Information Congress/International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions (WLIC/IFLA) Conference by Minister of Arts and Culture P Jordan,
Durban
19 August 2007
Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs,
MEC of Arts, Culture and Tourism in KwaZulu-Natal,
Your Honour, the Mayor of eThekwini Municipality,
Dr Alex Byrne, President of IFLA,
Dr Claudia Lux, President of IFLA,
Ms Ellen Tise, President of the National Organising Committee,
Mr Tommy Matthee, President of Library and Information Association of South
Africa (LIASA),
Mr John Tsebe, National Librarian,
Your Honour Justice Albie Sachs,
Our international guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
On 26 June 1955, 45 years after the establishment of the Union of South
Africa, and six after the inauguration of the apartheid regime, one of the most
momentous events in the history of the struggle for South Africa's liberation
took place in the dusty township south-west of Johannesburg. Some 3 000 people
of all races in South Africa, had gathered in the Congress of the People to
draft a document which inspired the liberation struggle for the 39 years it
took for full democracy to be achieved.
Discussing under the watchful eyes of a squadron of armed police and
Security Branch officers who raided the gathering, at Kliptown that day a
document containing the values that are now enshrined as basic human rights in
our Constitution was adopted by acclaim. The preamble of the Freedom Charter
adopted that day proclaims:
"We the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to
know that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white and that
no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all
the people"
In its eighth clause the Freedom Charter says:
"The doors of learning and culture shall be opened!" and continues "All the
cultural treasures of mankind shall be open to all, by free exchange of books,
ideas and contact with other lands." It is a testament to the ugly absurdities
of apartheid that a year later, in December 1956, 157 people were arrested and
charged with Treason. The basis of those Treason charges was the Freedom
Charter. In the democratic order we now live in, the notion of "government by
the consent of the governed" is considered axiomatic. In 1956 it was considered
treason!
I am pleased to be able to stand here today and welcome you, the
representatives of the libraries of the world, gathered in your 73rd World
Library and Information Congress, to a country where we no longer censor ideas
and where we, as enjoined by the Freedom Charter, actively encourage the free
exchange of ides, whether in books or through the internet and other electronic
and digital media. South Africa needs to leapfrog its libraries from the
book-based, segregated past into an open democratic inclusive and multi-media
informational future and this conference comes at an apposite moment in this
process.
Before our democratic transformation, our libraries were largely segregated
on racial grounds; now they are open to all and are truly democratic spaces
where knowledge can be gleaned and ideas exchanged. This is particularly
important for our youth because we need to develop a universal reading culture.
In 1994 we began from the base of segregated public and community libraries,
most of them situated where they served the informational and recreational
needs of the largely white, predominately middle class book borrowing public.
Now our libraries are thronged with young learners seeking knowledge in books
and a safe space to study.
This radical shift in user patterns requires a radical response. The
government has allocated an additional one billion rands over a three year
period to transform the community library system in South Africa. The
Department of Arts and Culture has undertaken a detailed needs analysis and
allocated the first year's funds to the nine provincial library services. Among
our first priorities are:
* improving access to libraries (better staffing and opening hours)
* updated informational resources (especially educational support
material)
* new library infrastructure
* promotion of children's literature
* the publication and dissemination of more books in indigenous languages.
Regarding the last point, the National Library (which itself will be moving
its Pretoria Campus into a brand new building next year), is spearheading the
republication of classic, but forgotten works in our nine indigenous African
languages and has been charged with developing publishing in our indigenous
languages. It is widely recognised that the earlier a child begins to read, the
more likely it is that the child will continue reading as an adult. It has also
been determined by educationalists that a child whose first years of schooling
take place in his or her mother tongue is best placed to perform well and to
accommodate and internalise a switch to English later on, down the educational
path.
Therefore, the emphasis on literacy and mother tongue reading is not an
indulgence, but an imperative and our revitalised libraries are going to play a
key role in achieving this objective. A critical priority for the government is
the promotion of social cohesion among the citizens of our country. The
institution of the family was severely damaged by the migrant labour system of
the past and social networks are challenged by the overcrowding one finds in
the informal settlements around many of our cities.
We see an expanded community library network playing a vital role in
nurturing cohesion because the libraries can provide a safe environment for
social interaction, the exchange of information and ideas and development of
skills. At its most basic level a library in an informal settlement area is a
building where children, especially girls, can gather safely to study in a warm
and well lit area. Andrew Carnegie spoke fondly of his own experience as a poor
man's son, finding warmth and a safe environment in which to develop his mind
in the library. In that sense, the library can promote social cohesion at a
very practical level.
