‘…fired by her crusade, she promptly emailed all the people she knew who she felt
might have collections of books they would be prepared to part with.’
BARBARA DURLACHER
“And so, children,” she said, folding up her papers, “I’m going to end now by sayingto you all once again – if you want to write, you must read, and read and read!”
At once, a hand went up in the front row. “But Miss,” the lively little black face said,
“We haven’t GOT anything to read!”
“What do you mean?” she replied, “You haven’t got anything to read? This really
can’t be true, there’s always plenty to read EVERYWHERE. An old newspaper lying
by the side of the road, magazines thrown away by somebody, books that are being
given away – you can always find something to read somewhere.”
Warming to her subject, she had an idea. “But I’ll tell you what. I’ll write to some of
my friends and see if they have any leftover books they can let you have; I’ve got lots
of friends and they’ve all got hundreds of books. I’ll ask each one to give us five
books and before you know it, we’ll have a wonderful collection for you to read.”
Arriving home, and fired by her crusade, she promptly emailed all the people she
knew who she felt might have collections of books they would be prepared to part
with.
After a few weeks with no replies, she emailed them again, and then later, another
email, and then another. But nobody replied.
What does this mean about a society and the generation of young people who are
growing up, supposedly in our care, who will one day be the nation’s leaders? What
will they know of the world around them, of life, of history, of everything that has been
achieved by the generations who have gone before them if they don’t read? What will
they have to base their judgements on when, as it inevitably will, the time comes for
them to make major life decisions?
I don’t have any answers, I don’t have sufficient knowledge or experience in this kind
of a conundrum to even begin to find an answer to this problem. It is too big, too
complicated and too fraught with social and political hazards for there to be an easy
solution. Perhaps the churches can help – I heard once about the Methodist Church
who regularly received crates and crates of books of all kinds on every subject from
the ordinary people of Japan, all costs paid. But whether that wonderful public-
spirited act of love and caring is still continuing I have no idea.
But when one thinks of all the used and second hand books that clutter up the
shelves, fill the boxes of second-hand books stalls week after week, returning to be
stored in somebody’s garage until they are hauled out the next week to sit, neglected
and ignored on the charity stalls, until eventually they are burnt or pulped, it certainly
seems a shame that they can’t be put to better use.
Wouldn’t it be nice if South Africans could do this for their own children, for those little
ones, ’pink, blue, green or purple’” as the popular saying goes, who are growing up
so fast, under such adverse circumstances? Some live in squatter camps, others in
tenement flats without electricity or clean water, but one day, perhaps they will enjoy
a better life, and a life which could have been immeasurably enriched by what they
have learnt from reading?