In my father’s generation
literacy consisted of the “Three Rs” . There was Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.
I have capitalized the ‘R’s so that you would not have to struggle like I did to
make a proper acronym of the words. However the pun on words has turned out to
be somewhat prophetic and is no longer a practical joke. Somehow in my
generation literacy was reduced to “reading and writing” . Though this reduced the
burden of becoming a literate person by conveniently removing that troublesome
last R, arithmetic is essential for the creation, interpretation and operation
in a digital world. The lack of capacity to handle the last R has left many countries
in Africa groping in darkness and gasping for air after nations that are leading
the technology revolution. By discarding arithmetic we are subject to advanced
loan calculations we do not know how to compute!
One would be forgiven for
thinking that by teaching people to read, they will automatically know how to
write. When people actually used to write letters and compositions that may
have been the case, nevertheless a cursory glance at the bulk of text messages
exchanged across the globe, it would not be wrong to assume that people have NOT
forgotten, rather they have NEVER learned to write! This may sound alarmist,
but no new literature books of have emerged in Africa since the 1960’s. Africans
don’t read African literature, to the extent that writers no longer write. There are not only No developers of
technology emerging in Africa, but there is a catastrophic drought of African
writers. However, while the trend that writers do not write is disturbing, the
indication that people do not read at all is disheartening!
This may seem a small matter to
you, but though there is “plethora” of information on the internet, the uptake
of reading of books, eBooks or anything that demands reading has been replaced
by audio-visuals is changing the literacy agenda. The next generation really does not need to
read. The three Rs have been replaced by watching, hearing and talking (Three "As"). The
three Rs engaged the brain and facilitated understanding. This latter form of
literacy lets people know a lot of things, but does not enable them to
understand much of it. We have lost a great deal of ground in throwing out the
three Rs. A very sad moment for me was when the last real book shop that
stocked all kinds of books (not just school texts) in the capital closed down
last year. On the main street in the capital there is no bookshop. However, every
building has a restaurant and several eating places. The shift of emphasis from
the head, past the heart to the stomach is a sure sign of the loss of brain-fed
literacy.
Allan Bukusi is a the author of
the following eBooks
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