It was another brilliant outing last week, when the Committee for Relevant Arts, CORA, again pulled out drums to celebrate the book, arts, culture and book personalities as part of her 13th anniversary in the culture, book and art advocacy.

THE event, which drew participants from across the culture and literary tribes was graced by the magnificent presence of Africa’s Nobel  laureate, Wole Soyinka, and famous playwright, John Pepper Clark and his wife, Ebun Clark.

Significantly, the one week event was properly used to honour men and women , who in their various capacities  have contributed to the development of the book, arts, culture, films and literary scholarship in Nigeria. In this regard, renowned novelist, Chukwuemeka Ike, 81; Ebun Clark, 70; Sumni Smart Cole, 70; Fatai Rolling Dollar, 85; Benson Idonije, 75; and Taiwo Ajayi-Lycette, 70, were all feted.

Wole Soyinka and students at 2011 LABAF

Other icons celebrated at the occasion by CORA were: Charly Boy, 60l Yemi Kuti, 50; Richard Mofe Damijo, 50; Joke Silva, 50; Remi Raji, 50; and Sola Olorunyomi, 50.

The annual Lagos Book and Arts Festival, LABAF, was organized on the theme: I Vote to Read: The Book and the Voice of the People.

Professor Tunde Babawale, who is the director general of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), declared the festival open at Freedom Park, Lagos  where he regaled the many children who attended the programme from  schools around Lagos with tales of his encounter with the book.

The Professor of Political Economics also encouraged the students to read if they hoped to gain knowledge and become  influential in the society. He read a passage from D.O. Fagunwa’s book, ‘Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale’ (The Forest of a Thousand Demons), which he said is his favourite and told the children that it was the first book he ever read.

Professor Babawale also moderated the first of the Festival Colloquium with the theme: ‘Documenting the Governance Challenges: Africa in the Eyes of the Others’. Books discussed were ‘A Swamp Full of Dollars’ by Michael Peel, ‘Dinner with Mugabe’ by Heidi Holland and ‘A Continent for the Taking’ by Howard French.

Those on the panel included: theatre director, Wole Oguntokun; Mr. Tunji Lardner jnr, who was at a time a consultant with the World Bank; Miss Lanre Sashore, who works with the United Nations; Layiwola Adeniji, who works with Chevron and Mrs. Bisi Arije, who came all the way from Abuja for the festival.

The second session  moderated by Chief Keith Richards, the managing director of Promasidor had books like ‘The State of Africa’ by Martin Meredith, ‘Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink’ by John Campbell and ‘It’s Our Turn to Eat’ by Michaela Wrong. Panellists included: Oguntokun, Niran Okewole, Layiwola Adeniji and Okwui Onyia discussed.

Also discussed at the  event was the  Publishers’ Forum, which took place at  the Goethe-Institut, City Hall, Lagos. Since the forum started last year it has functioned as a pre festival event bringing publishers together to discuss their challenges and how they can surmount them. The second in the series this year’s edition had the theme: ‘The Book in the Age of the Microchip’ where three speakers discussed the business of book.

The first to speak was Mr. Bamidele Sanusi of Best Technologies Limited, an Ibadan based company. He spoke on ‘Optimising digital platforms in book editing, design and production.’ His talk centered on how to move from the traditional way of producing books to the digital way outlining the many formats in which online publishing can be done.

Digital platforms

Next to speak was Mr. Kazeem Muritala, a web developer with Wayne and Malcolm Inc. He spoke on the topic: ‘Optimising digital platforms for book distribution, marketing and sales’. Apart from talking about the differences between the traditional way of selling books, Muritala also talked about securing digital data particularly books.

The third person to speak Mr. Deji Toye, an enterprise lawyer and member of CORA, who spoke on ‘E-business opportunities for the publishing industry’. His  talk dwelt on best practices in the publishing industry worldwide, particularly in Canada and the United States and was based on the Value Chain Analysis theory by Michael Porter, which describes the activities that take place in a business and relates them to an analysis of the competitive strength of the business.

CORA was founded in June 1991 with the MISSION to create an enabling environment for the flourishing of the contemporary arts of Nigeria and to increase human capacity of the continent.

The festival is supported by Vanguard  Media Limited, the Guardian Newspapers, Homestead publishing/Waka About, the National Theatre, Century Energy Services, Z-Mirage, Freedom Park, Nigerian Liguified natural Gas Limited, Renegade theatre, Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisatio and Goethe-Institut, among others.