Chronicle Editor
Stephen Mpofu
The book and music industries in Zimbabwe are reeling under siege by people reaping where they did not sow.
In response to questions this week by this communicologist about what is being done to end the pirating sabotage leading writer and anti-piracy activist Musaemura Zimunya yesterday issued a statement giving a report on the plight of the book and music industries as discussed at an All Stakeholders Anti-Piracy Workshop in Harare on May 9-10 2013 and under which those dependant on the book chain for their livelihood continue to reel today, 11 years on:
“In the past decade, Zimbabwe has witnessed rampant piracy in the music and book sectors. It is worth noting that of the two economic crimes, music piracy has received greater publicity in all media — press and electronic — not the least, because musicians have individually and combined been aggressive, audible and visible in their campaigns to highlight their plight. ZIMURA have also been very active in joining forces with the Police to mount dramatic raids and destruction of contraband music.
“In the past twenty-four months, the book sector have begun to stir and, in particular, The Zimbabwe International Book Fair Association (ZIBFA) which represents the interests of the book sector has made great strides in projecting the anti-piracy campaign on the agenda through regular presentations and debates at all its national and regional workshops. Throughout these sessions, writers, publishers and booksellers have been united in their anger at the violation of their intellectual property and economic rights which threaten to destroy the once thriving literary and publishing sector in Zimbabwe. Writers find book piracy demotivating. Publishers find themselves with large warehouses fully stocked with immoveable reading materials. Booksellers raged at the effrontery of pirates selling books at their doorsteps.”
At the end of every workshop, ZIBFA has been requested to take the lead in engaging the Police or the Ministry of Education or Associations of Schools Heads in order to find a lasting solution to the problem of piracy and violation of copyright.
The workshop is the culmination of hours of debate, controversy, lobbying and demands by concerned parties to bring together primary, key and secondary stakeholders of the book industry in order to pool ideas on this national catastrophe.
It is vitally important to note that Zimbabweans are world famous for valuing education for individual, professional and collective growth.
They sacrifice enormous amounts of money to send their children to the best schools so that they acquire quality education for their own future welfare as well as for national needs. It is, therefore, no coincidence that the country has been a leader in literacy on the African continent and beyond.
But, in order to achieve these goals, our education depends on books. And as books do not grow on trees, there can be no books without a publishing and distributing sector, while a thriving publishing sector owes its entire existence upon the originators of the books, the writers.
Therefore, any fatal threat to any sub-sector in this chain, threatens the national education delivery.
The major aims and objectives of the workshop include to bring together all stakeholders of the book industry to engage and share information about the extent of piracy in Zimbabwe and to seek support of all stakeholders in the fight against book piracy.
ZIBFA and ZIMCOPY have identified publishing companies, publishers’ association, writers’ organisations, booksellers’ association, librarians’ associations, police, Government departments and educational institutions as participants at the event.
ZIMURA will be invited as a sister organisation whose efforts as lobbying against the piracy of music in Zimbabwe are well documented and whose experiences may help shed light on the problems of piracy in Zimbabwe.”
Sources in the publishing industry say that book piracy continues unabated, raising beliefs among some observers that the formation of a body similar to the anti-corruption commission might end the rot.
It is known that in Bulawayo a book by this writer an O’ Level English set book, Shadows on the Horizon, is sold in bookshops for US$10 but flogged away for US$7 on the streets by pirates with no doubt other books going the same way, according to publishing sources so that the authors, publishers and others in the book chain are deprived of what is due to them for their labour.
Online Reporter