Better To Light A Candle Than Curse The Darkness

WRITING GALLERY: 826 VALENCIA

Dave Eggers Blends Fact, Fiction of Sudanese "Lost Boys"

Writers' Proofs Project: 826 VALENCIA

LITERATURE: British Arts Council

I was reading Scott Turow's review of a novel by Tillie Olsen titled: "TELL ME A RIDDLE", and Mr. Turow said something that struck me as brilliant: " ... many members of the English department at the college he went to, regarded Creative writing as an academic discipline on the level of woodshop, ..."
Mr. Turow is an attoney, but also an author. So I began to wonder: How many of our African lawyers or any other profession are also authors?
My point is that you dont have to be trained as a writer to be an author. The mere effort of reading widely can enable anyone acquire the skills of writing creatively.

In 2005 the biggest celebration of African culture ever organised in Britain began with a huge display of art exhibitions and concerts that gave the world a revelation of the promise and potential of African culture and dignity. You had to see it to believe it

. If Africa puts its mind up to it, and embraces freedom and demoracy, there is plenty of light at the end of Africa's tunnel!

Your Vocabulary is the linchpin for your Language Skills!

Look at the following examples:

at the age of 4 you probably knew 5,600 words
at the age of 5 you probably knew 9,600 words
at the age of 6 you probably knew 14,700 words
at the age of 7 you probably knew 21,200 words
at the age of 8 you probably knew 26,300 words
at the age of 9 you probably knew 29,300 words
at the age of 10 you probably knew 34,300 words
college sophomore you probably knew 120,000 words

What this tells you is the more you read, the more vocabulary you will know. No matter what your age, you must continue to learn. Words are "symbols" for ideas. These ideas formulate knowledge and knowledge is gained largely through words. Words are gained through reading!


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Some suggestions which may help you:

Read. the more you read, the more words you will come in contact with.
Use new found vocabulary in your everyday communication (writing, speaking).
Become familiar with the glossary of your textbooks.
Become familiar with the dictionary. Understand the pronunciation keys as well as why there are multiple meanings for words.
Try to learn 5 new words a day. If you know these words - use them in your communication process. Without using these new words, it is a waste of your time.
Read. Read magazines, newspapers, the internet, the links on this sight and books from fields other than your major. Read books which interest you and concentrate while you read. - Adapted from Virginia Tech.

HOW CAN YOU HELP ?

By adding your voice!
By letting others know about this campaign!
By instilling the value of reading & writing in our youth!
By posting suggestions & writing short inspiring African stories or narratives!
By starting your own Local Community campaign and getting others, especially government leaders involved!


A link to labelled African flags

The first African United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Kofi A. Annan, made the following moving introduction to A Day in the Life of Africa: a consecutive 24 hour photographic journal by nearly 100 of the world's top photojournalists. I am including his introduction because its a wonderful narrative and therefore a good read. Kofi Annan

is also among the few African leaders that is also an exemplary writer we can all emulate.

"Africa is a continent of remarkable human, cultural, and natural diversity-a place of both tradition and transformation-and a deeply cherished home to millions of people. A the dawn of the 21st century, Africa is also a place of opportunity regained.

Certainly, Africans face challanges that would dishearten even the richest and most powerful members of the human family. Conflicts continue to cause untold human misery, disrupt normal economic life, swell the ranks of refugees and displaced persons, and frighten away investments even from countries that are not directly affected. The AIDS pandemic is taxing already overstretched public-health services and killing far more people than all the region's conflicts combined. Poverty is widspread and severe. Crushing debt burden, insufficient international aid, and high tariffs imposed on African goods make it extremely hard for African nations to compete in the global economy. For too many Africans, daily life is unremittingly grim and painful.

But there are also places- far more than are commonly recognized-where we are witnessing dramatic changes for the better. A majority of Africans now live under democratic systems, led by democratically elected leaders accountable to their peoples. Where attempts to undermine democratic gains have occurred, they have been met with strong resistance from people determined to see their rights respected.
A vibrant civil society is emerging, overcoming the legacy of colonial and authoritarian regimes that stifled the voices of ordinary people. African nations are also reforming their economies, and doing their utmost to liberate the creative and entrepreneurial energies of their peoples. They are confronting the scourge of AIDS with innovative community-based programs and relentless campaigns of public education. And they are beginning to harness the great power of the Internet for education, health care, and commerce. Africans have made clear not only their yearning for peace, stability, and development, but also their willingness to work for it and take contol of their own destinies.

