Why don’t Kenyans read books? That is the lament of many a writer, publisher and intellectual.
We don’t have that many bookshops in this country – and most of the successful ones are forced to sell a whole range of other items, from CDs to greeting cards. Equally, it’s rare to find a writer who makes a good living just from writing, and you won’t see many publishers in Kenya’s rich list. Writing, publishing and selling books in Kenya is mostly just a labour of love.
This is not the case everywhere. Billions of books are sold every year across the world, and books are a multi-billion-dollar industry. Meanwhile, Americans are lamenting that one in four of them did not read any books at all last year. Those who did read, however, read an average of seven books. I’m not sure I’d want to see the figures for Kenya.
So what’s stopping Kenyans? The obvious reason may be poverty: books seem to cost anything from 500 bob to a few thousand. A single book may therefore constitute a large part of the average Kenyan’s disposable income. Not forgetting that if there are books that parents need to invest in, those are textbooks.
It is certainly true that books need to be made more affordable in Kenya. But hey, why do we need to always buy books? What happened to public libraries, school libraries and even the plain old-fashioned pool of books that friends share? I didn’t grow up with too much disposable income myself, but that was the way I managed to read – by borrowing, by coercing, by exchanging and by saving.
I skulked around the McMillan library, and around the few second-hand bookshops in Nairobi. I also had the benefit of having a father who told me never to consider a book – any book – as a cost: always as an investment. I took that advice to heart: even during the lowest-income moments of my life, I have never stopped buying books. I know they’ll pay me back.
There is clearly a public policy issue here: do we, as a country, give enough attention to books? Clearly not. Pay a visit to a public library (if you can find one) and see for yourself. Check if the love of reading is conveyed to children by their teachers and parents. We squander public resources on all the silly things under the sun, but not on the things that might actually improve us as a nation: books.
The truth remains, however, that if we valued books we’d find ways of reading them. If we thought books were the key to a more knowledgeable, more agreeable life we would beg and borrow our way to that treasure. We don’t. We confine our reading to the turgid textbooks that some committee sitting somewhere decides we should all read when young. That experience puts us off for life. After that, we confuse information for knowledge and get it from newspapers, magazines, television and the internet. But not from books.
What a crying shame that is. “What we become depends on what we read after all the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books”, said Thomas Carlyle. I would have to agree: two degrees have given me nothing in comparison to what I have learned from my collection of books.
Kenyans who complain about not having access to higher education are spurning the greatest treasure trove of knowledge there is. Whatever it is you want to know, someone somewhere has probably written a very good book about it (alongside many bad ones). The only drawback is that an institution won’t give you a certificate after you finish; all you’ll have is your personal satisfaction.
Lastly, a good word for fiction. I have come across people who refuse to read fiction saying that they want facts, not the product of someone’s imagination. Yet those same people have no qualms about watching a ridiculously overblown movie.
Fiction is not made-up nonsense. A writer does not enter a sealed vacuum and erase her memory before sitting down to write a story. Stories are rooted in reality, in experience, in all the things we have absorbed about life. All that a story does is provide you with a different lens with which to look at the world – and see new things, hitherto unobserved. The late and much lamented Primo Levi defined a story thus: “A fable that awakens echoes, and in which each of us can perceive distant reflections of himself and of the human race.”
Think of it this way: a person sits down to put some squiggles on a page. Decades later, thousands of miles away, you read those squiggles. If they are good, you may find yourself feeling extreme emotion: tears of connection with someone else’s heartbreak; raging anger at someone else’s injustice; a moment of breathtaking revelation when you understand something very clearly. All from some squiggles on a page. If that isn’t magical, tell me what is.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sunny,
I agree with your insight regarding the culture/practice of not reading. In addition to the reasons you have outlined, most Kenyans’ mindsets are not “tuned” to reading. It’s perhaps the “schooling”(8-4-4 system) that makes it so uninteresting for a lot of individuals. There need to be innovative ways to inspire interest in reading both for the highly educated and the lowly educated persons. One way that a friend has found is gifting friends with inspirational books. He regards this as an investment and a fun way of spreading knowledge to those around him. Another way would be through book clubs.
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Duncan:
Reading is infectious. When I was a boy, the love of books was put in me by my parents and by various teachers. I was also in a circle of friends who would discuss books – often just popular thrillers – with much zest. That’s what seems to be missing today: role models and support groups.
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Sunny, “hii watu hawasomi kwa sababu viongozi wao hawaandiki.”
