Makerere relaunches publishing press after 19-years of dormancy

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Makerere University has relaunched it’s the book-publishing arm; The Makerere University press, to support staff and the public in publishing books and journals after almost 19 years of inactivity.

The publishing press hosted under the University Directorate of Research and Graduate Training (DRGT) was relaunched with three maiden publications; Contemporary African Philosophers: A Critical Appraisal by Dr. Wilfred Lajul, The Power of Identity: Imbalu Initiation Ritual Among the Bamasaaba of Uganda by Professor John Wotsuna Khamalwa and Modernization of Luganda Terminology in the Field of Linguistics by Dr Saudah Namyalo.

All the three books highlight African culture through language, cultural practices and African literature and philosophy with all authors from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences –CHUSS.

Dr Lajul expounds on what constitutes African Philosophy, Professor Khamalwa describes the seven phases of Imbalu and analyses the role of women in the process while Dr Saudah Namyalo guides on how to grow the Luganda language by adding new words and representing modern concepts scientifically.

While relaunching the publishing press, Prof. Opuda Asibo, the former head of the National Council for Higher Education –NCHE cautioned against poor staff-management relations and student-staff animosity as factors that might stifle its progress.

According to Opuda, if Makerere doesn’t do the postmortem to understand why the Press has been on and off, it’s likely to fail again.

He also advises Makerere not to expect money from the publishing press as it has been one of the probable causes of its earlier downfall.

Makerere University Vice-Chancellor Professor Barnabas Nawangwe hinted on low staff motivation previously due to meagre salaries as one of the reasons that stalled the University Press. It is reported that Makerere could allocate only 500 million Shillings to the Makerere University Press at the time when it was operational and that once it failed to make profits, its funding kept on dwindling.

He adds that the 30 billion Shillings research allocation from the government is a big boost, which will in addition to enhanced salaries improve the environment for academicians to publish.

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URN