Improving the Nigerian reading culture

Adetan Opemipo

Hi. I’m sure you guys are now accustomed to the genre of posts that we make on this blog. This is not by chance or incontinence; we have found the need to encourage people to cultivate a healthy reading culture in order to help reduce the number of illiterate persons in Nigeria, which recent statistics say is over 40 percent of the population. I will neither review a book today nor compose a welcome back post 😊, What I want to talk about is the reading culture we have (or don’t have) in Nigeria. 

   

Nigeria is a blessed country occupied by individual minds of great capacity and potential. This is evident in the vast number of first class graduates that are produced by Universities in the country. Notwithstanding, I do not care much about academic books when discussing cultivating reading habit because going to school to get a degree has been anointed by our parents and elders as the sure road to success. Don’t misunderstand my point, what I’m saying is I do not bethink academic books that you are necessitated to study in school as elements to consider in improving reading wont.

The issue on ground is, how much of classical and contemporary literature do we take in? How often do we read the newspapers or log on to news websites to know what’s going on around us? How much time and resources do we invest in getting business and finance journals, articles on latest developments in science and technology, books on modern-day ethics and philosophy? Most times, we prefer to remain anachronistic by being stuck in time on the things we’ve learnt years ago and we do not seek to expand our knowledge on these topics. There is a saying which goes thus; “if you want to hide anything from an African, keep it in a book”, because he won't open the book.

Be reminded that African authors like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Thomas Mofolo are story-tellers who took readers on a journey of African folktales just like Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in Beauty and the beast and Engelbert Humperdinck and Wilhelm Grimm in Hansel and Gretel served readers with the middle-age European literature experience. Ainehi Edoro once said, “if Achebe had not happened, Mofolo’s Chaka would have been the Things fall apart of our generation. These authors are wonderful classical African writers who have paved the way for popular contemporary authors like Chimamanda Adichie, Aminatta Forna, Lauren Beukes and Uzodinma Iweala who wrote Beasts of no nation. These authors have written the most popular African best-sellers of the 21st century.

However, what baffles me the most is that Nigerians have not imbibed the reading culture just like compatriot authors have taken pole position in engendering brilliant work of literature. What this means is that foreigners are the ones that mostly appreciate African literal works. For a populace that prides itself in “defending her unity and upholding her glory”, I would say this is not good enough and we have a lot of work to do in appreciating our own work of art.

On a final note, this website and its contributors have dedicated their time and resources to reviewing books for young and zealous minds who are ready to start a movement of “improving the Nigerian reading culture” by also investing their time and resources to literal works. There’s a saying; “the books you read now will determine who you’d be in the next five years”. Who do you want to be, a bright mind or a mediocre?  

Let's know if you have comments on this particular topic. Make use of the comments section below. Your comments are highly appreciated.