Call for Tanzanians to develop the habit of reading books

TANZANIANS have been urged to develop the habit of reading books so as to increase their knowledge based talents and skills needed for the development of human resource associated with every sector of economy. The call has been made by Professor Mugyabuso Mulokozi of the University of Dar es Salaam whose research work reveals that, the rate of reading in the country had lowered to a minimum level below 60 percent at present, this is a decrease compared to the maximum level standards of 96 percent in 1970s. However, he said that it is very astonishing to see that, the reasons for diminishing standard rates is mostly due to lack of commitments and sheer ignorance which he said is growing among most Tanzanians who do not want to learn by reading books and other publications so as to widen up their knowledge. Under this situation, he has suggested that a joint concerted effort is highly needed in order to save the nation which he said in the near future is likely to lose credible experts in any important field of learning for a particular sector of the national development. Prof. Mulokozi threw the challenge last week in Dar es Salaam at a press conference which he conducted as a chairperson of the preparatory committee of a ten people selected by Tanzania Reading Association (TRA) which organized the 6th bi-annual African continental forum.

The Chairperson of the preparatory committee of the 6th Pan-African bi-annual Reading Conference for all Professor Mugyabuso Mulokozi responds questions from a team of journalists from the National electronic media (TBC) during the conference outside Nkrumah Hall at the main campus of the University of Dar es Salaam last week. Among other things, professor said that, the rate of reading books in Tanzania had reduced by 32 percent from early 1970s to date.

This is a Pan-African Reading Conference for All which was organized in collaboration with Children Book Project for Tanzania Develop Literature Society, and took place in Tanzania between 10th and 14th August 2009 at Nkrumah Hall at the University of Dar es Salaam main campus. Among other things, Prof. Mulokozi noted that, “reading books is a way of distance learning and the habit is important because people gets education by acquiring different knowledge from book authors, however he added that this a self-learning habit, in this way people are able to avert poverty as education matters in all walks of people’s life.” Narrating on the importance of the conference earlier on, Prof. Mulokozi said that, the conference gave the idea of education the first priority whereby key stakeholders such as teachers in the country got a chance to share experiences with their counterparts. This is the first time for Tanzania to have hosted such a big event and about 200 teachers from various corners in the country participated in this conference. In total a number of 204 people from various corners of the world participated.

Nicole hunter, one of the invited guests from USA exchanges views with a Kenyan novelist Professor Ngugi wa Thion’go outside the Nkrumah hall during the conference. About 204 foreigners from about 20 countries all over the world attended the meeting.

The forum whose theme is “Literacy for Community Based Social-Economic transformation and Development”, involved apart from teachers, different scholars, students, publishers, book-sellers, policy makers and other close stakeholders in book industry. About 250 topics had been submitted to the organizing committee of people who presented their views at the conference, and among the key participants came from Nigeria, Botswana, Morocco, South Africa, USA and Canada. Others came from Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Denmark, Australia, Norway, Swaziland, Australia, New-Zealand, Cameroon and United Kingdom and the hosts Tanzania. The Pan-African Reading for All Conference is one of the most exciting and most memorable literacy events on the African continent. It is organized bi-annually by the International Reading Association’s International Development Committee in Africa (IRA/IDAC) and the National Reading Association in the host country. The first edition was held in 1999 in the glamorous South African City of Pretoria. The second edition was held in Abuja in Nigeria in 2001. In 2003, the third edition was held in Kampala, the city of seven hills in Uganda. In 2005, the 4th edition of the Pan-African Reading for All conference was taken down south to Swaziland, commonly known as the Switzerland of Africa because of its scenic beauty and climate. The most recent edition of the conference held in August 2007 took place in the West African country of Ghana, known for its gold wealth.