Has Heinemann gone cash ‘n’ carry?
• I paid to them to publish my book, alleges author Adejemilua
By Johnson Ndukwe
Sunday, June 29, 2008

•Femi Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Has Heinemann Publishers gone vanity? Has it completely lost interest in African books that it now charges its authors before publishing them? Though the company situated in Ibadan is yet to make public its cash and print posture, there have been reports coming from those that published with it recently that the publishing giant asked them to pay for the printing of their books. And it is not just academic books but creative works as well. Biographies are not left out.

Indeed, Heinemann Publishers is one of the oldest book companies that came into the country. Then, there was a lure by Europeans to understand Africa, and the continent’s authors were wanted. In Nigeria, it made its debut with the publication of Things fall of apart, by Chinua Achebe, in 1958, though after with much trepidation. It came into the country, with the support of Allan Hill, a marketing Director.

Hill had commented thus: Heinemann’s normal fiction reader did a long report but the firm was still hesitant whether to accept. Would anymore possibly buy a novel by an African? There were no precedents so the rather doubting bunch at the top of Heinemann thought of the educational department, who after all sold books and was supposed to know about Africans. They showed it to one of our education adviser, Professor Donald Michael, who was just back from West Africa . He read it in the office and ended the debate with an eleven words report. This is the best novel I have read since the war. Verdict pronounced, Things Fall Apart was published in hard back on 17 June 1958 with a print run of 2,000 copies.

Alan Hill made it possible that the book came out. Achebe was not charged a kobo for it. Rather, he was asked to begin the Writers series that changed the face of world of literature.
Other publishers such as Penguin and Evans came in and began their own series. It is not reported that these people were charged any kobo. But due to a down turn in the country’s publishing industry, a new sort of publishing waded in, in the 1970s. Known as vanity publishing, this is a kind of publishing that asks its writers to pay for the publication of their books.

Perhaps, one of the authors that came out boldly to the press to say that he paid for the book, though he did not know it was not in the way of the publishers, was Femi Adejemilua, an environmentalist, author of Latitude and Environmental and Resource Management, an environmental book.
When the reporter saw the imprint of the publishers and the book, he asked if the author paid the publishers for the publication of the book. The retiree replied. The details of the contract are not even clear as it seems that the company still has to control the sales and pay the writer based on percentage of sales.

But Adejemilua decried the high cost of publishing in the country, saying that if there was a virile publishing industry here, he would not have ordinarily paid Heinemann Publishers, Nigeria, to publish his book. The book was published by the publishing giant, Heinemann Educational Books Nigeria Publishers Plc. It was edited by two professors, through the publishers, the author went on.

In the book Latitude and Environmental and Resource Management the author argues that two of the major problems of most third world countries are treated. He argues that unsustainable use and poor management of natural resources have been acknowledged world wide as vital issues, which threaten human existence.

Adejemilua in this 314-page book takes the reader on a broad tour round the challenges of environmental and resource management. He proffers viable solutions that can be adopted for sustainable socio-economic development of any country.
The book is therefore not just for Nigeria but cuts across the world. It treats issues such as wildlife and marine studies, biology, water technology and biotechnology, biochemistry and urban and rural settlement planning.

The author argured that one way to tackle the Niger Delta problem in the country, and indeed, other environmental hassles will be to have a legislation that see to the issues. As it is today, Federal Environmental Protection Agency is not doing enough to tackle these problems.
Femi Adejemilua’s book was published last year. Adejemilua, a chartered brewer and malster, a distiller, zymologist is also a researcher and publisher. A well known environmentalist who studied at Technical University, Berlin and VLB also in Berlin worked at Schragtmalz, GmBH, Romerberg Rherin land Pfalz Germany but retired as Manager, Guinness Nigeria, Ikeja and Benin breweries.

Discussing his book, the author decried government’s attitude to the Niger Delta, vis-a-vis how it allows the oil companies to despoil the region’s environment, saying that the environmental laws are respected in the home states of the boil companies in Europe and America.
He was not happy also with how the environment is treated in the country, saying that such could founded in the noise pollution and deforestation and erosion surges in the country.

For him, the cause of most of hurricanes happening round the world is a result of the global warming melting the ice in the ozone layer. He therefore wants efforts that will see to the end of the depletion.
A consultant and member of many professional bodies such as Nigerian Institute of Management, Brewing Research Institution/Foundation (VLB) Berlin, Green Peace International, Germany, the author is member, International society of Poets, USA.

He also argues that one of the reasons why Nigeria, and indeed, Africa is poor is the way the people handle their resources. He reasons that the natural resources of any people will determine the wealth of such people. He talks about issues tourism and how forest reserved can boost that industry, adding that the way the country has handled its resources had given rise to the militancy in the country as well as the poverty that ravished the land.

He writes in the book. Environmental and resource management are two of the major problems of the third world countries. For instance, many of them, particularly those in Africa, including Nigeria, Congo, CDR and Angola have many natural resources, which are not managed for the benefit of the people, resulting in widespread poverty amongst the populace.

His book is therefore a way to show that underdevelopment is the inability of a society to provide essential goods and services to the citizens. This inability to do things right, he goes on, has also given rise to pollution which has given rise to health problems in those countries mentioned.
Adejemilua, born in Ado Ekiti in 1945, is of the view that unsustainable use and management of natural resources threaten human existence.

The abuse, misuse and mismanagement of natural resources have already been made manifest in both local and global environments, he writes.
The centre-piece of his book, he explains, is the world. Indeed, the book reads like a diary. The author revisits many conferences, treatises and legislation on the environment with brief histories and their transitions as well as others such as environmental agencies that are involved in the environmental question round the world.

Although the book is like a diary and history, there is a little gap between history and the environment because the author wants to tell about issues as can be recalled and how humanity has traversed. He delves into agriculture and its impact on mankind and nature, management and environmental hazards, aquaculture, resource resources effluent management, human settlement, emission of the green house gases and ozone layer depletion, cost of environmental management, pollution in the Great Lakes, global environment, wastewater management and sewage among other countless environmental issues.
A scholarly book, the book also has index. It is an academic requirement to scholars. And this is a major contributioon to knowledge, especially those from someone outside the ivory towers. The author does not forget to include his bibliography which is long, varied and far flung.