Loading...

Blacks DO Read

Blacks DO Read

EDUARDO Chivambo Mondlane founded FRELIMO in 1962. He was assassinated 51 years ago on 3 February 1969. He was a Mozambican political activist and a professor of Anthropology.

While Onkgopotse Ramothibi Tiro was killed by a letter bomb on 1 February 1974, Mondlane was killed by a bomb device hidden in a book. If he wasn't a vociferous reader, Mondlane would have been alive today. The same could be said about Tiro. The "letter" purported to be from an education-funding agency.

Do you pick up the pattern that these leaders got targeted through their love for reading? Now, how did the stereotype that Blacks don't read come about? You most probably know the anti-Black joke that you should hide in a book anything that you don't want a Black person to see or know. If that was so, Mondlane and Tiro could have been alive today. Besides, white racists would not have hidden the bombs in book if they thought Black people would not read them.

Wipe out of your mind the anti-Black stereotype that Blacks don't read. What is true is that we've been systematically denied education. Where we were given access to educational institutions, they made sure to either under-educate or mis-educate us.

Why do you think there are no libraries in Black schools? Why do think there no libraries in the villages and townships. Of you are lucky to find a building or space given the name library, you are sure to find no books there.

Did you ask why Blacks aren't writing books? How will they write books if they are not formally educated? Where Blacks are educated, the commercial publishing houses are not welcoming of Black experiences and stories.

The work spaces are not designed to encourage Black people to write. No time/ space and facilities allocated to Black people who may wish to write. We are slaves to the unending deadlines.

Perhaps, I'm in denial. But I find it difficult to accept the notion that Black people don't educate when they crossed rivers and climbed mountains on empty stomachs to get an education. Ask every educated and respected Black person how they obtained their education. They will tell you about the river crossing, mountain climbing, empty stomachs and learning under trees with no books or laboratories.

Afrikans educated their children long before there were formal buildings of education. Afrikans were the first to build schools and universities where they were also kind enough to educate foreign nations.

Do yourself a favour and wipe out of your mind all anti-Black stereotypes. And you will see the difference.

Your Review

RATING

1224 VIEWS
0 Likes

Share To

Nelvis Qekema

Nelvis Qekema

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Genesis of the Land Struggle

The Genesis of the Land Struggle

April 6 marks the arrival of convicted fraudster, Jan van Riebeeck, and his gang who landed on our shores in 1652. The arrival of the Dutch settlers was the beginning of the conflict between the coloniser and the colonised, the oppressor and the oppressed, the land thieves and the land owners, the European settlers and the Black indigenous people. The primary source of the conflict was land.

Afrophonics – Sello Galane & Tlokwe Sehume

Afrophonics – Sello Galane & Tlokwe Sehume

“My understanding of Jazz in South Africa, why this brand, I found that it makes people look cool. It is seen to be progressive and moving with the times. Even people who know they are not playing Jazz, when they are given the term Jazz, they keep quiet.

GOAT Hamilton Whether Whites Like It or Not

GOAT Hamilton Whether Whites Like It or Not

Snooker superstar Ronnie O'Sullivan bizarrely believes the races are not won by Hamilton but his technically superior Mercedes car. O'Sullivan's (lack of) reasoning is that, "If you have a car that is going a second a lap quicker than the other cars, in theory all he has to beat is his team-mate [Valtteri] Bottas – who seems to be comfortable and happy playing second fiddle".

comments
Go to TOP