Promoting the Reading of African Literature: An Interview with Marcellina Chikasha

In this post I interview Marcellina Chikasha, the founder of a reading initiative called TALENT. She was brought to my attention by Ivor W. Hartmann, after I complained in a blog post that all the big literary contests, judged by big writers like J.M. Coetzee were not reaching Africa's disadvantaged, especially the talented ones in the rural areas. Well, I got in touch with Marcellina and requested that we chat about this issue. Enjoy.

1. What is the idea behind the African Book Fan Club?

This Book Club is now known as TALENT (Tavavanhu African Literature Enterprise). The idea behind the book club is to promote African Literature.
How many of us Africans, by whatever definition, can quote glibly from a Shakespearean novel? Even our fathers are able to give us a line or two from Hamlet. How many schools, post-independence, still have Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Shakespeare as set authors for literature? I grew up being bombarded by alien quotes from my university-educated African father: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark ”, “to be or not to be…” “all the world is a stage…” etc. The quotes from African literature are not as familiar or as oft used. I am hard pressed to quote Charles Mungoshi, Chinua Achebe, Chenjerai Hove or Dambudzo Marechera. As TALENT therefore is to make African Literature marketable, sellable and familiar to the audiences for which it is written. I look at the Harry Potter phenomenon, the money those books made and I wonder when an African-authored children's book will make such sales and ignite such interest. TALENT wants to play a major role in the overall promotion of African Literature.

The African continent contains great literary minds, which have been underappreciated and unrecognized due to the education system prevailing in most post-colonial African countries. Tavavanhu African Literature Enterprise (TALent) seeks to expose African Literature and create a love for it both in the young and the old. We also seek to motivate young writers and would-be writers by giving them exposure to writers whose works have been published, especially works about contemporary Africa .

2. What is the reach or scope of the group's activities? Does it follow the idea of outreach, going to remote areas of Africa?

The book club is a part of Tavavanhu Youth Organisation, which draws its membership from even the remotest parts of any country. However, you are well aware that logistically in Africa communication with those in remote parts is virtually impossible. We need to get to a stage where our telecomms and internet availability is widespread. So far our outreach programmes have involved donating books to schools in the remote parts of Zimbabwe. However, once books are donated you find that there are other issues, for example, the plethora of problems facing schools in Zimbabwe do not make them a conducive environment for reading. By the time a child has found water, food, walked to school and done their share of chores do they have the leisure time to read?

Some of the young readers that Marcellina works with at one of her projects, Tichakunda.


3. What prompted you to start this effort?

My love for Africa, first and foremost. I always get upset at the labels attached to Africa: poor, third world, developing. It is almost an obsession of mine to prove to young and old alike that Africa should shake off these negative labels. I believe one way of instilling pride and self-worth in the people is through reading so that we can gain an appreciation of who we really are as a people.We also need to encourage writing so that we are then the true custodians of our history and that it be recorded from our perspective as African people. How does one gain a true understanding of the period that Zimbabwe has just gone through? BBC News Reports? CNN? Books studying the events from a Western author? I believe a real authentic appreciation even 100 years from now would be obtained from a Zimbabwean author such as Valerie Tagwira, in her book The Uncertainty of Hope.


4. Describe the role of writers and publishers in this effort.

Our workshops and book club meetings are graced by writers and in most cases directed by them. We had a five-hour session with Shimmer Chinodya who was truly inspirational. He did some readings from his books, gave us his bio and took questions from the members. We have also established relationships with certain publishers e.g. Weaver Press, who sell us books at a discount and periodically donate to the book club. The meetings are an exchange of ideas and books among readers, publishers and writers.


5. In blogosphere, there have been debates regarding the scope of African literature. What is African literature to you?

“What is African Literature? The debate which followed was animated: Was it literature about Africa or about the African experience? Was it literature written by Africans? What about a non African who wrote about Africa : Did his work qualify as African literature? What if an African set his work in Greenland : did that qualify as African literature? Or were African languages the criteria? Ok: what about Arabic, was it not foreign to Africa ? What about French and English, which had become African languages...” Ngugi wa Thiongo, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature.

I love this quote which shows us just how difficult it is to define African Literature. I certainly am not of the mindset that African Literature is writings about Africa or an African experience as these can be from a Eurocentric perspective. I believe that African writing is any writing which is essentially African in its perspective.

6. Have you travelled to different African countries to promote this idea?

Not yet but I intend to do so.

7. What is the role of the African Diaspora in promoting readership of African writing?

The African Diaspora tends to lose their Africaness (which is something that is subject to debate). I believe that the message that things African are inferior, combined with our inability to market ourselves aggressively in the West, has led to disinterest in not only African Literature but also many African products, primarily amongst us Africans. For example, my facebook club has hardly generated any real interest amongst the Diasporans, save for a few. The commitment and solid support has been here in Zimbabwe and in South Africa (where we have some members). For the Diasporans to promote anything they themselves have to believe in the cause, which is the hurdle. However, there are some that can start by buying African literature for themselves and their children. The spinoff effects of this money supporting our authors and publishers will make a huge difference in elevating African Literature to its correct positioning.


8. What are the group's short-term plans?

We are currently trying to raise funds to buy books for Mufakose 1 High School. We need 120 copies of the book Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie. TALENT is also doing an African Lit awareness talk for schools in the Harare area.