Demere Kitunga –ED
With Inputs of Susan Knappe—Volunteering Intern and Coordinator of the Event
2nd July 2011
Introduction
On the 25th of June 2011 the E&D Readership and Development—Soma organised a reading fair with the motto 'promoting reading and writing beyond the school to empower Tanzania's children to live self-determined and dignified lives'. This forum was at once a celebration of three years of promoting reading at the Soma Book Cafe as well as a celebration of the written, printed or spoken word: a recognition and validation of language in all its beauty, of speech's mysterious impact, of writing's remarkable ability to change the world, and all the fascinating worlds reading allows us to discover… children kept on chanting the Soma children Forum rallying call—SOMA, SOMA, SOMA… burudani, utamaduni, maarifa. Watoto na Vitabu Juu—Fungua Ulimwengu kwa Mtoto… Mpe Kitabu!
The third anniversary is more than a commemoration of the existence of an institution. It is a validation of the existence of Soma Book Café, the first of its kind in Dar es Salaam and all that it and Soma, the organisation behind it, stands for. It is also a celebration of the patience and persistence of those who espoused Soma's vision, appropriated it and kept it alive under very discouraging circumstances: its members of staff who accepted and accept to work for a pittance, volunteers who from time to time have to dip into their pockets to make their volunteering worthwhile, associates, organisations and informal networks who identify with the organization's visions and aspirations enough to go an extra mile to make its agenda their own and thus make the idea truly owned by more than one individual, one group or one agency. These in their diverse ways are the ones who 'in their diverse ways' and 'in one way or another' both convey the same thought to contribute to the realization of our vision of seeing 'Tanzania fighting poverty by transforming into an informed society that values knowledge, creativity and independent thinking'.
Rationale
In our world today, literacy, the ability to read and write, to access written information and express thoughts through writing, is widely believed to be of fundamental importance for individuals as well as societies to thrive. It increases chances of receiving quality education and skills to seek, acquire and utilise knowledge and relevant skills throughout one's life time. It improves employment opportunities and job performance. It enables people to ameliorate their own livelihoods, as well as those of their families and communities; and it equips them with necessary skills to meet diverse and continually emerging challenges. For any person, therefore, functional literacy[1] is a basic necessity in order to lead an informed, self-determined and dignified life. For any society, wide spread literacy is believed to be a key prerequisite for accelerating technological development and economic performance, improving basic services, and ,eventually, achieving overall prosperity[2].
Yet literacy is not only a tool providing access to knowledge and learning. It is also the key to a wonderful world, a world of language and thought, of exciting stories and beautiful poetry, of artful expression and emotional impression. The written or printed word provides a space for hiding or sharing, for dreaming, criticizing or celebrating. It allows anyone to cross the boundaries of language, space and time, to listen to other people's voices or make their own heard.
Moreover, writing and reading can bring people(s) closer together, for it allows stories to travel farther and spread wider than the spoken word is able to do; and to be translated from any language into any other. In this way, stories can be shared more widely, thereby supporting the genesis and preservation of a common culture - "for a culture, that is not least the common treasure of stories"[3].
Unfortunately, in Tanzania, literacy rates have not only been unsatisfactory (about 70%[4]), but declining over the past 20 years[5]. This alarming development is, amongst other factors, also due to a lack of books and other reading materials, in and outside the classroom or school environment. And even where books are available, many are of foreign origin, not written in local languages, or simply too expensive for the majority of the people to afford.
It is because of this recognition as expressed in Soma's statement of belief that, "In the current global context in which information is power, a society which does not read is marginalized and continually acted upon. A reading culture is therefore a development imperative in a country like Tanzania, which is resource rich but its people are poor (...)"[6]; which is why the organisation has made readership promotion its primary mandate. Among others, it raises awareness on the importance of reading for pleasure, for getting culturally grounded and for pursuit of knowledge—for they are mutually reinforcing and often happen simultaneously. This is in line with our mission which is to "contribute to the creation, promotion and sustenance of a reading culture by actively participating in the development of readership in Tanzania; designing and implementing readership activities; and joining hands with others in advocating for a social and policy environment that fosters reading for pleasure and pursuit of knowledge."[7]
Activities and Outcomes
Planned activities were organised in two sets, the morning to late afternoon set included a variety of literary expression activities aimed at reluctant readers among children and young adults. For adults accompanying young people, a variety of board games existed and possibility to sit in for children activities so as to learn how to occupy children constrictively in a way that is fun. The late afternoon and evening set were meant to provide alternative leisure to adults that involved spoken word poetry, music and dance. Room was also created for spontaneous displays of talent and creativity, including a fashion show inspired by modern and traditional African attire.
Specifically, the activities were meant to:
§ Engage children and early teens in a day long reading and writing-related games and activities that offer them an opportunity to learn by play, share stories, meet new friends, make discoveries and be entertained; thus giving them an incentive to continue reading and writing outside the classroom and to recruit others to do the same through their neighbourhood and in school play routines;
§ Expose adults to various ways of introducing readership to children who are reluctant readers; and through them and the media engaging the wider public;
§ Mobilising a wide range of youth and community actors to participate as volunteers, resource people and contributors so as to broaden the base of individuals and institutions interested and skilled in crafting activities and events that open the fun of reading to reluctant readers; and
§ Unlocking the secrets behind letters and books by breaking the barrier between reading which is often considered serious business, and leisure.
