Rwanda: How much have you Read?

By: Randa Rugangazi

As one roams around Kigali, rarely will one find the sight of someone reading a book on the bus. Actually rarely can one find people carrying books on the bus aside from school books as school children are on their way to and from school.

Not to forget on Saturdays and Sundays during church going hours when one will see the glossiest Good Books(Bibles).

In case you are wondering who goes to church on Saturday, then you will be surprised to know that Rwanda has the fastest growing Seventh Day Adventist community.

It seems that reading to many in Rwanda is only associated with preparing for school exams or keeping up with the scripture reading in church. One can come up with a long list of explanations for the poor reading culture in our culture.

Naturally, at the top of the list would be low discretionary income, or lack thereof. A discretionary income is the money one has after paying off bills.

Of course, one can’t ignore the fact that books are expensive even for an individual with a decent income. The cost of books has been blamed for the information gap affecting developing countries.

Rwanda’s lack of reading culture is a shared problem in most of the East African countries- actually across most of Africa. Many blame our schools for failing to spark the curiosity in school children to seek books independently.

Even well educated professionals only read daily news; they don’t seek reading material outside of their local/regional newspapers or websites.

There is no need to go into all the benefits of having a good reading habit in this article. In school many are led to believe that reading is solely an activity for improving one’s socioeconomic status.

The notion of seeking books merely to improve one’s knowledge of the world is strange to most Rwandese- and Africans for that matter.

There is no doubt that the advent of the World Wide Web in Rwanda is a great platform to bridge the information gap.

Inclusive in this information gap is access to published works i.e. literary, historical, scientific materials.

Rwandans need to develop a diversified taste in the material they look up on the internet.

In between the time spent checking emails and posting statuses on Facebook or Twitter; people could take a look at the newest commentaries or essays on The New Yorker website.

The more committed could look up books on Google Books.