It is vital for survival and for moving forward. One third of AWP's output is co-published with James Currey. Some titles are three way co-published with African publishers. It saves money, time and capacity. There is a need to do more of this.
African publishers are cautious, conservative and slow.
This model needs more pushing. Examples include AWP and East African Publishing House, who together have published one title in three languages, English, Tigrinya and Swahili, simultaneously in the USA and East Africa. The University of Zimbabwe is concentrating on core activities and is commercializing and privatizing. This affects the university press, which is faced with demands to be self-sustaining. One route forward is through co-publishing.