I have begun a daily routine of collecting links of pages I will like to visit later. The big problem, for me, is that I might not have enough eyes to take in all that is happening on the internet. Too many websites, too many apps, and contributions. This means a lot for various spheres of human endeavour. But I am more concerned with what it means for African literature. I am interested in this consideration for the simple reason that I am African, alive in Africa, and an emerging writer. What I often witness cannot be told on the media, because my experiences and the translation thereof do not undergo editorial processing, or streaming, or politicking. And so, as a writer in Africa, who is also involved in publishing, I have continuously try to figure out what the internet revolution (evolution) means for African literature.
In these series of posts, I am interested in pointing attention to how creative writing in Africa intersects with the internet. I do not intend to make an exhaustive consideration. Hopefully more writers will think about this intersection, how our art is influenced by it, and how our intention to ‘make a presence’ will continuously shape the manner in which we are read and presented.
I identify that since we are gingerly coming off print technology (keeping our eyes behind, yet looking forward), there are certain needs that confront us. These are: a literate audience, an audience with the ability to access, and an audience willing to receive a continued online effort. In this part, I will focus on the first, a literate audience.
I am concerned that the definition of literacy (in response to who is literate?) relies heavily on the written material. However, it is obvious that a person who is literate in the sense that is defined above will find it easy to be literate in an e-sense (as opposed to literacy in the ‘print-sense’). A more complex challenge is the amount of people who can read and write in Africa. Even more challenging is the fact that not enough is being done, especially by governments, to make people literate. Literacy in the print-sense is important, in my view, because of the vast amount of information and knowledge that is available in print, and also, as is now evident, online.
The point I am making is that whatever move being made in the e-sense must begin with an understanding of how much reception there is. Surely an online literary magazine is fruitless to the person who has never completed a novel. This leads to the idea that literacy can be close-ended and open-ended. In the former, literate individuals are content with their ability to read. They do not retain a hunger which open-ended literates do.
It is, then, one thing to teach people to read and write and another to keep people reading. ‘Making a presence’ demands that both goals are achieved.
I propose that the internet is better suited in achieving ‘open-ended’ literacy than print technology. This is because collaboration is a major component of internet use – in the sense that websites are created around comments, Tweets, Facebook Likes, sharing, and so forth. In essence, you read and you write. Print technology only demands for reading.
But this distinction is important only where people are taught to read and write, and the teaching platform is such that recommends a life of hunger for literacy. If literacy is the goal of education, and if education never ends, literacy should not be one-off. What is necessary is that more avenues are created to offer the possibility of gaining meaning. As such, literacy must be defined around books as well as computers, phones, tablets and apps. The ideal platform that ensures literacy (both open and close ended) is one that seeks to impart knowledge, information and enquiry about the world and one’s place in it.
I have begun a daily routine of collecting links of pages I will like to visit later. The big problem, for me, is that I might not have enough eyes to take in all that is happening on the internet. Too many websites, too many apps, and contributions. This means a lot for various spheres of human endeavour. But I am more concerned with what it means for African literature. I am interested in this consideration for the simple reason that I am African, alive in Africa, and an emerging writer. What I often witness cannot be told on the media, because my experiences and the translation thereof do not undergo editorial processing, or streaming, or politicking. And so, as a writer in Africa, who is also involved in publishing, I have continuously try to figure out what the internet revolution (evolution) means for African literature.
In these series of posts, I am interested in pointing attention to how creative writing in Africa intersects with the internet. I do not intend to make an exhaustive consideration. Hopefully more writers will think about this intersection, how our art is influenced by it, and how our intention to ‘make a presence’ will continuously shape the manner in which we are read and presented.
I identify that since we are gingerly coming off print technology (keeping our eyes behind, yet looking forward), there are certain needs that confront us. These are: a literate audience, an audience with the ability to access, and an audience willing to receive a continued online effort. In this part, I will focus on the first, a literate audience.
I am concerned that the definition of literacy (in response to who is literate?) relies heavily on the written material. However, it is obvious that a person who is literate in the sense that is defined above will find it easy to be literate in an e-sense (as opposed to literacy in the ‘print-sense’). A more complex challenge is the amount of people who can read and write in Africa. Even more challenging is the fact that not enough is being done, especially by governments, to make people literate. Literacy in the print-sense is important, in my view, because of the vast amount of information and knowledge that is available in print, and also, as is now evident, online.
The point I am making is that whatever move being made in the e-sense must begin with an understanding of how much reception there is. Surely an online literary magazine is fruitless to the person who has never completed a novel. This leads to the idea that literacy can be close-ended and open-ended. In the former, literate individuals are content with their ability to read. They do not retain a hunger which open-ended literates do.
It is, then, one thing to teach people to read and write and another to keep people reading. ‘Making a presence’ demands that both goals are achieved.
I propose that the internet is better suited in achieving ‘open-ended’ literacy than print technology. This is because collaboration is a major component of internet use – in the sense that websites are created around comments, Tweets, Facebook Likes, sharing, and so forth. In essence, you read and you write. Print technology only demands for reading.
But this distinction is important only where people are taught to read and write, and the teaching platform is such that recommends a life of hunger for literacy. If literacy is the goal of education, and if education never ends, literacy should not be one-off. What is necessary is that more avenues are created to offer the possibility of gaining meaning. As such, literacy must be defined around books as well as computers, phones, tablets and apps. The ideal platform that ensures literacy (both open and close ended) is one that seeks to impart knowledge, information and enquiry about the world and one’s place in it.
Tagged as:
African Literacy,
computer,
Head Over Heart,
internet,
Literacy,
literary magazines
