Information and Liberation: Writings on the Politics of Information and Librarianship

The article looks at contradictions facing libraries in Africa where the information and developmental needs of workers and peasants remain largely unmet, while libraries tend to meet the needs of a minority. It maintains that the model of public libraries remains the same as the one introduced by the colonial powers and the opportunity at independence for bringing about a change to a people-orientated service was lost. The profession remains aloof from the political and social struggles of communities, thus alienating itself from the very people it seeks to serve. The article sees opportunities now for change in some positive aspects of globalisation and in developments in information and communications technology. The rise of China can create new possibilities for change. It calls for information professionals to be activists in information as well as in social and political struggles of people. They need to work with communities in partnership with other service providers. It makes the point that the profession is not neutral if it supports the status quo by remaining silent on social and political issues. The article calls for action to put ideas and a new vision into practice and gives some details about the Progressive African Library and Information Activists’ Group (PALIAct) proposal which aims to create an alternative vision, strategy and practice of a people-orientated service in active partnership with communities and service providers. The article calls upon countries, which benefited from the African slave trade to support initiatives, such as PALIAct, as a small way of acknowledging their debt to Africa. It ends by providing elements for an “African activist information programme”, including suggestions for leadership development, collection building and “liberating the mind” collections. Information in Africa—“Silence in the library” Perhaps the best way to understand the contradictions facing libraries in Africa today is through a story. It is only when social contradictions are accepted and understood that attempts can be made to resolve them. And resolve them we must, if 366 Mcharazo, Alli and Koopman, Sjoerd (2007): Librarianship as a bridge to an information and knowledge society in Africa. Munchen: K.G. Saur. (IFLA Publications 124). CONTINUING THE BATTLE IN A COLDER CLIMATE 197 libraries and information are to play their part in creating a new Africa where there is justice, democracy and development for all. The story is “silence in the library”: Nyanjiru wakes up at 4 a.m.; a water debe on her head, she walks for an hour and a half to the nearest stream. Then she climbs back from the river to her home, picking dry wood on the way for fire; she arrives home three hours later to start the day's other work: crying children to be calmed with bits of left over food, chicken to be fed and watered; then to start digging her half acre shamba in the hot, burning sun. This is the daily routine for a peasant. And then there is Kamau. Kamau pats his dogs fondly as they surround his new Volvo. This is his daily ritual. He realises that the gates are not open yet and hoots loudly. Where is Mutua? Does he not know that today is the library board meeting and he has to report early? They are to discuss library regulations. He has prepared a long list of “don’ts”. As Mutua opens the gates, Kamau speeds out, the silent sound of the Volvo soothing his mind. He starts thinking about library rules. Yes, users must be controlled. Only last week he found a fellow eating mandazi in the library. How can that be allowed? Kamau had him thrown out. The first rule is going to be about eating in the library. And then of course “Silence: silence in the library”. Kamau feels happy as he enters the library parking. “Silence Please, Silence in the Library”; “No eating in the library” ... In such an atmosphere of threats; works the modern librarian. Inside the stone walls of the library, in total peace and calm among the well preserved volumes, he is oblivious to the ruin and chaos of hunger, starvation and mass exploitation outside. The contrasting lives of Nyanjiru and Kamau can be found anywhere in Africa. Their activities are taking place within miles of each other and on the same day. Yet the two are so removed from each other that they may easily be on different planets or in different historical ages. The library is a concrete structure inaccessible to Nyanjiru, and Nyanjiru as a library user is unacceptable to the librarians. For Nyanjiru there is no time to waste, no compromises to be made. All her labour and thoughts are to satisfy her family's basic needs: food, clothing and shelter. Anything that helps her in this work, she accepts with open arms and mind. Anything that prevents her from acquiring what she needs, she will fight. Her information needs are clear—she wants information, which will help her to support and protect her family. On the other hand is the library service—set up during colonial days, with a colonial vision, through ‘assistance’ from a colonial, neo-colonial ‘mother’ country. A mother whose very touch brings death. “Silence please; please, silence in the library”. Silence, in spite of Nyanjiru’s dying children; silence, in spite of Nyanjiru’s twenty hour working day; silence, even though Nyanjiru's hard labour fails to fill her family’s stomachs. Nyanjiru knows no library. No library wants to know Nyanjiru. The story of Nyanjiru and Kamau highlights the key need in Africa today: development—development of people, resources, industries, agriculture, art, culture... But “development” does not take place in a vacuum. In order to develop, people and societies need relevant information and knowledge in a number of fields such as science, history, geography, history and technology. Yet, under capitalism, information and knowledge and the very process of learning and education have become commodities to be bought and sold on the “open” market. Those without 198 INFORMATION AND LIBERATION resources to purchase information end up having no access to it. The irony is that even those who produce information often have no access to that information which is taken from them, copyrighted, patented, repackaged, and sold at prices, which the original producers cannot afford. Thus peoples, countries and societies have been forced into “un-development” and inequality by the economic policies and practices of international finance and transnational corporations using the mechanisms of international financial and political control, such as the IMF, WTO and the UN. But are these issues that should concern the library profession? Some say it is not our “business” to get involved in “politics” as we are professional people, not politicians. But if we accept that Africa needs a second war of liberation—economic liberation this time—then we need to accept that no liberation can be successful without appropriate information vision, strategy and tactics, as well as trained information activists. This is the lesson from the major revolutions in the world. This is also the lesson from Africa’s long history of wars against colonialism and imperialism. And this is where we find a relevant social role for African librarians and information professionals and activists today. The first requirement for liberation from an inequality imposed on Africa is access to information about the real reasons for poverty. Yet the information and communication systems created by the departing colonial powers were not expected or equipped to put this information before people. They were merely tools for a small, rich elite to impose its world outlook and culture on the poor and exploited majority of people. Post-independence systems and policies have made no fundamental change in this colonial-inspired information framework. We urgently need to seek a role for the information profession that is relevant to the needs of Africa in the 21st century. An important task for Africa is to document fully the achievements, successes and failures of the anti-colonial struggles in Africa. Information about these can arm us for current and future struggles. This has not been fully documented. But if the history of the African struggle for political and economic liberation is poorly documented, the struggle for African information liberation is even less well documented and understood. It is not a matter of general knowledge, for example, that during the Mau Mau war of liberation in Kenya, the combatants controlled over 50 newspapers and many printing presses; they set up libraries in liberated territories, in forests, in cities, ran an efficient information collection system, and created their own distribution network using “traditional” and modern methods available to them. This complex communications system was created and managed by activist librarians and information workers who were active not only in the information field, but in the larger political and social fields as well. Their experience, if fully documented, can help us find a relevant role for the information professional in Africa today. And yet today, we tend to follow blindly the “Western” model of public library services, which actively seeks to remove politics from information theories and practices. This model has not been successful in the “West” itself to provide information to all, particularly to those politely referred to as “socially excluded”. Yet we in Africa have not fully challenged this situation. It is only by subjecting our current policies and practices to a vigorous challenge that new and relevant theories, policies and practices can emerge. Opportunities for information liberation CONTINUING THE BATTLE IN A COLDER CLIMATE 199 Just as in the political field, so in the information field, there are major developments when social contradictions are at their sharpest. It is at such key points in history that opportunities arise for making revolutionary changes in the way