Activities for children included:
§ Discovery games—using clues to think fast and write geographical features using the map and/or a letter of the alphabet;
§ Discovery and creative games involving passages from story books, parts of wise sayings; parts of published poems;
§ An assortment of creative games using performing art and story telling clues facilitated by creative artist with a wealth of experience in stimulating children to create stories, theatre, and other make believes while having lots and lots of fun.
Activities for adults:
§ During the day adults concerned themselves with board games—cards, bao, scrabble and chess—there was an expert chess player interested in teaching children who worked with children;
§ Facilitating and entertaining children—there were seven to ten adults working with children and teens at different parts of the day, two of the facilitators were also entertainers—both using interactive methods;
§ Documenting the event through still and motion pictures—and interviewing children for the media—three media persons volunteered to cover the event for their own media houses and for Soma and one of the facilitators who is an IT expert also took still and motion pictures for Soma's intuitional memory.
There was food and drinks from the Café counter on sale for both children and adults; and for those from disadvantaged backgrounds arrangements were made to make sure they are served and their bills taken care of.
Appreciating the event's movers and shakers
The event of this nature cannot be held without a cost. We appreciate all those who contributed in cash or in kind to make the Tamasha a reality; and all those who participated in one way or another to making it a success. It won't be possible to appreciate each and everyone in person but this does not mean that we do not value each and every contribution. Thus we shall only mention a few names to represent a much broader support that was extended to Soma: We appreciate the financial support received from Action-Aid together with advice and sharing of their database of suppliers, CBP and Susan's parents. We appreciate contribution of equipment, advice and linkages by TAYOA; ATD for mobilising young adults from disadvantaged communities and assisting them to participate; Alliance Francaise and Goethe Institute for distributing our invitation through their mailing list.
We appreciate time and energy invested by Susan Knappe for three months (that included putting off her university work and holiday) to plan and co-ordinate the event.
We appreciate the patience and generosity of Humphrey Polepole and the entire TYC team for assistance and guidance during the planning and fundraising for the event; and Jacqueline Mgumia for throwing her full weight into fine tuning organisational and artistic part of the event, and in so doing sharing her extensive experience and pool of critical resource people sharing in the facilitation.
We appreciate Rehema Chachage for designing the Tamasha flier on voluntary basis and advertising the event in the cyberspace, Chambi Chachage who helped with translations and cyberspace advertising and Msafiri who distributed posters and fliers to strategic places.
We appreciate the team of facilitators who volunteered their time and insights to plan, design and prepare inputs for a variety of games and assisting with guiding and facilitating groups of children and youth to perform and enjoy them. This include: Mohamed Farahani, Cabral C. Liundi, Klemmi Majamba. These worked hand in hand with Susan and other Soma staff members: John Kitunga, Freddy Lucas and Mulokozi. Mohamed also took motion and still pictures for internal documentation and footage for future media and promotion, while Cabral invited his brother--- who was generous enough to cover the event and offered to make sure it features in Channel TEN. Two media workers from Mwananchi communications also covered the event and published a lengthy feature on Vijana supplement of Sunday Citizen of 3rd July, 2011.
There were also resource people and facilitators who joined in on the day of the event of full and semi voluntary basis. We very much appreciate their inputs. These include: Mama Mipango who told stories to children and recited a poem, Kristina and Clanga who have hands own knowledge and skills on how to draw out creativity and fun for our children, Kifimbo, Sodoki and their band mates who made music; Douglas Mtetema, a spoken word artist who entertained with poetry; Abdulkarim Coulibaly who instructed young chess enthusiast on the tricks of how to be good chess players and Ibrahim Mdachi of ATD who joined in the fun of facilitating experience sharing and mutual learning between children and youth of various backgrounds.
Also among the staff members, Margreth Mmassy and Elias Mpepo went an extra mile to make sure participants are well fed while Leon worked extra hours to ensure sanitation was up to standard.
Thank you everyone! We had a great day and hope that this feeling is shared by our volunteers and artists, and – most importantly – by the children, youth and adults sharing the day with us!
[1]Functional literacy can be described as "the ability to make use of literacy skills to solve problems and meet learning needs in daily life." Directorate General for out-of School Education, Youth and Sports. Department of National Education, Indonesia (1999): Functional Literacy Program. p.2.
[2]See for example: UNESCO (1995-2011): http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/education-building-blocks/literacy/ [access17.05.2011].
[3]Dietrich Schwanitz (2002): Bildung. Alles, was man wissen muss. 13th edition. Goldmanns Taschenbücher.
[4]See for example: UNICEF (2010): http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/tanzania_statistics.html [access 16.05.2011]; CIA (2011): https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2103.html [access 16.05.2011]; Trading Economies (2010): 6 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/tanzania/literacy-rate-adult-total-percent-of-people-ages-15-and-above-wb-data.html [access 17.05.2011].
[5]See for example: TENMET (2011): http://www.tenmet.org/public_html/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50:literacy&catid=37:in-the-news&Itemid=45 [access 17.05.2011]; Daily News Online Edition (2010): http://www.dailynews.co.tz/home/?n=14831&cat=home [access 17.05.2011].
[6]E&D Readership and Development Agency (2007): Program Strategy and Action Plan 2007-2011. p.2.
[7]E&D Readership and Development Agency (2007): Program Strategy and Action Plan 2007-2011. p.3.
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