THE BUSINESS OF READING IN AFRICA

Monday 26 March 2001, Club Room, National Hall, Olympia

SEMINAR REPORT

Prepared by Pru Watts Russell for SABDET

This material is freely available for use. Please credit the Southern African Book Development Education Trust and cite SABDET/ZIBF Seminar Series at the 2001 London Book Fair. For further information contact Paul Westlake at sabdet@impz.demon.co.uk

PAUL WESTLAKE (SABDET) opened the day by welcoming those present to what was the sixth in the series of such seminars held at the London Book Fair. He paid tribute to Danida, which had again through its funding made it all possible, and to other supporters such as DFID/ADEA, Book Aid International and all sectors of the book industry. He apologised for the slight changes from the advertised programme. Unfortunately, once again, problems with visas had prevented two of the named speakers from participating. However he was pleased to say that Chuma Nwokolo, Chairman of Synergy Educational had agreed at short notice to stand in for his colleague Richard Mammah in the first seminar. As to the gap left by the absence of Akwe Amosu, who was also unable to attend, it had been decided that the two remaining speakers in the second seminar would extend their own presentations.

PROGRAMME

Seminar One, 10am - 12noon

BOOKSHOPS AND LIBRARIES

Presentations:

Seminar Two, 2pm-4pm

PRESS, MEDIA AND THE INTERNET

Presentations:

Seminar One

BOOKSHOPS AND LIBRARIES

Chair: BRIDGET IMPEY, David Philip Publishers, South Africa

Bridget Impey disclosed that her whole working life had been spent in a world of books; firstly in the family bookshop, followed by a move into publishing. She went on to predict that the seminar would highlight some of the tricks of the trade and new initiatives that are currently being used to seduce both the would-be and reluctant reader to read and buy books in Africa.

Presentation 1:
CHUMA NWOKOLO, Synergy Educational, Nigeria
From road shows to book fairs - reading as fun

Set up in June 1998 to campaign for a better deal in education and reading, the main aim of Synergy Educational is to seduce people back to the book; through such means as its reading promotion packages and its workshops. The organisation operates from a Nigeria which is struggling as part of the process of underdevelopment to get back to the point previously reached and to move on from there. Synergy Educational has a policy of putting reader first before publisher, printer or author. Its main target is the primary school student. Schools are regularly visited and children are encouraged to perceive reading as fun.

In contrast to the bookshops to be found in the UK which are light, modern and attractive those in Nigeria are inclined towards the funereal. Far from being seductive they tend to be totally without the kind of electric spark that is needed to draw the sentient reader though their doors. Libraries too present a similarly depressing situation. Instead of being welcoming places to entice potential readers through their gates, a general deterioration in their book stocks and lack of suitable current and relevant material inhibit their use other than to provide places for people to come to read or study. The whole ethos or concept of what a library can and ought to be is in the process of disappearing; although the structures are there, libraries have become little more than reading rooms.

Synergy Educational has been instrumental in obtaining grants and book gifts for schools. These are being used to develop classroom libraries, encourage reading clubs and meetings on a weekly basis and overseen by a teacher. Not just any book will do. They need to be relevant and start from the culture of those that are being encouraged to read. Under the project three schools are included in each of four administrative zones. These are visited on a monthly basis. The reading of books in English, it should be pointed out, causes problems, it being the second language. Consequently there is a tendency to fall back on the indigenous languages. To excite the readers' interest texts must be supplied in the language they can immediately relate to. Stories need to be brought to life. Reading is not dead. Students are passionately keen to read and learn. The demand for books is there but the availability of books at affordable prices remains a persistent issue.

Synergy is optimistic that, with the creation of a Book Club environment assisted by grants-in-aid and the publication of special editions, a groundswell effect will result. This it is hoped will in turn help develop the publishing industry as a whole. However the problems of the books/ libraries infrastructure can not considered in isolation but must looked at as being an integral part of the whole development process.

