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Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa

Jennifer Cram

To cite this article: Jennifer Cram (1993) Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa, The
Australian Library Journal, 42:1, 13-20, DOI: 10.1080/00049670.1993.10755621

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Colonialism and libraries in
third world Mrica
• Jennifer Cram •
Jennifer Cram is President ofthe Australian
Library and Information Association and
Manager of Library Services for the
Queensland Department ofEducation. She
is a fifth generation Australian with gen-
erations of links with Africa. She herself
was taken to Africa as a toddler and was
looked after, and virtually raised, by
Africans. This gave her the experience of
growing up in an oral (or preliterate) cul-
ture at the same time as she was growing
up and being educated in a literate one. She
views this as a very rich experience.
Manuscript received January 1993
The illegitimate uses of librarianship are
examined in anAfrican context and the effects
THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1993
oflibrary colonialism on African society dis-
cussed. The inability of the traditional
public library system to make a meaning-
ful impact on the population ofsub-Saharan
African countries is highlighted.
IBRARIANShaveaconviction that
L we are in a helping profession, a
profession that empowers people to
grow and learn. But libraries and
librarianship have been used for less wor-
thy purposes, one of which is as a tool of
colonialism.
If we take a look at history we shall dis-
cover that the most enduring legacy of
British colonialism in Africa is the game of
soccer; but to be fair the record should be
amended to read 'soccer and libraries'. While
it may be argued that the introduction of
libraries into Africa was to help produce
the vital material necessities of life such
as food, houses, clothing, and money, this
also carries an element of exploitation. In
order to exploit their African territories all
the major colonial powers found it neces-
sary to establish research libraries both at
home in Europe and on the spot in the
African countries concerned. Most of these
libraries were concerned with agriculture,
geology, chemistry, medicine and veterinary
and forestry research. 1
Library colonialism - the domination of
Africans by Western nations through the
use of information power- remains one of
the most hidden but deadly instruments of
13
Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa
neo-colonialism. The Western tradition is
pervasively the order of the day in African
bookshops, libraries, educational institu-
tions, and the mass media. 2
The recent Italian invention ofsoccer colo-
nialism provides a poignant comparison with
the earlier invention oflibrary colonialism.
At a seminar entitled AFRICA 2000 held
in Florence in October 1991, the intention
was announced ofinvestingmillions ofdol-
lars in Mrica to develop a footballing
infrastructure to provide a permanent sta-
ble of players, already groomed and
conditioned for the intense competition of
the Italian league.
Westerners have generally pretended
that books are benignly revolutionary. The
truth, however, is that every revolution has
both its subjects and objects. In the silent
but decisive revolution precipitated by
Gutenberg in 1454, an event that culmi-
nated in today's information explosion,
Africa and other non book, non print-ori-
ented cultures became not only the victims
of, but also the testing grounds for
McLuhan's 'typographic', print-oriented
man. 3
The United States Information Agency
(USIA) presents about one and a quarter
million books and periodicals a year to for-
eign institutions and individuals, stimulates
the export of American books in a variety
of ways, and fosters the translation of
about 400 books a year. This could pass for
bibliographic philanthropy ifit had not been
conclusively demonstrated that the USIA,
has propaganda as one of its main func-
tions and is one of the most important and
sensitive arms ofthe CIA.4 The United States
is using library power as an invisible tool
ofideological confrontation, which explains
why the Iranians did not discriminate
between librarians and militarists.
14
Before contact with the West only two
African societies, the Vai and the Mum, both
in West Africa, had their own written
script. So, the African's encounter with
books, reading, libraries, and formal edu-
cation was mainly through the Europeans
who came to Christianise, trade and 'civilise'
those they 'discovered' in 'the heart ofdark-
ness'. 5
Illiteracy in Africa was not a problem
prior to the advent of Europeans. The
whole society was one big'school'. Specialised
professions like blacksmithing, priesthood,
and trading were transmitted mostly from
parents to their children. Education was
carried out by means of socialisation.
Teaching and learning were done by one
generation passing on its values, norms,
culture, history and religion to the next gen-
eration by word of mouth or by example.
Africans do not chastise their children. If
a child does something wrong the conse-
quences ofhis behaviour are explained. He
is admonished in terms ofthe way his actions
affect others, usually by way of being told
a moral tale.
There were no school drop-outs and no
libraries. The whole society was the repos-
itory of information and knowledge, and
parents were the transmitters or dissemi-
nators of that knowledge. The aged person
was the symbol ofwisdom and society's mem-
ory databank. In some societies there were
people who were the traditional oral his-
torians and story tellers. Whenever one of
them died, it has been said, a whole library
died with him.
