Young Kimaro writes the "Development with Commonsense" column for the Daily News in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Her articles are informative, rich with food for thought as well as pragmatic solutions.
This is one of Ms. Kimaro's recent columns on education and reading. Please feel free to post a comment.
What books on good farming practices for our farmers?
by Young Kimaro
Development with Commonsense column
February 7th issue of the Daily News
Not much as far as I know. Few pamphlets here and there perhaps. Don’t know whether they reach the farmers, though. Haven’t seen any sign of them around our village.
I once scoured around Dar es Salaam in search of reading materials in Kiswhaili on better farming practices and animal husbandry, written simply and with good illustrations suitable for farmers. My experience was much like Teben’s. Bookshops around the city were slim on books in Kiswahili. The recently opened Soma Book Café carries more books in Kiswahili than any that I have seen so far, but when it comes to books on farming and livestock they too didn’t make the mark.
I am directed to one agricultural project office near the Askari monument. No, we don’t handle such publications. Sorry. Perhaps you should try our main office at Chang’ombe. The Livestock Ministry is right there too. They are sure to have what you are looking for. Everything.
O.K. Agricultural Extension folks interact with farmers all the time. If anyone has those materials, surely it would be them. So, with raised hopes I plunge into the Dar es Salaam traffic and head out to Chang’ombe.
A spiel to one of the senior officers: Looking for books on improved farming for villagers – crops, livestock, chicken rearing. I wait in anticipation as she opens the glass door to a bookcase by her desk in which are several rows of small booklets standing tightly packed. She pulls out a few. What about these?
“Enriched Compost for Higher Yields”, “How to Control Striga and Stemborer in Maize”, “Improved Practices in Rearing Indigenous Chickens,” and more. They are part of a “CTA Practical Guide Series” financed by the European Union. They come with simple and easy to follow diagrams and tables.
I can’t hide my excitement. Yes, yes, precisely. These are exactly what I am looking for but, but … in Kiswahili? She shakes her head. Used to have some but no more. No funds. Perhaps the Library…. She leads me through the corridors.
The Librarian offers a few more of the same pamphlets, all in English. Aren’t there any in Kiswahili? The Librarian shakes her head. Sorry. How come? Most of the farmers in Tanzania don’t read English but these are all in English? How come? Who are they for?
The Librarian is taken back by the sudden outburst that’s unfairly hurled at her. After all, she only keeps what’s given to her. She quickly ushers me to an mzee seated at one corner of the Library, reading. Mr. Eusebio Mlay’s one of our senior officers. Maybe he can help you. With that she wastes no time retreating to the safety of the book stacks.
Mr. Mlay had overheard the commotion and is bemused. May be our Ministry’s Training Unit will have what you are looking for. Come. He folds up what he was doing and leads out of the building into the blazing sun to another building, a little walk away.
A large office is filled with desks but only one at the far end is occupied. The officer responds stiffly to our greetings; bad sign. My spiel again, why I am here, what I am looking for. He pulls out a few books, real books, containing a wealth of information.
Don’t have any extra copies now, he explains. New order’s in for the next round of training. When the new batch arrives, can the Ministry possibly donate a few to a community library in our village? Not possible. Regulations. He is categorical, unyielding even to his colleague’s entreaties. We cut our losses short and scoot out of there.
Mr. Mlay wants us to try just one more office. It’s already well past the office hour but Mr. Kirenga, the new Assistant Director of Extension Services is still at his desk and kindly obliges a stranger knocking at his door without appointment.
For the seventh time that day the broken record plays the spiel again. But I sense it’s different this time. A shared concern lingers in the air.
At one time, says Mr. Kirenga, the Adult Literacy Program folks produced wonderful booklets on improved farming and practical guides on many other topics for adults. That probably was the reason why those literacy programs did so well. But they don’t do that any more. Their materials are very hard to come by. We had good work done, but we seem to have dropped the ball.
He had to scrounge around for them, says Mr. Kirenga, as he hands over a thick folder. Inside it are the very treasures I have been searching for: practical guides with simple illustrations to help farmers improve their farming and livestock keeping practices, all in … yes, Kiswahili! But these are the only copies he has. If only these could be reprinted and made widely available. Perhaps, in his new position he can make it all happen. Perhaps.
