IF you were born in the late 50s and raised in the 70s, you grew up in an age of books, magazines, novels and newspaper cartoons and valued what was selected for you for the simple reason that all kinds of people wrote books. In the colonisation period, the origins of colonised people were immediately converted to have been created by Europeans. Most Euro-scholars who differed became the authors of rare books because their books were not widely circulated, so wise elders selected reading materials. But in the 70s, the most popular literature with youth were novels, comic books and magazines. One of the most intriguing book sets that I received as a gift was J.A. Rogers’ three Volume ‘Sex and Race’. I was around 21 then and I started reading them almost a year later. I was at that point taken over by Ebony, Black Star and other American magazines. This was a natural process that was coupled with the music of the day. Those magazines featured the groups like Smokey and the Miracles, Marvin Gay, The Supremes, etc.

There was no TV or smartphones and social media to distract. There was Madam Ifill in the big market for the latest comic books, which was a hub of activity with action, love stories, western comics and novels. Most of the second-hand book stalls followed her layouts. The latter were mainly exchange facilities. Most heavy literature was packaged in an illustrated series titled ‘Classics Illustrated’ I bought some with earned pocket money back then at Latchmansingh’s drug store on Camp Street, between Norton and Durban streets, Werk-en-Rust. We humans all are blessed with talent, and in some unfortunate situations they get suppressed by others. I was fortunate that with my Godparents who raised me at Mahaica, after the biological folks separated, I was encouraged to pursue my passions there.

I can remember an instant when I had lent a school friend two Commando comics, (these were more popular than the Marvel comics at that time). Second were the Cowboy comics. I’m not so sure if those were DC or Marvel. The fact is the movies mirrored our picture-reading choices. My friend’s mother came with the two books that I had loaned him. She told ‘Ma,’ as I called my godmother, that “I didn’t want my son to become a comic.” She expressed her anger and with a smile.

My godmother accommodated her when she was relaxed. She admitted to a problem that my friend didn’t like reading, and she was going to get a certain teacher to give him lessons, ‘Ma’ agreed, my friend’s mother left, and the books were placed on the table before me. She picked up one of the Commando comics and opened it and told me to read two pages for her. I had to tell who was speaking and that ACHTUNG! was an alarm word the Germans used. She asked me who was the star-boy? (A term for the main character), and I eagerly answered. She told me to put the books down, eat my snack, do my chores and prepare for homework.

Years later as an adult, I understood what she had done. The essence was that progress was being made as long as the child was reading. One book I have tried to get without success was an edition of ‘Treasure Island’ that I had received as a childhood gift, with paintings by N.C.Wyeth the American artist, that was stolen from me by some supposed family friend/visitor. What is not quite understood is that even people without written alphabets had methods of recording events; the first alphabet is most likely the artistic Hieroglyphs of ancient Khemet, but before that were the cave graphics by ancient man. It is sad that in this age where the written word can be dictated through a MoU, whether or not your business rights are taken from you. That a book covering one’s interests is less an option than a fashion item that serves as a showoff idol-worship statement, this does not mean that those other areas of our culture are not important, but when placing values, knowledge is still ‘Power.’

I can well understand how TV and social media have overridden the culture of family reading when the family took paragraphs of most times a library book and had some fun, at the mispronunciation of some words and how it sounded when a comma or a full stop was ignored. And the fun and celebrated achievement of a sibling, friend or relative when they mastered the errors, we have got to back step and pick up where we ignored the signs, we can do it.