A Day in the Life of Africa

gives us a complex and nuanced portait. These beautiful and deeply moving images compel us to see that despite the tragedy that aflicts some parts of the continent, the bright spots must not be forgotten, nor the achievements overlooked. The vast majority of Africans are striving to bring positive change to their countries, and in many places these efforts are begining to bear fruit.

The United Nations, for its part, has long championed African rights, progress, and self-sufficiency. I hope that people of goodwill throughout the world will see the great dignity and resilience of my fellow Africans, and join them in their struggle for the chance to create a better life that is every human being's birthright."

Kofi A. Annan
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Secretary-General, United Nations
Jan.1997 - Dec. 2006



I wish I could have written this blog in a single African language that all of us understood. The reality is, as we're all aware, there is no such language as of this writing. For historical reasons we all know, either English, French, or Spanish are the languages that unite us all. "Today, Africa is home to 53 independent countries, which mostly still have the borders drawn during the era of European colonialism."

"There are an estimated 1800 languages

spoken in Africa. Some African languages, such as Swahili, Hausa, and Yoruba, are spoken by millions of people. Others, such as Laal, Shabo, and Dahalo, are spoken by a few hundred or fewer. In addition, Africa has a wide variety of sign languages, many of whose genetic classification has yet to be worked out. Several African languages are also whistled for special purposes.
The abundant linguistic diversity of many African countries has made language policy an extremely important issue in the neo-colonial era. In recent years, African countries have become increasingly aware of the value of their linguistic inheritance. Language policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism. For example, all African languages are considered official languages of the African Union (AU). 2006 has been declared by AU as the Year of African Languages."


I am using English

for this blog because its widely used in Africa and the world far more than any other laguange; from schools, to international business & diplomacy; and cross cultural communication within several countries.
This should, however, not negate the value of Africa's indigenous languages. Ones language is a large part of ones culture and heritage.


Understanding and being able to read and write effectively in English will not only enable us to meet the challanges of working, dealing and negotiating within the cross cultural global village of today, but also enrich our languages in the way we write and express our literature to the rest of the world.



Two reasons why much of Africa lags behind

in the way of arts, science, technology and literature, is that colonialisn had set up systems of second-class citizenship that hampered the progress of our people. Since the end of colonialism, the African despotism that replaced it, impossed a systematic censorship of books, periodicals, and newspapers from abroad that would have stimulated, inspired, and challenged minds in Africa to far greater horizons of experience in creativity and imagination.
I hope the internet breaks down these barriers henceforth.

While its a fact that many Africans have no access to computers and the internet; governments have access to these technologies and they can use it to spread this campaign through already existing means of communication, like radio, television, news papers and religious institutions.





DESIDERATUM :


“ ... The communication of our thoughts by means of language, whether spoken or written, like every other object of mental exertion, constitutes a peculiar art, which, like other arts, cannot be acquired in any perfection but by long-continued practice. Some, indeed, are more highly gifted than others with a facility of expression, and naturally endowed with the power of eloquence; but to none is it at all times an easy process to embody, in exact and appropriate language, the various trains of ideas that are passing through the mind, or to depict in their true colors and proportions, the diversified and nicer shades of feeling which accompany them. To those who are unpracticed in the art of composition, or unused to extempore speaking, these difficulties present themselves in their most formidable aspect. However distinct may be our views, however vivid our conceptions, or however fervent our emotions, we cannot but be often conscious that the phraseology we have at our command is inadequate to do them justice. We seek in vain the words we need, and strive ineffectually to devise forms of expression which shall faithfully portray our thoughts and sentiments. The appropriate terms, notwithstanding our utmost efforts, cannot be conjured up at will. Like “spirits from the vasty deep,” they come not when we call; and we are driven to the employment of a set of words and phrases either too general or too limited, too strong or too feeble, which suit not the occasion, which hit not the mark we aim at; and the result of our prolonged exertion is a style at once labored and obscure, vapid and redundant, or vitiated by the still graver faults of affectation or ambiguity. ...” From the : Introduction to Roget’s International Thesaurus





THE WONDER OF WORDS :


My love of stories was first nurtured by my family -- and then at the public library.

