Africapa

The Amateur Publishing Association of Southern Africa (also known as the African Amateur Press Alliance and referred to as Africapa with various capitalisation) was an APA founded around 1973–4. South of the Moon gives the date as 1974, but John Bangsund's Revolting Tales of Sex and Super-Science 1 is dated August 1973 and was intended for its first mailing.

Nick Shears announced Africapa in Checkpoint 27 (November 18, 1972):

AFRICAPA is born! The first South African apa will have its first mailing in January and any English fans who want to get in on the ground floor (there's a limited roster) should write to me [...] and say so immediately. To make sure, I suggest they enclose their six month's membership fee (50p). Mailings will be monthly, with a required minimum of three pages every three months. Contributions to the first mailing should be on A4 paper, 25 copies, to arrive by January 15th. Postmailings will not be recognized and each mailing will be stapled together as a booklet.

However in Checkpoint 30 (January 27, 1973) he updated:

Africapa is frozen at the moment, a couple more members being needed to make it worthwhile. All going well, the first mailing should be in March.

Bangsund said that he was invited to join by Brian Lombard. Revolting Tales of Sex and Super-Science 1 and Philosophical Gas 20 may have been his only contributions – other issues of both titles appeared elsewhere – and by September 1973 he said he intended to resign.

In a letter in Rastus 2 (February 1984) Nick Shears said that "At the height of the SA fannish activity in the early 70s, there was Africapa, a 20 or 25 member apa". The APA is first listed in South of the Moon from issue 11 (Fall 1975) at which point the OE was believed to be Shears. It was however dropped with issue 13 as Shears had been sent 12 and hadn't replied.

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Publication

1974—

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