South Africa, like any other African country, is starting to enjoy the fruits of being a reading nation and a writing nation. It enjoys these through its many languages spoken and being written, though encountering different stages of development and recognition. Throughout history, the most well-read book and highly prescribed book for schools has been the Bible as it has been the most widely translated book into African languages, for various ideological reasons. Nowadays, a variety of African literary works are recommended to the school market. The Bible still occupies its central stage in the various churches and various kinds of events and gatherings.
Readers, anywhere in a democracy, read for various reasons. Young South African readers of African language literatures only read what is prescribed for them in the school market. This means that there is no choice for them to choose. While readers in other languages could still chose any genre at their disposal, even outside the school environment, those in African language literatures have reached a cull de sac and could only look elsewhere for literature enjoyment. The paper contextualises the challenges and experiences of readers and writers of African language Literatures in a democratic South Africa. The paper argues that this hidden need tend to reach astronomical proportions when the same learners are confronted with “colonial literatures or books”, lazed with untruths and half-truth during their tertiary levels. The need for transformative African Language Literatures needs to be supported so as to continue to be written and enjoyed and not be regarded as centres of power. The paper challenges readership centrality by locating the politics of literary festivals within the readers – author’s dichotomy of needs and considers all these as signs or attempts of fully fledged liberated human beings, trying to live their knowledge sharing democracy and thus well encouraged and appears as flowers of democracy..
Key Terms: prescribed; ideological; school market; cull de sac; colonial literatures, transformative; democracy