In The Gambia, ‘’Creative Writing in the Digital Age’’ explores the vast array of opportunities that technology provides Gambian writers, ranging from TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING to SELF-PUBLISHING methods that blur the boundaries of different genres. From social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to more advanced outlets like Amazon, this article discusses the benefits and potential challenges these technologies present writers in the new Gambia.
Despite the global economic crises which continue to manifest newer and graver dangers to developing countries, The Gambia has made salient advances in her educational development. Nobody will underestimate the contribution of Gambian writers in the transformation of the country’s education sector, thereby seeing a boom in the creative industries' performance in recent years. Digital technology and its many uses form an emerging domain of creative expression for adolescents and young adults in The Gambia.
To date, measures of self-reported creative behavior cover more traditional forms of creativity, including visual art, music, or writing, but do not include creativity in the digital domain. With the change of government in 2016, there has been a ‘Mental Digital Shift’ towards ‘’READING’’ and "READING CULTURE" in The Gambia.
Meaning out of a population of 2 million people, 45% (estimated) of the country’s population read newspapers, or read any other type of book. However, most Gambians are beginning to take advantage of digital book publishing and patronizing eBooks by reading them. Smartphones, tablet computers, and applications for these technologies are changing lives. And if so, why not change the lives of the Gambian populace through books?
Podcasts provide on-demand programming, digital art is an emerging domain of creative work, and social media like Flickr and Instagram facilitate creative expression. Such tools allow people to express themselves in new ways, make original and valued contributions, and broaden opportunities for realizing one’s imagination (Loveless, 2003).
For adolescents, in particular, digital creativity provides an appealing means of self-expression (Lassig, 2012). Indeed, most adolescents have grown up with technology at their fingertips and their facility with technology enables them to embrace it as a means of creative expression. Today’s Gambian writers are immersed in a multiplicative, multimodal—digital—universe. It requires “multi-literacies”, all in a constantly and rapidly evolving literary technological environment, which are not yet fundamentally integrated into the basic literacy skills entrenched in our school learning system (s).
As discussed above, I (currently) recommend that there are many great Gambian writers. Some of these writers are young or old, some new. Some are so good at writing; they won literary prizes for the same. And many have and are still winning international awards and writing contests but their books remained unread and gathered specks of dust at Timbooktoo bookshop or elsewhere. Why? Because Gambians do not buy books! Even if they buy books; they don’t develop an interest in reading (Kaddijatou Jallow, Nusrat SSS, a young poet).
The problems faced by Gambian writers are numerous, some of which are:
1. Literacy and Literary Awareness Projects/ Programs:- Many celebrated Gambian writers cannot and would not immortalize their thoughts. To write, you need to be literate but the literacy ratio in the Gambia is impressive and calls for more awareness by Gambian writers. In addition, you don’t need to hold a degree from any recognized university to be able to write. The literary arts need huge investment and attention to rise from the dust battle of lip-supremacy in a nation that's yet to fully invest in arts and culture (especially writing).
2. Publishers:- The Gambia does not have any conventional book publisher which pays authors for their works and publishes them globally. In my own opinion, ‘conventional publisher’ here means where an author will only write and take his/her manuscript to a publisher, and the rest like marketing and distribution is done. Royalties are paid and recognition is gain. Although there are prestigious publishers such as Fulladu Publishers, citing among others which are printers such as Unique Graphics, Baobab Printers, Dambell Business Corporation Ltd, and the Gambia Publishing and Printing Cooperation (GPPC). Many of these companies are praiseworthy but I think they should consider not being defunct with the changing times to meet the literary interests of the new age.
3. Finance: Some of the most acclaimed Gambian writers write fully and can’t still make a substantial income from writing. Some writers have to keep other jobs to keep going. This reduces time and interest for writing and had drastically reduced the production of materials in Gambian literature. Finally, printing and publishing in The Gambia are expensive and unattractive. There is no book fund!
4. Copyright: Although the Copyright Office is working very hard there is a need to pay more attention to copyright infringements and payment of royalties. Furthermore, Gambian writers should be able to benefit from their intellectual properties and earn a decent living from writing.
5. Freedom: Free speech is not free. Why? Because I said in my book (The Throne of The Ghost/ ISBN9789789497133) that "When flowers turned and become fruits, they always tend to forget that they are from a plant."
Although this has drastically reduced under the government of H.E. Mister Adama Barrow because no Gambian writer has been sent to exile or persecuted yet. This is not all the problems but this covers some of them.
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