Literature in ... Africa (specifically Zimbabwe)

       In The Herald Stanely Mushava has a Q & A with Tinashe Mushakavanhu, African literature reduced to a commodity.
       Mushakavanhu argues:

The problem lies in the fact that African literature is being produced more as a commodity than as a value. The production (editorial, publishing) and consumption (marketing) of African literature is largely in the hands of outsiders. What is known globally as African literature lies outside the hands of its creators and subjects but is in the tight grip of institutions that obviously possess fixed ideas about what African literature should and should not be, and what authentic African characters can or cannot do.

       I don't think that's entirely true -- there is a (still too small but) growing number of African publishers who focus effectively on domestic markets and aren't (as) beholden to these 'fixed ideas', for example -- but certainly there is a still too prevalent notion of/focus on aiming to meet certain foreign expectations. As also elsewhere, foreign success (especially in the US/UK market), rather than local success, is seen as validation -- hardly a recipe for good writing (see also my most recent review ...).