Two weeks ago I wondered why Kenyans don’t read books, and the comments have come in thick and fast (you can follow the best of them on www.sunwords.com). This is clearly a subject that perplexes many people. So let us spend some more time examining the issue again.
A number of readers pointed out that poverty is NOT the cause. Kenyans spend a billion dollars every year giving revenue to just two companies: East African Breweries and Safaricom. That is not essential spending. Kenyans buzz like bees around a honeycomb whenever an initial public offering (IPO) of shares is announced. In virtually every such offering, large amounts of money have to be sent back to eager shareholders. We now have hundreds of investment clubs in the country - but precious few book clubs.
There is money in Kenya - but it’s not being channelled into books. People find more fulfilment in reading and sending hundreds of utterly trivial and utterly dispensable text messages than they do in buying a good book and absorbing its contents. Kenyans see shares as a worthwhile investment - but do not see the same benefit in making an investment in knowledge.
Why not, though? One reader puts the blame squarely at the feet of parents. Show me a child who loves reading, he says, and I’ll show you parents who love reading. This rings true. Our key role models as children are undoubtedly our parents. If they demonstrate great joy in reading and have plenty of books lying around the house, the kids will follow suit. If parents dismiss reading as ‘ngumu’, the children are also going to take the easy route of being entertained by the TV set.
Another line of argument blames national role models: politicians, business leaders, community elders, even religious leaders. When was the last time you heard a great speech in Kenya that quoted a great book or a great writer? In other countries politicians are keen to impress the notion that they are readers of great works (whether truthfully or not). Until quite recently, our national worthies didn’t write books. Slowly, a culture of writing candid memoirs is emerging, and adding greatly to the national knowledge pool about our own history.
We can all imagine our ‘big people’ holding goat-eating sessions; it’s hard to picture many of them carrying a book around.
Some readers smell conspiracy in all of this. Knowledge is power, after all, and it must suit the political classes very well to keep the people ignorant. Certainly a well-read electorate would not queue up obediently at polling stations to ‘vote tribe’ every five years. An informed mass of voters would see through the nonsensical, illogical arguments put to them by their overlords. A discerning populace would vote with discernment. ‘Keep ‘em stupid’ - and therefore far away from books - would appear to be a winning political strategy thus far.
Arguably, our own publishers cannot walk away unscathed from all this. We have an archaic publishing industry: one that focuses almost exclusively on textbooks; one that takes few chances; one that produces poorly produced books at high prices. A reading culture is in the interest of these business-people: but when was the last time you saw an innovative marketing event around a book?
I attended a media breakfast recently to discuss the issue of reading in Kenya. As expected, it was poorly attended (although the quality of the few enthusiasts who showed up more than made up for the lack of quantity). Guess where everyone was? Well, the famous Hummer vehicle was being launched at a nearby hotel that same morning. That event caused traffic jams all around, as it was the place to be.
So we would all much rather appear at a glitzy event to launch a gas-guzzling vehicle that most of us will never own. A few good books, on the other hand, have the power to transform lives and livelihoods - but they remain on the shelves, unloved and unread. One reader entertainingly observed that most Nairobians spend as many as three hours every day commuting while staring into space. If only they would stare at a book instead, that would be such a productive use of their time?
Most people seem to stare at books and see paper instead of ideas. Yet those ideas hold genuine power to improve lives. Hear it from the greats: “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them”, said Mahatma Gandhi. Lincoln and Jefferson placed great importance in books; so does Nelson Mandela.
Ask Henry Ward Beecher what a book is, and you will get the answer: “A garden; an orchard; a storehouse; a party; a multitude of counsellors”. What on earth is literacy for? Mark Twain told us: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.”
No one should read because someone else tells them to. Everyone should read because it is what makes being human worthwhile.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
30 Responses:
September 19th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Saulo:
Thanks for the contribution from a publisher’s perspective. We don’t doubt that textbooks is where the money is - it’s a captive market, no creative effort required. But the publisher that cracks the general reading market will clean up in Kenya one day. It is uncontested territory, and requires creative thinking and innovative marketing in order to popularise good literature.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Thanks all: I am overwhelmed by the interest this topic seems to evoke. Clearly, we have a core group of avid readers in the land. May their numbers expand!
September 17th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Sunny, I keep wondering: if Kenyans do not buy books how come publishers have growing lists? Maybe what we need to say is that Kenyans do not read as much as they should. I would like to share one or two things, given that I work for a publishing firm.
