OF CHANGING FIRESIDES, THE LIBRARY AS HOSPITAL, GOVERNMENT AS PARTNER

Winzim Online

Delegates at the Indaba conference 

The aura and ideas presented at the Indaba were so overwhelming such that one could not absorb it all in one go. Like a process, so the tale unfolded, of diverging and converging experiences, at the same time the tale becoming clearer and clearer in adherence to the main theme.

   The afternoon session on the first day was a second part of the debate under the sub-theme “Creating Synergies in The Book Industry”, and had writer, Shona editor and award-winning journalist Tinashe Muchuri making his first-time Indaba presentation, senior librarian McDonald Nhakura and Sir Buma Kor, publisher and editor from Cameroon.

Muchuri’s paper was a study of the “Innovation in Storytelling and The Future of Shona Folklore in Zimbabwe” as found in selected works of Ignatius T Mabasa, a well-known writer, poet and storyteller.

  

At a certain writers’ workshop last year where Mabasa’s children stories were being debated, Muchuri said he felt inspired especially by the questioning which was accorded two of Mabasa’s innovative folktales titled Radio YaTsuro and Chipo NeChipopai.

   He said there was fear at the workshop that Mabasa was disrupting the indigenous knowledge systems by, for example, creating animal characters that are set in the city, animal characters that are users of modern technology, when animals in Africa are important totemic symbols.

   Muchuri, after presenting his paper, would face the same question from Dr. Cheela Chilala that if in African totemic systems these animals are very important, couldn’t there be a limit.

Throughout, Muchuri emphasized his idea of ‘the changing firesides’, implying innovation in storytelling, and his belief that those who misunderstood this innovation would actually be going against the dictates of their own indigenous knowledge systems, thus self-defeating. As he showed it in his paper, there are Shona proverbs which encourage innovation and in his analysis of Mabasa two texts, one could detect even the portrayal of a battle between the culturally conservative and the culturally innovative ones.

   In Radio YaTsuro, Muchuri said Mabasa creates two camps in the forest arguing if the radio brought by Tsuro (hare) is acceptable. Not only do Mabasa imbed the indigenous knowledge values in his stories but, by doing so, also enriches folklore in these modern times.

And with this analysis, Muchuri said Mabasa cannot be labeled a rebel in storytelling but a loyal servant to indigenous knowledge systems.

   “The critics have no idea about the stock of our indigenous knowledge systems in terms of ideas of innovation which Mabasa is upholding in his stories… Mabasa has managed to embrace the changing firesides which are relevant in storytelling sustainability,” said Muchuri.

   And the traditional fireside, he added, has been replaced by the modern firesides such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.

   McDonald Nhakura, an expert librarian, had the Indaba delegates cracking their heads over how practical it could be that the sickness, the stress, the depression, which people experience, does not need them to spend lots of money to get healed, that only paying a little subscription to the local library or visiting a bookshop is the way to a healing.

   Bibliotherapy, Nhakura said, is a healing mechanism that needs not much money.  He explained it as a systematic use of books to help people cope with mental, physical, and emotional ailments.

   His presentation was titled “Bibliotherapy Books for National Development” and some found it a new concept and yet, according to Nhakura, Bibliotherapy has been in existent since the earliest days of the book.

   “The fact that it is not being professionally implemented here doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” he said.

   Spiritual, mystical a concept it sounded! Do books have the power to induce, for example, healing of a physical pain? In churches, Nhakura said Biblical Bibliotherapy happens often as people are healed through the Bible.

   But the Bible is not an ordinary book. It was left for delegates to weigh Nhakura’s ideas and there was open skepticism as seen during discussion and others found it worthwhile to proffer an accommodating gesture and suggested a further practical study that will look at the negative impact of Bibliotherapy.Perhaps a few understood how this concept is related to national development.

   The last presenter on the first Indaba day was Sir Buma Kor, a publisher, editor, and writer from Cameroon who talked about ‘how African governments can be made to be bona fide partners in promoting and sustaining publishing and book development activities in the African continent for the rest of this millennium’. 

   His paper put weight behind the Keynote Speech by Stanley Nyamfukudza as it echoed the same call for a partnership between government and the book industry just as it was in the past.

   Sir Buma Kor spoke about the revival of the national book development councils in some African countries.

   In Zimbabwe, the acronym ZBDC ((Zimbabwe Book Development Council) invokes memories of names such as Miriam Bamhare, Ben Hanson, Margo Beddingfield and others who contributed so much to the book industry.

   Sir Buma said what caused the death of many of these national book councils was the withdrawal of the UN initiative that used to sponsor it. Ever since, the book development in Africa has been “retarded”. Perhaps except in South Africa is the national book development council active as alluded to by a South African delegate during discussions.

     “This abandoned milestone must really come back so that we can be able to take off and do the right things which are supposed to be done,” he added.

However, be that as it may, Sir Buma saw hope in the establishment of a new partner that took place at a conference in Nairobi where international book publishers associations met their African counterparts and came up with the AU Framework for Book Development in Africa.

   The revival of these councils through ministerial lobbying to have the book development agenda back in the UNESCO agenda would help solve problems the African book sector is currently facing.

   “Involve the government in the development of policy, which policy would be promoted by national book development councils, and these councils must be autonomous, independent both administratively and financially,” he said.

   He also urged writers to be organized through their associations so that they speak with one voice and to invest in research of the book sector.

More coming about the last day of the Indaba and other activities such as the Children Tent, Live Literature and Writers Workshop.

 Thank you. Tinotenda. Siyabonga.