“Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first
training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust
that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they
can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew
that every experience carries its lesson.”
A prominent distance learning institution
in Namibia has as its motto: “Education is the greatest equalizer.” And the
Institute for Open Learning does not base this on mere wishful thinking – even
the United Nations Development programme has “to be knowledgeable” as part of
the four basic capabilities for human development. The Namibia Statistics Agency
as well has recently reaffirmed that a high-school level education results in a
much greater ability to be employed.
But as with all skills, there is a cost to
have it developed. True, the Namibian government has made some strides towards
its promise of free education for all, but it still needs a lot more resources
to be fully implemented. And while this solves some of the problems for our
future generations, it does leave the current generation with a bit of a gap.
But luckily there’s a solution.
The poorest and most vulnerable people
should have access to information that is useful and relevant, and that enable
them to not only understand their environment better and learn new skills, but
also to make informed choices about their lives. There is a service that
provides just this – with a mandate of free and universal access to
information. The public library.
In their research paper “Libraries,
literacy and poverty reduction: a key to African development,” Professor Kingo
Mchombu of the University of Namibia and Nicola Cadbury point out that “New
knowledge and skills are also crucial assets that can improve a household’s
income-generating capability and reduce vulnerability to shocks, such as
economic downturn, loss of employment or the illness of a wage-earning family
member.”
“They achieve this through offering access
to reading materials that are relevant, stimulating, enjoyable or useful.
Pleasure in reading, which in turn helps to foster a lifelong reading habit, is
often experienced in the library in which readers gain their first opportunity
to pick a book of their own choice. Libraries are also important for providing
practical information that can be used to facilitate development, whether for
seeking employment, understanding rights, learning a skill, checking a fact or
gaining health information.”
I myself can attest to this. Back in 1994,
my family moved to Windhoek. At the age of 11, my allowance was barely enough
to buy a book every month, and I’d read through it in an afternoon. But every
Wednesday, after school, my parents would take me and my sister to the Windhoek
Public Library. The first time I walked in there… It was the most books I had
seen in my entire life! I used my library cards and those of my parents, and I
got to read 9 books a week.
Pretty soon I had exhausted all of my favourite
authors, but curious to see if there was any I missed, I combed the card
catalogue. And to my surprise, I found much more. One of my favourite authors,
Dr Isaac Asimov, had not only written science fiction, but also other books –
in the non-fiction section. Dr Asimov, as it turns out, had written over 500
books during his lifetime, and had published books in 9 out of the 10 Dewey
Decimal Classifications.
Of course, not all of them were in the
Windhoek Public Library, but those that were I read again and again and again. Dr
Asimov had an unambiguous and direct writing style, and he explained what he
knew simply and clearly. Though his work I learned to love mathematics, physics
and astronomy – as can be seen in Theory of Interest topics here on occasion.
And when I write, I try to at least bring the same qualities Dr Asimov used to
my work.
To this day, some of the books I’ve read by
Dr Asimov I’ve not found for sale anywhere, but they’re still available in the
Windhoek Public Library. By now, of course, the library not only provides
books, but also internet facilities that I would have jumped at to have access
to back when I was young.
The work of the Namibia Library and
Archives Service to maintain our public libraries have been exemplary,
especially considering the amount of work they had to put it to have the
library sector included in the Education and Training Sector Improvement
Programme for Vision 2030. Yet it feels that too often the contribution of
libraries are forgotten when it comes to fighting poverty alleviation.
Sara Harrity, of Book Aid International,
said, "The role that libraries in Africa could play in reducing poverty has not
been sufficiently recognised and hence the necessary policy developments and
investment in the library network have not yet been made. Policy makers and
donors, recognising the link between poverty reduction and literacy, have given
centre stage to textbooks in policies to increase literacy and student
achievement levels. Yet textbooks are the beginning of the solution, not the
complete answer. Libraries sustain literacy and do so on a reuse basis
providing a cost-effective means of support for a whole community of readers
who seek information for tackling their own problems."
The burning of the Great Library of
Alexandria was such a loss to the common knowledge of mankind that it is still
debated today what we lost in its destruction. Let us learn from that mistake,
and not let knowledge be locked up only for use by the rich and privileged.
Knowledge is the right of all mankind – and if it can even lift just some of
our citizens out of poverty, perhaps we too can experience a new age of
enlightenment.
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