Birhanu Andualm has been a sidewalk book seller around Arat Kilo for almost two years. He tells The Ethiopian Herald that except for a very brief period of time, the book publishing business has not shown improvement in the past year or two. “There were times when even [political] books that were not allowed to be sold publicly attract the attention of many readers,” he says.
“But these days, unless the author is well-known, seldom new books attract the attention of the readership. People are not showing interest in books at all.” Being a country of more than 100 million, the relative decline in newspaper and magazine circulation and poor book sales are evidence to the fact that there is poor reading culture in Ethiopia.
On the other hand, the ongoing political and economic reform has allowed the print media to thrive as a number of newspapers and magazines joining the industry is on the rise, albeit their small circulation. But this is not the case for the book publishing industry. At the height of the public euphoria in relation to the reform; several books on current issues were published.
But, it was just a short term phenomenon. Readers, writers and book sellers alike agree that the book publishing industry is by no means in a promising state due to short-termism and the dwindling national reading culture. People these days prefer to spend money on other stuff than books, says Birhanu. “But that is not only the problem.
There are also shallow writers who publish books on burning issues of the time for the sake of financial gains without conducting an in-depth research. This is also discouraging readers.” On the other hand, besides, the rapid rise in the cost of publishing, some readers this writer approached agree on the fact that the rise and expansion of the digital and social media has also diverted the attention of the people from reading books.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many social media networks are making modern man’s life restless, giving less time for people to read. Yet again, it should also be underlined that the technologies are also making access to reading an easy task since smart phones, eBook and computers widely have helped knowledge and information to spread and to be accessible without boundaries across cultural and economic differences.
But what requires urgent attention is reversing the fading reading culture at all segments of society. As it takes time, various measures have to be taken to improve the culture of reading from grassroots level by encouraging students to become engaged and motivated readers. Ermias and his high school colleagues are enrolled in a missionary high school around Semien Mezegaja in the northern part of the capital.
All confess to the fact that they are not good readers and do not have a habit of reading books. Besides their curricula activities, text books and references, they are not developed the habit of reading other literary works of any kind. “Only few students read such books,” Ermias says. And this is despite their school library is full of books.
The only time they read full literary works is when their Amharic and English teachers ordered them to do so as part of grading and evaluation. As a country having an ancient literary tradition, alphabet and written languages, this makes one wonder how it is possible to revive the culture of reading in the country. Abere Adamu, President of Ethiopia’s Authors Association tells The Ethiopian Herald that one of the major challenges is the more than ever increase in the price of publishing material (paper).
“Once, the association has conducted a study and found out that, two individuals, who whenever they like increase the price of paper, controlled the entire market.” The other problem is some writers publish books, particularly on politics, without having adequate knowledge on the issue. There are also few who publish books in urgency for market purposes.
“We have more than 50 public universities. Including the private ones, we have more than 100 higher learning institutions. Hence, we can assume that there is a potential for critical readers. There are also schools in every kebele and rural area, so the teachers in those schools are also potential readers,” he says. Hence, as compared to this potential, it is possible to say that Ethiopia has very few reader populations.
For instance, these days, a successful and readable book would only sale 5000 copies. “This is really disappointing in a country of 100 million.” “One thing that demonstrates Ethiopian’s poor reading culture for instance is that you cannot find people reading books in recreational areas. Hence, the work has to start from grassroots or primary schools level.” “This is one of the reasons that members of this generation have not been able to develop a culture of dialogue and opt to use force to resolve differences in idea. The lack of debate is one of the manifestations of poor reading culture,” he says.
True, it is the age of digital information. “We can access information online or in our smart phones, but critical reading is necessary,” he adds. In the past, during the times of the Emperor, even the Ministry of Education played a key role in publishing and distributing books which it believed would play constructive role in the society.
Thus, the government has to select readable books that could play a key role in creating national consensus and sponsor their publication in large scale, he says. It has to also come up with incentives to encourage writers and to prevent them from political victimization. Leaders have also need to be models in installing reading culture in the minds of the youth, Abere says adding the association has been lobbying parliament to declare Sene 30/July 8 as a national day of reading.
The Ethiopian Herald, March 21/2019
BY ABIY HAILU
