We need a literary renaissance to preserve our history

Editor, I WOULD like to thank Stephen Mugisha’s article, “Time to document, preserve our history through books” (The New Times, February 18) and to add that writing is one of the best ways to preserve the country’s history. No one will take his time to write our history as long as we don’t do this ourselves. It’s easy to forget something that happened a few months ago, and it’s also normal to forget certain dates if we don’t write to create our own “Today in History”. Look at Rwanda; things happen every day but we don’t keep records. This is the same syndrome that has engulfed nearly the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. The elderly are leaving this world with information that can fill libraries but this is unrecorded. We have to stand up and do something about it. Either we write historical or fiction books, that’s a very important step. We, the current generation, should adopt the culture of reading and then transfer it to our offspring. Children will never read if they don’t see us do so. What Rwanda needs is a “literary renaissance” to pave the way for literary future generations, and to revitalise the spirit left by Father Alexis Kagame. Mutara Intore, Rwanda

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We need a literary renaissance to preserve our history