By
Awwal Abdullahi Sakiwa
MONOGRAPH 006
First published in 2012
CONTENTS
- What is Comic?
- The Power of the Illustrated Book
- Impacts
- Lists of Books Illustrated by Awwal A. Sakiwa
- Mazariyya Teen Authorship
- Lists of Unpublished Comic Books by Awwal A. Sakiwa
- Why the Intellectual Project must Facilitate the Production of Picture Books
- Elements that Facilitate the Development of Books
- Other Community Aspects of Cognitive Development in Child Upbringing
Most of us were witnesses to the development of this intellectual capital project policy. Indeed, Government Secondary School, Minna were I teach did a presentation when the Chief Servant made the declaration in 2010 on the occasion of unveiling 10 books to mark his birthday at the chambers of the Government House, Minna. Now, each individual of the community must be watchful of the government to see where his potential could fit into intentions of the state. Now that a state-wide call has been made by the Chief Executive for people to embrace books and book-related ventures toward documenting society and pushing further the frontiers of knowledge for a faster development of the society, citizens are required to respond positively by personally engaging in exercises that would add to knowledge. One salient channel for societal regeneration is to give the child a functional education. Functional education comes about through varied of experiences in teaching and learning. The fastest way to learn or read is for the child to encounter picture books and comic magazines.
What is Comic?
Comic is a book or magazine that tells stories using sets of pictures usually inserted in columns, while illustration are pictures or drawings in a book that foster a better understanding of a given text.
The Power of the Illustrated Book
Pictorial Books or book illustration or comic books are important genre critical to the development of the child. It will counter-productive if children’s books writing and the quest for intellectualisation of society misses this important aspect of the child’s cognitive development.
The child alone by its creation is a beautiful, pure, and innocent being. These attributes can easily evaporate especially when there is poor parenting in the area of education. It should be observed that the child is constantly attracted to beautiful objects and colours such as Pink, Yellow, Red and other bright objects. If the child by nature loves beautiful things, thus it has become pertinent to note that while strategising the society towards a culture of reading illustrated books and materials should be considered as an effective mechanism for the attainment of his multi-sensory elements which aid the developing mind of the child. This also stimulates the child’s imagination to critical levels of creation and silent pondering about the things he sees around him. When he sees, touches and perceives pages of these pictures, the memory of his association with books does not only last longer but solidify his creative imaginative sense. As a child I have grown to love books via beautiful pages of well-illustrated texts with pictorials, graphics and patterns including caricatures. These experiences came to create a latter interest in me which provoked my quest for drawing and painting today.
Illustrations especially colourful ones are capable of awakening the child’s interest, curiosity and appetite to read books all the time. A child will constantly pick a book with the expectation of seeing stories with pictures. The amusement he derived from the corresponding pictorial representation leaves in the child a glowing mind that permits with no option but to love books. Once a society is riddled with children who are book lovers, the corresponding make up of that society is of serious characters that will have a genuine reason for doing things. Thus, you banish arbitrariness and superstition in your communities. A society steeped in superstition, rumour and baseless speculations as channels of communication is a society destroyed.
In justification to the above take, we can flash back to the days of the famous Oxford English text used in the eighties; children naturally loved it because of its fascinating illustration such as the Ali and the Angel story. It had an irresistible power to arrest the interest of children to personally read and make out what the picture holds. Again, the NNPC famous Hausa book title ‘Koyi Karatu’ was loaded with interesting and magnetic illustrations that nullified resentment to read by any child at that time, such books has almost gone extinct. This is what the new policy of the Niger State government seeks to rekindle in our habits so that we can have a society of controlled children through what we write for them to read in the books produced here-in.
IMPACTS
I have over the years interacted with children and successfully mentored a lot of them into functional human resources under the plat form of Hill-Top Arts Foundation in the area of arts. Hill-Top Arts Foundation encompasses all the facilities to render training on various aspects of art such as Painting, Drawing, Drama, Dance, Reading and Creative Writing. All these aspects are existing channels for creative expression of thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions to the pleasure of human consumption.
However, in my chosen field of mentorship which is painting and drawing, I have contributed to numerous books over the space of two decades authored by different writers.
