How The Next One Billion Internet Users In Africa Would Read Books
T HEtitle of this article was inspired by Legible CEO, Kaleeg Hainsworth’ session at the 2022 London Book Fair entitled: How the Next One Billion Internet Users Will Read Our Books. No doubt, the world is changing rapidly, and Africa is not left out in paradigm shifts in different industry.
The advent of the Internet has created immense opportunities for both publishers and writers in the continent. According to a Statista report, “As of January 2022, Nigeria had more than 109 million internet users – the highest number reported all over Africa.
Meanwhile, Egypt ranked second with over 75 million users. The majority of web traffic in leading digital markets in Africa originated from mobile devices – in Nigeria, one of the countries with the largest number of internet users worldwide, 82 per cent of web traffic was generated via smartphones and roughly 16 per cent via PC devices. This is due in part to the fact that mobile connections are much cheaper and do not require the infrastructure that is needed for traditional desktop PCS with fixed- l i n e i n ternet connections
“https:// www. statista. com/ statistics/ 505883/ number- ofinternet- users- in- african- countries/
How can publishers, booksellers and writers leverage the opportunities available in the evolving digital landscape?
For Jahman Anikulapo, a highly respected Nigerian Journalist and culture archivist, this question has been lingering for years: “I think it takes a change of tactics/ strategies by those in the literary value chain, especially publishers and distributors ( book dealers and sellers etc). They must keep thinking of how to package literary materials as popular goods e. g coke- anise or burger- ise literary items.”
“Some good experiments have come via flash prose, audio books, kindling etc, but not sure much mileage has been made in terms of penetrating the demography of that humongous internet users – the youths. Literary events such as Live Readings, Festivals, Book tours etc can only serve as extension services to the reworked distribution strategies. Literature ( Books, Mags, Journals etc) deserves its own Netflix, or Amazon sorts of outlets. I have no idea how this can be achieved though as it bothers on mercantilism, which is antithetical to my kind of art,”
According to foremost Nigerian visual artist, writer and photographer, Victor Ehikhamenor, publishers have more to do and can also leapfrog on what the West is already doing: “First serialise longer works of fiction to almost bite size. See how works can easily be accessible on handheld devices. Audio books should not be ignored; publishers should tap into that. Short stories and poems can be converted to interesting memes”
For Adedotun Eyinade, Co- Founder of Nigerian Bookstore chain Roving Heights: “Africa’s growing internet penetration offers a new vista of opportunity for publishers and writersto reach hitherto unreached readers that have been alienated from reading by a cocktail of factors notably a low purchasing power and a dysfunctional book value chain.”
According to Eyinade: “For a continent with a youthful, social- media savvy population the quickest way to meeting the yearnings of this demographic is creating narratives and contents that can be propagated via digital platforms accessible through mobile phones.
New story telling forms, digital books, audio books, amongst others are new platforms that are increasingly popular, and publishers should be open to exploring how these media can enrich their craft. We are now seeing how social media platforms are helping to reach new swathe of readers.