PO Box 1048, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa Tel/Fax.: +27 11 726 6529
Moses the Mighty Miner Moses Mabele needs a job. His uncle offers him a job on the farm but Moses wants to be a miner. He realises his dream and becomes a hero. This delightful book is superbly illustrated by Barris Buckley. Written in English and German. ISBN 0-9584107-2-0	Dancing Baobabia... Buyu Mchezaji Ngoma .. a story in Swahili about a South African girl who changes into a Baobab tree. (The African Book Publishing Record wrote: "The illustrations describe a rural and traditional Africa and are rich in details of clothing and jewelry as well as in social comment.. If only all picture books for small children were this rich! It is highly recommended for parents of small children, schools and multi-cultural institutions worldwide. This could become a treasured book.") ISBN 0-9584107-1-2	Tristan and Thobe go to Jo'burg Tristan De Ionno and Thobeka Kunene are real children living in South Africa when this story was written. When they first met, they hardly knew their own names, they were called "Trouble" and "Lokushaya" so often. The book, the first from Ithemba Publishing, is the start of a series of dual language texts about these children, and other stories. Written in English and Zulu. ISBN 0-9583900-1-0

Espanol Ithemba in Cuba

Ithemba! Publishing Only one publisher in South Africa so far has a vision of working across the continent. Ithemba! Publishing has started to produce books in Kiswahili which it hopes to sell in East Africa. Ithemba! means hope and the little Johannesburg-based company is hopeful of success far beyond South Africa's borders.

Ithemba! Publishing MD Bronwen Jones says that Ithemba! is the only South African publisher publishing in Kiswahili. She says: "When we started in 1994 we were the first South African publisher to produce dual language books with English and Zulu together. Othe publishers have since copied out lead. We now produce books in English with Zulu, Xhosa, Sesotho, Kiswahili, French and German. We also produce books that combine Afrikaans with Zulu, Sesotho or Xhosa . And we have produced the only Zulu-German book in the world."

Ithemba has recognised that in a country with 11 official languages and many other languages used day to day as well, it is vital to produce books that help people communicate more effectively with each other. But the company says it must be easier than publishing in Kenya where there are 42 different languages.

While the books were initially aimed at children, Ithemba found top business executives coming to buy them. They said that the dual language approach was the only way that they felt they could get started on another African language.

The company has also produce a book for mining literacy, that can be used for ABET (adult basic education and training) level 4. Ithemba! uses the books to employ new artists and the company insists that its books be printed and published entirely in Africa. Even the paper is African.

Jones says: "I was horrified when former President Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom was published overseas. I really believe that if we don't put money directly into Africa, we can't expect to get something out."

Ithemba! was selected to represent the whole South African publishing industry at the Pan African Book Fair in Kenya in 1996 and also attended the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare in 1998 as a guest. The company has exhibited at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany and won the UK's Women in Publishing Pandora Award in 1998.

In order to promote its young artists even further.. the company has just produced the first four in what it anticipates will be a significant series of postcards of African artists' work .. called the African Artists Millennium Series.

Research Report: Publishers and Translation policy: The Challenges and Solutions in Translating Children's Literature from English into African Languages in South Africa. By Kirsten Buchholtz (MS Word document).

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