Promote reading culture

“If you want to hide anything from an African, just put it in a book”. This old adage suggests that Africans lack a reading culture and/or habit. Is it true?

I don’t think so. I don’t think that the culture of reading in Zimbabwe to be more specific, is declining but it might not be growing fast enough.

The high cost of books and other reading materials contributed to the pathetic situation. The slow economic growth could be partly responsible for this slow growth.

Another problem is the lack of coherent book development policies. Local publishers have interest in only primary and secondary textbooks and so do not encourage authorship of other books.

As a result, lack of access to reading materials published in the local or vernacular language discourages people from reading.

Our public libraries are poor in local content but full of outdated and foreign materials.

Reading is a habit which should be developed at a very early age. To promote a reading culture amongst children and the broader community, the government should outsource and distribute books to local libraries and schools.

Making literature available will create a good reading, writing and speaking culture and lead to the enjoyment of the reading and learning process.     

The government should also promote use of community and public libraries. The general public should be exposed to proper library and information-seeking skills.

Students, school leavers and members of the society can be assisted by qualified library staff to select books, read, solve word problems and have interactive learning sessions - Lazarus Sauti.