Challenges
of Writers in Africa: A Growing
Art in a Challenged Continent
The biggest
threat to Africa’s progress perhaps has been retaining its intellectual
capital. A paradoxical phenomenon overlooked by most of its political
authorities’ overtime. As Scott Firsing puts it in his (January 21, 2016)
online article “Staying Home: How Severe is Africa’s Brain Drain?”,
“The Push and pull factors of this brain drain are wide-ranging and complex,
and depend upon the African Country” in question. According to a 2013 United
Nations survey on the social status of African migrants, one among nine
Africans who leave the continent has acquired tertiary education. Political
instability, wars and economic crises across the continent are the major causal
factors to mass emigration, especially of recent, which stories have been
featured in most of its bulky writings, creative writing submissions in
particular. Like its mineral resources, the West has for decades been the final
destination of Africa’s intellectual capital for centuries since.
However, we
should note that instability and wars are not unique to Africa, yet, economic
stagnation and identity crises are eminent epidemic the continent has been
struggling to divorce with.
First thing
first, the fact that politics has evidently become the most lucrative job space
for local elites since Africa’s independence (many activists blame poor
economic diversification in the continent for this), the young and upcoming
generation of elites are all swayed to pursuing courses in political science,
law, etc. (especially pupils in the Arts streams), and see a career in writing
as a child’s play, and, worst of all, columnists as failures. Universities
hardly offer courses in literature and creative writing (there is no need to,
since students could not enlist for an old-man career). This in turns makes the
art a less lucrative. In effect, the greater proportion of books in the
libraries in the Sub-Sahara Africa, especially West Africa, is Occidental. The
few that could write are virtually discouraged by the poor appetite for reading
exhibited by its growing elitist mass. The spillover effect of this is,
therefore, making the business of publishing books unmarketable in Africa, more
so creative writing and fictions.
African writers
measure their success in terms of what publishing house in the West published
their works—a mentality I consider as identity crises. The result is too much
time and resources are spent on lobbying western publishing houses to publish
their works, which production they are required to purchase at the end or make
special order for at high cost to gain access to them. What an intellectual
abuse! In many instances they risk losing their intellectual capital right and
go uncelebrated in their home country because they could not afford to pay for
their work. Worst of all is that this provokes perversion of its knowledge and
intellectual capital to developed countries, where they create little or no
impact.
Bad social
policy, if so to say, has been blamed for the derailment of the career. An
overwhelming number of critics blame their governments for what they called
irrational prioritization of its social development plan. The library has not
been an integral part of the school system in most parts in Africa. In many
instances governments in the region reduced their budget allocation to national
libraries furnishing and charge the institutions with the responsibility of
buying books written or published locally—a deliberate move to exempt local writers
from their shelves and give way to Western publications, since the library is
not a business entity. There are countless learning institutions, both
secondary schools and tertiary institution, without a library or theatre
centers for students and facilitators use.
Indeed most
troubling of all are the dwindling culture of reading and a show of inattention
to conducting research among the continent’s students and scholars alike. It is
not rare to find lecturers and academics copying notes verbatim from textbooks
without acknowledgement of its authors and circulate them out to students as
lecture notes, nor is it rare to find students pay lecturers and outsiders to
prepare their finalcollege thesis and present it to the institutions unchecked
for project showcase in its dusty shelves to impress visitors and sponsors. In
this case, this does not only permit for students plagiarism and discouragement
of creative thinking and writing among its students, but then this is leading
to falling standards in the education system of the continent and rendering
learning institutions irrelevant to nation development. Lest we forget, a
greater proportion of the continent’s scholars cannot operate a computer, and
the very worst is, they find it almost baffling to deal with sophisticated
cellphones of the time. And so, they are less exposed to online textbooks and
outlets, which form major components of contemporary research in the West. The
few that could use these devices, are challenged with poor internet facilities
(thanks to Africa’s progressive infrastructure), lack of electricity supply to
operate the devices, sourcing authentic materials, and most often than not,
they cannot afford buying full textbooks from eBook sites either because of the
lack of bank account or unavailability and complexity of the channel of payment
in most parts of Africa. All these factors combined are making the art of
writing sluggishly lagging behind in the continent.
Faithfully
enough, to every problem there is solution; and the way forward is addressing
the issue from local to national and perhaps, only then could it impact
regional level.
The library is
not an isomorphic body to learning institutions. It should be treated as an
integral body of academia. Government should invest in construction and
furnishing of libraries to promote research, and place value on locally
published works by creating special fund for the purchase of locally published
works, so inspiring a new generation of writers and increasing the chance for
financial reward of local publishers.
And this in
turn could attract publishing houses to the continent and whet the appetite of
the young generation of elites to write and make a career in the art.
Also, learning
institutions and partners should bestow confidence on locally published books,
and organize book-fares awards for good writers so to celebrate their career
and inspire students. Lecturers’ lesson notes should be verified by Dean of
academics in the colleges to discourage plagiarism and promote the standard of
education. Students’ thesis should be properly supervised by lecturers with the
aim of keeping them on track and supporting their creative thinking ability.
Lest we forget, tertiary institutions should have equipped theater centers and
library system that promote both performance art and research. It is only when
we change the mindset of the upcoming generation and assure them of a lucrative
career in writing and research that we can succeed in making a functional
society and a diversified economy.
Still at national
level, government should invest in infrastructural development. As many of its
finest critics put it, government has the mandate to facilitating progress (in
other words, bring about progress, not necessarily bring it). Priorities most
be directed at providing computer literacy to pupils before they enter tertiary
institutions, this will formidably prepare them for the job market and make
them more productive; and to some extent reduce the constrains they may face in
writing. But then, also, this could only hold when there is full supply of
electricity and improved internet services at affordable rates for everyone.
There is also the need for local publishing houses to be innovative and
adaptive for sustainability of service. They should create electronic book
marketing spaces that encourage payment in local currencies or means, which
would allow for easy and guarantee service to readers.
Copyright
© 2017 Amadu Wurie Jalloh from Sierra Leone
Also available at: amaduwuriejalloh.blogspot.com
