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He wears a faded and worn out orange woollen hat that has his name inscribed on it—more like a form of instant identification. He has a casual appearance that would prompt one to dismiss him at first sight.
The diminutive and talkative 26-year old is a phenomenal soul, who prefers to be identified as a Malawian, despite the fact that his father is South African and his late mother Malawian.
Cleo Bonny, who is often referred to as Africa’s Reading Ambassador in the many countries that he has travelled, has authored a book The Young Commentator, from whose proceeds he travels around the continent to assist young leaners with speed reading.
“I’m on a one-man mission to convince the continent that reading can create learners of tomorrow and this I do free of charge having realised the importance of reading culture,” says Bonny, who claims that he has reached over 300,000 students across South Africa.
He continues: “If you read fast you will be able to communicate, comprehend, concentrate, think creatively, motivate, assimilate new information, solve problems, organise thoughts and analyse problems. People who don’t read have major memory loss. Many learners are shy, afraid and nervous to read and they can’t express themselves. If you and your community start reading now, Africa’s natural resources shall be used to progress African interests.”
Bonny, who left Malawi for South Africa in 1994, told Chill that his passion grew out of being initially forced to read.
“When I was five or six years old, my mother used to force me to read. This is how the passion for reading started. Thereafter, I used to steal books from the library because I wanted to read everything. Now reading takes me to strange countries where I have helped many children to learn to read. I urge parents to force their children to read every night in order to develop and advance their reading,” he says, and adds:
“I am giving African people love of reading for a day or a month. People should realise their intellectual freedom. People that are information literate use information effectively, efficiently, accurately, to analyse, assess, evaluate. I might be small but I have proved to be an assistant to the continent.”
Bonny, who is in the country for two months and has already conducted speed reading sessions at Elma High School in Blantyre, says most of Malawi’s problems are due to an ineffective leadership.
“We need new leaders in this country. We don’t need leaders who chase vendors from the streets, we need leaders who create jobs. The government has failed to send many people to university and to create jobs. And these vendors, all they wanted was to feed their families so that they don’t starve and they don’t steal. The government has not been able to share information with their people. It can’t even build libraries across Malawi.
“Poverty in this country is seasonal because people lead their own lives because they lack sound leadership. The only power that government has is the use of the Police to disrupt people while there is no transparency in the leadership. Under normal circumstances, the leadership is supposed to be afraid of the people but in the case of Malawi, it is the people that are afraid of the leadership,” he says.
The dreadlocked Bonny further bemoans the lack of respect shown to academicians.
“What type of country that has a bigger percentage of professors and university lecturers that can’t afford to buy decent cars? We need many night schools for adults in this country.
“The world has changed from industrial to information technology and this means that we need more scientists and doctors, people that will transform this country so that we can be able to compete with the rest of the world,” he says, citing that the failure of the Malawian nation can best be seen by Malawians who have travelled outside the country.
Bonny, who has received extensive coverage in major newspapers in the Southern African region, says he intends to conduct speed reading in 10 schools in Blantyre before he returns to South Africa.
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