On my way out, as we pass his office Mr. Mlay pops in for a brief moment then comes out with few books in hand, the ones we were denied at the Training office. Homework, I surmise, remembering them days. But I am wrong. He holds the books out to me. Mama, these are for your library. Take them.
ykimaro@yahoo.com
Showing posts with label Swahili. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swahili. Show all posts
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
"And what about books in Swahili for our children to read" by Young Kimaro, columnist, the Daily News in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
Young Kimaro writes the "Development with Commonsense" column for the Daily News in Dar Es Salaam. Her articles are informative, rich with food for thought as well as pragmatic solutions. An excellent example: Ms. Kimaro's proposal for "science stimulus packages" for secondary schools in Tanzania. See my previous post for a link to that article.
I asked Ms. Kimaro if she had written additional columns on education and reading -- and was delighted when she sent me several more to share.
This is the first of four columns I'll post here. Please feel free to write a comment after reading.
"And what about books in Swahili for our children to read"
by Young Kimaro
Development with Commonsense column
For January 31st issue of the Daily News
“You goofed in your last article,” chides my good old friend Teben. “Of what use is saying all those nice things about reading when that’s out of reach of so many people in Tanzania? Don’t you think the majority of Tanzanians don’t read because they don’t have anything to read?” Teben’s of course right. In Tanzania, books and even newspapers are hard to come by outside major urban areas.
It’s a complex issue. I was sidestepping it by touching the easiest facet, those who have access to books and yet do not read. Now that Teben has forced the issue and she won’t let me get away with it, so tackle it I must, perhaps in bite-sizes starting with children’s books.
I remember one time Teben wanted to buy books as Christmas gift for all the children of Tanzanian staff at her embassy. She scoured around Dar es Salaam for children’s books in Swahili, colourful books that children would find irresistible, books with large prints and short simple texts that make reading fun and not a chore for the young.
It was so hard for her to find books in Swahili to begin with and the few that came close to what she was looking for were expensive. Books for teenagers … well they were so dull and uninviting. She ended up abandonning the idea altogether.
How can this be? If we want a reading culture to develop, our children have to get into the habit of reading from very young age. But how can they if they don’t have books in Swahili? Instead of lofty speeches shouldn’t Government officials pay attention to how books can be made available? OK, it’s not the Government’s job to publish books. Isn’t it its job to be a catalyst to help it to happen? But instead it may have discouraged it.
The Governmnet has allowed the language issue to drag on unresolved for years. The possibility that we might switch out of Swahili to English rears its head every so often, often enough to discourage publishers from investing in books in Swahili. They won’t risk it if their market could be wiped out overnight with a stroke of pen. Can’t blame them.
Even if the language issue were resolved today, it will take time for creative authors and illustrators to come along in sufficient numbers. There’s nonetheless plenty to do in the meantime. We could tap the classics in world literature. No, I don’t mean translating the original texts. That’s an enormous task that requires not only the ability to translate but also literary skills of highest order in Swahili itself to do justice to those masterpieces.
Translating abridged versions of these classics though, and some of them are already trimmed to barebones for young children, would be not be hard to do.
Reading an abridged version of “the Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens in Swahili, our children will witness how absolute power in the hands of a few in France before the French Revolution created an overly indulgent ruling class that was so wrapped up in privileges and self-importance that it had no feeling for the plight of the poor, hungry and angry masses.
Children will learn that democracy had a violent birth in France, that it rose against the backdrop of an over-worked guillotine that came swishing down time and again, dispatching many among whom was Marie-Antoinette who thought cake should solve the hunger problem of the masses.
Shakespeare’s plays have already been recast into short stories. Charles and Mary Lamb’s “The Tales of Shakespeare” is much read by children in England. Those too would lend well to translation.
That would acquaint our children with Hamlet’s excessive ruminations that rob him of the ability to act. They will see in Macbeth the destruction that one can bring on oneself by failing to curb blind ambition. They will revel at the timeless romance of Romeo and Juliet and grieve over their death that shouldn’t have been.
What if these tales of Shakespeare were in Swahili, illustrated in very African fashion with colourful kitenge and kanga designs as backdrop?
Lift up your vista, publishers. Go invest in books in Swahili, big time. Let our stores overflow with them so that our children can read. It’s not as risky as you think. The market for books in Swahili stretches beyond our borders and that’s your insurance. Look at the Swahili speaking population in parts of Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Comoros, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, even Somalia and Sudan if they weren’t fighting. Don’t their numbers add up to a sizable market, all there for you to tap?
