Books -- Africa's best 100. (Literature).

In the panorama of Harare's Sculpture Gardens, close to the National Art Gallery, Africa's foremost literary event of the century is scheduled to take place in the spring of 2002.

The African list of "The Best 100 Books", an idea coined by the Kenyan author and scholar Ali Mazrui, in collaboration with the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), is set to bring the largest haul of African writers to a single venue, to spotlight the rich canon of writing that formed the significant factor in the formulation of Africanist descriptions and images.

Apparently, spurred by the Modern Library of the United States (Random House) which issued its list of the 100 best novels published in the 20th century in the English language, and which inauspiciously excluded writers from the African continent, the best 100 books aims at identifying what Africans feel represents Africa's best thoughts, writing and publishing.

"In a way, it is our contribution to celebrating and promoting African authorship, readership, access to information and democracy in Africa," says Richard Crabbe, chairperson of African Publishers Network (APNET).

Crabbe, launching the best book project at the Frankfurt Book Fair, says Africa was best known for its calamities and occasionally for its art, dances and cultural artefacts. Little is known or published about the rich body of written material that belongs to or originates from Africa.

To date, a jury comprising of Professor Njabulo Ndebele (South Africa), Samir Saad Khali (Egypt), Helge Ronning (Norway), Wangui Wa Goro Kenya), Adotey Bing (Ghana), Ali Mazrui (Kenya), Thomas Odhiambo (Kenya), Fatoumata Keita (Cote d'lvoire), Niyi Osundare (Nigeria), Zifikile Mguni-Gambahaya (Zimbabwe), among the 17-member team has confirmed receiving approximately 1,700 book nominations. The books that has qualified so far, are those written in English, French, Arabic Portuguese, Afrikaans and other African languages in the Creative Writing, Scholarship and Children's Literature categories.

The final shape of Africa's best 100 books will take place in Cairo, Egypt, during next year's meeting of the jury. Njabulo Ndebele, who is the resident of the jury, says although the project is a surmountable task, he believes it will culminate in an exercise to link Africans and their languages/images.

Africans need to know that only books can train them and put them in advantageous positions. But the overall expectation is one of quest for African dignity. The list should be seen as an act of inspiration because it delves even deeper into the realm of self-consciousness, Njabulo adds.

Explaining the essence of the project, Ali Mazrui says, there is a profound reason for Africans to celebrate the list of the 100 best books.

"No African novel in the English language made the Random House first 100, not even Chinua Achebe's work or the work of Nobel laureates Wole Soyinka and Nadine Gordimer," Mazrui explains. "Was this linguistic apartheid? Not quite. While Africa was completely out of the league, the African diaspora did make it. Ralph Elison's 'Invisible Man' made it for No. 19, Richard Wright's 'Native Son' made it as No.20, and James Baldwin's Go Tell it On The Mountain' made it at No. 39 Mazrui contends that there should be cause for alarm that none of the great African writers was on the list.

Perhaps Mazrui and his African inky fraternity should blame themselves for not having thought about doing it first -- always waiting till the white man does it.

The host of the African version, ZIBF, says although it is aware that the selection of the 100 Best Books will be a complex process, this first list is by no means final and definitive. "Over the years, we hope the list will be added to", the ZIBF says.