ON Monday, July 25, a presenter at the great indaba of this year’s Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) lamented that children do not read and in order for us to get them to read, research has to be done so that we know what interests them.
Cde Alexander Kanengoni, at last year’s ZIBF you were still around with us, and after the different sessions at the Book Fair, I would share some of my experiences with you and you would always respond so forthrightly and you would task me ‘and what did you say about such and such’, and how did you respond: “Zvauriwe wangosiya zvakadaro.”
Your emphasis was always that one should stand for truth, to be always principled.
When a presenter said the above, I was shocked that someone would say we do not know what children want to read and so we should research to identify their interests.
I found myself sharing this with you and predictably I could hear you say: “Ah! pane asingazivi kuti mwana wake anotaura nezvei, haamunzwi here achitaura, haamunzwi here achiseka, kuti anosekei, anofarirei, anodei?
“Kwavanoswera kupi nekupi vanoona kuti vana vanenge vachiitei, vana vanoswera vachitamba, havasweri vachituka, vachipopota though they get into scuffles here and there, which means that children are peaceful, they are peace-loving, so when children’s books shun the peaceful, children do not feel at peace and they disengage.
“What children want to read is apparent in their behaviours.
“Some children love to tend animals, they seem to have a drive to nurture and there it is.
“Some love to listen to stories and to tell them, so what further research is so necessary.”
And so I am at peace comrade, it is all there in black and white, simple and straight forward.
Actually it is not true that children don’t read or that they do not have a reading culture.
The idea that there is no reading culture among our people or our young is not true.
There is a reading culture, but it is the incorrect one that exists.
Children read everything that is nonsensical, that does not make sense, as a result they do not continue to read, after some time they stop because it does not make them feel good about themselves.
Children stop reading because they are normal and they cannot continue to read what is abnormal.
What does a child learn when he/she reads about Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty?
Why should children in Zimbabwe keep reading such culturally divorced material?
What intrinsically draws them to such?
This is the reading culture that exists and it dies a natural death because it is irrelevant and alienated from their daily experiences.
Actually children read even when it is not interesting to them, but what happens is that they do not feel at peace, they do not feel good in the end or they put it aside or they get too hurt to ever want to have anything to do with it.
This is the story of our schools; children read not because it is meaningful, but to pass exams because after school, they hardly continue reading.
How relevant is what they are taught in school, how intrinsically meaningful is it?
Reading has to be meaningful if children are to continue reading.
Children don’t continue reading what is nonsensical.
Whatever is not relevant, what is not meaningful to them as vana vekupi nekupi cannot find root in the children.
Children do read when they find something resonant.
They should read something that makes it simple for them to relate to their environment.
What rural child would not want to read a book that teaches how to make a simple solar lamp?
The child needs light at home, there is no electricity and he/she can use the light to see at night and even to read and do homework.
Which child would not want to read about the heroes from the village, the community, the district, the province, the nation, those who made Zimbabwe possible?
Which child would not like to read about making dyes from local trees and herbs or how to make simple medical remedies from local trees, shrubs and flowers?
Our children cannot read their song in a strange land, they cannot ensconce, they cannot be involved, they cannot feel at peace, they cannot be intrinsically involved.
How can they ensconce with what celebrates their enemies, which makes them feel ludicrous, which celebrates other people’s heroes, not their own?
Tanyaradzwa, a four-year old, watched his mother unpack boxes of NESTUM (a baby food) and put them neatly on the shelf in their shop at a growth point in rural Zimbabwe.
This was just before independence.
“Why is it all the boxes have pictures of white babies, not African babies?” asked Tanyaradzwa
The mother replied that it is because NESTUM is made by white people and they think they are the only people who matter.
All children know who they are and they get hurt when this is contradicted or denigrated.
When they ensconce with reality, they make sense of it and if it is meaningless, they drop it.
Reading should be on pupils’ experiences, they need to be at peace with who they are.
Children are normal, they cannot be at peace if something is abnormal.
Our children cannot sing their song in a strange land and that is why the reading culture we force them to take part in dies a natural death.
Surely, reading is not learning.