The Nigerian reading culture and the need for libraries

I often hear complaints about the lack of reading culture in Nigeria, and while I think there is cause for concern in the lack of infrastructure like libraries and extracurricular school reading programmes, such complaints often overlook thriving reading cultures of more popular fiction, newpapers, and more recently, online reading. I often see young people […]

I often hear complaints about the lack of reading culture in Nigeria, and while I think there is cause for concern in the lack of infrastructure like libraries and extracurricular school reading programmes, such complaints often overlook thriving reading cultures of more popular fiction, newpapers, and more recently, online reading. I often see young people reading thrillers like those written by James Hadley Chase and Sidney Sheldon. Parresia Press is trying to build on these popular tastes by starting a new detective series edited by Helon Habila. Literary books also get passed around and loaned from personal collections. Writers such as Helon Habila, Toni Kan, Richard Ali and others have benefited from the large personal library of University of Jos English professor Kanchana Ugbabe, author of the short story collection Soulmates.  Even more notable is the thriving reading culture of popular literature in Hausa. I see girls reading in taxis and crew members reading between takes on film sets.  I interviewed a young lady in Kano who has a Hausa novel renting club, where people pay around twenty naira a day to rent from her collection. Writers don’t necessarily like these clubs, as they cut into their sales, but they do help make books accessible to readers who can’t afford to buy novels on their own.
Aside from Hausa book clubs and personal collections, however, what often does seem to be missing in Nigeria, is a library culture of the sort I remember from my childhood days. Of course, there are libraries for those doing research. I have spent many hours in reading rooms of university libraries around the country. There are also excellent archives and libraries at places like the Arewa House in Kaduna or Mambayya House in Kano. I recently visited the New Nigerian newspaper office in Kaduna, where they make old papers from the 1940s available to researchers. The Murtala Muhammad library in Kano hosts a variety of cultural functions, including the Hausa branch of the Kano Association of Nigerian Authors. However, aside from the small library my mother registered me for in Port Harcourt when we first moved to Nigeria, I have come across fewer public lending libraries, where ordinary Nigerians can go and borrow a book for free. 
I was excited therefore, when the secretary of the Jos chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors  (ANA) Onotu David Onimisi  told me that ANA is starting a library in Jos that is open to the public. ANA has already been involved in reading programmes. The Yusuf Ali grant for educational awareness gave the national body funds to donate books to schools and start reading competitions in 14 Nigerian states. ANA in Plateau State took these reading programmes to 14-15 schools in Jos. The library project is not funded by the grant but builds on its ideals. It currently has around 120 books, all donations from people in the Jos community. Most recently an American family, the Abts, donated 54 books, including quite a few titles of African literature, novels by Nadine Gordimer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Helon Habila, Helen Oyeyemi and others. Eventually Jos ANA hopes to have three libraries in rural areas to help children with reading skills, but right now their books are temporarily being housed in the American Corner on Murtala Muhammad Way behind the University of Jos consultancy.
In the process of exploring the location of the ANA library, I discovered that the American Corner also has a well-stocked lending library open on weekdays from 9am-4pm, which is also free and open to any member of the public who registers with the library. The books are donated by the American Embassy and the space and staffing is maintained by the University of Jos.  American Corner Programmes Officer Saratu Ukeje told me that there are 365 books in the American Corner lending library, and another 900 in the reading room. While most of the books in the reading room have to do with American culture,  including a good selection of American magazines and test preparation materials, the lending library has books from around the world (albeit those published in America.) I was delighted to find titles from some of my favourite authors like Ray Bradbury, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Ursula LeGuin there. Although I didn’t see many children’s books, there was a shelf of young adult novels, featuring some of my childhood favourites like Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Natalie Babbit’s Tuck Everlasting. Best of all, the library takes requests for books published in America from their members (with certain restrictions on genre), which they submit to the U.S. embassy for purchase. Ms. Ukeje told me the American Corner also hosts monthly programmes, including book and film discussions, a poetry café, and speakers series. Their most recent programme, an Elders forum, in which three Nigerians in their 70s discussed “Nigerian Yesterday and Today,” was held on 14 February.  The next event on 21st February, one of the monthly “coffee series,” will host a public discussion on American and Nigerian presidents.
I was delighted to see a thriving library programme of this sort in Jos and also glad to see how ANA is partnering with an existing institution to make books and book culture available to the community. I would love to see members of the community interested in children’s programming donate more books and materials for young children.
In the next two weeks, I will publish a two-part interview with Mr. Onimisi about what ANA is doing to help educate children and spread reading culture in Nigeria. I welcome letters describing libraries and library programmes in other parts of the country.