'It's fact, books are not just paper'

 

Currently, there exists an undesirable situation, whereby young people are “seriously socially deconstructed”.

Therefore, there’s a need for “proper reconstruction” so that the “bolts and nuts” in terms of the thinking philosophy of people in Africa generally and East Africa specifically, can be reformed.

Such correlation was expressed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Professor Elisante ole-Gabriel. He was address ing participants of the Third Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies Conference, at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) last Thursday, on behalf of the Minister, Harrison Mwakyembe.

From the offset, Prof ole-Gabriel made it clear he believed when talking about literature and culture, one is actually looking at the way people behave, which depends on how they think. Therefore, participants, at such a “distinguished” gathering should bear in mind the “Macro Culture”, which he says is also known as the “Four Pillars”.

These “Four Pillars” he listed as being the political, economic, social and technological cultures, which are things, he believes demonstrate and shape how people can be representing themselves and how they will react to various issues.

In so doing, he maintains a person would be “demonstrating their experiences in any case and their expectations”. That is, “Literary and cultural representation” in terms of novels, poems, films, Art and music, as was the case, he pointed out with the Bagamoyo-based singer-songwriter, Vitali Maembe, who had just finished giving a rendition of one of his latest songs called “Today is my Day”.

The Permanent Secretary referred to Maembe as having “made a nice presentation”, which displayed the capacity of local youngsters. “For after and beyond the conflict, violence and warfare, the nation is looking for peace, which is the most important thing,” he stated.

This is where he believes people can be brought together using culture, as the best bonding factor. However-the-case, Prof ole-Gabriel maintains, as leaders, participants of the con ference have the responsibility to demonstrate the direction in which the people have to think.

That is why he suggested during their discussion they should certainly be looking at the challenges that face the continent and specifically East Africa. After referring to a string of conflicts in the regions, Prof ole-Gabriel said the lessons learnt from these undesirable incidences should have woken-up the desire for such things never to happen again.

He asked the participants, who were mainly scholars from various African countries, together with others from the USA and Europe, to make it as practical as possible by focusing on the results. For irrespective what someone might be able to help another with, no one can actually help an individual think.

This idea of literature being a powerful artform was also referred to by Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, Associate Professor Dr Grace Musila, when asked by the ‘Daily news’ for the relevance of the conference.

She referred to literature as having the power not only to educate and promote critical thinking but also to create engagement with a whole range of social issues in a society. “Art helps us to engage with our social challenges, successes, problems and to think through them.

It also promotes critical thinking, which is what the PS was saying earlier. He was talking about the power of culture to shape mindset and in the process to shape society and that’s where literature and culture comes in.

Now that is what we’re interested in,” she said. Dr Musila went on to explain that the conference was particularly on Eastern Africa Literary and Cultural Studies because they felt they needed a platform that would enable scholars, writers, thinkers and producers of knowledge from this area to come together regularly, to exchange ideas and think through the state of their literature and the way it can help them make better sense of the region, its challenges and successes, so as to take it forward.

She saw literature both in English and Kiswahili within the region as being vibrant. Therefore, suggested making more use of audio books, as one action that could be taken in response to the PS’ challenge.

This, she says becomes even more plausible given the growth in radio consumption in the region. Then literature would be more accessible to a wider range of people. Another area, which she suggested that radio would be useful in promoting literature is through drama.

According to her, they are not interested in keeping books within universities but want them to circulate. After-all, she maintains “books are not just the paper” but the ideas, which can provoke others to think differently and stretch their imagination.

Shifting mindset, is very much the work of culture. This in turn can only be done, Dr Musila maintains, when one can imagine themselves wearing someone else’s shoes.