The response to a competition that Synergy held in each of the schools included in the programme inviting students to write their own stories has been incredible. This contest has revealed a shared passion and has resulted in the publication of Opebi the Hunter and other stories, a book of tales written by and for primary school children. The high demand generated for it from the schools involved in the project, parents and students alike have made the title into a 'bestseller'. This success only goes to reinforce the already established view that if children are to be encouraged into wanting to read, it is important that they are provided with reading matter of cultural relevance and appeal.

Presentation 2:
AOKO MIDIWO-ODEMBO, Legacy Books, Kenya
Reading for business

As a background note, the meeting was informed that Kenya today, a country with a population of 28 million, has a literacy rate of 76%. It has a large student population of 8 million, 5.5 of whom are at primary school level.

In 1996 having until then worked in NGOs, Aoko Midiwo-Odembo on deciding to become an entrepreneur set up the Legacy Bookshop which opened its doors in the central business district of Nairobi. It now has branches in two shopping malls in Nairobi. Over the last two years Legacy has maintained a web page (http://www.legacybookshop.com), one which is mainly used as a catalogue for its own clients.

The main objective of Legacy Books is to fill the information gap in the development and management professions. Its focus as might be inferred by the use of the term 'Reading for business', is on books on business, management, micro-enterprises and books for development and related subject areas. Its market is mostly Kenya but also extends to professionals in other parts of Eastern Africa i.e. Tanzania and Uganda.

To ascertain market potential Legacy Books has been required to address the following questions:

Who is reading?
Those drawn from within the following types of organisations and institutions:

  • Universities offering degree courses;
  • Polytechnics and business, management and computing institutions (e.g. Kenya Institute of Management, Kenya School of Monetary Studies etc.) - diploma courses;
  • Vocational training colleges and schools - Certificate courses;
  • Consultancy firms (e.g. Price Waterhouse) and individual consultants;
  • Government bodies (e.g. Office of the President, Central Bank), UN Agencies and NGOs

An estimated 20,000 students are undertaking business courses, ranging from economics/commerce and banking through to hotel management and rural and community development, one-third of whom are graduates.

What are they reading?
Subject areas range across the following spectrum:

  • Economics
  • Business and Entrepreneurship
  • Records management
  • Information Technology

Will they continue to read?
Yes, as has been revealed by the significant increase in interest that has been shown by:

  • Individuals and students in formal and informal learning settings;
  • By both government and non-government organisations.

Why the increase in interest?
This can be explained by factors such as:

  • As unemployment increases and job security becomes an issue so the demand for books on entrepreneurship and related subjects has increased;
  • Greater regional integration linked to and resulting from the revival of the East African Community (EAC) which was launched in October 2000;
  • The new free trade area within the Common Market of Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) is expected to result in a tariff free zone from Cairo to Harare covering 12.88 million square kilometres and a population of 380 million.

What help is still needed?
Possibilities for consideration include:

  • Relevance of Content - local publishing will engage more interest through producing identifiable examples;
  • A greater variety of titles are required and core publishing should be encouraged;
  • The possibility of purchasing copyrights as a means of keeping the costs down should be investigated;
  • As part of marketing strategy organisations should be encouraged to purchase books specifically for office and staff use.

The state of the Kenyan economy and current level of poverty has an influencing affect on affordability. Unfair trade practices between suppliers, distributors and some bookshops persist in Kenya e.g. exclusive contracts instead of equal access to all.

The Way forward?
There is a continuing need to:

  • Increase local publishing and printing in order to reduce costs;
  • Focus marketing specifically by targeting relevant organisations and individuals;
  • Pool available data to increase its accessibility and to continue research into the specific needs of the business community.

 

Presentation 3:
RACHEL VAN RIEL, Opening the Book, UK
Opening libraries to readers - the UK experience

Rachel Van Riel started her presentation by making it known that all her working experience has been in the UK. Since this has inevitably been tempered by her own culture she expressed some uncertainty as to how applicable it might be to the African situation.

Reading is the single most creative and mind stretching activity that an individual can do by him or herself. The power of imagination is in one's own head. Opening the Book is about reader development but not literacy; it is about the opportunities for people to share the pleasures of reading and to raise the status of reading. Reading development aims to:

  • Increase people's confidence and enjoyment of reading by selling the idea of reading experience for its own sake rather than selling individual books or authors;
  • Offer opportunities for people to share their reading experience;
  • Raise the status of reading as a creative activity.

