global academic discourse.
The benefits to Africa are also a key part of the initiative. In the case of educated Africans moving to the United States, every gain for America is also a major loss to the development of the countries they leave behind. This brain drain of scholars, possibly the continent’s most vital resource, can be debilitating at a time when experience is necessary for the construction of infrastructure, academia, community, and, most of all, to the education of the large youth population in the continent.
The African Academic Press would serve as a conduit for returning the knowledge base that has emigrated abroad, working with universities in numerous countries to make sure that published texts are available not just in the United States, but in African libraries and classrooms as well. This would considerably lessen the blow of the brain drain by trading experience and information across the ocean, creating an international network of scholarship and study.
The academic publishing industry in Africa is profoundly underdeveloped. The few university presses that exist produce a proportionally small number of books, hampering the creation and dissemination of regional scholarship. This deprives thousands of African scholars the opportunity to build their careers in their local cultures and it denies the global community important voices in contemporary scholarship. Because of this, African schools and universities are forced to rely heavily upon imported texts that do not reflect African thoughts or an African outlook. As a part of our publishing program, we will establish a Center for Publishing Excellence in the continent that will enhance and empower the capacity of institutions of higher education to contribute more effectively to African development of scholarship and international publishing.