BY MULUGETA GUDETA
I recently stumbled into a story circulating on social media. It was about the merits of reading books particularly by people who are prone to suffer from brain degeneration caused by illness. As the story bluntly put it, reading books helps neural growth and enhances the capacity for higher thinking as it exercises the grey matter in ways that only neurologists would tell us with greater details. In other words, reading books promotes mental health.
Reading books is not only useful for elderly people or seniors but also for children and youngsters. As one blog page put it, “a teenager, discovering great books can be a life-changing experience, Classical literature in particular can provide a wealth of knowledge and insight into the human condition.” The traditional children’s literature consisted of “the body of written works and accompanying illustrations produced in order to entertain or instruct.” The new trend in children’s literature is about encouraging kids to read the great classics of older times that are rich in stories full of fantasy and imagination. If we bring this to our situation it is like telling kids of ten or eleven to read works by Afework Gebreyesus or Haddis Alemayehu.
Our discussion here is not about the well-established argument that children must read children’s books in order to get the taste and benefits of reading since childhood. In the past and still now, there are repeated calls for writing and publishing children’s books for the same purpose. In the process, we have encountered not only children who read books but also children in their teens who write books and publish them to the astonishment of the literary world and the larger public.
New studies , empirical or otherwise increasingly come up with the thesis that children should read not only the familiar “Alice in Wonderland” types of books but also classical or hard-boiled fiction or non-fiction that require reflection, hard thinking and slow absorption. According to a blog dealing with the subject, “Reading classic literature by children can help teens develop strong foundation of knowledge and understanding. Exposure to different genres, writing styles and historical contexts can broaden their perspectives and intellect.”
The blog went on to say that, “Reading Shakespeare’s plays can help teens understand the complexities of human emotions and relationships. The language may be difficult at first, but with guidance and perseverance, they can learn to appreciate the beauty of his writing.” Can you imagine here that a boy or a girl in their teens reading Shakespeare? This brought to my mind the memory of an interview I had with the late Ethiopian writer Berhanu Zerihun back in the 1980s when I was editor of a page in the Herald called “Profile”. So, I was having an interview with the late writer for my Profile page.
I asked Berhanu about the books that particularly influenced him when he was a young man or shaped is writings. He looked at me with his piercing eyes, holding his cigarette between the fingers of his right hand and said, “I used to read Shakespeare’s plays whether I understood them or not.” He smiled and added that he thought that he was writing plays due to this early influence. As you may know Berhanu Zerihun is not only the writer of historical novels like “And Lenatu” (One to his Mother) about Ethiopian emperor Tewodros and “Balcha Aba Nefso” about the Ethiopian patriot who fought the Italian invaders.
Berhanu’s reading of Shakespeare when he was very young brought to my mind another memory of teenagers reading what were considered “big books” exclusively available to “big Men” or adults. After the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia, young people in their late teens and early twenties were engaged in the obsessive quest about socialism and then about Marxism which was a fashionable ideology at that time when failure to quote one of the passages in those complicated texts would be considered a sign of ignorance.
Those beautiful and energetic kids from high schools and university voraciously devoured text like Das Capital, Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism, The Communist Manifesto…etc. Some of them even bragged in public about their learning while their seniors quoted from those books to pepper their speeches whenever the occasion permitted. The rest is history.
Back to the blog I referred to above. It said that reading Jane Austen’s novels can provide insight into the social norms and expectations of the 19th century while also showcasing the wit and intelligence of her female characters.” The other point raised in the blog is about reading’s ability to enhance critical thinking skills. “Classical literature challenges the reader to think critically and analyze complex themes.
These skills are important for academic success, as well as for developing good decision making skills later in life.” It says that reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel the Great Gatsby can help teens understand the dangers of materialism and the emptiness of the American Dream. The can analyze the symbolism and motifs used in the novel to gain a deeper understanding of the characters and themes. In the same way reading George Orwell’s novel 1984 can help teens understand the dangers of totalitarianism and the importance of individual freedom. They can also analyze the use of propaganda and language manipulation in the novel to gain a deeper understanding of the power dynamics at play.
If we look at the situation of children’s literature in Ethiopia, we can say that first literature focused on children or youngsters is not well-developed as our literature in general is not well-developed. By development of literature we mean the availability of books specializing in diverse aspects of life and encouraging kids to read and imagine what they have read. Our underdevelopment in this filed is due mainly to the underdeveloped publishing industry that does not encourage writers to produce books for children. The production and distribution of books is not widespread and writing for children has only become a separate specialty only recently.
It is obvious that we do not have many book readers in Ethiopia judging from the fact that in Addis Ababa, which is boasting of a population of 5 million or more, a best-selling book cannot be printed in more than 10 000 copies which a drop in the sea. On average, most books in Addis are published in Authors who write for children can be counted only on the fingers of our two hands. And most books are published in Amharic.
Ethiopia is a country of more than 80 nationalities that have not yet developed their own literatures. Most members of these nationalities read in Amharic which is serving as a lingua franca. There are a few books written in Afan Oromo and Tigrigna but they are published from time to time because authors in Ethiopia cannot make a living from writing.
Developing children’s books in these languages is simply unthinkable under the present circumstances. It will certainly take some time before the recent developments in children’s literature would catch up on us. Yet, we can start telling our children to read our big classic books so that they can get the feel of it until we produce new books for them or translate them from the world classics. Literature both for children and adults are the great catalysts of culture and global understanding and peace. As such, books for children should be promoted widely so that these young people would embrace the positive human qualities from every corner of the world.
The Ethiopian Herald 18 June 2023
