OPPORTUNITIES FOR CREATIVE ARTS AND LITERACY

A lot of writing has been done by Zambians on a number of topics, but much of it has been non-fiction, targeting mostly the academics. For this sector, the distribution of books has been easy, largely supported by the education system. Due to this, the larger population, those who are excluded from the academic path, remain illiterate and without access to literature that can lead to their personal development and the growth of the communities. There are key factors that must be put in place for the development of the creative arts and promotion of literacy. Currently, the creative arts are without structural support and writers are all over the place, either trying to make a career or earn living. It is equally impossible to make strides in literacy if the people who are writing cannot reach their readers. Not all reading material should be found in a classroom.

There is need to take literacy development beyond the classroom walls, to reach the communities, to reach those who are outside the classroom. The country once boasted of community libraries but now there are more bars and groceries shops. The lack of infrastructure significantly impedes literacy development. With most public schools having limited reading materials, such support structures like a community library would play a key role in cementing the efforts of the education system and at the same time broadening the spectrum to include those who are outside the school system. A community or public library can lead to development. Apart from providing opportunities for reading, such a structure can be used to disseminate information about other issues affecting societies and promoting development. It is through such places that community participation can be promoted, to make all members of the public stakeholders in the literacy and literary agendas. It is from such centers that writing careers have successfully been launched and promoted for the benefit of the community. The creative arts can also be promoted by being housed under tertiary institutions where English and Literature are taught.  This works well when an institution opens its doors to the writing industry and creates opportunities for writers and at the same time linking them to community literary programmes. For example, the Centre for Creative Arts falls under the Department of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu Natal. Over the years, a number of brands have been developed to include, ‘Time of the Writer’, a sponsored programme that now reaches out to international writers, ‘Durban International Film Festival’ and so on. It is because of such efforts by a higher institution of learning that Durban is now named the UNESCO City of Literature. We cannot leave the government out in this process. As a key stakeholder they should work toward taking the development of literacy and creative arts outside the school walls. We look forward to a time when the local authorities for instance will reintroduce community literacy programmes.

If we are to head ‘Toward a Zambian genre’, these elements should begin to work together.

 

RELIGION AND LITERACY

Of late, there has been a rise of prophetic activities in Zambia. The influx of so called ‘prophets’, locally called ‘ma profita’ has brought in an ‘era of deception’. Some people have observed that all the magicians and witchdoctors have infiltrated the church. One of the most recent stories centered on members of a congregation being asked to place their bank account numbers on the ‘altar’ so that the prophet could ‘pray’ for miracle money to drop into each one’s account. Fascinating! Wouldn’t the country have been wealthy by now? The prophet would have just ‘prayed’ for gold and money to drop into the national treasury. But before we get carried away with a quick fix solution to our economic woes let’s get the facts right.

Religion is ra general term that refers to the belief in and worship of a superhuman, controlling power, especially a personal god. Christianity is the religion that is based on the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ or is someone who follows the life and teachings of Christ and is connected to Him by making an open declaration. A prophet is said to be a proclaimer of the will of God. A miracle is an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency. Magic is the power of influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces. Witchcraft is the practice of magic, especially black magic and the use of spells. A witchdoctor is a magician accredited with powers of healing, divination and protection against the magic of others. (Google Dictionary)

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Now that we are all on the same page with definitions we can ably agree that literacy has significant impact on the growth of religion and Christianity. One of the key things that religious leaders should endeavor to do is to invest in the development of the literacy of their congregants. Christianity is very strong in Zambia- more so that it is openly declared as a Christian nation.



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The question is with high illiteracy levels, how many of the church goers have a clear understanding of the various truths that are presented to them every week. In the major cities and in churches that are in the upper class areas, illiteracy would not come up as a hindrance to the success of religion. What about in the high density areas, the shanty compounds where most of the so called ‘prophets’ have strongholds? Do all the churches there preach significantly enough to sway their members away from the scourge that has hit the country in the recent past? For how is it that one cannot differentiate between miracle and magic? How is it that one cannot see that being asked to engage in sexual orgies in full view of a congregation is immoral? The hordes of people, especially women, taking part in these outrageous events is now alarming! If more people could read, write and understand the same scriptures that are abused by their manipulators, they would not for instance discontinue taking medication in favour of ‘miracle’ water. How can anyone be so naïve to believe that money can suddenly appear into one’s bank account without them making any effort?  

