African Tales Reflection
We have an African saying in Swahili that says that “ Tembea uone mengi” (travel and see more), resonate with me as we went to Hong Kong. It was a journey to the East that was with full of many surprises and wonders that one would hardly see in the part of African, I was born. When I came back, I found the office tray full, that needed quick attention. There was a reconciliation meeting with one of the yearly meetings that were threatening to split, and our presence helped bring unity to the meeting.
Pierre Bayard describes this scenario of talking about books one has not read as he quotes Umberto Eco, who showed that “it is wholly unnecessary to have read a book in your hand to be able to speak about it in details as long as you listen to and read what others say about it.” It is interesting to see how one could strongly speak authoritatively over a book he has not even read. When I looked at this book, I was wondering how one could dear do that. However, I have just realized that salespeople would sell a book they have not even read about it, but they describe it as if they know it from inside out. I have related this with reading about a town and teaching it as if you have ever been to that town.
In the year 2002, I briefly did a side job for two months selling books from one of my friend’s printing press to the churches. I was only given an introduction to what the book was talking about and the target group of leaders in the church. I remember making a good sell off the books after talking to conferences about the book. I had not read the book for sure, but I talked about it so well that many people bought the book. Therefore, most of the African tales are made out of the hearsay stories. Some from books they have heard other people talking about and others from what they see and form a story. It is a creative methodology. In conclusion, Pierre Bayard indicated that “the discussion of unread books places us at the heart of the creative process, by leading us back to its source.” As a literature student at the high school, I can now connect very well with the unread books as a creative tool for artists and writers. It is on this note that I see how the elders of in the African tales would say, “Whenever you see a toad jumping in the broad daylight, then you know that something is after its life.” Therefore, the discussion of unread books leads to a searched creativity of life and new ideas are assembled. Pierre Bayard has truly challenged me when I had already dismissed this notion of discussion the unread books.
Annotated bibliography:
- Pierre Batard, Talk about the books you haven’t Read. Bloomsbury USA, New York, 2007
- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. Penguin Books 2017
About the Author
John Muhanji
I am the Director Africa Ministries Office of Friends United Meeting. I coordinate all Quaker activities and programs in the Quaker churches and school mostly in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The focus of my work is more on leadership development and church planting in the region especially in Tanzania.. Am married with three children all grown up now. I love playing golf as my exercise hobby. I also love reading.One response to “African Tales Reflection”
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John, I like that you picked up on being creative when talking about books you haven’t read. I think sometimes while talking about a book, a person may engage in storytelling. I do think storytelling is a creative way to talk about something you have a little bit of knowledge about. I think that is what salespeople do. They create good feelings in the stories they tell to make people buy. I think this can be useful, but we have to be careful not to embellish the truth.