Eight-year-old superhero wants to build a South Africa of readers and writers
"South Africa needs to get kids to read more and we need to build the confidence in young kids to start writing and publishing from a young age."
Mzansi’s favourite child superhero, SuperMash, has launched a new campaign to help build more authors and make reading fun and cool for the youth.
Partnering up with Nickelodeon, Prince Mashawana believes that for our country to move forward and for the kids of the country to become the best that they can be, they need to read more. “South Africa needs to get kids to read more and we need to build the confidence in young kids to start writing and publishing from a young age,” he said.
He mentioned that even overseas children younger than him are already loving books. “I have seen children who are younger than me in the US and UK releasing their second and third books, while in South Africa many don’t even get the opportunity to release even one in their lifetime.”
To try make kids even more interested in reading, SuperMash and Nickelodeon did an inspiring segment on Mandela Day, 18 July, with media personality Nandi Madida. Four other young authors shared some content from their books with the Nickelodeon audience.
The ‘Let’s Read’ campaign has motivated many young children thus far and SuperMash plans to continue to build the momentum, “You have to start somewhere, I want kids to start reading and once a few kids make it cool to read everyone will follow. I am extremely excited to be one of those kids,” he said.
According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) study which tested reading comprehension of learners in their fourth year of primary schooling, South Africa ranked last out of 50 countries. They found that that 78 per cent of South African learners at this level could not read for meaning. The eight-year-old boy wonder said that one solution won’t solve this issue alone, a multiple implementation concept is needed to rectify the statistics in South Africa in terms of reading.
More effort into promoting a culture of reading, encouraging parents to read to their children more, having a more effective link between South African languages, making books more accessible, promoting young authors in the country and improving education in terms of the process to publish a book.
“I know of a South African author based in KwaZulu-Natal who was in his teens when he released his first book. He came from humble beginnings, yet, he wrote an entire book on his smartphone. We need to celebrate the success of our kids more. South Africa, please celebrate and promote us more,” said the Bryanston resident.