Anyone familiar with the overall picture
of African societies is aware of the never-
ending mood ofconviviality and hospitality,
and the lack ofa strict demarcation between
leisure, work, and official and formal occa-
sions. It is this element of conviviality that
THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1993

is the major life-generating source of psy-
chic gratification among third world nations
- a phenomenon that has been irretriev-
ably lost in all industrial societies. 6
The arrival of the European drastically
changed the way of life of the Mrican. To
understand the European's culture, his way
of life, his religion, the marvels of his sci-
ence and technology, his government and
his language, the Mrican had to become
literate. The tool was formal education and
the Mrican who acquired the skill and mas-
tery of reading and writing became known
as an educated or literate person. The one
who failed to acquire the reading and writ-
ing now became an illiterate. 7
In Western societies formal education is
an important means for transmitting knowl-
edge and culture from one generation to
another as well as for developing human
traits that contribute to the cumulation,
distribution and renewal of knowledge,
social stability, and economic well-being.
The attitude or view which Western soci-
ety itself holds toward the school system
as an institution offers at least a partial
explanation of our society's faith in its role
as a knowledge-generating medium. For any
institution to play an important role in soci-
ety, it must be legitimate. In other words
those who use it must have faith that it
serves their interests, aspirations or needs.
The institution must be relevant.
The book, reading, libraries, and formal
education were introduced into Mrica by
the coloniser for reasons which can hard-
ly be called legitimate: as a tool for
Christianising the heathens and teaching
them the way to salvation; as a means for
educating the target people in order to
achieve the social, political, and economic
objectives of the colony; and to acculturate
the 'natives' into European ways. Both
libraries and educational institutions, seen
THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1993
Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa
against this background, became weapons
for the entrenchment and institutionali-
sation of the Western tradition. The
dissemination ofMrican culture, where this
happened at all, became quite incidental
and marginal to the primary intention of
using these so-called 'democratic' institu-
tions as laboratories for brainwashing
Mricans.
Atrue Mrican library would be one that
Mricans and others could walk into in order
to experience the realities of the Mrican
world view. American libraries exist to meet
the needs of Americans, British libraries
exist for the British, while Mrican libraries
- because they are both American and
British- have neither an Mrican clientele
nor services. They were not primarily found-
ed to preserve the Mrican oral tradition
but to collect, organise, and make avail-
able to Mricans the racial transcript of the
Western tradition.
I can remember very clearly at the age
ofsixteen going to a theatrical performance
at a mission school near Lusaka. Mricans
have their own rich tradition ofstorytelling
and role playing but the performance that
evening was King Lear. One line sticks in
my mind, the scene where Kent trips
Oswald. 'You base football player!' recited
the student actor. I cannot imagine what
relevance Shakespeare could possibly have
had to that group of young Mrican school-
boys from a rural background, apart from
that very tenuous link to soccer.
Laura Bohannan, the American anthro-
pologist who studied the Tiv ofWest Mrica
in the 1960s, recounts how they asked her
to tell them a story in recompense for the
many stories they had told her. The old men
promised her that no one would criticise
her style (style is very important in oral
cultures) 'for we know you are struggling
with our language,' but they insisted that
15
Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa
she should explain anything they did not
understand, as they did when they told her
stories.
She decided this was her chance to prove
that Hamlet is universally intelligible. She
was to discoververyquicklythatthe mean-
ings in Hamlet are anything but universal.
First, her Tiv audience could not accept
the appearance ofHamlet's father as a ghost.
They insisted that it was an omen from a
witch. Then they dismissed oneofthemost
important elements of the play. Horatio
interpreted the ghostly visitation as an omen
for Hamlet, but Hamlet was not the chief
and omens are only for chiefs and elders,'
they said. They approved of Claudius' mar-
riage to Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and of
its haste, after all the fields would need to
be hoed. They wanted to know who had mar-
ried Hamlet's father's other wives, and were
shocked that monogamy was the norm. They
could not understand our concept ofghosts,
and stated categorically that only witch-
craft could make anyone mad, unless of
course, one sees the beings that lurk in the
forest. And so it went on.
At one point Bohannan became angry and
told her audience, 'Ifyou don't like the sto-
ry, I'll stop.' One of the elders poured her
some more beer and said:
You tell the story well, and we are listening.
But it is clear that the elders ofyour coun-
try have never told you what the story
really means. We believe you when you
say your marriage customs are different,
or your clothes, or your weapons, but peo-
ple are the same everywhere; therefore,
there are always witches and it is we, the
elders, who know how witches work.'
