Africa-Press – Cape verde. Cape Verdean writer Natacha Magalhães criticized, in Lisbon, the lack of reading habits in Cape Verde, which should begin with encouraging children and young people in particular, creating conditions for this, particularly through municipal councils.
Speaking to Inforpress during her visit to Lisbon to present her recent book “The wolves cannot wait”, which marks her debut in literature aimed at an adult audience, Natacha Magalhães considered that the problem with reading habits is not just in Cabo Green, but in the archipelago “it has more impact”.
For her, in addition to the issue of speaking, writing and expressing better, reading changes the way of looking at the world, sensitivity and reasoning about a certain subject, which in her opinion does not happen in Cape Verde, since “people don’t they read and cannot give their opinion on things”, just as parents “do not encourage” their children to read, opting for online games.
“It’s very nice to say that we have to promote reading, get children and young people to read, but I ask what the municipal councils, the local government that is closest to the population, are doing to promote reading, when the budgets for the Culture council, the majority of which goes to a two-day popular festival”, he criticized.
In the opinion of Natacha Magalhães, “there are no physically attractive spaces” for children to read, “there are not enough collections and there are no librarians trained to mediate reading”, so, in her opinion, “there is no coherence between discourse and practice”.
“As long as we have Culture directorates in the chambers working only for the festivals, and we can see one or the other doing other things, but in terms of literature it is nothing, we will only have the impoverishment of the masses and minds, because the rest of the year is a cultural poverty”, he stressed, stressing that it is necessary to promote the cultural enrichment of people in Cape Verde.
In October, also speaking to Inforpress, in Lisbon, at the time of the Culture and Communities Day celebrations, the Minister of Culture and Creative Industries, Abraão Vicente, considered that city councils have to understand that “festivals are not that give note to his competence in municipal management”.
At the time, the government official recalled that so far none of the country’s 22 municipal councils have yet joined the National Reading Program (PNL), but that “they all want funding to pay fees to artists at festivals”.
To make a positive contribution in this area and instill a love of reading, Natacha Magalhães created the project “Mala de Contos – Promoção da Leitura”.
Natacha Magalhães began her literary career in 2010, writing for children and young people, having published the collections “Mãe, Conta-me Uma História”, “Sete Contos Ao Luar E Outra Estórias” and “A Viagem Mais Fantástica Do Mundo”, as well as the books “O Segredo Partilhado” and “O Coração Das Ilhas”, at the request of two institutions.
She was part of the anthologies “Contar Histórias Com A Avó Ao La Colo” (Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries – CPLP), “Ser Mulher” (Portugal), “Mulherio de Letras” (Portugal) and “Mulher e Seu Destinos” (Cape Verde) .
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