Why the lack of interest in reading and writing

Many people become suspicious when they see others writing for no apparent reason. One time I was considered a threat by a pastor because I was always writing as he conducted a church service. So he decided to strike! Whenever I would enter his church, he would assign some of his ushers to sit beside me, so as to see what I would be scribbling down in my note book. Apparently, this was because I did not necessarily write whenever he would talk. I would freely jot as usual. I did not get intimidated because they did not understand my notes since I would be writing poetically. So, he assigned his camera man to me to do it with his video camera. It worked. I ended up abandoning his church’s hip hop and reggae music because the camera threatened me. I did not understand what role my images and pictures were for. The next incidence was when my friend lost his job because of writing. Their company had organized a staff party, and while others were dancing zero distance, the fellow was busy jotting down his sweet smelling thoughts of that day in his notebook. When the staff meeting sat, it resolved to tell him to trade his career and talent elsewhere. They falsely accused him of spying on them. Obviously he never puts his note book and pen down though he is not a trained journalist. He uses the ‘gadgets’ to shed off his stress and organize his thoughts. His writing mannerism is a threat to people who don’t understand what he is always writing including his relatives. They think that he is insane. One gets the impression that many people in Rwanda care less about what is written. And at the same time, one realizes that few Rwandan are interested in writing. Foreigners are doing it on our behalf and yet no one has denied it to them! I always wonder how foreigners can tell Rwandan stories more and better than Rwandans. When one reads in public, let’s say at a bus stop or in a taxi: they say that he or she is proud. On some occasions I have heard comments like, “She is showing off. May be she thinks we have never gone to school”, “This is how people become mad”, and other many funny statements are heard being said to people caught in the act of reading or writing. It becomes worse when this happens in our colleges and universities. I think if the youths are empowered to read and write, guns and bombs would become useless. A pen works better than the tongue because a written word can be erased but a spoken word comes out like a bullet from the chamber. ndungutse.apollo@yahoo.com