Kenya's pioneering publisher
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2021
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Dr Henry Chakava became Kenya's first African book editor in 1972, there were virtually no books or educational material published in African languages, even in Kiswahili. He made it his priority to translate work by African authors into African languages, he also commissioned original work in several of Kenya's many languages, and published hundreds of textbooks. A champion of cultural diversity across East Africa, Dr Chakava tells Rebecca Kesby why he devoted his life to preserving and enriching the region's languages, and why he believes even more must be done to make sure they survive and thrive in the future.
(Photo: Dr Henry Chakava. From his private collection)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
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| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds. |
| 0:29.2 | Hello and welcome to this edition of the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me Rebecca Kespi. |
| 0:41.0 | There are more than 60 languages spoken in Kenya, but even after independence in |
| 0:46.7 | 1963 nearly all the books available on the shelves were in English, the language of the former colonialists. |
| 0:55.0 | Today we hear the story of the man who made it his life's mission to publish in African languages, Henry Chakava. |
| 1:03.7 | At that time, no, there was no publisher publishing in English locally. |
| 1:10.7 | There was no publisher publishing in Kishraheli, and there was no publisher publishing in Kishahili and there was no publisher publishing in local languages. |
| 1:17.0 | This is Dr Henry Chuckava. In 1972 he just graduated with a double first and was about to pursue an academic career abroad. |
| 1:27.3 | To kill some time before beginning a scholarship, he took a temporary job at Heineman Publishers, which had opened a new office in Nairobi. |
| 1:35.3 | It was a decision with lasting consequences. |
| 1:38.2 | Well, it changed my life in the sense that I was supposed to be at Tiananmen phone about three or six months and I stayed there forever. |
| 1:47.0 | Well at first I was a bit disappointed because I thought Tiananmen was a very big publishing house with a large |
| 1:56.4 | office and many stuff but I came to discover that it was actually a very small outfit consisting |
| 2:02.0 | of about eight people. |
| 2:03.6 | Henry Chakava became the first African editor at Heineman. |
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