top of page
Search

Fostering a Love for Reading: Strategies to Promote a Reading Culture in Africa

  • ella1525
  • Jul 7
  • 2 min read
What Could Writers Do to Promote Reading?
What Could Writers Do to Promote Reading?

Why We Struggle With Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa


1. Socioeconomic Factors- unaffordability of books -


Earnings and outgoings spent on essentials instead e.g.- grocery shopping, utilities, bills, transportation, healthcare.


Electricity costs to read online material are expensive.


Most people log on to the internet on smartphones and have no space to download pdfs of books. WhatsApp is expensive to use in Nigeria.


2. Labour-Intensive Activities -


In Sub-Sahara activities such as household chores are time-consuming so little or no time is left over to read in the evening or weekends.


3. Reading Is Not an Integrated Part of State Policies –


Reading is not functional because most African States do not communicate via emails, letters or Bulletins with citizens to encourage the need to read information-bearing material.


4. Disinterest –


Children are not raised to like reading. Adults prefer spoken word to written Literature.


5. Inability to Read -


Many people have been disenfranchised by the unequal access to education in sub-Sahara due to cost and family-burden. School uniforms, textbooks and university fees are expensive and often not subsidised by local governments.


How to Promote a Reading Culture in Africa


1. Set up book clubs where people congregate


For e.g. – Churches and Mosques. After Service, please hold a brief book club. Use appropriate books.


2. States should actively promote adult literacy in sub-Saharan Africa with free or state-subsidized classes.


Bring NGOs onboard. Adult literacy classes in Sierra Leone are unaffordable.


3. Institute a National Reading Day-


Choose a national writer, celebrate their books and encourage citizens to read them.


4. Run Writing Competitions to choose a National Poet-laureate.


Use them to champion reading of easy-to-understand poetry.


5. Use the Nali’bali Model from South Africa


‘It Starts With a Story.’ African States should provide access to school children, clubs and groups such as girl guides, scouts for NGOs to hand our free reading material. Writers should be roped in to participate. Use Literature from your country. Use books in some local languages too.


6. Use the PPP model-


Read a poem, then move up to a paragraph and then read an entire page. When you find time, please read a whole book. What you grow!


7. Join a library- Adults Not Kids Please.


Governments should run national Join-a-Library campaigns.


8. Encourage families to run reading challenges in their communities


See which family reads the most in a given timeframe and can tell others about the books. Give a reward.


9. Introduce a National Reading Hour in Schools


Mary Mwaba Kafusha et al (2021) [University of Zambia] have called for a National Reading Hour to be incorporated into the school curriculum. All primary and secondary school children must read for a whole hour every day at school.



 
 
 

1 Comment

Rated 0 out of 5 stars.
No ratings yet
Add a rating
Guest
Jul 21

Insightful

Like

Featured Writer- Bridgette James

A comparative analysis of English Language Use by creatives in two countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, by Bridgette James.

Hypothesis:

Any discussion of ethnolinguistic factors affecting language proficiency cannot be premised without examining the meaning of language. Cambridge Dictionary Online (2023) puts forward a concise definition that would be used in this paper: a system made up of phonemes, words, and grammar rules on how to use that particular language. An emphasis on maintaining a system of rules and standards in order to convey meaning in language is a persuasive argument (Open Learn, 2024).  The language under discussion here is the English used in two sub-Saharan countries, Sierra Leone, English 01 and Malawi, English 02.

Language had two of the meta functions first recognised by Thompson (2014 in Open Learn (2024)  in the creative pieces studied from March 2022 to December 2023: ideational and textual roles. In the poetry and stories analysed writers utilised English language to fictionally represent the world visualised in their imagination to convey written messages in textual forms.

In creative writing a speaker’s language is presumed to influence their thoughts and conceptualisation of ideas, validating the theory purported by German linguist Johann  Georg  Hamann (1905 cited in  De Gruyter Mouton 1968). Wilhelm von Humboldt discuss. Humboldt and Herder reportedly saw an alignment between language use and behavioural patterns affected by the speaker’s culture. Culture here is synonymous with how individuals from the same language community use the language under consideration based on recurrent themes and expressions in their writing. (Britannica, accessed 2023) This research concerns itself with factors affecting proficiency in English language based on common behaviours in aforenamed communities and from henceforth referred to as English 01 and English 02.

History of how English arrived in the chosen communities

​

To give a historical overview, English was transported to Malawi via the similar route of colonisation by Britian and the establishment of English speaking mainly missionary schools on whose premises school age children in  both nations were  taught in English. (Matiki, 2001; accessed in 2024.) A notable feature of the way English arrived in Sierra Leone was through the deportation of freed slaves…

 

Miriam Conteh-Morgan (1997) highlighted the lack of extensive sociological research into the use of English language in Sierra Leone; she argued that it may be due to an [erroneous] perception that English is a native Sierra Leonean language spoken by the Krios. Conteh-Morgan distinguishes the English spoken in Sierra Leone from the native speaker variety- the variation spoken in Sierra Leone has been influenced by indigenous languages. My research unearthed the influence of the Krio language on English evidenced by the lack of subject-verb number coordination in the third person singular in the material of a large cohort of creative writers studied from March 2022 to December 2023.

Role English plays in Malawi

​

To quote A. J. Matiki (2001), English was given official status in 1968 in Malawi when the government designated it as an official language. Mikiti has argues that assigning English such a high status has effectively led to the marginalisation of non-English speakers in the country. My contradictory argument centres on the need for Malawian creative writers to increase the frequency of English use in order to attain proficiency. This research shows a direct link between the use of the language for lengthy periods per day and a demonstration of level of proficiency required for writers.

bottom of page