eBusiness Weekly
Kudakwashe Mhundwa
Nothing soothes a reader’s soul more than finding a mate they can share a glass of fine Scottish whisky with and discuss chapters off their latest read. Readers in Zimbabwe have over the past decades suffered in pursuit of this companionship as the culture of book clubs has been on a sharp decline.
Thanks to the internet and social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp “book lovers” in Zimbabwe have been virtually linking up to start these book clubs.
Recently, I attended a Book Lovers Club meeting through an invitation from a friend.
Members were meeting for the first time after engaging on social networks for close to two years discussing books and other literature related issues through the internet.
Not being an avid reader myself, I was skeptical on the kind of environment I was plunging into.
Upon getting to the meeting the environment was pleasantly far from what I had previously anticipated. Readers who were present were discussing issues on a lighter side of things explaining how they had known of the book club.
“I was thrilled when I saw a Facebook post notifying me about the existence of such a club because I felt joining this club would connect me to people who share my interests,” said one member who was in attendance.
“It is always a nice thing to escape some of the harsh realities of this world through sharing experiences from a book with fellow readers who understand the concept because out there it is rare to find people who share the same taste as you,” he said.
Similar sentiments were echoed by those who attended, including aspiring writers and arts critics.
Managing Creative of Enthuse Africa Stephany Kapfunde is behind The Book Lovers Club and he said the rationale behind starting the club was resuscitating the reading culture in Zimbabwe as well as connecting people who share the love of reading.
“We started this book club because we felt there was a need to resuscitate reading culture in Zimbabwe and on the continent. Reading is often a very solitary experience, you are on your own and you are stuck with you own thoughts but we had the idea of bringing together like minded people to share ideas and share the inspiration,” she said.
“The experiences that people have when they read a book and group them all together and see what kind of ideas and conversations spark from that,” said Kapfunde.
She highlighted that the reading culture in Zimbabwe is declining due to the high cost of books locally.
“Book clubs have seen a decline mostly because of the cost of reading culture, the cost of books, I am sure, a good number of publishers would agree the cost of producing these books has become a lot more expensive and then all that is just piled on us the readers because we now have to buy the books at excruciating costs and every day Zimbabweans have a low cost of living so based on that it has been harder to keep those things alive,” Kapfunde said.
She added; “Now we are hoping that because there is an emerging afro-learnial who are willing to discuss those issues we are trying to engage those people to discuss and enjoy literature again because this is what made us the people we are and attained higher rates of literacy.”
Despite books being pricey in the country, book lovers have tried to navigate through these and come up with ways in which they can still maintain their passion.
Club Members have resorted to contributing money to buying a book which the group can share to avoid the price burden on an individual.
Christopher Morley a famous author once said: “When you sell a man a book you don’t sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue — you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night — there’s all heaven and earth in a book, a real book.”
There is hope for the country’s reading culture in book clubs, right now what`s left are small virtually connected clubs.
If harnessed correctly, the internet will see a resurgence of dedicated reading in Zimbabwe.
