UNESCO worried about 700 million people who can’t read
April 23 of every year has been set aside by UNESCO to mark the world Book and Copyright day. What is the theme for this year’s event? [For] the theme of this year, we are going to look at books in connection with our cultural diversity with rapprochement of cultures, that’s what we call it; […]
April 23 of every year has been set aside by UNESCO to mark the world Book and Copyright day. What is the theme for this year’s event?
[For] the theme of this year, we are going to look at books in connection with our cultural diversity with rapprochement of cultures, that’s what we call it; books as the avenue for disseminating ideas and bringing closer understanding among cultures among peoples.
In this case what is expected of countries of the world as regard this theme?
Countries of the world are suppose to discuss the role of books in diversity, to discuss the role of books in promoting cultural understanding and promoting ideas and bringing to the open what ideas move the world and sharing, through books, the understanding of these ideas across cultures and across civilizations. And of course, UNESCO tries to work with publishers, with NGOs and with civil society groups, with author associations to look at how books can be used as a channel of disseminating ideas and for deriving better ideas, for understanding one another in the world and for communicating where each of us is coming from and seeing this as a way of understanding better, talking better, towards achieving peace for all cultures and for humanity. So books are seen as a channel for bringing this. You put something down, somebody reads it. They are in a better position to say what your ideas are about unlike when they are not written or when they are not communicated. And of course the copyright thing naturally follows because when an idea is put down, it kind of leaves the author and moves on and with the age of digitalization, it becomes important that copyright laws are respected.
With the low levels of literacy in Africa, how do you see books bringing about development?
The over 700 million people who cannot read or write are of particular concern to us in the celebration of this day because getting them to read and write is part of the challenge the world faces and for Nigeria contributing to the [number]. You know that Nigeria is among the E9 countries and the E9 countries are the countries of the world that contribute the most illiterate population to the world total. So in this context, the world book day is particularly significant to us because the about 23-40 million people who are unable to read and write are of particular concern and all the stake holders that I mentioned earlier are encouraged to come up with activities that will bring out the significance of books to the lives of these people who are not in the mainstream. Because education will continue to be the tool for moving from one level to another and books are the instrument with which education can do this. So where as these persons who are not able to read and write are particularly significant and any activity that can bring them into the mainstream, UNESCO is supporting it. And we have planned activities that will communicate the significance of these day and those people who are really denied access to books, denied access to schools by whatever type of marginalisation whether it’s in access, whether it’s in geographical location or whatever is limiting their access of these persons to education and books, this day is also an opportunity to discuss them and work out how these people can be reached.
In a situation where publishers are not committed to Africa because of the low profit margin, what is UNESCO doing to support publishers so they could reach these illiterate people?
Right now, we are still talking. You know, some people will be quick to ask: Do Nigerians still read? But from the development view point, it is not as simple as that. The policy about books is a continuum that begins from authors and goes the full circle to publication and distribution and there is a chain known as the book chain. Government can do something to support the continuation of this chain without a link, not take it from one place and leave it off at another point. So discussions will still be on. Nigeria has done something on book policy and I cannot speak on that. I believe the country is doing something about its book policy in order to ensure the continuation of this chain. We want to, through this medium, begin to encourage discussion on the book chain and how book policies can help and how authors and publishers can work together. What assistance can be given to publishers, even if it’s not financial assistance, even in training, in helping them package their ideas better and above all getting the demand side of this activity going and that is getting Nigerians to read so that demands for books can be stimulated and encouraging free access to books, by giving books as gifts. If we manage to bring through discussions and through the civil societies group and publishers and authors themselves, write things that carry the interests of Africans. If you look at Africa Magic for instance, everybody is watching it but how many novels do we have that are telling these soft stories. And if there are, will people read them? Perhaps people can be encouraged to read if they have novels telling these popular stories.
What have been the challenges preventing Nigerians from reading?
Nigerians will read when we write something of interest. Because education has a long gestation period on bringing returns on investment. People are losing interest in it, people prefer to go into apprenticeship, young people are really losing interest in school. The lost of interest in education you may not isolate from the lost of interest in the reading culture. So I think, if from the supply point of view, we do our home work better, begin to make targeted policies that can get Nigerians interested in reading, I think there will be some improvement. But we will still support the government to review its policy concerning all of that and look at the majority of Nigerians who are not reading, that have no access to book, including women who have no access to books. For instance, people who are getting to learn to read and write, they are not going to be expected to read the kind of books you and I would read, they would read books written in a reader friendly manner, books that the alphabets breathe and are easily visible to them and are simply written and simply understood. Has society begun to start looking at publishing for that target group? That is a question for authors and policy makers, and civil society groups too.
This year’s theme is talking about culture and in Africa; our culture is being dominated by imported cultures, is there anyway books can be used to recapture our lost culture?
In fact, that is another dimension to this year’s theme, and that is translations into local languages. It is also very crucial for us this year in the theme that UNESCO is preaching. For language promotes culture and where languages are dying cultures are dying and that is why our culture sector is looking at the intangible heritage of culture where language belongs. Translating books into local languages is also an issue and it is also something to discuss during the 2010 world book day. We also see too that there is a genuine concern here and that is the fact that the dominant languages are gradually taking so much focus that some others are dying. That is the case all over the world but conscious efforts have to be made to promote every language and I know that the national commission for (inaudible) has translated its readers and primers into different languages. That is an innovation that is encouraging to propagate the literacy by radio that they have been doing. So translations into local languages are a very important aspect of our discussion [for] this year’s World Book Day. If you see some of the billboards, they are written in local languages and that is to say that if you acquire literacy in these languages you can function with it.