GOVERNMENT must help bring down the cost of printing to encourage more Zambians to write books that could even be used in the school curriculum, veteran politician Vernon Mwaanga has said.
Mr Mwaanga said the cost of printing books in the country is high and many Zambians are discouraged from writing.
He made the appeal in Lusaka on Friday night when he officiated at the launch of book entitled ‘The Diary of a Zambian Saint’.
The book is written by a 19-year-old boy, Darrell Phiri, of Kitwe.
“We also need to change our reading culture, we have very few Zambian writers but receive little support because many Zambians have no culture of reading,” Mr Mwaanga said.
Mr Mwaanga said while the levels of education are going up, the reading culture has continued going down.
He said a study conducted by UNESCO revealed that for every newspaper copy bought in the past 9 to 10 people used to read it, but currently only 5 to 6 people read the copy.
Mr Mwaanga said the research does not speak well of the reading culture of the country. He hoped the book written by Darrell will inspire more youths to write books that could be used in schools in literature, music and drama lessons.
And author of the book Darrel urged youths to explore their energies to discovering their skill and talent. He said this would enable them to apply to the maximum their potential and resist pressure from parents to pursue careers they do not want.
And Lusaka business Rossi Gaudenzio urged government to re-establish libraries that have gone into oblivion as it will inspire youths to go and borrow books.
Dr Gaudensia urged writers to include more details about Zambia in their writing to help market Zambia in the tourism sector.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
having served all the four previous presidents u were better placed to influence what u are calling the govt to do now.this is a lesson to those in positions of power to contribute meaningfu to society dont just concentrate on self service.
this is a good suggestion. I am 100% behind it.
Yes !! Printing / Publishing costs must be reduced so that the cost of buying books comes down too. The standard of reading even as far as G12 is very poor. Students read in a halting and toneless manner with many mistakes in pronunciation and some do not understand many of the words they read. We urgently need drop in centres and lending libraries where people can access books in local languages and English Educational books yes, but also books that can be read during leisure times for the pleasure of reading a good story.
# 1 YOU HAVE MADE MY DAY.HE FAILED WHEN HE WAS IN GOVT
I want more Zambian literature. I also want more Zambian writers to embrace technology. It is very easy to publish a book via the Amazon Kindle store, and it is then available to read anywhere Kindle software can run — PCs, tablets, phones, netbooks, and the Kindle itself. It’s a great way to get books into the hands of the diaspora in addition to locals and profit margins are much better on ebooks. Publishing costs are almost nothing for ebooks.
#5 You hit the nail on the head. What VJ should be doing is telling people how easy publishing is these days. You can now write a whole book without using any paper. It is called word processing. In the past you had to use a type writer. Probably VJ still uses a type writer. When the book is completed, you can get it printed anywhere. You can also sell your books on Amazon! It shows that we need people with modern thinking in government. Not Kambwili and all the other cadres we have. There are also Common Wealth funds which help new writers. This information is never published by our government. I suppose it would be subject to NICEKELEKO in Zambia!
The quality of posts on the blog is telling of the state of our reading culture. The posts lack depth, spark and originality in thinking process. (Does the failure to express oneself explain the insults on the blog??). These together with gleaning new information can be improved through reading. Its the only way to broaden one’s confines of knowledge!! No one remains the same after reading a book, you will have picked up something you never knew or honed the understanding of something!! Lets read more, even at leisure to be enlightened and appreciate the world we live in better.
Whatever he has done in the past, VJ is a pure Zambian through and through, he has Zambias best interests at heart.
Our Lord is a loving God , if he forgives Mr Mwanga for his past sins who are we to judge
He without sin throw the first stone,
All Mr Mwanga does nowadays is preach peace in our country and encourage people of all walks to strive to achieve more in life,, what is wrong with that???
You never hear VJ talk ill of anyone or curse anyone, he is ever polite and pleasant
Wish we had more states men like him in Zambia, not these young under5,s preaching hatred
What has the cost of printing got to do with writing skills? Is there any evidence of how many zambian writers have had their works not published by prohibitive printing costs? To the contrary, there are not many, even any gifted Zambians capable of publishing any good works. Zambians are not writers, but talkers!! We talk too much!! Zambians schools do not teach pupils to develop literary skills. Now a days publishing a book is much easier than it was 20 years ago and nothing to do with this ‘cost of printing’ nonsense being peddled by Mwaanga. The cost of publishing a book is almost free and you can sell it your self without any middlemen to make a cut from the proceeds!
One just needs to check on the price of most reading material (Novels, mags, etc) to see how prohibitive they are. For all his faults and failures, VJ has a valid point
I support this 100% too. My sister is writing a book at the moment. it sounds very interesting I will explore some of the suggestions that some bloggers have suggested and see where my sister will get gto with her book. May I also state that writing is very tharapeutic not just a money making hobby.
#9 Kimbanguist, what are you on about? Speak for yourself when you say that Zambians are talkative. Whilst others are exploring their writing skills all you can come up with is pure tripe and not relevant to anyone. How dare you sit in your armchair and critisize your fellow people and yet you are in a foreign land I bet your contribution in that nation bears no relevance to anyone. Why can’t we for once acknowledge talent that is there instead of dissing people all the time. You remind me of ka mushota who always writes tripe and has nothing to benefit anyone….grow up !!!!!
The only Zedian books I can think of that are available outside of Zambia are “Bitterness” by Malama Katulwende (which is very good), “With Sword and Chain in Lusaka” by Richard Sampson, “Glimmers of Hope” by Mark Burke, “Just off the Great North Road” by Hugh Chare, and “A Political History of Zambia” by Bizeck Phiri. I hope I’m missing something, because it shouldn’t be possible to list all of any country’s books in a single paragraph. There’s still a lot of story to be told, both fiction and nonfiction.
Hey there you are missing the Diary of a Zambian Saint by Darrell Phiri :)
Is that VJ i could hardly recognise him! What has happened to him? Too many wives and mistresses has truly taken a toll on him. I hope he is single now, or has he met a desperado who is foolish to be married to a dead man walking?
Generally I do not read article on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to take a look at and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, quite nice article.
It is always good to hear such development! I have written a couple of novellas myself that await publication. Some body help me with information about Zambian publishers. my contact- 0026774083756 or [email protected].