 

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As a nation, we must draw lessons from the preceding era of the prosperity gospel when people were duped into giving their last ngwee or even property. This era led to a lot of laziness among some people who thought that by giving to the man or woman of God, the good Lord would bring about miraculous riches. After this phase came the ‘prophetic’ era. Many woke up to the fact that they were being swindled, therefore, the style changed. The ‘prophets’ crawled from the shadows like phantoms and infiltrated the religious circles with all sorts of tricks to squeeze gullible followers. The gimmicks vary, short of being called magic or witchcraft, as long as there is a willing soul desperate enough to do anything to get out of dire situations.

For those who follow Christ and his teachings- there is need for them to have the ability to read and write the teachings in order for them to begin to understand how they can apply them in their day to day lives. The church therefore has a key role in not only building the moral fibre of the communities they operate in but also to lift up the literacy standards of their people. Someone who fully comprehends the scriptures will not be cheated. “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11. The scripture is self-explanatory and emphasizes that religion should define its role in the lives of the believers, beyond the four walls of the building where people meet to worship. It calls for the church to join in the efforts of government and civil society to lift the standards of the citizens through literacy. If we are to head ‘Toward a Zambian Genre’, all citizens must be able to read and understand the times that we live in, so that they do not get cheated.

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MAY THE DAY BREAK- CULTURAL VALUES AND WRITING

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When I was in senior secondary school, I remember how I learned about some of the cultural practices of the Ibo. My friends and I picked up a few phrases that we used often. For instance, 'may the day break', became more popular than 'good night'. No, we had not traveled to West Africa, neither had we any friends from there. Writing has an important role in the promotion of traditions and cultural values and the likes of Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiogo and many others  today have strongly contributed to ensuring that their world became known to others. Their writings had painted a wonderful picture of a people whose world had been disturbed by the arrival of another culture. 

 Creative writing is a sure way of preserving key practices and ensuring continuity for generations to come. Zambia has a rich history, but most of it, if not all has been told by non-Zambians. Every writer has got their own priority when they are putting work together. They also have a perspective that they wish a reader to have on a particular topic. For example, when the missionaries arrived in Northern Rhodesia, their aim was to evangelise. They wrote about the religious practices that they found and called them barbaric and the people pagans. However, would an indigenous Zambian hold the same views? What made Africa a 'Dark Continent' and yet it was and still is exploding at its seams with wealth. Writing has strong influence on people's thoughts, and when it is negative,  it can lead them to resign to hopelessness. When you travel to developed countries, it is amazing that much of their cultural values have been upheld and infact they are churning revenue through tourism.
In Zambia, the main sources for its history are academic books and these are preserved for those that pursue studies in that line. Most of the systems that were used to pass on history and other important cultural values have died with modernization and rapid urbanization. The television has replaced story telling. The internet has forcefully taken the place of being the main source for entertainment and knowledge. With modernization most of the cultural values have been watered down and if left unattended, will be lost forever. If we must head ‘Toward a Zambian genre’, creative writing must take center stage of incorporating critical cultural values and symbols in all the literary forms. This means casting key elements of Zambia’s cultures in the various forms of writing. May the day break 'TOWARD A ZAMBIAN GENRE'.

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EXORCISING THE DEMON OF ILLITERACY

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If you have ever attended an exorcism session you will attest to the fact that the paranormal exists and in a realm that is beyond human reach. Exorcisms vary from religion to religion; bottom line is there are some spiritual forces that live among us and in some cases in us. Superstitious? Well, here is the problem, a large percentage of Zambia’s population remains illiterate over 50 years after independence. Without spiritualising anything, you will realise that to a very large extent, illiteracy hampers development. Want the facts and figures? Google it or simply look around in your extended family and count how many are literate- get the picture? This means the current responses by government and  the private sector need to go deeper than mere distribution of books in schools; there is need to apply methods which will address the problem from multiple angles.

To exorcise is to evict a bad spirit, in this case a demon from the person or the area in the name of a higher power than that demon. In assessing the negative impact that demons have on the life of a humans, it is safe to say that illiteracy has gained itself this persona. The adverse effects of illiteracy are written all over the pages of this country; for instance, people talk about how maternal and child mortality could be reduced by fifty percent not just if services were improved but if the affected citizenry were literate. There is no telling the magnitude of the negative impact illiteracy has on our socio-economic development.