First, the issue of focusing on textbooks. In the Kenyan publishing industry, making class texts brings in money. The reason publishers exist is to make a profit. It is the publishing of class texts that enables us to support the less profitable publishing of novels
We do take several chances when it comes to publishing readers. You only need to visit our warehouses and look at the dead stock to see this. Still, this does not dissuade us from publishing. At East African Educational Publishers, we consider ourselves the home of the African story. We have ‘discovered’ several writers, many of whom have won national and international awards.
In terms of quaity of books, I beg to differ somewhat. Due to the vibrant printing industry we have as well as the competition brought about by the vibrant publishing industry, quality has had to go up. As a matter of fact, when the school book project started, donors placed tough conditions thinking that we would be unable to meet them thereby letting them in. I am proud to say that they found us up to the task.
In terms of marketing, I fully agree with you. Could it be that not many people are reading ‘our’ books because we are not giving them what they require? Another thing to remember is that publishers tend to be rather conservative. This is publishing’s biggest problem. In addition to this, they deal with intermediaries rather than directly with the end user.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Hi Sunny, for you to highlight the problem as well as KTN shows that we have a problem at hand. But solutions? There is no need of talking about the issue if we are not willing to take action and address the matter at hand. So I vouch for the ‘book club’ idea, that would be my solution. Wangui Munyua and Kyambi Kavali, that would make us three, anyone else, be part of the solution (mine, what is yours?) not the problem.
September 14th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Blacks don’t read.
That was the title of an email forward that I once read that made me change my attitude about books. I now get at least 3 books in my monthly budget, and am glad to. Say the least for embracing a reading culture.
September 12th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
In relation to your Sunday article: while passing through BuruBuru , I saw a very magnificent public library building coming up. Maybe help is on the way for the perennially drunk (pubbing) population of the area!
September 12th, 2007 at 8:31 am
boooks have eormous pwer which we all tend to downplay .there are people who claim that theres nothing in a book that cannot be found in television faster. I dont know how true that is but for sure we all know that the effects of television have only decline dhte moral standards of this country.
if anyone is keen he would readily agree with me that only the negative issues about tv are the ones that intrigue the youth who ironically are expected to take over the leadership of this country.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
You know something, this are the kinds of issues we should make as election issues. We can ask the Presidential Candidates, how will you improve kenya’s reading culture, it can also ensure employment for for writers and movie makers.
Now that you started it, what about giving a day in school for doing other things other that Chalk and board? I remember back in the 80s we use to have time to read. Otherwise the Hardy Boys and Hardley Chases, Sidney Sheldons, Alfred Hichkocks, Fredrick Forseth, Jefferey Athurs and the likes would not have made it big here. We also read lots of those African Writers Spearamints. And the time can also be used for other extra-curriculum activities such as sports, science projects, drama etc,
And we can give our writers lots of significance if we used their books to make Kenyan Block Busters through KBC.
reading brings in lots of Possibilities
Bindra i think you should republish this article in the newspapers again and again.
September 11th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Hi
I truly enjoyed your article on Kenyans’ reading habits and got informed too. I must say that I also started reading at an early age, and fiction at that.
What irks me most is this breed of Kenyans who have come up with reading motivational books thinking that there’s nothing to learn from fiction books! I beg to differ! In fact some just read them because they are the in thing and by the way some are just not cut out for the Kenyan market when it comes to how to get rich quick.
Thank, Sunny
Keep on keeping on
September 11th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Just had a thought - are there any good public libraries available in Kenya? Maybe there should be more emphasis on making libraries available all over the country like they do here in the UK. It’s absolutely free. When my son is old enough to read we’ll be spending a lot of our time in our local library. Could this public facility encourage more people to read in Kenya?
September 11th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
The education system needs to change. In this country there is too much emphasis on rote leaning and it is often rewarded. Solid grasp of principles is not required. At the KCPE level for instance, all one needs to do is do one exam after another and you will pass. Even the people who should appreciate wide reading such as university professors don’t. Consequently, all that a university student needs to do to pass a paper is to cram his notes. Any wonder then that this people never read after college. I insist, the education system has to change.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Sunny,Most tellingly your article put perceptive literary chemistry on paper to help us witness transient planets known only to those who read.This forces me to choose to ‘read’ to understand the psychic galaxies and milky-ways of reading to understand. Unfortunately,I missed all the fantacy some may experienced for only ‘those who read’ would know the rivers and dykes of the ‘impotent world’ of not reading. By the way,is it possible for a ‘normal’ being like some of us to imitate Sunny’s readership and exactly perceive and picture out what he encounters without pretence? I beg to differ for I cannot choose to pretend to understand what happens in another’s literary world,Heaven or Mars alike,unless I’m its denizen and maybe until when I experience intense exam ‘injustice’.At the same time does Sunny feel any litarary pain while expressing ‘his’ cries,screams,laughter and fidgeting and is this a qualification for ‘litarary impotence’? If society does,then I should believe that pain is not subject to individual perception and that society determines its severity and duration,whether phantom or real. Certainly no human being can prove to be always ‘potent’ for there is no measure for normalcy evn when it comes to reading.Thus a genius may still be ‘less normal or super-mad’ with this impotence.What of those who claim to have experiences a miracle,seen an angel or died and resurrected? Maybe all our lives drive long periodic illusory paths and subjective perceptions that we call ‘reality’. Unlike readership,Sunny believes that our is a ‘powerless and impotent’ state of mental malnutrition.
