Kenya Literature Bureau

The Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) is a publishing house and state corporation in Kenya founded in 1947. It is located in South-C off Popo Road in Nairobi.

Kenya Literature Bureau
FormerlyEast African Literature Bureau
TypeState owned corporation
IndustryPublishing house
Founded1947 (1947)
FounderBritish High Commission
Headquarters
Nairobi
,
Kenya
Websitekenyaliteraturebureau.com

History

The Kenya Literature Bureau was initially established by the "East Africa governments (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda)"[1] in 1947 as the East African Literature Bureau as an "offshoot" of the missionary-owned Ndia Kuu Press in order to publish books for the general public in Kiswahili, East African vernacular languages and English.[2][3] The Bureau's first director was Charles Granston Richards, who held that post for fifteen years.[4][5]

The regional status continued after independence with the establishment of the East African Community (EAC). In the early 1970s the Bureau published many pioneering anthologies of English-language poetry from East Africa:

It is significant of East African writers' indifference to political boundaries that such anthologies were all compiled, without a single exception, on an inter-territorial basis, with Kenya and Uganda supplying the greater part of the material. They [were] often multiracial as well, incorporating contributions by European and Asian writers.[6]

However, in 1977, the EAC collapsed and the reins of the bureau were transferred to the Kenyan Ministry of Education thereby making it a department under that ministry. In 1980, the KLB Act was passed by the Kenyan Parliament making it a state corporation—a status it holds to this day.[3]

Book series
  • Early Travellers in East Africa[7]

References
  1. Henry Chakava, "Private enterprise publishing in Kenya: A long struggle for emancipation", in: The Cottage by the Highway and Other Essays on Publishing: 25 Years of Logos, Brill, 2015, p. 32. Retrieved 10 May 2022
  2. Stanley Gazemba, African Publishing Minefields and the Woes of the African Writer, theelephant.info. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  3. "The Kenya Literature Bureau Bill, 13th May 1980". Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard). Vol. LII. Republic of Kenya. 1980. pp. 811–14. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  4. Keith Smith and Charles Richards, "Interview", The African Book Publishing Record, print: Volume 2 Issue 3, Walter de Gruyter, 1976; online: De Gruyter Saur, November 12, 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  5. Papers of Charles Granston Richards, archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  6. Albert S. Gérard (1986). European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 913. ISBN 978-963-05-3834-3. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  7. Early Travellers in East Africa (East African Literature Bureau; Kenya Literature Bureau) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 28 March 2020.

Further reading
  • Shiraz Durrani, Never Be Silent: Publishing and Imperialism 1884-1963, Nairobi: Vita Books, 2006.



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