Where did this all begin, how and when did the ‘demon’ find its seat among us? Way back to the colonial era, we inherited a language that we have now made official and anyone who cannot read or write in this supreme dialect is rendered illiterate. Should English therefore be the yardstick for measuring literacy levels? Our minds have been so attuned to even look down on those who fail to converse in the ‘royal’ language. Drastic shift is required where this mindset is renewed into appreciating the mother tongue. Why is it a laughable matter for a Zambian to speak ‘broken English’ but acceptable for a French or Chinese to ‘break’ the ‘Queen’s language’?    

Recently, local languages were made compulsory as medium of communication for the first years of primary school in Zambia. So the math, the science and so on will be taught in local languages. There was a lot of hype around this development and there still is as people in the education sector frantically begin to work backwards to smoothen the implementation of a political pronouncement. Nothing wrong with the pronouncement but were we prepared to take the national syllabus in this direction? Will this move eventually contribute to raising the literacy levels? Are all schools equipped with the resources to support this change How does early childhood education link with the first years of primary education when the former is taught in English and vernacular has been introduced in the latter? All these questions need to be answered including on how the poor reading culture shall be tackled. There is need for commitment from government to make sure that they see this pronouncement through to the end.

It is a fact that if someone can afford a beer then they can equally afford to buy a book to read. Our residential areas are littered with bars and pubs and whatever it is where alcohol is sold but how many public libraries are in most of these communities? This scenario does not encourage anyone to opt to go to a library that is miles away. it is easier to rush into a tavern which is within vicinity. Can the general populous be brought on board by taking literacy activities to them, within their reach?

Lastly, but not the least- this ‘demon’ of illiteracy needs concerted efforts; public and private, individuals and groups, religious and circular to promote the growth of what has been neglected for so long and yet is key to the development of this country. If we are to head 'Toward a Zambian Genre', the literacy agenda must take centre stage.

 

LITERACY AND DEVELOPMENT



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Cholera has transformed the capital city. The fresh air that freely flows between the trees on Cairo road is appealing. The way the eyes can now sweep over a distance without obstructions of make-shift structures, is amazing. A lot of people are talking highly about the capital now. The question is, did it have to take an epidemic, did people need to die in order for the nation to wake up to the filth that was choking streets, drainages and every little space or passage? There is a whole lot of whys and wherefores that others will and probably have already talked about, this article is highlighting literacy and how it is a catalyst to development. Someone once said that if more women were literate, 50% of the diseases that affect them would be reduced and in most cases out rightly eradicated. Human resource is the largest component of development as long as they are literate enough to understand and interpret the visions, policies, etc.

Clearly, there has been a lot of illiteracy on many issues in this era of filth in the capital city. Hygiene for one. Is it a lack of understanding or the simple fact that people just don’t care? Both vendor and buyer should know better not to operate in undesignated areas. ‘Failure of systems’, you say but why are the designated areas being shunned so viciously?

The unsanitary conditions and lack of services such as garbage collection in these illegal vending spots have taught the nation unforgettable lessons. When people are literate they will not only be able to read and write but will understand their responsibilities as citizens and be patriotic enough to curb such damaging consequences. Responsibility is another. The phrase, ‘we are waiting for the government’, has not only promoted laziness but has to a large extent led to lawlessness. Again both vendor and buyer should appreciate the differentiation between a citizen and national leaders, together they form government. When laws are put in place, the responsibility is on a citizen to obey. Example, littering. What role does a national leader have, when a citizen buys a fruit, eats it and then throws left overs through the window of a moving vehicle?

The whole point is that each and every individual should educate themselves on how best they can contribute to the development of this country. This does not require a degree or some rocket science. In the villages, where most people are said to be uneducated, it is very clean. Year in, year out, cholera breaks out in the major cities of Zambia but never in the rural areas, why not? What then is this literacy? Is it only the ability to read and write? The other meaning of literacy is competence or knowledge in a specified area or subject. Surely, the latter does not necessarily require that one goes to school because some of that knowledge is common, isn’t it? The final question therefore is, without a soldier holding a gun and standing next to you, what will you do to maintain the cleanliness that has been achieved over this short period?