They argued their way through the rest
of the story and at the end one of the elders
commented on the climax:
That was a very good story, and you told
16
it with very few mistakes. There was just
one more error, at the very end. The poi-
son Hamlet's mother drank was obviously
meant for the survivor ofthe fight, whichev-
er it was. If Laertes had won, the great
chief would have poisoned him, for no one
wou!d know that he arranged Hamlet's
death. Then too, he need not fear Laertes'
witchcraft; it takes a strong heart to kill
one's only sister by witchcraft. Sometime
[he concluded] you must tell us some more
stories of your country. We, who are the
elders, will instruct you in their true mean-
ing, so that when you return to your own
land your elders will see that you have
not been sitting in the bush, but among
those who know things and who have
taught you wisdom. 8
There are three meanings ofintelligence
in the African thought system. Distinction
is made between intelligence as shrewd-
ness, wisdom in social relationships, and
learned cognitive skills. Intelligence as a
human trait may be either practical when
~t is nothing more than slyness, cunning,
mtellectual grasp, or cleverness, or habit-
ual when it means active knowledge, ability
and understanding wisdom. This habitual
intelligence or wisdom has been subdivid-
ed again following the introduction of the
white man's 'book' knowledge. If you ask
about a child: 'Does that child have intel-
ligence?' you are likely to get the reply: 'He
has the intelligence of books, but he does
not have intelligence. '9 This response means
that although the child understands read-
~ly what he learns in school, he is wanting
m the wisdom of life, in the knowledge of
relationships, and of situations in life in
which he is placed by the play of actual cir-
cumstances. The child, in other words has
a lively intelligence but no wisdom; he'can-
not apply his theoretical knowledge to the
practical situations of life. 10
THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1993

Whatever we might say in hindsight it
was both attractive and acceptable to
Africans that literacy should become a new
basis for the delegation of authority, social
power, and wealth. The notion that, for the
first time, an able-bodied young man could
offer his manual labour to construct a rail-
way, or for similar chores, in return for
money, rather than expecting financial
assistance from his parents, was as revo-
lutionary as it was acceptable and fully
embraced as a viable system of social strat-
ification. Literacy gave access to the three
desirable M's - Mansions, Mercedes, and
Mistresses. The sudden shift from the
world of roles to one of jobs was deemed
both proper and an attribute of a higher
civilisation. 11
Colonialism has now been replaced inmost
of Africa by foreign aid, but library-based
foreign aid is a value-laden gesture primarily
intended to serve the hidden intentions of
the rich, print-oriented societies and is only
incidentally (if at all) beneficial to the tar-
get populations. Otherwise in an era where
various agencies specialise in the produc-
tion of audio-books, why are Africans not
encouraged to listen to full-length readings
ofrelevant printed works on cassette? Why
is this still unthinkable? Such an approach
to information packaging, preservation,
and dissemination would not only restore
the social activities of indigenous knowl-
edgeables, but would also constitute a
framework for the restoration and propa-
gation of the highly desirable but rapidly
vanishing oral tradition. 12
Even if libraries were essentially indige-
nous in content, they would still change a
preliterate society. Developers, especially
economists, maintain that literacy enters
into the realm of development not simply
by employment in activities that obvious-
lyrequiretheabilitytoreadandwrite. They
point out that literacy includes an element
THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1993
Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa
ofchange in people's perceptions ofthe alter-
native actions that are open to them. The
ability to read contributes an awareness of
nonconventional and nontraditional pos-
sibilities: of new ways of doing things, of
pursuingjobs or careers different from those
which kin or neighbours have followed.
Furthermore, old lines of work change
because literacy brings accessibility to the
store of how-to handbooks. 13
The essentially negative side of literacy
is the way it dispossesses speech by giving
the illiterate the impression that books are
the only possible vector of culture and by
teaching him to devalue his own discourse
in his own eyes. 14
There are also deliberately malignant uses
for literacy. Instead of being used to raise
consciousness it is sometimes used to
mystify and to create and reinforce depen-
dencies.15
Illiteracy in non-Arab African countries
constitutes a serious socio-economic and
political problem. UNESCO figures show
that on average 54% ofAfricans cannot read
and write. The figure for some inland coun-
tries is as high as 90% or more. A much
higher percentage of women (83.7%) than
men (63.4%)isilliterate. 16 And it is increas-
ing. In Ghana, for example, the adult
illiteracy rate was about 50% in the early
1960's. By 1989 it was estimated at 70%.
This pattern is repeated, without excep-
tion, in every sub-Saharan country17 and
the root cause is that, in terms of popula-
tion, Africa is the world's fastest growing
continent.