Kenyans fail to read because their intellectuals are not writing enough. It’s rare to see op-eds by university professors, corporate leaders and impartial politicians. Isn’t their opinion supposed to cultivate newspaper-reading, which would later lead to interest in the books they write? The late Wahome Mutahi succeeded in that.
Great Website, Sunny !!!
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Kenyanomics:
Lakini, kwa nini viongozi hawaandiki? Could it be because “hawasomi”?
It is that much easier to write a lot if you read a lot. Reading and writing go hand in hand. I fear the lack of a reading culture goes very high up. It’s hard to imagine too many of our big shots curling up with a good book…
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Sunny,
Hi. I’m glad to see your collection of articles online. As far as why Kenyans don’t read … I’d assign blame to the two previous dictatorships that did not encourage decentralized production of knowledge because this would unsettle the balance of power between the political elite and the masses … knowledge, as we know, is power. I think that Kenya’s declining economic fortunes during that period also helped distract the attention of most parents and teachers from the work of instructing their children and wards how to fish. In those days, people were content if they could just give their children fish.
Unfortunately, in none of today’s discussions on empowerment do you find emphasis being placed on helping individuals learn how to produce knowledge for themselves. Most discussions revolve around affirmative action, financial aid, etc., all of which are necessary but only short-term solutions. The way forward? I would recommend a mandatory and healthy dose of historical studies, especially studies on how societies develop, why they adopt the values they do, and how their choices lead to success or failure as historical entities. I believe that if people brought this background to their reading of literature it would become more meaningful for them (especially novels) and would reinvigorate our national politics.
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I think if we valued reading books, we would find a way to save our money and buy them. Think of the strenuous efforts we make to buy shoes, clothes, cars, shares during IPOs, etc, but not books.
Along Kenyatta Avenue as you approach The Stanley, there’s a mobile phone shop, men’s clothes shop and a bookshop. Guess where the majority of pedestrians will be window shopping.
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I almost forgot to add a comment about writers. The only surefire way for an aspiring Kenyan writer to launch his writing career is to participate in foreign competitions and hope he/she wins, like Binyavanga Wainaina.
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Kamau:
I’ve noticed that too about window shopping. Books aren’t even aspirational any more! When I was a boy I would lurk around all the bookshop windows as though I was at a sweet shop…
AM:
You make 2 very thoughtful points: 1) There is certainly an unspoken agenda to keep people ignorant, as it suits our current political set-up very well; 2) We always emphasise knowledge as freebies. Why don’t we all learn to find it and earn it for ourselves?
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Hiyo ni kweli, Bwana Sunny. Reading comes before writing. But how do we get our leaders to start reading literature? Some of them are passing parliamentary bills without reading them.
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Sunny,
The only reason I can think of as to why we don’t go out there and create our own knowledge is because we haven’t been challenged to do it. We are never encouraged to be different, either as individuals or as a nation. The only encouragement anyone is likely to get is to improve their education (so they can get a good job).
Why aren’t we challenged to create our own knowledge (or even accumulate it outside established channels)? Because few Kenyans think that knowledge is redemptive. When they see a book they see paper instead of ideas. Knowledge can be redemptive if we believe it can help us transcend our circumstances.
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Dear Sunny,
I rarely miss out your articles. I really liked the one you wrote recently ‘ Books are the key to better life’. Though I am a book lover I sometimes fail to choose the right titles as you don’t get what you need in the local shops. We end up buying what is available. Can you help every one by clarifying the below:
1. Best Book Shop in Nairobi
2. Top 10 titles recomended by you on self help and management issues.
3. What is the best way of buying books from overseas?
4. Is buying books from online stores like Amazon Books wise?
5. Do you recomend any particular website that gives latest information about the books on various topics?
Please provide replies where possible as this may help many.
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Kandadi:
1) Best bookshop: for you to discover and decide for yourself!
2) Best management books: I profile them regularly in the ‘Thought Leadership’ column in the Business Daily every Friday. You can follow it on this website
3) Buying overseas: I have used Amazon regularly for years without any problem
4) Websites: Metacritic.com; the Complete Review; Guardian Unlimited Books.
Hope that helps. If any of you have other suggestions, please post.
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I totally agree with what Duncan has written, that most Kenyans’ minds are not tuned to reading. My best bets would be because of the rigorous 8-4-4 education system most of the young generation have gone through as well as the kind of marketing books have received over the decades. Publishers have yet to come out of their cocoons to seriously market books as an alternative form of entertainment.
