The need to develop a reading culture

There is an old joke that 'if you want to hide something from an African, put it in writing.' This stereotype wasn't based on scanty mockery but sheer reality. While reading is not guaranteed to revolutionize your life, it changes one's perceptions, ideologies and increases general knowledge. It is here that literacy is exercised and great intellectual introspection skills are built. There is personal freedom in knowledge and that knowledge can be attained through reading. This personal freedom "opens a world" of opportunity and enhances the quality of one's life. 

It’s therefore evident that the permanent cure for ignorance is the application of knowledge gained through reading what others have discovered and written in books or shared in seminars about their experiences, theories and ideologies regarding individual and societal perceptions. An individual or society that fails to read and study will definitely lag behind, because the dark cloud of ignorance will continue to hamper the penetration of the light of transformation.

It’s factual that developing any form of 'culture' takes time and effort, but first establishing whole-school initiatives such as “Drop Everything and Read” or regular library sessions for mankind  is an excellent foundation from which to build a robust  reading Culture. It has discovered that the reading culture in Uganda is considered low with few people willing to take time to read a book. This is because the tradition of buying and reading books is perceived to be a luxurious "Whiteman’s" inclination.

Because many young people in Africa do not want to read, this weakness partly explains the high levels of unemployment due to lack of confidence, creativity and employable skills in the young folks. When they have time, they opt for online chatting, drinking, femininity, loitering, television and other activities that aren't principally useful. This renders them irrelevant and incapable of combating most of the challenges that come with ignorance.

We forget that learning is not only limited to academics but personal safety, health, spiritual growth, emotional and financial independence.

By living in an evolving world where things change all the time, we are part of the global village, which thrives on all sorts of information which one needs to be intellectually equipped with. This makes knowledge indispensable for self and societal development, because it is the force to transforming any situation. “Where there is no knowledge the people perish”.
Therefore, an uneducated, uninformed and illiterate community is a total burden to the whole nation but a fair level of literacy and knowledge possession can help even the most seemingly spontaneous individual to develop in thought, intellect and personal resourcefulness. Let us read and get empowered.