There are misconceptions about what people read. Often expectations about who reads what are upset. An exercise, which entailed photographing the heads and shoulders of a group of people leaving a library with the title of a book borrowed by each individual fully displayed within that grouping, has demonstrated this fact.

Readers' validation of what they read and of their own individual experiences is something to be encouraged. Some libraries insert a page in their books specifically for the purpose of allowing readers to record their views and make their comments for the benefit of those who subsequently come to read the book. Web sites and notice boards are also means by which readers can be encouraged to share their opinions. Some books can have their reputation made, not by publishers or marketing personnel, but by those who have read and then talked about them
i.e. the whispering effect. A prime example of this is Louis de Bernires 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin'.

Traditional marketing concentrates on the book itself when what is required is a sales pitch that emphasises the experience of reading. In other words, market the sizzle not the sausage. It is natural to promote reading by concentrating on it as an earnest and worthy activity when perhaps, if a more risquŽ approach were to be adopted, it would prove more effective. The reasons as to why people read are complex and peculiar. For instance when one person was asked this question she replied to the effect that she liked to read books where the protagonists were more miserable than she was!

In Yorkshire, as a way of attracting an interest in reading, a number of people from all walks of life were invited to select a book they wished to read. These ranged from the local traffic warden and butcher to head teacher and solicitor. By attempting to match each book thus chosen to the person whom it was thought had selected it, guesses were made as to who was reading what. There were some surprises. It was seen as a means of breaking the stereotype view as to what is being read by whom. Similarly the reading of poetry was encouraged among staff working in organisations on the South Bank. Individuals were invited to choose poems, give reasons for their choice and have their selection promoted in the library.

Reading promotions should be allied with what people are familiar, be it food, wine, travel etc. A reading event in a library for instance, having books from other cultures as its main theme, might arouse greater interest were its focus to be broadened to consider not merely their content but other aspects as well such as the wines or food produced in these places.

There has been a resurgence of reading groups in the UK in recent years. These groups, by encouraging those who take part to read books that they might not otherwise have attempted on their own, can be a key factor in promoting reading development. Open the Book has, in conjunction with Waterstone's Bookshops, been involved in a project funded by the lottery, the development and distribution of the Reading Group Toolbox. This provides 200 ideas to encourage reading and is intended to help make reading groups successful. It is a matter of working with whatever people wish to read, to challenge them to stretch their reading.

Books and computers should work together. The power of technology offers choices to be made. Resources should be developed on the Internet. These might include readers' sites where people can exchange opinions about the books they read and which provide them with opportunities for mentioning writers they feel ought to be given a wider audience. A number already exist and include
http://www.reader-development.com/wordofmouth/
http://www.readersonline-europa.com
http://www.branching-out.net

Readers help promote the book. It should be seen as a partnership between both you the reader and its writer. What you as an individual bring to the experience of reading a particular book will be unique.

Issues raised from Seminar 1

ALASTAIR NIVEN (UK) enquired of Rachel Van Riel whether when working with multi-racial communities a different approach might be needed. She responded by saying that whilst some issues were the same there were occasions nevertheless when some techniques worked better with particular groups than others; that the methods used should relate to what most within that group wanted e.g. Asians are often interested in religious matters.

JOHN DADA (Nigeria) brought to the attention of the meeting the existence of his own organisation the Fantsuam Foundation. Working with rural communities it helps set up Community Learning Centres each consisting of two rooms which are provided and maintained by the community: one room to serve as a library, the other for training and computers. Its UK office collects books that can be used as reference texts and old computers and ships them to these communities, while the communities themselves provide the locally available text books. The centres are open to all members of the community. It is the Foundation's belief that this culture of sharing an information facility provides a cost-effective means of providing textbooks for all sectors of the community.

CHIEF JOOP BERKHOUT (Nigeria) queried what was meant in the first presentation by the term 'bestseller'. Chuma Nwokolo clarified by saying it was 1,000 sales - although this figure which might not be considered huge in normal circumstances, it represented a success in terms of sales in the specific market to which it was directed.