I usually see people queueing in the morning and evening waiting for matatus to take them to work and home respectively, yet very few of them can be seen holding a publication (not necessarily a book) and reading it! To my calculation, that’s 3-4 hours everyday queueing while staring at nothing.
Look at how much people spend on airtime in a month and you will conclude that it is not the cost of books that is discouraging Kenyans to read. It is more poor public policy by the government as well as lack of proper market research activities on the side of publishers. The result? Readers not getting what they want to read, at least locally done.
Otherwise, I just came across this site today. Serendipity, they call it. Brilliant effort!!!!
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Edwin
Welcome aboard! Please spread the word.
I like your calculation: 3 hours a day staring into space instead of at wisdom!
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Hey Sunny,
Thanks a lot for your lovely articles that are really inspiring and challenge me in so many ways. What you say about the Kenyan reading culture is really true and the books that people get to read are those that are academic particularly those that will help one pass exams.
Personally I love reading and read a lot – both academic and extra-academic books – and although many times my lifestlye may not allow be to be a regular reader, I try as best as I can to read one book in a month…I can stay a whole day in bed just so that I can finish a book I am reading instead of watching a movie.
I love to read the thoughts of other people and their outlook and somehow share their experiences with them, and this leads me to my second hobby…writing. I do write a lot and maybe some day I’ll be a professional writer. I am glad to read from gifted and talented writers like you who inspire me to someday take it up as a career and no longer as a pastime.
As Kenyans we do need to build the interest in reading books and just the same way that we have vigorous and intensive campaigns to phase out corruption and HIV then we should equally active campaigns to make Kenya a reading nation.
Thanks for your articles,
Write on !
Imaan
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It is interesting to note that kids are fast taking cues from the parents who are failing the young ones. Many opt to page through glossy magazines full of visual cues or watch the electronic media instead of treating themselves to books.
I remember in my young days we would sit around in class and open the world atlas and we would mention a tiny, almost obscure city in one of the pages (including Kenya) and try to locate it within a space of a short time. The other times I would go over the Encyclopaedia Britannica and it was full of information that I found interesting even at a young age. I think it’s time to revitalize this as reading itself opens up minds and is a sure way to invite ideas that deliver oneself from bondage. I am a petroleum engineer by trade now and I recently ended up here in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska – a small city that I pinpointed in the atlas and read about in the encyclopaedia long ago.
Someni vijana.
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I do agree, because truly it’s a disease that is eating away at the future of Kenyans. As a matter of fact I would say that many Kenyans give up easily when it comes to matters where stiff competition is a factor. They would rather take a vacation or attend some of those launch ceremonies of machines or electronics that most can’t afford just to buy time and have something to talk about or admire.
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Sunny I concur with you 100%. Even more evident was the draft constitution: even if it was supplied for free, ask how many Kenyans read it. You will be shocked.
Just as someone once said: “If you want to hide anything from an African, put it in writing!!!” Once thieves broke into my house, took everything and left books intact!
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Hi Sunny, I surprised to see your article last sunday coz as long as I can remember our Sunny always shows political and some other facts that look funny which keep us entertained but this time it kept us thinking until I could get myinterest back…. I always like reading but daily life has withdrawn my interest and it was going empty like cellphone credit. Thanks very much for setting me back and regaining my interest.
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Hi sunny i read it on website but kenyas dont like to be tiyed. For my cause i have tried to estaburished a resource center and a community libray but i have lacked the materials such books and aslo money to go on.My request is that if u can help me to those things alot of people in our community esipecially youth can read and be eductated.the name of my group is called unity youth forum which is at Kiambu district in Githunguri division in Kiratina location.You can call me on 0721-944057,0720-045196 or 0721-580306 and i wiill be happy if u call me.may god bless u.
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Hi Sunny,
I happened to read your article in Business Daily website. It was so inspiring that I immediately visited your site to find out if I can get more articles. Ever since I have been logging on to your site daily. You have rekindled my interest to read books. Thanks
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Sunny:
. So, please:
I have not been able to find used books shops in Nairobi. Maybe deep inside Mukuru kwa Njenga or wherever
give us a few addresses of aniquarian booksellers !
Thanks, Alexander
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Alexander:
When I was a boy, there were two good second-hand bookshops in Nairobi. I frittered away much of my youth there. Both were run by Goan ladies, but neither survived.
Chand at Bookstop Yaya has a second-hand section and usually makes valiant attempts to find books for you. Try him.
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