Empower youth to read and lead
“READERS are leaders”. It’s a saying that’s often used to inspire children to read, and rightly so.
Books play a powerful role in developing the young minds of future leaders, and it’s not hard to see why when you begin to unpack the many benefits of reading.
Reading broadens children’s understanding of the world and increases their ability to foster empathy and compassion for others. It’s for this reason that stories have a wonderful way of teaching children about diversity, acceptance and the beauty in the differences of others.
Books also spark curiosity in children, encouraging them to question. It’s with open minds and curiosity that we are able to reach across differences and create friends, instead of enemies.
What’s more is that reading fosters resilience, develops problem-solving skills, allows one to discover new things and enhances creativity. It also helps develop basic language skills crucial for success in society.
Everyone needs the basic ability to read road signs, legally binding contracts or simple instructions. If our young people are literate, they are empowered, and empowered people are capable of creating change.
South Africa has a rich history of men and women who have pioneered change in their communities.
One such leader, and probably the most iconic of all, is Nelson Mandela. This year we celebrate 100 years since the birth of Mandela with a mandate to “Be The Legacy”.
It is apt to remember his legacy, which calls upon us to use our gifts and tools in a way that dismantles the unequal structures of power and protects the most vulnerable.
What better way than to stand for education and the end of a literacy crisis that has plagued our nation?
For it was our first democratically elected president himself who stated: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Mandela was a well-educated man who enjoyed reading and was a strong believer in lifelong learning. He and friend Oliver Tambo opened the first black legal practice in South Africa, giving affordable and often free advice during apartheid. But then Mandela was imprisoned for almost three decades as a political prisoner.
It is sometimes in our darkest hours that we find the greatest comfort in words; words from loved ones, familiar authors and hope found in religious texts.
However, once moved to Robben Island the political prisoners like Mandela, Govan Mbeki, and Ahmed Kathrada were not allowed reading material or visits from the prison library. How then did these men, and particularly Mandela, keep a sense of connection while staying focused?
Thanks to a quick-thinking political prisoner Surinarayan Kala Venkatrathnam, the complete works of Shakespeare was smuggled into the prison disguised as a Hindu religious text. This book became known as the “Robben Island Bible” and was circulated around the prison. It was not a political manifesto or a biography that kept Mandela company, but the fictional plays that struck a chord within him.
Perhaps it was in the shared values found in the stories about the political and social problems that were explored through Shakespeare’s plays that inspired Mandela. In the “Robben Island Bible” about 34 prisoners signed and dated next to certain paragraphs or pages that had meant something to them.
It is fascinating to note that Mandela signed next to a paragraph from the play Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”
Reading is not simply about collecting data, as some would say, but it is about something greater taking place in an individual.
As our young people grasp for identity, meaning and worth, is it not possible to hope that they would find it in the pages of a book?
Let us raise a generation of readers who lead with great ability to empathise, who creatively problem-solve and who are empowered with a skill that will serve them in every capacity.
It is not about the number of resources available to our students, as we see with the “Robben Island Bible”, but perhaps it is in the quality and in the hands that help our next generation read and lead.
In commemoration of Nelson Mandela’s centenary year, help2read participated in the Icons Gala Dinner on June 14, held at the prestigious V&A Museum of Childhood in London. The event honoured 30 South African icons from the last 100 years, including Mandela. All proceeds went to South African charities: help2read, CHIVA Africa and Afrika Tikkun.
Hare and Notcutt are freelance writers who are passionate about education and literacy in South Africa