OLURONKE ORIMALADE (Nigeria) stressed the importance of the role of booksellers in promoting books. Others should be encouraged to emulate those like Aoko Midiwo-Odembo and herself and to display books in an attractive and enticing manner. There is a reading culture in Nigeria. People in the countryside do want to read but the books for them to do so are not there but located in the urban areas. To remedy this state of affairs booksellers should be encouraged to set up in the rural areas.

AOKO ODIWO-ODEMBO(Kenya) then mentioned that in Kenya they were investigating the possibility of making books available through existing supermarket chains.

RACHEL VAN RIEL (UK) referred to a scheme entitled Bookstart that has potential for transfer elsewhere. It is aimed at children through their parents, the mother in particular. It is a project initiated and developed by Book Trust, based on the principle that it's never too early to start introducing children to books. Bookstart is an inter-agency project, involving close co-operation between library services and health authorities. In a local Bookstart scheme, a parent is presented with a pack containing two free baby books, advice, information and an invitation to join the local library. This pack is presented at the time of the baby's 7-9 month health check, when it is generally talked through by the health visitor.

 

Seminar Two

PRESS, MEDIA AND THE INTERNET

Chair: BECKY CLARKE, Heinemann Publishers

Becky Clarke began by voicing her opinion that the afternoon's session promised to be both exciting and provocative. As a Ghanaian working with Heinemann, it had been a privilege for her to work with other African writers and be associated with promoting African cultural heritage. Why do we read? Is it to acquire knowledge, for pleasure and entertainment, or merely to pass the time; or to educate, enlighten or empower?

Presentation 1:
DAVID ADUDA, Nation Media Group, Kenya
How can the Media promote reading in Africa?

The media can be used to promote a reading culture and to convey the richness of African tradition, a tradition that spans all activities. There has been a general move towards pluralist democracy in Africa and this is reflected in the media and library sectors.

The Kenyan book industry has been growing fairly rapidly. However although there are over 100 registered publishers only a small proportion of these are reasonably active, the majority operating on shoestring budgets and irregular in their publishing output. Much of the African market remains dominated by multi-national penetration. Over the last few years nevertheless there have been positive signs particularly with regard to local publishing of children's books. The booktrade is not without its problems. These include lack of proper publishing training, low discount margins, high transportation costs, inadequate promotion and publicity campaigns. Apart from a textbook policy at school level Kenya still lacks a coherent national books policy. Yet a National Book Development Council of Kenya has been established with the objective of promoting the book trade in the country. It has responsibility among other things for the organisation of the annual nation-wide book week.

Liberalisation has opened up the growth of an independent media establishment. Kenya is no exception. Here the scenario is one of five national dailies, a dozen weeklies and several vernacular papers. It has 12 radio and 10 television stations, most being urban based and independent, with only one of each being run by the government and serving the country as a whole. Not only is it now possible to present alternative views in the media but the diversity and content of news coverage has been broadened to include issues such as health, education with less concentration than previously on politics.

The Daily Nation is in terms of circulation of the printed media the leader, selling as it does 150,000 on a daily basis, followed by East African Standard, 42,000, The People 22,800, Kenya Times 18,000 with Taifa Leo, a Kiswahili publication, 26,000. Their Sunday equivalents have even higher sales figures. Online editions of The Daily Nation, East African Standard and Kenya Times have proved particularly popular with East Africans living abroad.

There is increasing coverage in the various media on issues relating to books. Motivated by the desire to give information to and create an interest among their patrons, the media is used in its entirety to promote books in order to encourage their reading and purchase. The national radio station has for example a weekly slot which focuses on new books, successful writers and general issues on publishing and the book trade. Similarly the Kenya Television Network, an independent station serving Nairobi and Mombasa has a weekly programme called 'Club Kiboko' which presents among other things features on children's books and popularises reading and creative art among the youth of the country. It encourages children not only to read but even write books.

In South Africa efforts are being made to set up links between newspapers, education and schools. The Independent Durban for example liaises with publishers who provide seed money to subsidise a scheme intended to promote material for schools. In so doing the aim is to help create a society in which children start appreciating books and reading early and are encouraged within the next few years to become, themselves, regular purchasers of books. Kenya hopes to follow in South Africa's footsteps.