Our fault,as society, is finding judgement by generalizing about the ‘normalcy’of all of society on the basis of our own experiences that come from few ‘different’ people and experiences. We lose our consistency of identity by being obsessed with how ‘others’ (and not us) are mentally’ regurgitated’ by not reading only to end up being victims of mob-criticism. I hope society would this time round desist to define literary expressions of grief and happiness.For there are individuals,through societal backing who shed tears more often than those who are emotionally attached to books than those who aren’t. When society,as opposed to an individual,creates identity measures,it is presumed to be ‘broad and complex’ to define and fit that same individual.As a fact,society errs by constructing psychic individuals by pulling strings while majority modify and complicate the stooge.There are no absolute mentalities except those that we create with consequences like ‘powerlessness’ to counter. Moreso, we are all fascinated,not frustrated,by what we read though we should take caution not to misuse the power of ‘literary elusivity’. Our confusion,thus is seen when we continue to excuse society from accepting responsibility for its deficiencies in our lifestyles and behaviour.I wonder who is the author of our life positions and life scripts that society often and precociously choose to use to define ‘literary impotence’. Anyone who is congruent,whether an MP or not,can offer part of the solution.The main bone is giving direction to those who sees no need of reading while looking for answers to his/her life callenges. But are books the right avenues and approaches for solutions or is it that we are stuck due to societal limitations or otherwise. Yes! An individual’s literary consciousness represents what is being experienced and what is symbolized as part of that person’s self-concept and that no one has a right to determine his mental stability for more books. Such an experience between self and someone’s literary experience is the basic enstrangement in our society with our behaviors directed by the self. The subjective nature of ‘reality’ does not imply all-accepting value of societal judgement .It is like applying animate analogues to help solve human problems.Sunny failed to logically deal with the ‘non-reading mentality’ rationally rather he gave in to an irrational demand by describing his readership and percepton and not that of a person who knows not the benefits of reading. For the sake of maintaining positive regard of others,we should remain true to who we really are(not as techno-readers) than to perceive values only in terms of our reading values to others.Though this is not a conscious choice to lie to ourselves but rather a natural and tragic society’s developmental demand right from the time we start to read. This self-incongruent subceived self is threatening due to the fact that subseption defines the ability of one to discriminate an idea/feeling at a level below that which is perceived normal. Surprisingly,my society teaches me to compulsively fear leasure ‘books’ and reading. Our existence is best understood as being-in-the-world,not in another person’s world,because mental diversity and uncertainty are not simplistic,exhausted and limited. How I define mental literary impotence is relative to my readership personality,not society’s.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
It is not too late to read. Let us all start to read now and leave excuses behind.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:10 am
IGNORANCE IS KILL(SS)ING KENYANS:
From our politicians to ordinary Kenyans…most amongst us are pretenders and very peculiar in many ways.
There is at least one thing in life that is beyond good and evil, that is ourselves for there are not absolutes except those that we create. This ‘stinking thinking’ among most Kenyans has contributed to our literary non-progressiveness. I’m not trying to justify this ‘controversy’ as many would put it.
From what I have been gathering even through contributions from your article, many of us have opted to talk, judge and decide for others and by the personal standards that we selectively choose to have and going to an extent of ‘provoking’ others with platitudes on how we should thinks and say. We only create monologues and less dialogue as conflict when we choose to have intercourse of verbal-violence than to write to prove a point that do not offer alternatives and options
The point is that to be authentic is to be honest with ourselves first even in the face of nothingness. Beliefs learnt at childhood have refused to leave many of us..whether religious, sexual, moral, political.. name it.. In fact many of what we believe in are pure ‘prejudices and myths’. By the way who is the ruler of our lives?
