AU to adopt Africa factbook

By The Standard | Nov. 11, 2017 | 2 Min read

LOCAL publishing company Book of African Records has been put on the agenda of the meeting of African ministers of information at the African Union (AU) scheduled for November 21 to 24 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

BY STAFF REPORTER

The publisher said in a statement yesterday that, according to the draft resolution distributed by the African Union Commission, the ministers will be asked to formally recommend the adoption of The Africa Factbook as Africa’s official book of reference for facts, history and general information.

“The Africa Factbook is a joint publication between the African Union and Book of African Records on the basis of an [memorandum of understanding] MoU that the two institutions signed in December 2016,” the statement read.

If adopted, the draft resolution will unlock huge capital investment for the publishers as African governments will order the publication for distribution in their schools, colleges, libraries, government offices and bookshops.

Book of African Records’ global spokesperson, Thato Monthlate, said this would be the first time that Africa would take an initiative to produce and own the information that the African public and wider world knows about Africa.

“The Africa Factbook represents … Africa’s long-awaited rebranding and repositioning on the global stage. As the AU is pressing for entering a new era of Africans paying their own bills, thus taking ownership of our destiny, we concurrently are working on Africans also owning our own image globally; whatever the world knows about Africa today has barely been originated by Africa,” she said.

The prospect of a Zimbabwean originated book being used across Africa will be huge for the southern African country which has not enjoyed positive news coverage in almost 20 years.