Winning The African Animal Football Cup

Continuing on our previous article ‚ ‚A cost effect and easy way to publish a book,’ Immanuel Suttner describes the ingenious ways he used the Internet to get his book off the ground. The Internet was used to collaborate with parties sitting oceans apart, to raising money to print the book, all the way through to getting the book on shelves across South Africa in time for the opening of the Soccer World Cup. You may be asking yourself what the book would look like? Well below is an extract, along with two spreads of the completed book.

‚The first thing,‚ said Nachman, ‚is to draw a table.‚

‚What’s ‚Ķ what’s a table?‚ asked Hamba, who stammered when he was talking to someone in charge.

‚Well,‚ said Nachman, ‚a table usually has four legs and a big flat body. Humans use them to eat from, and they’re also useful for organising things.’

Hamba had no idea what Nachman was talking about, but he nodded eagerly. He did not want the other animals to think he was stupid.

Nachman drew up his table.

‚Looks good,‚ said Hamba.

‚The secret,‚ said Nachman proudly, ‚is good colour co-ordination.‚

‚Of course,‚ said Hamba, moving away a small distance, where he could not be caught out by any more big words he didn’t understand.

Cornelius, who dreamed of scoring a goal and being carried around the bushveld by his team mates, sat looking at the table, his head cocked to one side.

‚Excuse me,‚ said Cornelius after a while, ‚but I don’t see my name anywhere.‚

Nachman thought for a while, and then looked at Hamba and Cornelius.

‚Alright,‚ he said, and added another group to the table: ‚Predators vs Scavengers’.

Hamba didn’t know what either of these words meant, but with the other hyenas around, he was too embarrassed to ask. Instead he barked at Cornelius:

‚Hah! We’re gonna get you, baldy.‚

‚But you’re on my team ‚ the scavengers,‚ explained Cornelius. ‚You eat dead animals, do you not?‚

‚If I come across a wildebeest,‚ sniffed Hamba, ‚or an impala that someone has left out, naturally I’ll

have a little nibble … who wouldn’t?‚

‚Well that makes you a scavenger,‚ explained Cornelius patiently.

‚Na‚Ķ Nach‚Ķ Nachma‚Ķ Nachman,‚ Hamba stammered, have you really put me with Cornelius?‚

‚Naturally.‚

The hyena complained bitterly about this, but the nagapie wouldn’t budge.