Think of it. No policy-maker could rob that from you with a stroke of pen unless, unless … exporting books in Swahili is banned. Oh, oh ….
ykimaro@yahoo.com
I asked Ms. Kimaro if she had written additional columns on education and reading -- and was delighted when she sent me several more to share.
This is the first of four columns I'll post here. Please feel free to write a comment after reading.
"And what about books in Swahili for our children to read"
by Young Kimaro
Development with Commonsense column
For January 31st issue of the Daily News
“You goofed in your last article,” chides my good old friend Teben. “Of what use is saying all those nice things about reading when that’s out of reach of so many people in Tanzania? Don’t you think the majority of Tanzanians don’t read because they don’t have anything to read?” Teben’s of course right. In Tanzania, books and even newspapers are hard to come by outside major urban areas.
It’s a complex issue. I was sidestepping it by touching the easiest facet, those who have access to books and yet do not read. Now that Teben has forced the issue and she won’t let me get away with it, so tackle it I must, perhaps in bite-sizes starting with children’s books.
I remember one time Teben wanted to buy books as Christmas gift for all the children of Tanzanian staff at her embassy. She scoured around Dar es Salaam for children’s books in Swahili, colourful books that children would find irresistible, books with large prints and short simple texts that make reading fun and not a chore for the young.
It was so hard for her to find books in Swahili to begin with and the few that came close to what she was looking for were expensive. Books for teenagers … well they were so dull and uninviting. She ended up abandonning the idea altogether.
How can this be? If we want a reading culture to develop, our children have to get into the habit of reading from very young age. But how can they if they don’t have books in Swahili? Instead of lofty speeches shouldn’t Government officials pay attention to how books can be made available? OK, it’s not the Government’s job to publish books. Isn’t it its job to be a catalyst to help it to happen? But instead it may have discouraged it.
The Governmnet has allowed the language issue to drag on unresolved for years. The possibility that we might switch out of Swahili to English rears its head every so often, often enough to discourage publishers from investing in books in Swahili. They won’t risk it if their market could be wiped out overnight with a stroke of pen. Can’t blame them.
Even if the language issue were resolved today, it will take time for creative authors and illustrators to come along in sufficient numbers. There’s nonetheless plenty to do in the meantime. We could tap the classics in world literature. No, I don’t mean translating the original texts. That’s an enormous task that requires not only the ability to translate but also literary skills of highest order in Swahili itself to do justice to those masterpieces.
Translating abridged versions of these classics though, and some of them are already trimmed to barebones for young children, would be not be hard to do.
Reading an abridged version of “the Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens in Swahili, our children will witness how absolute power in the hands of a few in France before the French Revolution created an overly indulgent ruling class that was so wrapped up in privileges and self-importance that it had no feeling for the plight of the poor, hungry and angry masses.
Children will learn that democracy had a violent birth in France, that it rose against the backdrop of an over-worked guillotine that came swishing down time and again, dispatching many among whom was Marie-Antoinette who thought cake should solve the hunger problem of the masses.
Shakespeare’s plays have already been recast into short stories. Charles and Mary Lamb’s “The Tales of Shakespeare” is much read by children in England. Those too would lend well to translation.
That would acquaint our children with Hamlet’s excessive ruminations that rob him of the ability to act. They will see in Macbeth the destruction that one can bring on oneself by failing to curb blind ambition. They will revel at the timeless romance of Romeo and Juliet and grieve over their death that shouldn’t have been.
What if these tales of Shakespeare were in Swahili, illustrated in very African fashion with colourful kitenge and kanga designs as backdrop?
Lift up your vista, publishers. Go invest in books in Swahili, big time. Let our stores overflow with them so that our children can read. It’s not as risky as you think. The market for books in Swahili stretches beyond our borders and that’s your insurance. Look at the Swahili speaking population in parts of Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Comoros, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, even Somalia and Sudan if they weren’t fighting. Don’t their numbers add up to a sizable market, all there for you to tap?
Think of it. No policy-maker could rob that from you with a stroke of pen unless, unless … exporting books in Swahili is banned. Oh, oh ….
ykimaro@yahoo.com
Thursday, June 11, 2009
J. Nambiza Tungaraza on Global Voices Online
J. Nambiza Tungaraza is a Swahili blogger and radio presenter. I discovered his writing on Global Voices Online, where I was reading news of Dar Es Salaam and Tanzania.
Click here to read Mr. Tungaraza's bio and columns at Global Voices Online.
Click here to read Mr. Tungaraza's bio and columns at Global Voices Online.
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