Why Africans don't Read
It is said that if you want to hide important information from an African man, you should put such information in writing. This saying has its reality mostly in Nigeria, the Western part of Africa, and the most populated in Africa. For a long time, I have felt bad about this statement, especially since I learned to read and write and eventually became a writer and author of many books to God's glory. And I have asked myself, why can't we learn to love reading, develop the interest and habit of reading? Is there much difference between us and the White who read a lot and love reading? How did they develop the love, interest, and habit of reading? I was like becoming ashamed that this kind of attribute is given to Africa, which a citizen or race I am.
I was opportune to be in a seminar where one of the speakers spoke about the secret behind the reading habit of the White. She said right from childhood age, reading is made compulsory for them. It is part of their school curriculum and is very well supported by parents, who ensure their wards at home complete the reading given to them at school. Each of the reading completed by any child earns a parent signature, with date and time the reading was done or completed. I was jealous of this, and I felt challenged and I resolved to do the same for my kids since my parents were unable to do it for me.
But recently I came to understand the true secret behind the lack of love, interest, and reading habit in Africans, especially, Nigerians. I came to this understanding as a result of the discussion I had with one of my colleagues on my way back from Abuja National Stadium. The reason why Africans don't love reading, have the interest or habit of reading is because they don't have the time. This lack of time is not short of time, resulting from a tight schedule, because of being occupied with lots of jobs, no. It is as a result of the hardship, hard time and hard life experience, the African leadership system, especially the political leadership system, has imposed on them. Another reason which is caused by hardship is the lack of concentration as a result of too many worries and thinking caused by lots of trouble, challenges, and problems surrounding an average African man.
It is and will be very difficult for anyone under the hard life experience Africans, especially Nigerians go through in the hands of their political leaders and system, to have the time and interest to sit down, carry or pick up a book, newspaper, magazine or a piece of article and start reading comfortably with love and/or interest or for fun. This is foolishness to an African man or a Nigerian unless the reading will get him concrete money or food on his table. An African man, especially a Nigerian will need to read a line of a write up multiple times before he could understand, internalize, and remember the line. This is not because of their low understanding or comprehensive ability, no. Rather, this is so because, while he reads the line, his mind is on his problems of life:
1. What is my family going to eat today?
2. Eh! My house rent has expired or will soon expire, how am I going to renew it?
3. I need to pay for my school fees.
4. How do I secure a job, especially, government?
5. How do I earn enough money for myself and my family?
6. The government will soon demolish the place where I sell to make a living, or they will soon chase us out, how am I going to survive?
7. Eh! What am I going to do with these tax force agencies chasing me around and/or confiscating or destroying my goods?
8. Ha! This NEPA (former name for power providing company in Nigeria, but still popular and still used to refer to Power Holding Company of Nigeria {PHCN} which is the name of the current power providing company in Nigeria) and their epileptic light, let my soup in the refrigerator not spoil, that is what I intend to eat with my family in the next one week.
9. My business is seriously going down, how do I revive it? And how do I survive if the business dies?
10. I'm about to retire from work, what will my children, wife/husband and I fall back to?
11. I'm getting old and I don't have any house of my own, especially in my native town.
12. When will I have a husband or wife to start a home of my own?
These and many more are the problems that an African man goes through, which has made it difficult to make reading a habit, an interest, or what to love. Because the mind of an average African man is not settled and/or relaxed, he cannot love reading, develop an interest in reading or make it a habit.
This is not only for the poor in Africa, but it also applies to the rich and the average, even though it is difficult to see or have average people in Africa, especially, in Nigeria in terms of wealth or material achievement. This is because, as the poor worry about how to survive, the rich and/or the average worry on how to remain rich and very relevant. This worry becomes more intense when the rich man or woman gets close to or reaches his/her retirement stage in government or private jobs. The worry, especially in a government job, is based on whether or not he/she has raised and placed his/her, son or daughter, to a high position that will enable the son or daughter to continue in the parent upper-class status, already laid. The hard system facing Africans consumes them with lots of worries. The poor fight to come out of poverty and the rich fight to remain rich, because, the poor and the rich know that there is no place for the poor man in Africa, especially in Nigeria. Hence, reading just for fun is out of place to an African man. If that reading will not give him money or a good job, especially a government job that is capable of earning him a living, then it is a waste of time and to hell with such reading.
To this, parents who can send their children to school and rush to work, either mental/skilled work or physical/unskilled work to source out what the children will eat, wear, maintain the roof over their heads, and provide them with (few with good) education. Hence, they don't have time to read themselves, or even look at the academic works of their wards. Only about 10% of African parents make out the time and develop the interest and/or habit of going through via reading and cross-checking the works of their wards in school. The remaining percent is so much occupied with overwhelming problems and worries on how to survive the hard life in Africa that they will not border to read their wards school works. Even if they do, they don't understand due to a lack of concentration and mind relaxation.
Students on their own are discouraged and are losing the interest of reading, especially books outside their subject curriculum. This is because:
They have at home, have seen or heard of people who graduated from schools, known to be readers and lovers of books, but have no job, a good job, or are working in private organizations where they are being paid peanuts. And don't have money to buy a job and have no connections.
They have at home, have seen or heard of people who didn't go to school or even know how to read, but they are in money with their hand-work or business.
They have at home, have seen or heard of people who knew little or nothing while in school but are now in top places in government jobs and/or politics because their parents, uncles, aunts; tribe/race or religion got, bought or connected them to such unmerited positions.
For Nigerian students and graduates, it has become glary that government jobs are for sale and/or by connection. It is no longer by academic qualification.
Therefore, most African students, especially Nigerian students, ask themselves, "Why should I border myself studying hard when my certificate, what I read or know can't give me a job, but money and connection?".
The environment politics and leadership (political and religious leaderships) have created for an African man, especially a poor African man is very tough and may be very unbearable for none African people. It is in Africa that political leaders make policies and laws that favor the upper-class which they are and completely leave out the poor people without putting into consideration their interests. In African, political leaders are at liberty to do anything they want, rule citizens the way they want to, and no one, especially the poor and the weak, can do anything about it. In Africa, if you don't have wealth, try to have political power, if you don't have political power do your best to have physical strength or power and/or ammunition power. If you don't have any of these powers in Africa, especially in Nigeria, then your real name is "Sorry". It is only God that can help such a person out, if not he/she cannot fit in, in the African environment and leadership system.
With all these, it becomes very difficult for an average African to read comfortably with interest. Instead of boring him with reading, give him entertainment, jokes, and movie entertainment, let him watch and laugh away his sorrow imposed on him by circumstances caused by the African environment and leadership system he found himself into. With this knowledge and experience, because I'm part of it, I'm no longer ashamed of the statement, rather I pity the fact that we are Africans and are unfortunate to find ourselves in such inhuman, hostile and unbearable environment, caused by our leaders, especially political leaders and their system of leadership.
Therefore, if you are not African origin, do not blame Africans for not reading or love reading. Rather, blame it on the environment they found themselves, because, if you go through less than half of what they are going through, you may commit suicide.
This notwithstanding, the modern African had learned to crack the nut no matter how hard, and no matter the odds facing him. Modern African have learned to make out time to read. Though it is not yet enough and the numbers are yet not encouraging, but the modern African strives to survive the odds of the reading habit.
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Nwoko Solomon Ikechukwu
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