The problem with our Literature

Morris Mtisi
MINDS are like parachutes; they function when they are opened. The problem with our Literature is that it is shrouded by ‘executive’ spoilers who Stanely Mushava of Literature Today blames for, “puritanical, protectionist and parochial interferences.” He is right. We lack open minds which executively advocate the following intellectual values Literature beneficiates:

Creating and developing critical thinkers.
Offering an open domain of ideas
Offering an exploration of real life
Establishing communication between reader and writer
Developing the power of concentration , imagination, observation and reflection
Liberating the mind beyond what things are but stretching it to perceive even what things ought to be and must be.
Training the mind to resist mental slavery
Upgrading the power to read between the lines, to make independent judgment and opinions rooted on sound evidence.
Sharpening intellectual depth and sensitivity of thought and feelings.

In essence this is what Literature is all about. A nation without a deliberate agenda and thrust, call it policy, to cultivate such minds unwittingly advocates mental slavery.
Let Zimbabwean youths read. Let our future leaders read. Let our students cross boundaries and cultures through reading.

Let them observe, explore the world through the written word. Let them experience and enjoy intercourse with real life through reading, appreciation and judgment of writers and authors from Earth, Mars and Jupiter. All of them enrich and unlock the potential of critical thinking amongst our children and students.

The cries of those who campaign against William Shakespeare and Chinua Achebe in the schools are an unfortunate far cry of “puritanical, protectionist and parochial interference” indeed (Stanely Mushava). There are no better words to describe it. And to blame them (Shakespeare and Achebe), ostensibly ‘for their lack of relevance or immediacy is unpardonable scholastic naivety verging on the brinks of blatant academic blasphemy! No matter who does so!

No Literature is bad literature, unless it is a naked breach of verbal decency or calculated obscenity intended to break the rule of speakable language. No matter how much we may not like a book, and indeed some books are too angry, others indeed a threat to our comfort zones, all of them offer fertile ground for serious reflection, critical thinking and judgment.

What is wrong, irrelevant or colonial about Shakespeare espousing the ideas of conflict in Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, The Mechant of Venice, Henry IV (Part 1 and 2); various forms of love and loyalty in Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Winter’s Tale and Antony and Cleopatra; Change or lack of it as in Malvolio (Twelfth Night) and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice who are both punished because they cannot change; ideas of Fate and Fortune as found in most of Shakespeare’s plays: Order, Disorder and Disability; Good and Evil; Appearance versus Reality as found in his tragedies and comedies; Kingship and the use and abuse of power; Justice, Love and Marriage( Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice).

What is wrong or irrelevant, about Chinua Achebe’s social commentary about the evil of cultural imperialism (Things Fall Apart) culminating into things becoming ‘No Longer at Ease’? Aren’t these the cultural vicissitudes and moral decay every African country, including Zimbabwe, is crying about? Is this not the Ubunthu whose erosion we are all mourning about day and night? Chinua Achebe and other distinguished African writers are icons of the written word from the past, in the present and future.

What is not relevant or not immediate about their great African stories?
Allow literature students to read George Orwell-yes, George Orwell-Animal Farm-1984 and others). He is a mad satirist brutally honest about issues, not tissues; brutally frank about what he observes in the real world. No one shares more compassion with have-nots suffering from the meanness of haves in a socio-economic war for survival of the rich than John Steinbeck. Bring back Grapes of Wrath, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Wole Soyinka. Ali Mazrui, Dorris Lessing, Alan Paton-all of them are ever green.

If the soccer fraternity continues to honour its heroes: the Peles, Michelle Platinis and Diego Maradonas of old, and do not campaign to replace their names in history with contemporary Neymas, Lionel Messis and Balotellis, why do our ‘learned’ folk want to replace the Shakespeares and Chinua Achebes with their wives, husbands and friends’ books? Replace is not the word! We need to compliment school syllabi. No one has the right to push other writers’ stories to the back burner. Every book deserves to be read. This is every civilised person’s notion. Minds are not only opened by reading the books we like or enjoy.

Some of the best lessons we have learnt in life, we learnt from our fiercest critics.
If all the books we read were written by our friends and loved ones, we would all still be wallowing in the Stone Age.
Let Literature play its part in moulding some of the sharpest minds this world badly needs.
We can all suffer shortages of money and social comfort, but we cannot suffer even the shortage of critical thinkers.