Fascinated by the diasporan Ghanaian writer, whose cathedral collection has been a fibre of literacy to the modest suburb of her homeland
 
An interview with Sylvia Arthur. By Darko Antwi 

DARKO: How significant is the role of libraries in developing economies?

SYLVIA: I think libraries play, or can play a hugely significant role in developing economies. For one, I think they provide an invaluable resource for people with limited access to quality education, and I don’t just mean children but people at all stages of life, including and, even, especially adults. For many adults, there’s a stigma attached to having little formal education and libraries offer a non-judgemental, safe environment for people to improve themselves for economic as well as for personal reasons. In many developing economies, schools are unable to provide children with the kind of education they need to meet the demands of and compete in the 21st-century. Libraries are in a unique position to fill the gap between what’s being taught in school and what isn't, and also to bolster what's being taught. There are many other skills, soft and hard, that library can develop too. Unfortunately, I think libraries are completely underrated in Ghana, perhaps because the economic outcome of using one isn’t immediate. In economically straitened environments, we tend to focus on things that produce instant results to meet our immediate needs. If you're a parent or child, and you're faced with the choice of going to a library or going out and making money, however small that money may be, you will, of course, choose the latter because investing in literacy is a long-term payoff and, in many developing countries, survival is utmost in our minds on a day-to-day basis. Libraries can play a role not just in surviving but thriving, socially and economically. But we have to recognise that and invest in them accordingly.

DARKO: In her August 2019 Daily Graphic article, We don’t read, that’s the problem, Elizabeth Ohene stated that “the non-reading culture [of Ghanaians] is not limited to primary schools, but to universities, and homes.” How real is such a perception to your research knowledge?

SYLVIA: I think Madame Ohene is simply stating the obvious. From the work I've done in communities across Ghana over the past two years, it was evident from the start that reading is an alien activity for many, if not most people. What’s more disturbing is that this runs across the class and social spectrum. I’ve found that middle-class Ghanaians hardly read and neither do the elites. There’s a lack of understanding of the importance of literacy and reading and the benefits it brings. This problem won’t be overcome until we recognise that the best developed economies in this world are fully literate economies. In addition to class and education, the problem is also one of town versus country, male versus female. In fact, our problem or our inability to recognise the importance of literacy runs deep.

DARKO: As reported in The Voice, you ‘believe in literacy for all, regardless of social-economic status” and you seek to “develop programmes and events that meet the people…” Could you explain how dyslexia sensitive the programmes are to your mass target?

SYLVIA: This isn’t actually something we’ve worked on, but we’re looking into doing more with people with disabilities, both physical disabilities and learning disorders so thank you for raising such an important but often overlooked point.

DARKO: Little Libreria is your school library project that serves over a thousand children in deprived communities. If such exercise is off your regular subscription, how do you plan to sustain or advance its reach?

SYLVIA: First of all, everything we do at Libreria is completely self-funded. Since we opened in December 2017, we’ve always operated at a loss. At no point have subscriptions ever covered even the basic running costs of the library. With that in mind, I believe almost everyone can contribute to the development of literacy in Ghana in their own way with whatever resources they have. The Little Libreria we have in schools in Ashaiman and Kumawu are completely funded by myself. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a few like-minded people contribute to our cause, such as the Library Laughs event in London in October 2019 organised by comedienne, Athena Kugblenu, which raised over £400. This kind of programmes help with the sustainability of our Little Libreria and other literacy initiatives, and we’ll continue to fundraise as much as we can. I’m committed to the sustainability of everything we do but we obviously can’t do it alone.

DARKO: Given the capacity, do you see any relevance in shelving standardised books that are written in Ghanaian languages?

SYLVIA: I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say standardised books, but I definitely see the relevance of having books written in Ghanaian languages in the library for various reasons. One, I think it's important that Ghanaians, in particular, and Africans, in general, recognise and appreciate the fact that we come from a literary heritage. That heritage has often been seen through the prism of an oral literary tradition in terms of griots and storytelling, however, we also come from a written literary heritage, and the more we can see literature in print in Ghanaian and other African languages, the more we’ll understand as a people that literature is something that belongs to us. Secondly, there’s an ongoing debate about the preservation of local languages and this is embodied in the argument about what language we teach children in at school. If we continue to teach children in English as a matter of course then I believe it's important that we have books in local languages to complement that teaching and to formalise and preserve Ghanaian languages. Which brings me to my third point. Obviously languages are living things that are constantly evolving. One way to preserve them, at least in a particular point in time, is to have them written down. I think we’re beginning to appreciate this fact, and the necessity of encouraging the creation of literature in Ghanaian languages, more and more. There are various initiatives such as the Write Ghana Competition and Festival that are doing what they can to reinforce the importance and relevance of writing in Ghanaian languages, and I understand from various writers who write in local languages that it's difficult for them to get published because publishing gatekeepers don't feel there’s a market for this work. It's important for us as readers and as consumers to create that market and to sustain it. 

