Even though Homers odyssey and Iliad are amongst the greatest works of western literature and the greatest epic poems of all time, it is very difficult to get students on LEGON campus who have read with passion those tales of Greek mythology and adventure. Homers acclaimed epics are virtually unknown on campus excerpt to a few intellectuals and demented professors and students pursuing arts. Who in turn were forced to peruse the ancient masterpieces for academic reasons? I used Homers Iliad and odyssey as a reference point here because they stand out as unique and accessible classical works, which has a gripping and overwhelming appeal to everyone regardless of his race or culture. Moreover, the stories the monumental epics recounts are timeless stories that are perennially reenacted here and there. Also, the epic poems were amongst the first texts that was integrated in the educational system of ancient Greece long before rhetoric and philosophy was incorporated in the pedagogy of the mythological race.
When the descendants of Latinus and Romulus and Remus took over from worshipers of Zeus, not only did they modeled their educational system on the Greek system of education, but adapted and borrowed everything Greek and Romanized it. Even roman literary works were exact copies of what the Greeks wrote.
Classical roman works like ARNIED, the Odysseus of Rome by Virgil the Homer of Rome and the divine comedy of Dante Alighieri are some of the ancient works that epitomizes classical literature. The conscience of the world of letters. The form and content of these ancient works are embedded in the psyche of the citizens of those land because they were exposed to those masterpieces early in their education and taught that the works of the great writers embodies the highest ideals of the nation. The culmination point of the brilliant ideas of the land. they are taught that the great works defines the national caliber and early in life, they start reading and reverencing the great works.
When we come to English literature, we are surfeited with countless monumental classics which would be needless to list. Pioneer poet like Geoffrey Chaucer is not only regarded as the father of English poetry, a pacesetter and a national hero and one of the greatest contributors of the development of English literature, but a force, an entity iconoclast that encompasses humor at its best in world literature. Shakespeare does not only belongs to English literature but world literature because he said all the world is a stage and has actually turned it to a stage and as we are talking now, someone somewhere is staging a play of Shakespeare. English men are so jealous that they keep Shakespeare as a household god.
The east and the west are obsessed with the literary outputs of their ancestors. They promote literature, they worship literature. For embedded in their literature is their history, culture and their place in the modern world. From the period of the renaissance in the west until now literature has become a potent force in the existence of their various countries. They read because those books were written to be read. They read and have made reading very simple. They do not pretend to have monopoly over any book, with the advent of the computer and the internet, e books and whole libraries can be carried in pockets. Books are every where to be read. Even in audio formats. Billions of information can be gathered at a click of a mouse. Because they have come to the realization that the world is not if books are not. They know that books are the repository, epitome of the knowledge of the world. Microcosm of the universe.
A vicious adage with a satanic import is that when you want to hide something from the black man, put it in a book. The bane of the black man and his low station in life and the world today is his failure to read and learn.
When an African dedicates himself to reading and writing desperation sets in. books by Africans are hard to come by, and when few ones occasionally decorates the bookshops, the price is enough to discourage a person from reading in his lifetime.
As Africans, reading is a taboo, and our few writers write for foreigners.
A book that becomes a classic in Africa written by an African is quickly incorporated into English literature.
Instead of Chinua Achebe to tour villages in Nigeria and gather more from his people, he is always prompt at BBC to answer questions on things fall apart. While he knows that things have actually fallen apart in Africa because getting a book like arrow of god or a man of the people is not easy.
Ayi kwei Armah is no where to be found. Voluntary exile? He is probably hidden in a sea village at popengeuin in Senegal. Perhaps waiting for the beautiful ones to be born.
Atu kwei okai still recites his poems at the national theatre and its only the politicians and the elites who get access to listen to him, yet, he claims his works are meant for the peasants so as to make them revolutionaries.
Wole Soyinka is an obscurantist and mystic who writes obscure passages that the ordinary Nigerian would be unable to understand because it is meant for PhD holders.
One might expect a university of no mean stature, as Legon to be an excerption but it is not so. No one reads on campus. Reading and research is for a few ambitious people who want to be addressed as lawyers and doctors and lecturers.
This is actually a strange and disturbing phenomenon to contend with especially on a university campus where students are basically trained to research on their own and to attain the highest education possible. It seriously points out loopholes in our educational system. It also brings to the fore the pattern that is now operating in our various educational institution. It is now an accepted norm that a student should be confined in his chosen field of studies. He or she is warned that when he strays from the curriculum and does extra curricula studies, he is risking his chances of passing his examination and so the myth of be glued to your texts books still continues and the result is falling standards of education because the culture of inculcating the habit of reading wide is discouraged.
Education and reading are inseparable whole. They move hand and hand, they are so intertwined that the minute nuances is indistinguishable. It is the most potent force that education employs. Aside from its immense usefulness to education, reading itself is an art, a culture, a practice and adventure in itself towards self-knowledge and proper understanding of the world and the various peoples, culture and traditions that defines a particular group from the other.
It is said that reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. It is the hallmark of scholarship. It broadens the intellect. Unravels the mysteries of the universe and lays bare the soul of the world, it is an odyssey of a unique kind. A quest not only for educational purpose but also for fulfillment.
Those who are convinced that one can attain a high level of education without much research should bare in mind that such a person is handicapped for life, it is possible for a student to be intelligent, to pass through the educational system without reading much or doing serious research on his own. Yet, those who do extra curricula studies and read any book they could lay their hands on have a different story to tell.
In the nutshell, the culture of reading widely is something that is lacking in our educational outlook especially on campus. And I am not prepared to offer solutions here. We flood internet cafes and buy complex phones. I have some enigmatic anecdotes and interesting facts about famous writers to illustrate the point I am making here. Those who have ears should listen.
Shakespeare was a recalcitrant rustic youth who stole a deer and was banished from Stratford upon Avon. He went to London and embarked on a new career. An actor and a dramatic poet. He was not a graduate but he read a lot. Notably Plutarch.
John Bunyan was a poor tinker who has to walk from house to house mending old utensils. With his pilgrims progress about Christian he is mending souls for Christ. He never knew where oxford university was.
John Keats was apprenticed to a surgeon. He accidentally discovered some of the classical books and even though he read with childish naivety, he is now holding a high esteemed position among the romantic poets.
Alexander pope was taught by his mother to read in the house. He never attended school. Yet through his massive reading of books, he was able to become a major poet. To err is human to forgive divine was his observation.
Robert burns was tutored by his father in a farmhouse in alloway in ayishire. Like Alexander pope, he never attended school. But he read the bible with rustic passion. He is regarded as a god in Scotland because he wrote poems synonymous to the psalms.
Charles dickens was sent to work in a blacking factory instead of university and he came out writing stories like Oliver twist, David Copperfield and Nicholas nickleby.
The writer of the mayor of casterbrigde Thomas hardy never got access to study at any prestigious educational institution. He was with the rustics and he presented their dilemma with precision.
Jane Austen even struggled getting paper to write on. She never received high education.
Amos tutuola, epitomizes semi literacy. He left primary five and read less than four books to give the world the palm wine drunkard and other interesting stories exploring the world of the macabre.
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