The local dailies too have regular columns on books and literary art. These include reviews, news and views on book publishing and trade. They aim to provide informed critique, an assessment of the quality of the works under review and provide pointers to the directions that authors and publishers ought to take to enhance their products. The Nation Media Group publishes columns regularly - Monday (Blackboard), Saturday (Saturday Magazine), and Sunday (Lifestyle). The Sunday Young Nation specifically targets young children. Young writers report on readers' clubs and other activities. Nevertheless these book pages are not published without their share of problems. Professional book reviewers are in short supply. The relationship between the media, publishers and booksellers is not always as good as it might be. There is a general unwillingness by publishers to support, by taking out advertising, those papers in which they wish to have their books reviewed. Finally there are constraints caused by lack of space; preference being given to 'hot' news which in having a greater potential interest to the majority of a newspaper's readers, promises higher sales.

The Internet provides enormous opportunities for promoting the publishing industry. Not only does the new technology provide newspapers with the means to reach a wider audience and increase their readership and through reviews advertise books online but publishers and booksellers can set up their own sites as has Legacy Bookshops to promote their own titles. However widespread use of the Internet in most parts of the Africa continent today is limited, handicapped as it is by a range of factors, such as:

  • Access to computers (still the preserve of the few who can afford the expense) limits local audience size (350,000 of the estimated one million users on the African continent are to be found in South Africa)
  • High internet subscription charges;
  • Poor infrastructure - characterised by unreliable telephones, power outages and inefficient connectivity;
  • Lack of formulated ICT policies

The potential of the Internet, although as yet not fully realised, remains and in the future should provide the means of ensuring a continuous flow of information between the differing parties involved such as publishers, booksellers and newspapers. Indeed a synergy needs to be created through a partnership between the media, publishing companies, educational institutions and the government to promote a reading culture and thereby enhance the book trade as a whole. The partnership must be based on mutual trust, openness and tolerance to criticism and divergent opinions.

Presentation 2:
PROFESSOR KOLE OMOTOSO, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Why do we read? Language, knowledge and power

Professor Omotoso used the occasion to share his ideas from the perspective of a continent, which although having much sunshine, is he remarked often referred to as the dark continent.

As a starting point and basis for the main theme behind his presentation he quoted from Chinua Achebe's 'Home and Exile', "To ask everybody to shut down their history, pack their bag and buy a one-way ticket to Europe or America is just crazy, to my way of thinking. To suggest that the universal civilization is in place already is to be wilfully blind to our present reality and, even worse, to trivialise the goal and hinder the materialisation of a genuine universality in the future."

The dichotomy between oral and written tradition needs to be avoided, the first of these being but an extension of the second. It is important to maintain a continuous dialogue between the two areas of oral and reading tradition and not to treat them as separate entities. Much more needs to be published in African languages if reading is to be truly encouraged in African countries.

Why do we read? Reasons vary but range from it being used as a means of self-exploration. This from his own personal experience was achieved by reading from the thousands of poems of the Ifa Divination System, the novels of Fagunwa, Olabimtan, Akin Isola and Faleti and the poems of the innumerable Yoruba poets including the modern "ewi" exponents.

Reading is a necessary pre-requisite for education both in its traditional and professional forms. The problem is that the language required for the one does not coincide with that required for the other, and the conflict between the two is one of the sources of the contemporary crisis in Africa; one set of values clashing with the other set of values. Reconciliation between the two is yet to take place.

Reading is often undertaken for the purposes of learning about the unfamiliar. If languages of traditional education do not incorporate new ideas and thinking, it automatically follows that the language of search for the new and the current has to be in the languages of colonisation, thereby relegating to secondary position the languages of tradition.

Growing up in Nigeria Professor Omotoso recalled his first encounter with his own world as being that of reading about his hometown, Akure, in his mother tongue in the Council library. This was his first experience of a library, (albeit one that no longer exists). His taste for reading was further cultivated during his days at Oyemekun Grammar School, a school considered to be one of the best in the country possessed of a well-stocked library. Being a somewhat frail student he was allowed to spend much of his time in the library and encouraged by the school librarian to read and report on one book a week. A similar pattern followed at King's College in Lagos, the next establishment attended, where access to such classics as Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe were available in Yoruba.

