Funding one’s biography or even autobiography is now a long-established tradition in publishing. But it is ethically unacceptable to mislead the public by saying the book is unauthorised, when in fact has been funded by the subject, writes Fred Khumalo.
Action SA leader Herman Mashaba funded the book, The Outsider: The Unauthorised Biography of Herman Mashaba, to the tune of R12.5 million.We now know that political analyst and author Prince Mashele lied to the public when he said his book on Herman Mashaba was an unauthorised, objective and independently conceived critique of the ActionSA leader and his political tradition.
What also rankled with Malada is that Mashele had not informed the publishers of the book, Jonathan Ball Publishers, that the two of them had been paid by Herman Mashaba to research and write the book. Malada said the day after the social gathering at Mashele’s house, the latter sent him a message saying Malada should not have shared the information about funding with his wife. He told the Sunday Times at the weekend:
He wrote in part: “Firstly, it is the lack of acknowledgement of my substantive role in the writing of the book. Secondly, it is whether this book qualifies to be an ‘unauthorised’ biography as it purports to be. The last, yet not least important, is lack of disclosures about the relationship between the author and the subject.”
Even in South Africa, many prominent figures have funded the writing of their own life stories. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as authorised books are not passed off as unauthorised.
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