DARKO: At the 2019 PaGya! Festival, panelists (that include personnel from Ghana Library Authority) discussed the need for private and public library partnership – towards an efficient facilitation of literacy. Have you ever considered the possibility or the advantages of partnerships?

SYLVIA: Yes. It’s something we’ll be actively pursuing in 2020. The problems are too significant to be tackled alone.

DARKO: In your quest to invest in a literate African society, versus the prospect of commercial success, what exactly do you mean when you claim that your subscription “charges are just explicit’? 

SYLVIA: Actually, the meaning behind the statement has nothing to do with commercial success. What I mean by that is that, in the West, libraries are funded by taxes. Unfortunately, in Ghana, we have a tendency to believe that libraries are free because they’re not paid for with cash from our pocket. Libraries are not free. Libraries are paid for by taxpayers. It's just that, because the money is taken at source, it's not “seen.” We charge a subscription and, therefore, the charge is upfront and you do see it and feel it. But it's no different from if the money was being taken from taxes. Sadly, we see the state of public libraries in Ghana today and part of the reason for that, I'm sure, is because of a lack of investment, at the root of which is a lack of public funds or, at least, a lack of willingness to allocate whatever public funds are available to libraries. In the UK and US, there’s a long tradition of private libraries; in Ghana, not so much. So we’ve been doing something new.

DARKO: As read from several articles, and your Chatham House essay, your literary stock is predominantly works by writers of African descent. Why the priority?

SYLVIA: My immediate response to that question is, why not? We’re based in Africa and why shouldn't the literature we offer our readers reflect who they are and their experiences as individuals and as a people? But to elaborate or to expand on that, African writers, particularly in the West, are not given the platform they deserve and, by that, I mean an equal platform to their Western counterparts so we aim to redress the balance and recognise and celebrate our gifted continental and diaspora writers. In addition, we collectively, that is, those of us who are in a privileged position to have influence on the thinking of others, have a responsibility to decolonise our mindsets. In schools and in universities, the emphasis has always been on works by Western writers, whether we’re speaking about the arts and literature or the sciences. This gives the impression that Africans have had no impact on history and on the world, which is clearly not the case. By showcasing the depth and breadth of writing by Africans and people of African descent, we hope to show that we have a literary heritage to be proud of and, perhaps, the people who need to know that most are not Westerners, but Africans themselves who’ve been led to believe that we do not possess a literary heritage. What we do can hopefully contribute to dispelling that myth.

DARKO: At the function of electronic and mobile libraries, is there any logic not to fear a future decline of stationary services like Libreria?

SYLVIA: Yes and no. I think that, as with all the talk about the death of the physical book with the emergence of e-books and audiobooks, which has not proved to be true, in fact quite the opposite, I also think there will always be a place for libraries. Physical libraries provide what e-books and audiobooks cannot; community through physical meeting places where discussions and debate and ideas can be exchanged. Of course, this can also be done online, but the human contact is not the same. That said, I’ve often felt restricted by having a physical place. Our outreach has been the most rewarding and fulfilling work that we’ve done and having a physical library has sometimes been a burden. However, I doubt we would've had the impact we've had without having a physical space. The role of a physical library is so much more than a repository of books. It’s a community centre, it’s a greenhouse, it’s a social service, and it’s a haven. It just is. Its value can’t be quantified.

DARKO: Two years since you established Libreria, do you think it has been worth leaving London for a task that has posed many risks and demanded extreme sacrifices than imagined?   

SYLVIA: Yes. That’s the short answer! If anything, I’ve gained a lot more than I've lost. Yes, there's been a financial toll, and the impact on my time and career has been immense, but I’ve also learnt a lot and met many interesting and good people from all over the world who I wouldn’t otherwise have met. I’d do it all again but with many adjustments based on the experience and insights I’ve now gained.   

Biography
Sylvia Arthur is a British-Ghanaian nonfiction writer whose work explores themes of identity, diaspora, politics, and place. Her writing has been published in The Guardian, the BBC, and The British Journalism Review and her essay, “Britain’s Invisible Black Middle Class” was curated in the anthology, Know Your Place: Essays by the Working Class for the Working Class. She holds an MA in Narrative Nonfiction Writing. She has been awarded fellowships to Hedgebrook and Santa Fe Art Institute and received a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation via 516 Arts to produce a publication on immigration and art produced in and about the US-Mexico border region.
Spirited about literary advocacy in Africa, Sylvia opened Libreria Ghana​ in December 2017 to give Ghanaians access to books that weren’t easily obtainable whilst amplifying the voices of Black African writers.

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