Although English was his chosen field of study at the University of Ibadan, French and Arabic were selected as subsidiary subjects in the process of his professional education. His interest in the latter had already been aroused by encounters with the local mosque and the Koran on the way to school and the realisation that other cultures dating back to the ninth century preceded those of Europe. Nevertheless it was only at the time of finishing his PhD in Edinburgh that he appreciated that by involving himself with other people's cultures he had been in fact ignoring his own

The role of African languages needs to be examined and the claim that it is too late to consider their use as a means of domesticating world knowledge should be discounted. The whole process of domesticating knowledge requires investigation and he refuses to accept dogmatic statements from the Anglo-American school-of-thought that might suggest otherwise. Life is neither an 'either' or 'or' or 'yes' or 'no' situation. The future of Africa should not be seen as a replica of Europe. The argument that African languages cannot deal with modern concepts is erroneous. The future should be a future of multi-lingualism. For this to take place the existing mindset needs to change; the obstacles that are currently perceived as getting in the way need not in point of fact be insurmountable.

The controversy about language looks, however, as if it is one set to continue. Parents conscious of the importance of English in the modern world often do not wish their children to learn in any other language than English. Nevertheless it should no longer be a question of either or but both, each being used to reinforce the other. The translation of material from one language into another of course is not new. It has been taking place for centuries. It is common practice for books originating in one European country to be translated and published in another. Japanese works too are translated into other languages such as English. Why then cannot knowledge be translated into indigenous African languages incorporating in the process embryonic ideas drawn from Africa's own cultures? For Africans to be successful they must depend not only what comes from what has been successful elsewhere - East, West and North - but they must also add their own major contributions based on their own backgrounds and experience.

In any case perhaps the real issue is how to write in order for people to read. Columns in newspapers need to speak out to people in the street; for which a degree of self-discipline is required of those writing them. They should not pretend to be academics locked in their own worlds but should aim to write material which is comprehensible to the newspaper's target audience i.e. its readers. Professor Omotoso acknowledged that he writes about books in a newspaper column entitled The Other Story on a page which is otherwise devoted unnecessarily as he sees it to books published in the UK and USA.

It is usual to maintain that oral tradition is communal in its expression while written tradition is individualistic. People often think of reading as a lonely business; that you cannot read while you are sharing a conversation with someone. In fact it need not be. Reading should not necessarily be seen as a solitary activity following the European example. This idea needs to be discarded and reading should be made a communal activity, with books read, shared and enjoyed together.

Today Africa is faced with lack of reading among its populations, be it for social, economic or political reasons. People who are illiterate cannot read. People who are the victims of river blindness cannot read. Or can they? For such groupings use of community radios for readings can be explored. Books and written material can be read over the radio and people can participate in the analysis of such readings. Plays too provide a natural flow from a basically oral inheritance. The radio can be used as a medium to persuade plays to be read. Reading can and should be encouraged by example. In South Africa where the speaker currently works and resides there is a daily one and a half-hour morning radio programme, in which this speaker himself has participated, on which books are discussed. Discussions of books can also be carried on television programmes. For those who have access to the Internet, books can be downloaded and forwarded to friends and their readings can be discussed thereafter. Programmes of going to schools, reading among the students, setting up publishing initiatives are all means of reaching out.

The Professor concluded by reiterating his overall message. The domestication of knowledge in Africa is crucial to development and the means to go forward. It must be remembered that, a few years ago, the Internet was dominated almost totally by the English language. Today, that dominance has been reduced and other languages such as German, French and Japanese have begun to domesticate the Internet. African countries too can do the same, they can domesticate knowledge for self-exploration, education and the search for the unfamiliar and up-to-date.

