By Steve on Godfrey Mkweteza
One of the youthful upcoming writers in the country Mashallo Samilo has launched his debut poetry book entitled ‘ Wokoma Nyasa with a call to the country ‘s youth to develop an interest in writing and reading books.
Launching the book in Blantyre, Samalo said he wanted to join the promoters of writing and reading culture in the country.
” If the efforts to promote writing and reading culture are to bear tangible fruits , then there is a great need to start from the grassroot levels by targeting the youth as the future leaders. Youth should develop an interest to read and write more extensively, ” he said.
Among others, Samilo noted that the emerging of the social media has made the youth not to have an interest in writing and reading books.
” Many youth read only when they are preparing for examinations. On the other hand, the incentives that writers get from producing their work is somewhat minimal,” he noted
Samilo furthermore, urged the copyright association of Malawi (Cosoma) to change their policies to protect the social media online and internet networks, saying these channels are what perpetuate piracy and drives out the interest of writers.
Samilo, who is also a budding musician, said he was inspired to c ome up with the book which specifically talk about natural and cultural heritage of the country.
“The book will, among other things, promote tourism by specifically talking about the beauty of nature and culture that our country preserve. ,” said the jovial seemingly Samalo.
According to Samalo, who declined to disclose on how much he spent towards coming up with the book, said took five years to come up with the book which contains a total of 92 poems.
Guest of honour at the launch, Francis Phiso, who is the minister of youth, sports and culture highlighted that the writing and reading are the catalyst for development.
He said government would explore other avenues to ensure that It promotes writers in the country.
” While there is need to bring about a conducive environment for our writers, however, there is also a need for writers to come up with pieces that will draw interest from the public to buy and read or even start writing as well,’ said Phiso.
Sambalikagwa Mvona, the President for Malawi writers union( Mawu) said the union was pleased with the emerging youthful writers in the country.
“Currently, we are witnessing a lot of youthful writers than ever before. This means we are making strides in the union,” said Mvona.
Mvona revealed that the country has a lot of writers but where not coming in the open because of the political environment in the one party system of government.
