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National Book Week to Mark a New Culture of Reading in SA
January 8 2012, the beginning of the year-long celebrations of the centenary of the ANC, is around the proverbial corner. In spite of what agenda might be brewing in some hideous crucible to attempt to destroy the ANC or besmirch its image, Africa, the diaspora and the rest of the international community are busy with preparations to celebrate the centenary in solidarity with the ANC and South Africa.
What does our National Book Week have to do with the above? It is worth noting that the first secretary-general of the ANC, Solomon T Plaatje, was a major literary figure, a prominent translator and an outstanding publicist, to name just a few of his contributions to the development of our culture. And that is an integral part of our heritage.
But even before the existence of the book, storytellers were the custodians of a people’s collective experience and memory, which informed and influenced their cultural values. In short, even before the book, literature was, and remains, a major repository of a people’s memory and cultural values, one of the most important components of a people’s heritage.
So at what point are we today in relation to literacy and the reading habits required to open “the doors of learning and culture”?
It is not a secret that reading is not anywhere near being one of our favourite national pastimes. For instance, in Soweto, the largest township in the land, there are more spots where people spend many hours and a lot of money drinking than there are libraries where people could spend time developing and recreating themselves to be more productive members of society.
Alcohol abuse is a national problem and concern for those who care about the health of the nation.
The young, and others not so young, are more familiar with, and more readily excited by, trends in fashion and the whims of celebrities than they are with books and writers. They consume more fashion than knowledge and culture, a friend and colleague of mine observes.
One of the shops selling designer clothes at Maponya Mall, in Soweto, is among the more profitable ones in Gauteng, I’m told. Yet (it makes you want to holler from the rooftops), the first shop to shut down at that mall was a bookstore!
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March 23, 2011, 10:28 am
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Chelsea is reading Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
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Chelsea is reading An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
December 29, 2010, 2:30 pm
paulineblah on Bontle is reading Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman CapoteHii ( paulineblah@yahoo.in ) I saw your profile today and became [...]
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paulineblah on Nonikiwe - Editor is reading The Seed Children by Bontekanye BotumileHii ( paulineblah@yahoo.in ) I saw your profile today and became [...]
October 27, 2010, 11:46 am
Nonikiwe - Editor is reading The Seed Children by Bontekanye Botumile
September 8, 2010, 11:29 am
Bontle is reading Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
August 27, 2010, 3:31 pm
Coin is reading 1984 by George Orwell
August 27, 2010, 3:21 pm
Coin on Bontle is reading A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee WilliamsHow did you find it?
