By Nehru Odeh
Wherever your feet have touched the ground
A city of Light has risen and bloomed – Prof. Niyi Osundare
Chief Joop Berkhout, the legendary publisher who made book publishing in Nigeria sexy and a sought-after beautiful bride, died on Monday, February 10, at his Ibadan residence, where he lived for almost six decades. He was 94.
This was a man who was tall in height as well as in his boundless craze for books and their accessibility to readers not just across the country but also beyond generational borders, what with his boundless energy, his palpable enthusiasm and his infectious love for the written word.
He cut the picture of a swashbuckling, chivalrous publisher tramping everywhere just to make books accessible.
This was a man who had a nose for good stories and was always at home in the company of writers, intellectuals, technocrats and even retired generals.
This was a man who made book business good business and made financial and social capital from it.
As a faithful, unapologetic lover of books, he couldn’t wean himself off the book business, however hard he tried when he initially retired in 2008.
“In 2008, at the age of 78 and after 30 years in charge, I felt the need to retire, so I sold Spectrum Books Limited. I intended to enjoy retirement life, but only two weeks into retirement, it felt uneasy. I therefore reactivated Safari Books Limited, which I had registered in August 1991.
“Twelve years after the reactivation of Safari Books, I am still in charge of its operations, which include book publishing, books/journal supply and sale of e-resources to tertiary institutions,” Berkhout once said in an interview.
He did everything possible to prove his infectious love for books, breaking boundaries and stamping his feet as well as his signature everywhere, just like the English Writer E.M Foster once said by way of a book title where even angels fear to tread.
I first had the opportunity to meet him in 2000 when Spectrum Books Limited, Ibadan, advertised the job of a book editor. I applied for the job, sat for the written test and was the first to be invited to an oral interview, which was virtually a chat.
But I later turned down the offer when the interview panel suddenly decided to interview us for the job of Assistant Book Editor. I was already a book editor then at a fledging publishing company in Ibadan. Then, Berkhout was away on his annual leave.
Maybe had he been around and on the panel, things might have been different and perhaps changed the trajectory of my life. Maybe.
Still, the intriguing thing about the famed bookseller of Ibadan, whom Professor Niyi Osundare describes as a migrant bird with a plural plumage in a poem dedicated to him, is that growing up as a young man in The Netherlands, he initially wanted to be a Catholic priest and later a pope.
He was so enamoured of the idea at the time that nothing else mattered to him. “I tried it for a couple of months but realised I just would never become a pope,” swashbuckling Berkhout said.
However, in a twist of fate, young Berkhout got discouraged from pursuing that enticing course after he was told that there was once a pope of Dutch origin in the 13th century who was assassinated only three months into his papacy.
“With that information, I formed an opinion that there was a conspiracy against the Dutch from being popes. So, I abandoned the ambition. Now I am a publisher,” he noted. Still, what the church lost, the book industry gained.
Berkhout, just a month short of his 95th birthday, died in a manner that is the stuff of legend. The unique way he died showed that death did not take him unawares but, rather, he welcomed it, prepared a table for it and gave it a handshake.
He knew his death was imminent and could come in a matter of hours and, like the biblical five wise virgins, prepared for it.
And just as the American poet Emily Dickinson says in her critically-aclaimed poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, death stopped for Berkhout.
The superbly active man who was known for his boundless energy and positive restlessness passed away quietly. After having his breakfast on the morning of February 10, he called for his pastor to pray for him. Then he closed his eyes and transited.
Though the way he departed was a departure from his usual atheistic proclivity, that can pass. At least, it was departure time, and the heaven-bound plane was about to take off. There was no time to waste.
Berkhout was born in Amsterdam on March 31, 1930. But he relocated to Nigeria in the 1950s after the Second World War had ravaged his family home in The Netherlands and destroyed his father’s hotel business.
He naturalised as a Nigerian and was installed as the Okunborode of Ile-Ife, in 1992 The federal government of Nigeria also conferred on him a national honour Officer of the Order of the Niger, OON.
He had joined the book business in Tanzania as a bookseller before relocating to Nigeria. Then, Oxford University Press, where he had cut his teeth, later headhunted him to be their manager in Lusaka, Zambia.
But it was at Spectrum Books, which he co-founded, that he made his mark as a publisher and lover of books, literally leaving his imprints in diverse areas such as literature, educational publishing and biographies.
The man who loved Nigeria so much recalled in an interview:
“I was a war victim. I finished my secondary education. I didn’t go for higher education. I started working. Many of the young generation left the Netherlands.
“They went to Africa, Australia and some other countries. Some of my family (members) lived in Australia, some lived in Zimbabwe, some lived in South Africa, and I decided to go to Tanzania. From Tanzania, I went to Zambia and from Zambia, I came to Nigeria.
“First, I worked for a bookshop. With the news of my achievements in bookselling in Tanzania, Oxford University Press, where I did my initial training, contacted me about the possibility of being their manager in Lusaka, Zambia.
“I accepted their offer and left Tanzania for Zambia. My time in Tanzania was historic as I gave birth to three of my children in that country. I served as the Manager of Oxford University Press, Zambia, from 1964 to 1966 before I got a letter of transfer to Nigeria as Manager.
“On the evening of the day, I got a letter of transfer to Nigeria from Oxford, another letter came from Evans Brothers Publishers offering me a contract job as the pioneer General Manager of their company in Nigeria.
“Evans was headquartered in the UK, but they had a booming interest in Nigeria and needed someone who could help them consolidate and expand their market in Nigeria.
“When I got home, I discussed the letters with my wife, and we opted for Evans Brothers’ offer that had more incentives. I then joined Evans in Nigeria in 1966. After 10 years of working with Evans, I was promoted to be the Marketing Director of Evans UK.
“That meant I was to relocate to the UK. I did initially, but because I didn’t fancy the working environment there, I decided to resign and come back to Nigeria to co-found Spectrum Books Limited in 1978. From a humble beginning, I piloted the affairs of Spectrums Book Limited to making it a major force in the publishing industry today.
“In 2008, at the age of 78 and after 30 years in charge, I felt the need to retire, so I sold Spectrum Books Limited. I intended to enjoy retirement life, but only two weeks into retirement, it felt uneasy. I, therefore, reactivated Safari Books Limited, which I had registered in August 1991.
“Twelve years after the reactivation of Safari Books, I am still in charge of its operations, which include book publishing, books/journal supply and sale of e-resources to tertiary institutions,” he maintained.
Asked the secret to his longevity, Berkhout said, “I enjoy what I am doing. I can’t do anything I don’t like. Whatever I do, I put my best in it. You can only succeed in life through enjoying it (what you do) and making
What a way to live and make a mark! Perhaps the most appropriate epitaph that best describes him and sums up his life is: “Here lies a man who enjoyed what he did and put his best in it.