Is it time to consider reforms in literature?

Literature is important in our life in many ways. Apart from enriching the mind, it can be very helpful to society if it’s applied in a positive manner.

Great African writers such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o have mastered the art in deriving true meaning in people’s lives.

However, despite the longtime presence of great writers of literature, many whose books continue to be used in schools today, there are concerns that this important writing creativity might be lost given the current decline in new literature writings .

This fact has propmted government through the education ministry to intervene by introducing the Mwalimu Nyerere National Award for talented novelists.

Speaking at the launch held on September 12, 2022 in Dar es Salaam, education minister, Prof Adolf Mkenda, said the aim of having the awards is to encourage the writing and reading of books among the community.

He noted that the award will recognise talented writers in the fields of novels and literature. It also aims to promote the Kiswahili language, the talent of designers, preserve history, promote the publishing industry as well as increase personal storage in national and regional libraries.

Pro Mkenda said his ministry has already allocated funds for the awards in the budget for the financial year 2022/23. The winners will be awarded on April 13, 2023, where the first winner will receive a Sh10 million prize, the second winner Sh7 million and the third winner Sh3 million.

With over nine years’ experience as a literature teacher at the Black School of Linguistic and Literature, Peter Frank says the strategies that could extend the lifespan of the literature books not only in the curricula but also in people’s lives are inevitable.

“Over the years literature has helped maintain African cultural values as our sole identity. It has helped build and expand the stock of vocabulary from fading with modern English. It’s a track of our historical record from where we have reached so far,’’ he notes.

Peter points out the necessity of handing over the literature to the next generation as it reminds every one of their origin. He says literature has its own way of piercing into people’s emotions, ideas, and perceiving things as it defines people’s perspective towards things.

“Indeed colonialism is a part where we came from, students should be taught about it, but placing more emphasis on that will be a waste. The scars are ripped off then we should focus on other things that bring impact to our current livelihood,’’ he opines.

He exudes that colonialism came and left, “but what can we carry over to the next generation? Will it be the same pain and agony we carried over from the struggle for independence? Or a lesson towards striving for change to build a determined and ambitious generation that is strong enough to cope in these times?’’

Minding the contribution brought by literature over the decades, Peter insists on the importance of making changes in literature. Pulling out a number of factors, he shows how most of the used plays, novels or poetry books are becoming irrelevant to contemporary society.

“The current literature still stimulates poor cultural practices that are of least importance being spoken of such as female genital mutilation in the book of Unanswered Cries as it poses a minimum threat. We have been drawing too much attention to the scars rather than healing the sour wounds in crucial things through writings,’’ he says.

He describes the literature landscape of Tanzania as being too focused on minor issues and leaving out blanks to the difficult questions on what should currently be done.

“There is a change in problems without a change in mindset, which is also another setback. Indeed it talks about politics but to what extent does it describe the multiparty system, which was not common by then? It has centred on corruption as the major administrative challenges paused in African countries, what about sexual corruption and harassment currently witnessed,’’ he queries.

Call for reforms

Peter emphasises the need for making reforms in the education curricula regularly, say after a duration of five to 10 years due to paradigm changes, noting that normally themes tend to fade out with time, hence demanding to be replaced with reflective thoughts that catch up with the times.

‘’Literature is preparing students to be theoretically competent enough to score good grades but yet unable to crack down thoughts into practice. Widening more literature will help sort out society’s problems and even predict the impact of decisions we make today as well as how we behave,’’ he notes.

Richard Mabala, a renowned associate writer of numerous books including; Hawa the Bus Driver and Mabala the Farmer, elaborates how literature extends to more than a single interpretation making it last longer than expected.

“It is important to understand that literature has an extended perspective based on how a person sees through things. Some books still communicate to the contemporary society we live in as Africans and our cultural values,’’ says Mabala.

Despite old literature being worth using, Mabala confesses the importance of taking a keen look at how literature can be improved to catch up with the socio-economic dimensions encountered in times.

He says it is important for authors like himself to as well focus on current issues within the literature used in the academic curricula.

“Times change and so does people’s understanding of things. Currently a book like Passed Like a Shadow is a mismatch of how HIV/AIDS is controlled with ARV medicines that were not there previously. We should now look at other issues to discuss that are in line with the problems the society is facing,’’ he says.

He says many books in Tanzania are not given privileges from the writing facilitation of its authors to the promotion they receive and accessibility in bookshops.

“We have good writers in Tanzania hidden behind curtains due to limited financial support in publishing and distribution of their works. Low media publicity is also a major setback as far as marketing is concerned locally and internationally as compared to our counterparts in neighbouring countries.’’

He points out the shortage of bookstores as another drawback in propelling literature as only a few Tanzanian books have got space in them.

“We need to extend space for writers to show their abilities by offering a hand in various ways in terms of finances, media coverage and marketing. This will expand literature through an update centred upon a wider and convenient dimension especially on youth matters.’’

Mabala calls upon government and other education facilitators to hold discussions to get opinions on new literature books for secondary school students to be used in the education curricula.

“A critical review on literature will help add new books that match the demand and remove the ones that are outdated,” he notes.

Given the need to improve the current literature, the government has allocated a budget for anyone who has a bill to write novels to be funded for publication by the education ministry. The aim is to encourage modern literature through upcoming publishers who are expected to bring new flavour in the books to suit current generations.

“We want to help writers who want to write novels. When we say ‘our education’ we want to reflect the needs of our country and culturally we would like to see our students also reading books or novels written by Tanzanians,” says Prof Adolf Mkenda , who heads the education docket.