Buy children books too, not just movies

There is excitement in the air as the celebration of Kenya’s pioneer novel, by a black Kenyan, Weep Not, Child, first published 51 years ago, draws closer.

Even as we anticipate the celebration, we should reflect on our achievements and challenges. So much has changed since then. Themes have shifted from the clamour for independence, to disillusionment, to the fight for freedom of expression, to corruption, tribalism and nepotism, and to terrorism; such has been the pattern of our social fabric as reflected by our scribes.

Even though Taban lo Liyong decried literary barrenness in East Africa, more authors have written and published their works. The Makerere generation laid a good foundation upon which much literary work has been built, yet there has been a steady diminution of the reading culture in our country, with many literary discussants suggesting ways and means of curbing the slump to little or no avail.

Undoubtedly, there has been enough blame to go around. Like many discussants who have assumed the position of the village crier, I submit that we must read and encourage reading for the sake of posterity. We should all be concerned.

Many parents who have children in school were lucky to have had either a school library or a home with books in their formative years. Some grew up on the Kenya School Equipment Scheme while others had a National Libraries Services library nearby — now they are gone — or had the National Library Services wagon visiting their school — with books.

If you ask many of them, they will tell you they read Truphena the Student Nurse, Truphena the City Nurse, Truphena the Air Hostess, The Mixers, Across the Bridge, The Minister’s Daughter, My Life in Crime, My Life with a Criminal, the Moses series, and other books by other African writers that made up the menu for set books in secondary schools.

They also read western thrillers such as James Hardley Chase, Hardy Boys, Mills and Boon, Nancy Drew and so on. Back then, teachers and some students got nicknames from characters in these books; the learners informally engaged further with the characters and their traits outside the classroom.

I doubt many of them just read, and developed the desire for further reading because they loved reading.

They read not only because someone read to them first and encouraged them to read, but also because these persons went a step further to provide reading material.

Intellectual acumen

Won’t we be expecting too much if we raise children on computer games, finally wean them on stockpiles of movies and series, and then expect them to read when the closest they come to reading material is the schoolbooks that are always tucked away in the schoolbag waiting for a school day? This is more like encouraging children to eat junk and hope they will choose healthy food in future.

It is surprising that some parents are not worried that their children do not read — as long as they pass exams. Hard work and intellectual acumen do not seem to be recognised or rewarded. Merit is sacrificed for mediocrity with a serious quest for wealth and materialism being glorified. We seem to have forgotten that the knowledge a man needs to develop himself has been deposited in books. Then came technology, which many of us blame for the ebb in reading. Well, with or without technology, reading is invaluable. Kenya is not the first to experience the digital age. Technology has walked the thoroughfares of the western world, marched through their streets, enveloped their villages, and taken over their cities, but still they have a better reading culture than Kenyans do.

In fact, individuals in developed nations read more books per person per year than those in developing countries, and yet they realised the digital era earlier than we did.

I am tempted to submit that the digital era should actually spur reading. If indeed our interest is in using the digital gadgets, then we should be reading eBooks, which are cheaper and easily available on the Internet — there is more variety there.

Better understanding

Encouraging a reading culture is not easy; it is more like embarking on a journey of behaviour change. It needs resolve, a determination to do things differently.

This is something that should not be left to teachers alone; parents, educationists, politicians and other stakeholders must be involved. In Nigeria, former president Goodluck Jonathan was involved in encouraging the nation’s reading culture with the Bring the Book Back campaign. During the launch of this campaign, President Goodluck and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka read to children from two books; Chinua Achebe’s Chike and the River, and Ake, Soyinka’s account of his childhood in pre-independence southwestern Nigeria. Later that day, the president presided over the launch of a book he had authored.

We should all realise that no nation develops without its people developing the right reading culture. Reading develops a people’s minds to be informed, thoughtful and constructive, with better understanding of issues, events and situations.

It is good that we have a devolved system of government in place. County governments must establish public libraries in constituencies and schools or revamp existing ones. This will bring the library service closer to the people. However, even as they establish the libraries they must make sure that these facilities are stocked with books.

Further, the leaders must take the lead in talking about books and reading. More importantly, they must reward scholarship by employing people who have read in the county public service. If they can go further and sponsor literary festivals then they will have done very well. The national government should buttress the efforts of the county governments in this regard.

Importantly, the Government should support authors and publishers to ensure books are cheaper and easily available.

They can do this by going easy on the taxes on paper and printing. Authors who achieve much should be honoured.

The national government should not leave the sponsoring of literary competitions to the Kenya Publishers Association; it should be involved. Surely, Britain, which publishes more books than any other country in a year, has many competitions that are sponsored by the Royal Society of Literature.

Actually, this society celebrates and nurtures all that is best in British literature; it organises 24  events each year; gives awards and grants to emerging and established writers; runs regular ‘master class’ writing classes in conjunction with the Booker Foundation; campaigns on issues affecting writers, such as the closure of local libraries; and manages a school outreach programme.

Solve challenges

If only we could have just half of these in Kenya.

Parents, too, have a duty; they must stock their houses with books apart from the movies and recorded television series on DVDs.

They must read to and encourage their children to read more books and watch fewer movies. They must impress upon the youth the need to read, to be better people in society.

Our society needs people who will solve the challenges that we face today, people who are creative. It must be clear that one cannot develop creativity by daily engaging in acts that encourage passiveness, such as watching endless numbers of movies and televisions series on DVDs.