A number of countries and individuals recently celebrated
short story day, to find out what some short story writers such as award winning writer Lauri Kubuitsile did in Botswana visit her blog here. For not entirely altruistic reasons I am
worried that every third person I meet
wants to be a poet, a writer but I wonder if there are enough readers to
go around. I say this because I have heard a number of
complaints over the years about the prohibitive cost of books in Botswana, the
lack of a second hand book market, the lack of trade publishers, the closing down of non franchise bookshops and independent publishers etc. In the first
of what I hope will grow into a mini-series J of write ups on literature in Botswana
I speak to the Reading Association of Botswana.
TJ: Tell us about the RAB what do you do and when
where you established and by whom
RAB is a non
-profit association formed to encourage and instill the culture of reading
amongst Batswana residents. It was established in 1998 by some Batswana
residents who had had experience with reading associations.
TJ: In 2011 you hosted a reading conference what was
its focus
RAB: The conference was known as
The 7th Pan-African Reading
for All conference.Its objectives were:
·
Strengthen capacity within
African collecting and analysing data to support formulation of policy
interventions that address the barriers that make it difficult to achieve the
vision of literacy for all;
·
Generate frameworks for the
development and implementation of new initiatives that address specific
literacy problems;
·
Consider how reading and
writing can be harnessed effectively for opening up social futures across
Africa and the world at large;
·
Interrogate a range of
approaches to literacy that promote reading in families, facilitate the setting
up of rural libraries and encourage the development of reading materials.
The conference
attracted policy makers, educationists, researchers, authors, readers,
teachers, book-sellers, learners, curriculum developers and any other groups
and individuals interested in reading.
TJ: What challenges are you facing as an organization.
RAB: Our
challenges as an association are that the organizers who are mandated to expand
the association are full time workers.
As such they are not able as much as they would love to, to expand the
association countrywide.
TJ: According to the RAB it is best to introduce reading
as early as during pregnancy although they are quick to point out that it is
never too late to start reading. I posit to Glorious Bolokwe RAB Secretary,
that there is a widespread belief locally that Batswana as a people don’t read
and ask if there is any statistical truth to that notion. She responds by
providing the following literacy statistics and by emphasizing that RAB does
not share that belief
Literacy in Botswana
Dr. Ulrike Hanemann
UNESCO Institute for Education
Hamburg, Germany
March, 2005
Types of literacy programmes by
number of learners and sex, 1993 and 2003
Year
|
1993
|
2003
|
||||||
Programme
|
M %
|
F %
|
Total
|
%
|
M %
|
F %
|
Total
|
%
|
National Literacy
|
30.5
|
69.5
|
26,713
|
89.1
|
80.4
|
98.9
|
38,962
|
92.4
|
Mine literacy
|
78.7
|
21.3
|
2,863
|
9.6
|
11.9
|
-
|
1,725
|
4.1
|
Prison/ reformatory
|
62.5
|
37.5
|
128
|
0.4
|
2.8
|
0.3
|
489
|
1.2
|
Workplace literacy
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
4.2
|
0.2
|
655
|
1.6
|
Other
|
50.8
|
49.2
|
264
|
0.9
|
0.6
|
0.7
|
275
|
0.7
|
Total
|
35.4
|
65.6
|
29,968
|
100
|
34.4
|
65.6
|
42,106
|
100
|
Sources: Central Statistics
Office/ Department of Non-Formal Education, 1997:41 and ibid., 2004:25
TJ: Speaking of literacy programs, to your knowledge are
students encouraged to read for pleasure by their parents and teachers eg is
there a bonafide requirement for students to make use of the library and submit
book reviews etc?
RAB: Every school has a
library. That may suggest that reading
is viewed as an important aspect of learning.
TJ: What is the importance of reading
RAB: Reading enriches, teaches and makes one
wiser.
TJ: What programmes is RAB running to encourage
reading
RAB: Bi-monthly sharing of reading experiences
TJ: Is literature an optional subject in secondary
schools
RAB: Yes it is, at upper secondary school. However, every school has a library. Such a
situation gives a learner opportunity to read.
TJ: What do the high school literature results over
the years tell us, if anything, about Batswana students’ relationship to
language and literature
RAB: That can be gotten from
the ministry of education. RAB does not
have that information. Actually RAB
encourages and instills the culture of reading across a wide spectrum.
We know Batswana can read, but do they read? Having made a
note to myself to speak to the Ministry of Education, a couple of bookstores and
possibly the Rothschilds Foundation which has been building libraries in
Botswana for a number of years now I remember how my brothers read comic books
growing up but not much else, I read a lot of kidlit, then romance later picking
up short stories and poetry somewhere along the way. A number of male varsity
students I knew read newspapers, the girls (at the risk of generalizing) religiously
bought certain magazines, a number of both those groups rarely or never picked
up a book post school literature classes. In fact I remember a number of my
literature classmates looking for film versions of the books we were meant to
study because they hoped they wouldn’t have to read the books, but of course
adaptations by definition are not verbatim.
I don’t know if it’s important for anyone except publishers to distinguish between what is being read. Perhaps it is not. And perhaps those publishers who have been accused of justifying not publishing local fiction by saying Batswana don’t read are playing a fixed numbers game – in a population of 2 million people even if every fourth person bought a book you might not ever reach NY bestseller proportions. We also might have to consider that we are preaching the right verse in the wrong medium to the converted – Batswana come from an oral/aural culture, here live shows even poetry shows often play to a full house but a book launch well... When I was about 6 or 7 my parents would go back to work after lunch and leave us with the nanny, a radio, a book and a cassette tape recording of the same book. Years later, on a good day, I can still recite bits and pieces of Beauty and the beast from memory, accent and all. What are you reading today?
I don’t know if it’s important for anyone except publishers to distinguish between what is being read. Perhaps it is not. And perhaps those publishers who have been accused of justifying not publishing local fiction by saying Batswana don’t read are playing a fixed numbers game – in a population of 2 million people even if every fourth person bought a book you might not ever reach NY bestseller proportions. We also might have to consider that we are preaching the right verse in the wrong medium to the converted – Batswana come from an oral/aural culture, here live shows even poetry shows often play to a full house but a book launch well... When I was about 6 or 7 my parents would go back to work after lunch and leave us with the nanny, a radio, a book and a cassette tape recording of the same book. Years later, on a good day, I can still recite bits and pieces of Beauty and the beast from memory, accent and all. What are you reading today?
