Every day we celebrate the day of something. Today, 8 September, we could not fail to dedicate this day to something as important as literacy. What would become of us if we could not understand those forms, those symbols that make up each written word? Do we really appreciate the incalculable value of knowing to read and write?
Nowadays, it is hard to imagine that there are people who still cannot read or write. We think literacy is something totally natural and inherent to human beings, and believe, mistakenly, that we have finally managed to solve this serious problem that has been dragging on since the birth of writing until well into the 20th century. However, there are still quite many people who are illiterate.
It is curious how we can still feel surprise and fear when we visit a church, or monastery or cathedral, and the guide tells us that, as it is well known, only a few people knew to read or write in the past. Can you imagine living in the past? Can you imagine living without knowing to read and write? Without being able to express yourself wtiting, nor reading novels, the newspapers, nothing at all? It is astounding that, in less than a century, our society has become from an illiteracy one to a literate one. However, and talking about Spain, there are still people who lack these abilities, specially among old people, who had to abandon school when they were too young. We understand this took place so long ago, as it would be completely unacceptable nowadays.
But if we focus on other parts of the world, and have a look, specially at the less-developed countries, we can see that a very high percentage of boys and girls, as well as adults, still don’t know to read or write. Concretely 763 million people, a data collected by UNESCO. Having this information, we can observe that, for the development and the growth of a country, of a society, basic skills of reading and writing are indispensable.
Being able of reading and writing makes us free and gives us power, power with which to fight against injustice and inequality.
Now that we know about it and give it the importance it deserves, we can do something about it. We can make the existence of this major problem visible so that the relevant bodies can provide solutions. We can collaborate so that, between all of us, we can bring reading and writing to people who had to leave school or who never went to one, people who were not only denied access to formal education, but also to a world full of possibilities for improvement, prosperity and a thousand stories to discover.
Since 2015, Libros de las Malas Compañías has been collaborating with the library of Oussouye, Teba Diatta, by financing literacy classes for the women who live on the village with the profits from the sale of the book El dragón que se comió el sol y otros cuentos de la Baja Casamance.
Women who did not go to school because they had to stay at home to help raise their siblings or go out to work in the family business or in the fields.
This literacy course, which has been running for 9 years from October to May, has given rise to a reading club thanks to which we share literature written by African women and men with the women of Oussouye.
On the website and in other posts on this blog we detail the activities and update the information so that you don't miss anything that happens there.
If you want to read the stories heard in the nights of southern Senegal and collaborate with this project, here is the link to the book.
Elsa Alcañiz Casas