Lists of Books Illustrated by Awwal A. Sakiwa
Titles Authors
- The Spider and Other Stories: an Anthology of Folktale
- Wicked Mother by Fatima Daniyan
- Mystery Stones by BM Dzukogi
- The Moving Cloud by Baba Akote
- Jamilu the Reader by BM Dzukogi
- Teacher Dangana is a Cheat by BM Dzukogi
- Ndapka and the Kuso Forest by Aminu S. Muhammad
- Biribiri Saves Us by Nma Hassan
- Faisal and the Zuma Rock by Kamar Hamza
- Dauda and the Cockerel by Alkasim Abdulkadir
- The Wicked Brothers by Abdullahi Ismail
- Tata and the Sugar by Hussaini Kodo
- Desperate Girl by Fatima Ndako
- These Last Tears by BM Dzukogi
- Moonlight Rhymes by Hussaini Kodo
- One little Trick, One Painful Death by Halima Aliyu
- Images of Life by Saddiq Dzukogi
- Slaying the Wayfarer by B. M. Nagidi
- Dew Drops: an Anthology of poems by teen authors
- Scourge of Earthworm by Abdullahi Ismail
- Nana the Story Teller by Abdullahi Ismail
- Garbage School by Abdullahi Ismail
- Dead Man’s Ring by Nma Hassan
- Great Battle by M. Shebe
- Return of Ya’Aliyu by M. Shebe
- The Playthings of War by Opeyemi Adedayo
- Indefinite Cravings by Paul Liam
- Dancesteps of Dawn: an Anthology
- Echoes of Young Minds: A Hill-Top Anthology
- Destiny Child by M. Shebe
- Death of Sokomba by M. Shebe
- Dan Adam by Mallama Khadija Sakiwa
Mazariyya Teen Authorship
- Life is like a Flower by GDSS, Minna Anthology
- Rays of Sunrise by FUT Staff School
- Vine Yard of Angels by Himma International College, Minna
- Gentle Emerald by GSS, Minna
- Lovely Lamps by Bosso Secondary School, Minna
- Weevils of Grains by GSS, Old Airport.
In countries like Norway, government has a law that makes it mandatory for the first copies of an author to be purchased as a contribution to the development of book in that country. This is the only way an accelerated culture of development can be engendered in our community. Most of the books above may have not travelled far because of poor distribution network by today’s authors. Therefore, if Niger State must emerge as the Intellectual Capital of Nigeria, then a conscious effort must be established across the 25 local government areas of the state. This brings to the fore, the need for the institutionalisation of the Neighbourhood Library Scheme through Ward Development Projects and the Book-Hawker Projects through NAPEP or Micro Finance facilities project for faster development.
Lists of Unpublished Comic Books by Awwal A. Sakiwa
1. The Bank of Destiny (the Legendry Story of Tsoide)
2. Samira Returns to School
3. The Painson
4. The Sarauniyar Zazzau
We have over the years championed the course of comic books writing and restoration of illustrations, especially children’s book in Niger State. I have a comic book published to my credited titled, ‘The Story of Bayajiddah’ and many other unpublished titles like the ‘Bank of Destiny, legendary factions about Heroes of the Nupe land, ‘The Painsion’, a satiric comic story from BM Dzukogi’s Potholes in my Dream’. Another one is ‘Samira Returns to School’, and a lot of other unfinished titles.
I described my relentless effort as “double impact”. It is in my effort to popularise comic writing and restoration of illustration in children’s book. I also take on historic event that formed the nations of our ethic groups in comical form which is devoid of heavy text but with impressive pictorial sequential arrangement that is irresistible to receive history there in, histories that have been long forgotten even within the regular schools’ curriculum.
WHY THE INTELLECTUAL PROJECT MUST FACILITATE THE PRODUCTION OF PICTURE BOOKS
1. Book illustration helps the child in the understanding of what he/she reads and allows the young reader to analyse the story all by himself. This encourages extra-ordinary thinking rather than a controlled thinking surrounding the family alone. The development of curiosity also put the parents or any adult nearby to task since the child would always turn to him for explanation. This is good for the development of the intellect; the very culture, the Niger State Government seeks to entrench in the state. When children are facing difficulties during reading, the pictorial representations therein quickly becomes a powerful mechanism to aid comprehensive of story.
2. Language – pictorial books or illustrations permits the reader to practice sounds of language and as parents, it is our responsibility to introduce new and interesting words at every opportunity with the child. The rhythm and rhyme in many pictorial books make for a greater understanding of the text. Pictorial books stimulate the child to read aloud, children learn words more easily when they hear them being pronounced or spoken. This was clearly affirmed at Read-To-The-Child Campaign by ANA Niger in collaboration with the Niger State Government three years ago.
3. Events at the Hill-Top Arts Centre have shown that children love art tremendously. They spend more time at the Centre colouring and painting, than some other activities. Why do you think so? At the arts centre, there are more members in the painting category than you have in other areas even though the centre was initially established to discover and sharpen the skill of students in creative writing. We have more students in the painting class than in any other category.
4. Pictorial books or illustrations help develop the sense of storytelling because most of the stories being told are in the pictures, which children try to understand and tell. Children observe the beginning, middle and end of a story from pictures, which help to direct their stream of thought and imagination. They indirectly learn articulation and sequence of narration of what they have encountered in picture books.
5. Book illustrations can be useful tool for teaching the concept of cause and effect. Before reading a pictorial book to your child, tell them to listen to the key words such as because, so, it, then and as a result of etc. These types of words can usually be formed in a story that has a cause and effect relationship.