The community library network will also play a critical supporting role in
bridging the "digital divide" in our country. It is our intention to equip our
community libraries, even in remote rural areas, with internet-connected
computers so that the youth can access information on line in a safe
environment with qualified library staff to guide them in the best use of the
internet as an educational resource. In this regard I particularly wish to
congratulate this province of KwaZulu-Natal on its bold initiative of
introducing "cybercadets" into their community libraries. I look forward to
seeing this innovative programme, which will undoubtedly capture the
imagination of the youth, roll out across the province and later across the
country.
For those librarians who may be afraid that the weight we give to
connectivity and digital informational resources will banish books to back
rooms, I offer you some hope from one of our other provinces, the Free State.
This province was reporting on the implementation of the community library
grants over the first quarter of the current financial year and sure enough,
the young flocked to use the new computers in the libraries, but, then they
went over to find more information in books. The user statistics showed
complementary increases in both Information Technology (IT) and book use in
these libraries.
A successful democracy depends on an engaged and thinking citizenry, which
depends on the free flow of information. Colonial, authoritarian and racist
regimes rely heavily on censorship, both political and moral. These actions
sometimes descend to unbelievable levels of absurdity. For example, during the
1950s the apartheid censors banned the children's classic story "Black Beauty!"
(Given the deep-rooted racist sentiments of the members of that body and the
puritanical ethos they espoused, the title probably violated their every
sensibility.). But, the more serious dimension of the censorship was that it
suppressed open discussion, the exchange of ideas and encouraged ignorance and
bigotry in addition to repressing the struggle to liberate our country.
Literature, films, sound recordings, newspapers, journalists and editors
were banned. And, when such measures did not extend far enough, the regime did
not hesitate to employ violence, include murder. The 17th August, marked the
25th anniversary of the assassination of one of South Africa's most gifted
editors and investigative journalists, Dr Ruth First, who was killed with a
parcel bomb sent in the guise of a book to her offices at the Eduardo Mondlane
University in Maputo, Mozambique.
One year later, her former colleague Joe Gqabi, was gunned down in Harare,
Zimbabwe by a hit squad in the employ of the apartheid regime. Democratic South
Africa's commitment to the values in the Freedom Charter derives from the
understanding that untrammelled debate and public discourse is intrinsically
valuable and that falsehood cannot possibly triumph in such an environment.
That commitment is reinforced by the great sacrifices exacted from our people
to realise a democratic political order.
The theme of this conference, "Libraries for the Future: Progress,
Development and Partnership" is one with which we readily identify. Your
conference also marks the tenth anniversary of LIASA, the Library and
Information Association of South Africa, which the united and transformed the
professional body of South African librarians and information specialists. We
deeply appreciate the fact that IFLA, the international library representative
organisation has come to South Africa to mark this event.
You are gathering in our leisure capital Durban, in the eThekwini
Metropolitan Area, which has many famous libraries and many that are not so
well known. I hope that you have the opportunity to visit them as well as
enjoying the hospitality of this friendly city with its rich multi-cultural
heritage. You may know that a five hour drive from here is the battlefield of
Isandlwana where in 1879, the Zulu army inflicted one of the worst defeats ever
suffered by Imperial Britain.
It was in this province too that Mahatma Gandhi began his struggle for
truth, evolved and tested his philosophy of Satyagraha. A few miles to the
north-west he was ejected from a train on to the cold railway platform in
Pietermaritzburg because he had the temerity to refuse to leave a "whites only"
first class carriage. It was on that cold platform in the night that he began
his struggle that grew from a personal one to a mighty crusade that liberated
the Indian sub-continent from the British Raj, 60 years ago this year. Permit
me to congratulate all the delegates from that sub-continent on this important
landmark in the history of India and in the struggle against colonialism.
This province of KwaZulu-Natal also has a rich colonial heritage. Here you
will find the descendants of British soldiers, traders and settlers as well
those of the Afrikaner Voortrekker, of German, Norwegian and Swedish
missionaries. South Africa has one of the largest Indian populations outside
India which is centred on this city and in this province. Many are the
descendants of indentured labourers brought to South Africa to work in the
sugar cane estates.
The largest university in this province also houses the largest Centre for
the Study of African literature in this country, if not the continent. That
collection compliments those of the pre-independence era, like the
Killie-Campbell library. A sizeable collection, chronicling the liberation
struggle from the 1940s till the mid-seventies is also housed at that same
university, consisting of the papers of the late MP Naicker.
These collections are but a tiny fraction of informational resources
available in this country. Their preservation for the use of future generations
underscores the valuable work performed by librarians and others in the
information services in sustaining our national heritage and that of humanity's
striving for a better world. May your deliberations on "Libraries for the
future: Progress, Development and Partnership" be inspired by your surroundings
and by the heritage of this province and that of South Africa. I wish you every
success in your conference and please, enjoy your stay in South Africa, each
and every one of you.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
19 August 2007
Source: Department of Arts and Culture (http://www.dac.gov.za)
