Updates on support to 19th Book
Week Festival
Hivos the Dutch organization for development has extended a
grant of US$ 10,000 to NABOTU through the East African Book Development
Association (EABDA). The grant is to support various children’s activities
during the 19th National Book Week Festival due 10-15thOctober 2011 being organized under the theme, “Books bridge
gaps.”
Children International Uganda has thrown its weight behind the City Children’s Reading
Tent by providing a grant of 6 million UGX. Children International Uganda is a nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to
bettering the lives of impoverished children, their families and communities.
CI Uganda has greatly assisted several schools across Uganda to access learning
materials through their book donation program.
The Authors Forum an inspirational event organized by
World of Inspiration, every first Wednesday of the month, 5-8pm at National
Theater. The Authors Forum has offered promotional opportunities for the book
week on its partner radio and TV stations.
National Book Forum to focus on declining reading standards
Declining standards of
literacy in primary schools will be the focus of discussion at this year’s
National Book Forum. A public debate will be held on the theme, “Is the decline
in literacy a gross failure by Ministry of Education and Sports to support
reading?’’ The Ministry of Education and Sports has been invited to present
their side of the story. Members of civil society organizations are set to take
on the Ministry raising important issues that require government action to
change the trend.
The failure by
the Government of Uganda to procure readers for schools has been one of the underlying causes
of poor reading standards in schools. It has also had dire consequences on the
book industry. Several bookshops upcountry have run out of business. Publishing
companies on the other hand have expressed frustration with the non-procurement
of readers for the last four years. They are still holding hundreds of titles
of readers in their warehouses and yet some of them took out loans to print and
ship the books.
There is an ensuing
debate with some pundits in the book industry claiming the non-procurement of
readers by government is a self inflicted wound. A source within the Uganda
Booksellers Association has told this bulletin that overzealous publishers were
responsible for dismantling the effective DIMP (Decentralised Instruction
Materials Procurement) program under which government was procuring readers.
The source noted that although DIMP was scrapped, government continues to remit
funds to schools a percentage of which was used to buy readers.
The agitation by
publishers to scrap DIMP was because of non-payment and in some cases delayed
payments by booksellers who in turn blamed government for delayed releases to
districts.
Discussion question: Who should really take the blame for the declining standards
of reading in our primary schools?
Information on Public
Debate call Robert 0701669021
Literary Expedition Goes North
Gulu in northern
Uganda was home to the legendary poet Okot p’Bitek who penned Song of Lawino
and Song of Ocol. The two works catapulted Uganda into the international literary
lime light yet to be surpassed by contemporary Ugandan writings. The era of
great literary writings unfortunately faded following the dictatorship of
President Idi Amin which earned Uganda the unenviable description of a literary
desert.
During the 19th National Book Week Festival, the National Library of Uganda in
a bid to rediscover the roots of great literary writings is taking the Literary
Expedition to Gulu. Publishers, Authors and interested persons can get more
information from Stella 0772443281
Discussion Question: Which is the greatest Ugandan literary writing and how did
it change Uganda’s literary scene?
Writers to
take to the Podium
Writers have the
podium as their page. They speak straight to hundreds, thousands and millions
of souls from this podium. This book week, FEMRITE- the Women Writers
Association is performing the miracle of merging the podium to the stage, and
filling Garden City roof top with hundreds of literary experts, lovers of
writing and young people keen for words.
Have you been to the
podium before to speak about your writing? You are welcome to do so. Write to info@femriteug.org
Innovations
in Publishing
NABOTU and the
University of Cape Town recently signed an agreement to undertake a case study
on the feasibility of establishing a free to publish web platform for CC
licensed materials across East Africa. The case study is part of the Open
Africa Innovation Research (Open AIR) on Intellectual Property’s Role in Open
Development. IDRC and GIZ have invested more than 20 million South African Rand
in the Pan-African Open AIR project.
Professor Robert
Ikoja-Odongo the current Principal of the College of Computing and Information
Science, Makerere University will be the lead researcher on the Ugandan case
study. You can get more information from info@nabotu.or.ug