6. Repetition – the repetition in many illustrated or comic books allow a child to participate in the story. Young readers get excited when they can anticipate outcomes in the comic through a diligent following of the line. And children learn skills like phonemic awareness, phonic comprehension and fluency.
7. Illustrated books allow an entirely more different interactive communication between parents and children. Pictorial books allow parents spend time talking with their children about the story, pictures and words. This interaction builds reading comprehension because it allows you to talk about what you see on each page. This is the exact methodology adopted in the reading sessions in the Hill-Top Arts Centre. Picture books help increase the bond between parents and their children in matters of cognitive development. With a picture book around the family can easily break into a discursive mood that is enriching to the child and to the parents as well. Chances are that parents would gradually begin to understand the nature of their child to enable them begin to contemplate where to place them and their interest as it affects career of even their feelings about happenings around them. Teachers must be sure to talk about what happened within context, the characters and events that took place.
8. Pictorial or illustrations are generally fun to look at, and fun s the key to make reading experience worth its while. Reading should not be allowed to be perceived as a task by children otherwise they might grow to resent reading. Children need to naturally progress from pictorial to chap books, otherwise its paramount essence will be lost.
In conclusion, it has become important for parents, government schools and the community to put forward pictorial graphical or comic books before children who would learn to love books and will be children that will grow to be good readers.
Elements that Facilitate the Development of Books
Home
Parents have the primary role of kindling the initial speak necessary toward a child’s interest in comic and illustrated books as facilitator to learning and the eventual imbibing of the spirit of intellectualism and scholarship. The home environment as the first formidable starting point for the child’s development has upon its, shoulders the responsibilities of preparing the child’s mind by making available for him/her the necessary facilities like mini home/family library stocked with picture books or comic books and even novels. Research in the Hill-Top Arts Foundation has shown that the dramatic decline of reading among children is owed to the lack of accessibility of books by school age pupils, because, children are naturally attracted to books especially attractive ones. Therefore, parents should inculcate the attitude of monthly saving for books to start-up a family or home library; these saving can be made as low as two hundred naira (N200) only per month, and in a few years, books will be accessible even at home by such savings. These comic books can be foreign or indigenous provided a child will derive some fun in reading it.
School
School is an institution that is formal and organised in terms of learning than the latter. It involves specially trained and competent people charged with the responsibility of imparting knowledge to children. These skilled individuals will further mould the child upon what the home had provided for him. It is expected that the school will instil the good virtues that is in line with the dreams and philosophy of our great nation. To achieve this therefore, conscious effort must be made through the development of classroom library scheme. Here every child will be mandated to donate at least a book every term to his classroom where a book-shelf will have already been provided by the school authority. If there are fifty students in the class, then there will be a record of one hundred and fifty books (titles) per session. However, during promotion, the students of such class are expected to leave their donated books for their successors as they will also inherit similar donated books in their next class by their predecessors. By the end of session every student is expected to have read all books on the shelf in his/her class. This scheme collects only literature books to compliment the school library. Himma International School has already adopted this initiative. The scheme has since begun in the school.
Government
This institution as an entity does not always have direct impact on the child except through policies. Policies have to be made consciously to augment the efforts of both parents and teachers. The government should make provision for book stores where quality comic books can be accessible by parents as comic books have the capability of developing the child’s imagination capacity and his creative instinct. Emphases are made on pictorial books because action speaks louder than voice.
Community
The development of the whole child is apparent. The community plays an increasingly greater role in education. If government provides for the child these store where picture books are easily accessible by parents and the community, there would be a natural chain reaction of simulation by the community to develop similar stores that would complement those provided by the government. Even individual will follow suit in their local area especially those privilege public office holders from the interiors and the chain reaction can continue to affect even philanthropies and cooperate bodies etc, but the pace need to be set, for others to follow suit and like that we would become a repository of assorted books.
Other Community Aspects of Cognitive Development in Child Upbringing
Shops
Individuals establishing business areas such as kiosks, table water factories, bakeries, eateries, supermarkets, gardens, private offices, schools, government organisations, banks, boutiques, fuel stations, naming streets, bill boards advertising products, hospitals and clinics, etc must do a proper write-up on their sign post indicating their presence.
Proper inscription on boards must be done with excellent designs and good sentences, because, this goes a long way in telling tourist about our level of awareness, the level of our ignorance and a thing of utter embarrassment. But more than this, children growing up in the society are always attracted by the billboards, sign-posts on the streets, and are likely to be educated with wrong spellings and messages that distort their purity of thoughts. The quest to order this writings and pictures on the streets is a personal responsibility of those erecting them. However, the community and government cannot sit and watch citizens mutilate the sense of learning of our children through some awkward inscriptions by business men and women. Those that are purely done on artistic and creative sense should be explained to children. This is solely the parents’ duty.
