Book Knowledge Is Not Knowledge

Where there are human beings, there’s knowledge, where there is the sun, there's life.

Otherwise, they will perish if they don’t know how to avoid devious crocodiles when crossing rivers, berries fit for consumption, hunt rabbits, embalm food for the winter, build houses and canoes from trees and ensure women give birth safely.

The whole educational system is guilty of equating knowledge with books, questionable knowledge because it is based on views of a group of men and women, with a hidden agenda. At university, we were forced to buy books written by our lecturers, so it was written knowledge for profit.

The danger with book knowledge is that it dates easily. Television is a case in point. It overtook books. We became so glued to the small screen, even kids had T.V. sets in their rooms. That is stale news. The internet is the new knowledge. Twitter has the monopoly of ‘breaking news.’

It’s ironic, but the internet might jolt us into reality, into going back into not just knowledge, but knowledge for survival. Currently, we are at a perilous state where we bring down the house, the firm or the city, if there is no wi-fi.

It is not that simple. Have you forgotten that knowledge depends on class, religion and culture? What is the gospel in one religion might be heresy in another. True, knowledge comes in cubes.

However, knowledge for survival transcends all that. Just watch toddlers talk to each other as they zigzag on the floor. Makes you wonder why we go crazy when wi-fi goes missing.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.