The Village Book fair

“Do you hear that? According to the record, there are about one billion books in existence in the world” 

“ Who was keeping the record?”

“How do you mean who is keeping the records?- don’t you believe it?”

“my question is simple. Who is recording all these books in existence, are these ones included?”

“White people keep records you know?”

“ No one is white people and no organization is white people. Which organization or someone keeping the records?”

“Well, I have forgotten the name of the company mentioned and their web address. They mentioned all now. But why are doubting it?”

“ Because at a certain age, you need to take certain things with a pinch of salt. Most records in existence are fake”

“ Fake?- those from Africa or china?”

“How do you mean Africa and china?- from four corners of planet Earth. Many are fake”

“ I just mentioned those two but maybe about thirty percent of records in existence are fake from every nook”

“Africa and China keep fake record- why?”

“Africa out of ignorance and laziness and China out of quest to impress, brainwash and bluster image. Those two entities has problems. Never swallow anything coming from both end, line, hook and sinker or you will end up in mortuary”

“Ha! George, why do you always talk down on those two entities. Do you really believe that they has that much problem?”

“ Whenever you see a black man, Chinese and an Indian man standing together and talking, something bad will later happen there”

“ two among them are flying not walking and so is their economy. If they are keeping fake records, how come after relying on their records for planning and projections, it would turn out rights in the end? How has their economy grown to be the best in the world today on fake data?”

“That alone will tell you more about them and how their brain works. I will never be surprised if they are keeping three different records on the same issue. One to mesmerize you, another for communism, and another to tackle imagined enemies of China as usually”

“ Funny. I have lived there before? Where did you gather all this info on a nation of one billion plus and yet, you have never been there?”

“ You don't need to go to Israel before believing that Christ comes from there. It's a matter of faith, education and projections. China has the problem of inferiority complex it is a fact in the concrete record”

“ So, what you are telling me now is that the announcement I heard now of one billion books is fake”

“Exactly. And you seem to also get me wrong. Lecturers in Africa duplicate white people's books each semester and those are never counted, I know in my street alone I have attended book launches twice under a year plus. Are they among the one billion?- Who is recording all these books?”

“common, those are not counted. Books that did not make it out of the area it was printed, how can they enter record books?”

“ You see my argument. White men are good at estimating everything. From food and drink that are resting in their stomach, the electricity they use, gains in the bank, and tuition fees to come and work waiting for them in the office tomorrow. Haven’t you heard that we came from chimpanzees and dinosaurs were here 6 million years until the big bang that killed them off while creating us and earth”

“The bible they came with said six thousand years and another group that goes by the moniker scientists is telling us million years ago. Who are we to believe now?”

Their argument always goes in that manner. George and Luke. The two everything like they are referred. Two classmates from primary level to two classmates in secondary level and now in their first year in tertiary institutions and they are still the same two course mates. 

They are members of their village undergraduate group, meeting each December in the village square. This year, they were doing book fair that took them about two years to put together. They had sourced support from the elders of the village and beyond to raise money to pay for some books they bought and to supplement the ones contributed by some members. None of their past or current members have written any book so, their aim was not only to encourage all the villagers, themselves and youths especially to imbue the spirit of reading and reading but to write and write too. 

 Such feat is what many among them expressed doubt about a lot. How can a village where sixty percent are illiterate imbibe the spirit of reading when even many that pass as students claim that the written word causes them to fall asleep, scratch their eyes or yawn nonstop? That notwithstanding, many among them are true lovers of books but the question remains if it’s their elder brothers and sisters or parents that they be will converted into good humans or bookworms through written words. 

The thing is not only money, none quality books, and time but the environment itself Is highly against self education too. No essential amenities come easily. Money, water, food, good accommodations, and other minor things. A man worrying about how to feed his family once a day doesn’t have that desire in him. 

Someone intelligent once said that we are what we eat and another said what we focus on, focus on us. That two sayings capture it well. The village, villagers, their antics, and way of reasoning are good enough for any near white man to start their estimation calculation on. They were surprised by the number of youths that wandered into the village square, the arena for the fair, walking up and down the columns of the book and picking up titles that captured their attention. Later on, many pegged the relatively high attendance on the date Chosen. December 26th.

George and Luke were among those in their group manning the section that focused on self-help and a few other related foreign books in that regard. They were busy, devouring one foreign book when the one billion number of books in existence came over the speaker and Luke picked it up and swallowed it all up. Arguments started that lasted well over half an hour and left many that wandered to their section contemplating whether to turn around and flee. Unsure of the soundness of those two keeping watch over that section.

It is always that way with both. Whenever certain topics are rinsed in politics and race is at the center of their debate. Voices always rise to the high heavens as if Angels had joined the debate from heaven and both have to shout for them to hear.