African Books Collective African Books Collective 1 - Mission Statement: African Books Collective, founded, owned and governed by African publishers, seeks to strengthen indigenous African publishing through collective action and to increase the visibility and accessibility of the wealth of African scholhip and culture. 2 - Who we are: African Books Collective (ABC) is a non-profit Oxford-based, worldwide marketing and distribution outlet for 2,500 print titles from Africa, of which 800 are also ebooks - scholarly, literature and children's books. Founded, owned and governed by a group of African publishers, its participants are 149 independent and autonomous African publishers from 24 countries. 3 - History: A group of African publishers met in 1985 to address the constraints publishers were experiencing in financing, marketing and distributing their books, and the dearth of African published materials in the North. They founded ABC as a collective self-help initiative to strengthen the economic base of independent African publishers and to meet the needs of Northern libraries and other book buyers. With initial support from funding agencies, trading began in 1989. Whilst adapting to changing markets and methodologies, its founding ethos and aims remain unchanged.?