Issues raised from Seminar 2

TENDAI H MANZVANZVIKE (ZIBF) in her position as its Project Co-ordinator, used the occasion to remind members of the audience that the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, encouraged by Professor Ali Mazrui, had launched the international compilation of 'Africa's 100 Best Books', to mark the beginning of the 21st century. This project by celebrating the achievements of African writers over the last century aims to stimulate debate, discussion, reading, criticism and analysis of African writing in order to foster the publication and development of new titles and re-prints of those that are currently out of print. Above all it is intended to increase awareness and knowledge of books and writing by African authors.

Language however is an issue. Whilst submissions to date have been received for books in the major European languages, English, French and Portuguese, and in Arabic, recommendations for books in the local languages have not been forthcoming and need to be pushed. All perspectives and not merely the Anglo-Saxon need to be considered. A comprehensive list of all nominations will be published at the ZIBF in August 2001, and during the course of the year regional panels will compile their own short-lists of 100 best books. The closing date for nominations is 30 September 2001 A panel of judges will make the final decision from the short list and the final list of Africa 100 Best Books will be announced in early March 2002.

Only books written by Africans are eligible. After extensive discussion and debate the ZIBF has, for the purpose of this project, identified an African as: "someone either born in Africa or who became a citizen of an African country".

GLORIA LOCK (UK) questioned why little had been said about the role of libraries in promoting reading. Librarians can also go on radio and television. They have skills to manage information and they should be used and not ignored.

EMMANUEL OYEGADE (Nigeria) commented that whetting people's appetites created a hunger for books, a hunger that could not currently be satisfied because of unavailability of books and places to read. If reading is to be encouraged public libraries must be developed as peoples' universities and the creation of reading centres.

VICTOR NKWANKWO (Nigeria) confronted the issue of local language publishing. He argued that whilst local languages should be used for everyday discussion, the acquisition of knowledge was more likely to be achieved by using other languages such as English or French. What is the mother tongue when a country like Nigeria has more than 200 languages? Demand activates supply. It is necessary to publish those books which will be read. Local languages often do not have the technical basis to publish.

How might therefore the two be linked? Whose duty is it but that of the government, the provider of the educational system, to act as the frontrunner, and who along with society should take responsibility for popularising the use of languages. Learning in local languages confronts national governments. The provision of literature in indigenous languages is an instrument of power. If an indigenous language policy is to succeed a definite decision needs to be made and the political will to implement must be there. The process must be monitored over a period of time and its achievement benchmarked.

KOLE OMOTOSO (South Africa) agreed that the adoption of indigenous language policies challenges the power and control of governments.

PHENNY BIRUNGI (Uganda) While children in rural areas tend to be taught in their mother tongue and those in urban areas in English, parents insist their children learn English since final examinations are set in this language and it is considered by them and their children the language of advancement.

DAVID ADUDA (Kenya) commented that Tanzania has resolved the issue of language, at least when it comes to newspapers. Kiswahili editions receive a much larger circulation than their English counterparts.

PAUL WESTLAKE (UK) noted that the language issue was one which was global and historical. He quoted examples of the homogenisation of European languages in the 19th century and the 5000 plus official languages that exist in India and their relationship to the 15 major regional languages as examples of the way that some stratification had been achieved. He queried the practicalities of domesticating knowledge to the extent that had been proposed and the costs that might be involved and suggested that the question should be one of the level of knowledge and its relation to the size of the language area.

BRIDGET IMPEY (South Africa) As the new South Africa has developed, library budgets have been cut and the assurance that public libraries will continue to buy books in the local languages has fallen away. To keep local languages alive, Government commitment is required. A certain proportion of the total books budget needs to be set aside and spent locally regardless of language. Publishers cannot promote indigenous publishing on their own.

CHRISTINE IKEAGU (UK) argued that parents have an important role to play in encouraging their children to read.

TEKESTE HAGOS (Eritrea) Reading in Eritrean societies is encouraged in local languages. There is no official language. Each community can choose from the eight or nine local languages. Local writers are provided with incentives to supply reading material to the Ministry of Education.

ALICE RUGUYAMHETO (Tanzania) To promote the reading culture in Africa it is imperative the media people should be interested in books. The complete lack of such interest was recently revealed when in spite of having been informed in advance that the new Minister of Education would be presiding over World Bank Book Selection Textbooks workshop, no media people turned up to cover the event.

 

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