By David Maillu
Published January 27, 2024
It is a fallacy that Kenyans don’t read. That is a sweeping statement.
If Kenyans don’t read, they would not be going to school. So, to start
with, Kenyans are excellent readers in school. The devil is in the
details of what they should read after school.
Let us start the argument by asking why should anyone read after school and if he has to read, what’s there for him to read? I started writing and publishing in the late 1960s when the argument was broader that Africans don’t read. I took that as a challenge by writing and publishing the little book, “Unfit for Human Consumption.” I went for the first print run of 5,000 copies. I didn’t publicize the book in
media houses because I didn’t have the money for advertising. Despite
that, the 5,000 copies were consumed within eight months. Then I went for a print run of 20,000 copies which were quickly consumed. By then I had published MY DEAR BOTTLE and AFTER 4.30, each with the first printrun of 10,000 copies. The copies went quickly into hungry minds. The books and my name went beyond Kenya to East Africa and thereafter beyond.
RELATED: How Colonial Education System Destroyed Africa
Who were the people who reading them at a time when Africans did not read novels? The move I made killed the claim that Africans don’t read because I gave them what they wanted to read. So, as of today, when did they stop reading, and if they did, why?
The real story is that people did not stop reading. I have met countless people who ask me, “Or, are you still writing? Are you the Maillu who used to write?” The answer has been, “It is you who stopped reading because, since then, I have been writing and publishing.
RELATED: Why Imorality Rules the World
Something dreadful has happened which has frustrated reading after school. People have not been active in writing books that people want to read, and publishers have moved away from general books to school books. The government, which should be the custodian of mental development, has not done anything to address the culture of reading in the nation. Furthermore, even when a book is published, nothing is done to let people about its existence. Bookshops have become few and the ones that are there are only interested in the fast-selling schoolbooks.
You hardly see books reviews. Media houses don’t think much about published books. This is a story common in African governments. The culprit bewitching people against reading, therefore, remains our primitive governments.
For instance, I come from the Akamba community with a population of nearly five millions. Do Akamba have even one public library? It’s the same to other tribes in Kenya – the Luyias, Kikuyus, Kalenjins?
Mention the devolution of the government with 47. None of these counties has a public library. How many libraries are there in Nairobi, leave alone other cities? How many people know where the Kenya Library is in Nairobi? Visit the library and find what books are available and get the shock of your life.
RELATED: Why the Cost of Sex is a National Problem
To talk about people who don’t like reading is like saying people don’t like being employed when the jobs are not there. Human problems and interests that make people read do not end at the school level. People love getting information in search of meaning in life. The social community is hungry for reading books that would help them interpret their world, solve their problems, address mental development, enjoy the pleasure of reading, and so on.
A culture without books is a primitive culture. You can’t develop the culture of any community in the modern world without books. Christianity is heavily supported by published books. The Bible is a fast-selling book. Why should people want to read the Bible but not other books?
Developed countries treat reading culture religiously.
Book publishers are short-sighted in overall community development.
Take a novel to them, or any book outside class work and they will frown
at you. But those publishers are also fighting the battle of life and
death through facing the wrath of the government. One day an ivory tower
educationist decides to change the curriculum without informing
publishers by giving them time to sell out their stock. Suddenly the
school curriculum changes only to find publishers with stocks of
millions of shillings from bank loan money whereby the books become
outdated. The publisher is destroyed instantly. The government has been
killing publishing companies; hence killing the publishing industry and
reading culture.
RELATED: Thrown into frustration and desperation by the State
As if to an insult to an injury, the government imposes levy on
materials used for publishing, paper in the lead. Then the published
books are taxed. Consequently, books become too expensive and luxury
items to the ordinary person.
The government has no policy whatsoever on intellectual development. In
developed countries cost of books, essential for mental and social
development, is subsided. In Kenya, why should paper for printing be
taxed instead of being subsidized? The publisher is the most important
agent in cultural development. Publishers should enjoy government
subsidies to enable them to publish affordable books. Ask yourself, who
controls the bookshop industry in Kenya?
To develop the book, trade many book avenues are put in place. Go to the
airport and find out whether any person arriving or flying out of the
country can buy a book anywhere. Visit airports and transport quarters
in developed countries and you will find big displays of books. The book
is the only means of selling our intellectual property to the world.