By Arlene Alda

From Reader's Digest
September 2005

My mother, Jean, would sit at the kitchen table in our Bronx apartment and tell us tales of Russia, the old country -- stories about "Minsk" and "Pinsk" and "Chelm," the village of simpletons. My father, Simon, would tell us jokes:

"There was this poor Yiddish scholar. He said to a friend, 'If I were a Rothschild, I'd be richer than a Rothschild.' 'Why?' asked the friend. The scholar said, 'Because I'd do a little teaching on the side.'"

I was the youngest and most insistent of the three children in our family -- what they called a pest in those days. "Pleeeease can I have candy?" I would ask. "Pleeeease tell me another story. Pleeeease read to me."

My mother, along with my older sister, Shirley, usually gave in. Over and over, I would listen to the dangerous adventures of Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, The Gingerbread Man and Cinderella. They came to life in my mind, along with the kindly Mother Goose, with her wire-rimmed eyeglasses. Even though I never understood why Humpty Dumpty was an egg, or why Jack Horner put his thumb in a pie, it never seemed to matter.

What I heard was the rhythmic music of it all, and the stories became easy to recite. I would carefully examine the color illustrations in the old falling-apart-at-the-seams book. Most of all, I would soak up all the attention I got during those reading times when closeness, imagination, curiosity and love of learning were forged.

Books cost money and money was scarce in those Depression days in the 1930s and '40s. The one small bookcase in the hallway of our home contained some worn copies of fairy tales, a few volumes of classic authors, like Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde, and an encyclopedia. The single encyclopedia volume our family had went from A to B.

That first book in the set was sent to us free of charge, no obligation...If you weren't satisfied, you could still keep it. I know that my parents were satisfied, but we just couldn't afford to buy the rest of the alphabet. So if I needed to look up any word starting with a C or beyond, the library was the place to go.

That was not such a hardship. I loved the Bainbridge Library in our neighborhood, with its seemingly endless supply of stories. Besides which, the library was the place everyone I knew went to borrow, read and return. All for free. Free!

Like many immigrants then and now, my mother knew that education was key. Early on, she would encourage me by saying, "You can be anything that you want to be in life." That meant that I could have a career, even though not many mothers pushed their daughters in that direction in those days. My mother, however, was also practical. When I was ready for college she told me, "Get your teacher's license. You never know..." Four years later, I graduated from Hunter. I had taken her advice, kind of...

But first, I earned money by playing the clarinet, which was my passion. It was the thing I most wanted to do. Later on, when I changed careers, that same passion hung on. It transferred from music to photography and to writing children's books. I write my books for young children. Why young children, you might ask? Because I'm touched by their innocence. And I have this insistent need to pass on the values that I hold dear. The oldest of my grandchildren -- Emi, Scott, Jake, Izzy and Livvie -- have all asked me at one time or another why I don't write for older kids -- what they call chapter books.

My answer is, I guess I'm not yet finished saying, "Look, look. Isn't this amazing? Isn't that beautiful? Isn't this funny?"

And I know I'm not finished hearing "Pleeeease read me a story" in my own mind. I'm not finished being a young child myself. Maybe sometime later I'll change, but this is good for now.

When I go to bookstores these days, I get overwhelmed. There's so much competition for a kid's attention. I don't necessarily mean between authors and publishers. I worry that TV, DVDs, videos, CDs, cell phones and other machinery will replace the intimate quiet family activities that foster closeness and imagination.

Recently I went to visit my nine-year-old grandson Jake's class. I was there to read some new stories of mine. Jake smiled from ear to ear as he introduced me to everyone. "This is my grandma," he said. "She writes books for kids."

I was happy to see the eagerness on all the children's faces. I talked to them about the weather and about planting flowers and about looking around to see things that they might not have noticed before. I talked to them about stories and writing. And then I read to them.

The kids asked intelligent questions. They were bright and cheerful and full of ideas. They had even written stories of their own, illustrated with their own drawings. They loved the human contact, the interaction between us.

So did I. There was hope for the future, I thought.

I'm lucky. I have a wonderful husband, three terrific grown daughters, seven beautiful grandchildren, a job that I love and a life beyond my wildest dreams. Even if Rothschild had what I have -- like the old joke says -- I'd be richer than a Rothschild.

Why?

Because...I'd do a little teaching on the side.



Arlene Alda, wife of actor Alan Alda, is the author of "The Book of ZZZs," "Morning Glory Monday," and nine other books for children. Her new book, "Did You Say Pears?," is due out next year.