Must we ‘religiously’ maintain the approval of our parents or friends, as if our existence is depended on them? What about we as individuals and our personal stands?
Many of us expect the world to treat us fairly, as if the world can conform to our innate wishes or what we would deem right to hear and make us smile more.
A well known psychotherapist/psychoanalyst, Prof. (Dr.) Albert Ellis, stated in some workshop that’ “the purpose of life is to have a fucking good time”.. He believes, in one of his books, in going right to the heart of an issue without mincing words even if someone else might get anxious or upset. Being upset/angry, to him, is the other person’s problem and not his.
Personally, I never mince words ‘only meat when I want to make some sweet yummy Samosa’. I strongly believe in him because all of us have different living philosophies and each should be respected no matter how bad, dirty or bitter they may appear to be..if not then, how then should we classify and define homosexuality, prostitution, porno, atheism, witchcraft e.t.c, even all these exist and they shall always be with us to stay. Death, alcohol, sex, porno, abortion (name it) may be denied by the so called ‘pretenders’ but these shall never cease to be there. Life would still move on and create even more complications in form of challenges!!!
Kenyans-on-EARTH, we should learn to accept differences as opportunities for growth and maturity, by even accepting our mistakes and not as reasons for conflict.
Try this…ask a Kenyan a simple question.. he/she would hesitate to give an answer but will only give one after someone else does and if only it has been answered RIGHT…we live by the standards that our friends choose for us as we please them and then get stupid praises….and smiles for our massaged egos.
An example is SEX…who said that sex requires sanctification…is it us, the society religious books or our intimate sexual feelings that are more biological than moral and religious? Just wondering!
I have read the book, ‘Sex without Guilt’.. and it says that we should not justify sex by some higher value than the purely intrinsic pleasure it produces.. that of biological sexual pleasure…At the same time where is the evidence that sex and love must go together?
Should blaming or cursing be part of accepting reality that is always elusive to many? To my mind reality entails accepting limits no matter how hard they appear to be.
My friends ask me what the ANSWER to life is. I tell them that life is first of all not a QUESTION to be solved but a process to be experienced. We should thus not , as Kenyans, decide who shall die, who a lunatics, genius or fool is…For those…religious, moral and social fanatics, you shall ever be defensive even by faith alone without facts and be always static and confined ‘inside the box’ as you limit growth in many ways.
Thus existence is best understood as being in-the-world, the Kenyan World and not planet PLATO (where many of us are)….life is limitless and boundaries and blocks that we create only make us to be ‘resistant to learn and grow’.. we become more stupid…..and confined. It is true that the world that we relate to is our own construction…what you or I say or do determines how our future generation would live.
A practical example…Jesus Christ, J.F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jnr, Malcolm X, Mother Teressa and others were targets of violence, hatred, blame and discrimination because they reminded some ‘very static’ individuals of how empty and inauthentic their ideas and lives were in comparison. They brought change to the world with the ‘different opinions’ that they had with them.
Certainly any Kenyan trying to control any human being, be it Kenyan or not is essentially destroying and objectifying them…Let us learn not to be primitive and to set standards for others.. In this world no one is right nor wrong…only DIFFERENT. LET US VACATE PLANET PLATO…..DEAR KENYANS…THE EARTH NEEDS US MOST…
Regards,
Mundia Mundia Jnr.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Thank you for echoing this matter on behalf of many out there pleading that our young people go back to reading. Thank you.
September 11th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had decent public libraries all over the country?
Is it an impossible dream?
September 10th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I love bks but to b honest they can b expensive………when the choice is food r a book!
Wud u lend sme1 ur books?
September 10th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Like Mik, I also started reading early: Famous Five, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Sweet Valley High and the Sweet Dreams range.
I was reading much deeper stuff by high school and today I was just reflecting on the fact that I have read seven books in the last 2 or 3 months.
Reading definitely grants access to power. How about this column establishing the first book club: I will sign up as the first member
September 10th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
The question that will always be asked, “Should we blame the Government or the Kenyans buzzing like bees around a honeycomb?” Why shouldn’t any Governement not be able to understand its Citizens?
Kenyans like spending whereas the Government makes every effort to offer “free” education. However, this isn’t a valid point to withstand a test. If the cost of education was made extra expensive like the European system where one may end up spending over 6 Million just to earn a masters, Kenyans will still complain.
I believe Kenyans are just people hard to understand. As a follower, I immediately leave this wagon of Kenyans who don’t want to read and spend most of my cash on books.
