Publications List 1999-2003

1. The ABC of Book Publishing: A Training Manual for NGOs in Africa
Janet A Nyeko, 1999

The ABC of Book Publishing equips the user with basic relevant skills in publishing by first discussing concepts, then providing tips, samples and exercises to enable the user to develop skills. It stresses the importance of organisation and having a distinctive house style and shows how this can be established. The publishing process is systematically described right from the conceptual stage through editing, designing, typesetting, and printing to marketing and distribution.

The user is enlightened on legal aspects of publishing and is warned about areas that could land an publisher in trouble. The importance of signing contracts with authors, selling and buying subsidiary rights, functions and basic rules of copyrights is also stressed. There are samples of contracts that the user can adapt.

The author also discusses the benefits of using information technology and the Internet in publishing. The NGO user is enlightened about both the advantages and disadvantages of electronic publishing.

About the author
Janet A Nyeko is a publishing trainer and consultant having began her career as an editor with Uganda Publishing House, Kampala in the early 1970s. She has also worked in Zambia, Lesotho and is currently based in Swaziland where she provides publishing services to organisations and individuals.

Published by JANyeko Publishing Centre, Kampala and CTA, Wageningen.

ISBN 9970-510-01-2
Pp 96, illus.

2. The Diary of an Obedient Servant During Misrule
P M O Onen, 2000

The Diary is a compelling and humorous autobiography of a senior civil servant during the misrule of Idi Amin in Uganda in 1970s. The author, a civil engineer by profession, describes his personal life – his relationship with his siblings, education and work as a civil servant.

As the Kampala City Engineer and Surveyor during the Amin’s regime, he had to perform some duties that were professionally questionable because he was ordered to do so. He had to make a choice whether to remain obedient and watch his countrymen being slaughtered and humiliated or to do something about it. He was arrested in 1974 and spent a week in “Singapore” at Makindye prison before being released after the intervention of Archbishop Janani Luwum, to whom he dedicates the book. He fled to Kenya that year and continued the struggle from there.

ISBN 9970-510-02-0
Pp 192, 36 photographs

3. Barbs: A Study of Satire in the Plays of Wole Soyinka
Patrick Ebewo, 2002

Barbs: A Study of Satire in the Plays of Wole Soyinka is an in-depth, up-to-date and comprehensive study of satire in the stage plays of Wole Soyinka. The book covers a wide range of Soyinka’s satirical literature – from the gentle satire of Chide Internationale to the explosive type in King Baabu.

Barbs demonstrates the author’s several years’ experience of studying, and teaching Soyinka’s plays to a variety of university students. The book’s richness and value lie in the provocative, stimulating and critical analyses of Soyinka’s satirical plays.

“Through the long series of close textual analyses that are presented in the book, Ebewo has added a substantial volume to the works of exegesis on Soyinka’s drama. His particular focus is significant and ‘user-friendly’…Appropriately too, in a book on satire, Ebewo’s phrasing is often fresh, sometimes barbed, in a way that lightens the sobriety of this analysis.” Professor Chris Dunton.

About the author
Dr Patrick Ebewo is a Senior Lecturer in Dramatic Literature and Criticism at the University of Botswana. He had also taught for many years at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria; National University of Lesotho; the University of Swaziland, and was Assistant Director/Head of Performing Arts Department, National Council for Arts and Culture, Lagos. Besides his deep involvement in creative writing, Dr Ebewo is a theatre scholar who has published a number of articles on African Theatre and drama.

ISBN 9970-510-03-X
Pp 221+16