ELEPHANT EYE: Sousa Jamba fondly remembers the days when they looked to the great African writers for deep wisdom and an understanding of the continent.
When I was a child here in Zambia, one of the joys in our neighborhood was the weekly visit from the mobile library.
We did not have television in those days; in the evenings, we listened to the radio and read books.
In those days, reading usually meant fiction. There was also a highly popular magazine from Kenya entitled True Love, which usually had short stories involving love, crime, and sometimes witchcraft.
In Lusaka, there were a number of bookshops, the American Cultural Center, the British Council and the Lusaka Public Library.
Many people read works by international authors. We loved reading African writers: Achebe, Ngugi, Soyinka, Oyono etc.
We were also into the poems of Leopold Senghor, the first president of Senegal, who eventually became a member of the French Academy.
Zambia’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda, had also written a biography, which was required reading. Kaunda’s main political rival, Simon Kapwepwe, wrote poetry in Bemba, the main Zambian language; in those days Kapwepwe’s poems were banned and passed around in typewritten copies.
Last month I was in Ndola, Zambia’s second largest city, where an international airport is named after Kapwepwe.
The bookshop was filled with Bibles and business books. When I told the bookshop attendant that Simon Kapwepwe was a poet, he was deeply surprised.
Politicians in those days took literature very seriously.
Not all books we read were that serious. There was a novel we so much loved entitled Ticklish Sensation by Gideon Phiri; the cover of the book had a breast.
It was a story of a young man growing up in Eastern Zambia, and the pursuit of the love of his life. Parts of the novel were graphic — and very ticklish.
Then there was James Hadley Chase. The most popular was a thriller entitled Lotus for Miss Quon.
In those days, it was not only girls who read Mills and Boons novels; even boys enjoyed the romantic stories of nurses falling in love with broad-shouldered doctors.
There are several bookshops in Lusaka today. In the local authors section usually you get thick, turgid memoirs of former politicians trying to settle old scores.
Apparently, these books do not sell well.
In shopping malls, there are also stands packed with books, some quite pricey.
I learnt that the most popular books are the Bible and Bible commentaries.
The sermons of evangelical pastors, especially those who subscribe to Prosperity Theology, are very popular with Zambians.
Books by Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar and other prosperity preachers are pored over religiously.
Then you have sex manuals (in some cases hidden) for Christian couples.
There are also books about how faith in God can help sustain marriages. I learnt that these books are very popular with women who then insist that their partners should also read them.
The other books that are highly sought after are about how to make money.
The biographies of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other billionaires are very popular.
In my day, we looked up to the great African writers for deep wisdom and an understanding of the continent. Now here in Zambia people are interested in the secrets of great sex in marriage and how to become the next Aliko Dangote or Patrice Motsepe.