September 10th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
If there were no books there could be no world since even our creator talks to us through books like Bible, Quran, Gita etc.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I would like to take the argument from lament to solutions. I think Kenya has come to a point where anything can go…we can very well have our own Oprah if the media houses put themselves to it. Books too can be read and will be read if the right thinking is put in the industry. Part of the solution as you say would be an ingenious marketing strategy; I will call it hype - IPO’s have been hype after all. If reading can be made fashionable, the book industry will soar beyond dreams. But the strategy must be ingenious; imagine if NMG came up with a book publishing division. They have all the basic infrastructure in place; great writers (why did Ken Walibora, a talented nation staffer get published elsewhere while he could have heralded a new chapter for NMG?), publishing house, marketing platform and even distribution machinery. If NMG decided to turn reading around, they would not only be re-imagining Kenya’s reading culture but would be looking at profits as well. The other thing they would have to do is make their books accessible - distributing them through their newspaper vendors in addition to bookshops. I think that is a solution worth exploring
September 10th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Though my father always insisted that we read, he would not let us read a book that was not ‘censored’ by him. So serious was he about this that one day he literally put into flames a book that he found my brother reading, on the claim that it ‘was no good’
(Of course kids will always be kids and more often that not we would have the last laugh). Am now all grown up. I know what books to read. Problem is I have very young siblings between 8 and 14 who are going through the same childhood as I did, regarding books. They want to be left to read anything they want and many times end up ‘fighting’ with my adamant father who will hear none of it; and am speaking for many children at this point. Mark Twain rightfully says: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” Is there a way to make them understand because according to them, books are all the same.
September 10th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Reading has been part of my life. Am a librarian by profession which all began in the Public Library when I was in lower primary. As a parent I ensure my young children grab a new book every month to enhance their reading skills. Am truly proud of that and wish Kenya would be a reading country.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:52 am
I was reading novels by the time I was 10, preceded by the usual range of Enid Blyton books.
Lucky enough to have parents, as well as two elder siblings, who love to read, I had access to everything from ‘The Famous Five’ to ‘The Hardy Boys’ to books by Agatha Christie, Wilbur Smith, Harold Robbins and Tom Clancy.
The fact that there wasn’t much on TV back then meant it was easy to spend a Sunday afternoon getting lost in a story.
Today, my first stop will be a good book for whatever it is I want to learn more about, be it a computer language or how to market my business better.
September 10th, 2007 at 6:29 am
Ben Carson said that reading made him what he is today. That we don’t read is best shown by how shallow our debates are at any one time. We can’t think deeply without reading and the best example is in our parliament where debates are too shallow to say the least.
September 10th, 2007 at 5:38 am
I learned to read from my father when I was very young. He fostered a love for books in me which has lasted over 15 years. Over the years I have come to notice that most non-readers tend to have limited vocabulary, poor grammar and poor writing skills. This is particularly evident in my university class where some of my fellow students can barely construct a grammatically correct sentence. It really is a pity
September 10th, 2007 at 5:27 am
Very well written series of articles about reading. Kenya is said to have a high number of gradutes both undergrads and masters yet with all that, look how developed we are. My challenge though is to put to action whatever one reads be it a degree or esp A BOOK.
Keep up the good work.
September 10th, 2007 at 5:20 am
Hallo,
I agree with you, reading seems to be the last thing Kenyans want to do. I was listing the items in my house for domestic insurance and when my broker saw the value of the books, he wondered if I run a library at home as a business. I told him that I have many books that I value very much and that if my house caught fire and every person was out of danger, my next priority would be to remove my books from the house. He was quite surprised.
I have always read, from biographies to motivational books, Christian literature etc. My two best friends are readers also and that means I have access to many other books, the only trouble is that we are so similar in our approach to life we seem to have the same type of books. I have wanted to join a book club but was not able to get people who would be interested and discussing a book with my friends, although always fun, tends to like discussing it with myself. We are wired in very similar ways and have the same faith and approach to life. Do you think you could help me and maybe a few others who may be interested in forming a small book club?
Thanks and keep writing, we enjoy your articles
September 9th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
o growup bindra…it starts like these then eventually people leave notes on your door…we wouldnt want that would we..?
September 9th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
As an email trail going round some time back aptly asked, “how do you hide something from Kenyans?” Answer-put it in a book.
We generally have an aversion to intellect and thus reading doesn’t make it into our priority list. It’s something nice for someone else to have, not for the majority of us.
And yes, it does put us in unfavorable position against our role model nations such as Taiwan and Singapore.