The median age in sub-Saharan Africa
is seventeen but sub-Saharan states do not
have enough human and financial resources
to provide adequate schools. The result is
that every year the school system produces
dropouts who graduate into adult illiter-
ates. For example, in Kenya, where the
17
Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa
fertility rate is 8.1, the dropout rate between
primary and high schoolis 90%. In Tanzania
it is 97%, signifying that only 3% of school
students go on to high school. This is bad
enough, but the real numbers of illiterates
could be even more frightening. As school-
ing is not compulsory a significant number
of children have never been to school or
have no access to education. 18
Interestingly, the functional literacy rate
in Tanzania, is the highest in Africa. This
is due to Nyerere's Ujamaa scheme which
concentrates rural populations in villages
of250 people- a size large enough to sup-
port a primary school. Increased functional
literacy rates have lowered Tanzania's
birth rate.
The traditional public library system in
Africa has not been able to satisfy the needs
of providing suitable and adequate read-
ingmaterials fornew literates. Seventy-five
percent of Africa's population lives in rur-
al areas, and yet most ofthe public libraries
are sited in urban areas, either in the nation-
al, regional or district capitals. 19
Even when assessed as an urban utility,
the public library system has not made any
meaningful impact on the population. Very
few people have access to the collections
and in many cases the public library users
are either primary or secondary school
students or pupils who are already liter-
ate. Public libraries in sub-Saharan Africa
have done little to help new literates retain
their literacy. 20 Very few new literates even
in the urban areas use the public library.
Public libraries tend not to stock suitable
reading material for the newly literate and
no conscious efforts are made to relate the
public library system to literacy campaigns.
In the 1960s a few countries tried out-
reach library programs but most of them
18
sooner or later reverted to their tradition-
al role of stocking books and waiting for
the reader to come to them.
In Tanzania, a country of25 million peo-
ple, only 1 -2% of people are library users.
In Kenya they are used by 2 - 3 %of the
population. 21
Kenya is regarded by many people as a
model country. I remember it being referred
to as the one independent country in Africa
where everything works -everythingmean-
ing phones, sewerage, water supply,
transport, and the like. Yet the Government
allocates only 400- 600 shillings annual-
ly to each secondary school for the purpose
of purchasing books. At current exchange
rates this is $A17.60- $A26.40. Is it any
wonder that some school libraries have not
had a single new book in well over a decade?
After independence African librarianship
was born, without much consultation with
African users, through the efforts of sev-
eral expatriate librarians nurtured in the
Anglo-American brand oflibrarianship. At
this formative stage there was a beliefthat
the information needs and information
seeking behaviour of Africans was identi-
cal to that of library users in Europe and
North America. It was also thought that
the European concept of librarianship, as
practiced in the Anglo-American tradition,
with its organisational and bureaucratic
structures, bibliographically-based foun-
dation, and middle-class outlook, could all
be imported, without modifications, into
Africa. It was left to the African public to
adapt themselves as best as they could to
this alien institution, for the institution was
sacrosanct. 22
The staff had to adapt themselves too.
For African staffthe institution was as alien
as it was to the African public. Severe action
was taken at one large library when it was
THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1993

discovered that one of the assistants in the
Technical Services section was taking books,
without checking them out, andgivingthem
away in the townships. He honestly did not
realise that this was not acceptable. And
at the main library in Lagos friends signed
up their children and discovered an inter-
esting local interpretation of loan limits.
In common with public libraries everywhere
users were not allowed to take out more
than the number of books allowed, in this
case four. But they were also not allowed
to take out fewer.
Although this local rule might sound
bizarre, it had a certain logic. Not only did
the librarian ensure that people actually
stretched themselves, it raised the statis-
tics. It has been suggested by black librarians
in South Africa that as many as 70% of the
books received by black libraries were con-
sidered unsuitable for their communities, 23
so creativity is needed to get them circu-
lating.
As I have already suggested, there are
very few libraries in rural areas through-
outAfrica. The conceptof'barefoot librarians'
is being examined in view of the present
needs of the poorer sections of black com-
munities, the geographically dispersed
service facilities that are required, the lim-
ited funds available for library services, and
the impossibility of producing enough pro-
fessional librarians to satisfy the demand
for staff. The problem is that black librar-
ians give two different definitions of the
concept of the 'barefoot librarian'.
To one group, a 'barefoot librarian' is a
person who can read and write, who has
been specially trained in library work, and
who receives continuing education in order
to maintain his expertise and deal with more
complicated problems. According to the sec-
ond interpretation, a 'barefoot librarian' is
seen as a qualified librarian who fulfils the
THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1993
Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa
needs of a developing community at grass-
roots level. 24
It is clear that in most of third world
Africa public libraries have largely been
seen to be part of the education process. In
South Africa they are seen to be, as they
are in Australia, very much a recreation-
al service. The South Mrican library
profession five years ago approached the
South African Government with the sug-
gestion that libraries could be used for the
development of the country, and that they
had indeed contributed to the social, eco-
nomic and political development of South
Africa. This suggestion was followed by a
major study and report, one of whose rec-
ommendations deserves quoting:
Libraries are largely unknown as sources
of information for development. Once
librarians have adjusted their approach,
abilities and services to the needs ofdevel-
opment, they should actively market
these services. 25
I have to conclude from this that, at a
time when there is radical change going on
in South Africa, some elements of an ear-
lier view ofthe utility oflibraries in colonised
countries are being introduced, particularly
in other areas where the report talks about
dominant and subordinate communities.
To be fair, present national development
goals in South Africa are primarily aimed
at personal development, economic growth,
and improving the quality oflife among the
disadvantaged. These are worthy aims
which I have no doubt would have been
espoused by those who brought libraries to
Africa, without fully realising that while
they may have been bent on increasing the
physical and material quality of life, they
were diminishing its spiritual and cultur-
al quality.
19
Colonialism and libraries in third world Africa
If a man does away with his traditional
way of living and throws away his good
customs, [runs the Basuto proverb] he
had better first make certain that he has
something of value to replace them.
Earl Nightingale in his classic recording
The Strangest Secret has defined success
as 'the progressive realisation of a worthy
ideal'. It would be hard to better this defi-
nition or to improve on Denis Waitley's view
of total success as 'the continuing involve-
ment in the pursuit of a worth ideal, which
is being realised for the benefits of others
-rather than at their expense'. 26
Defined thus it cannot be argued that
the introduction ofthe Western library into
Mrica has been a success, nor will libraries
in Mrica be a success until a sensitive inte-
gration of Mrican needs with Western
opportunities is achieved.
References
1. Wilfred J. Plumbe, Tropical librarian-
ship. Metuchen, NJ, Scarecrow Press,
1987' pp. 77-78.
2. Adolphe 0. Amadi, African libraries:
Western tradition and colonial brain-
washing. Metuchen, NJ, Scarecrow
Press, 1981, p.l64.
3. Ibid p.45.
4. Ibid p.165-166.
5. Ivan Illich, 'Political inversion' in Ivan
Illich and Etienne Verne, Imprisoned
in the global classroom. London, Writers
and Readers Publishing Cooperative,
1976, p.35.
6. Ibid p.25.
7. Kosi A Kedem, 'Libraries as partners
in the fight to eradicate illiteracy in
sub-SaharanMrica.' Paper given at the
IFLA Conference in Stockholm, 1990
pp.32-33.
8. Laura Bohannan, 'Shakespeare in the
bush',NaturalHistory Aug-Sept 1966,
20
pp.28-33.
9. Janheinz Jahn, 'Mrican systems of
thought.'inS.H. Irvine andJ.T. Sanders,
Cultural adaptation within modern
Africa. NY, Teachers College Press, 1972
pp.88-89.
10. Amadi, op.cit. p.lll.
11. 1bid p.6.
12. Ibid p.212.
13. RosarioGassolde Horowitz, Librarian-
ship: a Third World perspective.
Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood,
1988 p.22.
14. E. Verne, 'Literacy and industrializa-
tion: The dispossession of speech.'
Paper presented to the International
Symposium for Literacy, Persepolis,
Iran, 1975.
15. H.S. Bohla, 'Why literacy? Why liter-
acy can't wait? Why mass literacy
campaigns? - Issues for the 1980s.'
Paper presented at the National
Conference of the Adult Education
Association, USA, St Louis, Missouri,
1980.
16. Kedem, op.cit. p.31.
17. Ibid p.32.
18. Ibid pp.33-34.
19. Ibid p.34.
20. Ibid p.35.
21. Kingo Mchombu, 'Which way Mrican
librarianship?' Paper given at IFLA
Conference, Moscow 1991, p.9.
22. Ibid pp.4-5.
23. University ofSouthMrica, Department
ofLibrary and Information Science, The
use of libraries for the development of
South Africa. Pretoria, The
Department, Centre for Library and
Information Service, 1989, p.9.
24. Ibid p.31.
25. Ibid p.236.
26. Denis Waitley, Seeds of greatness.
London, Cedar, 1990 p.21.
THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL FEBRUARY 1993