REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS

It is impossible to get to my office without walking past the staff room. I’ve been doing this religiously for the past three years, yet I had no idea of what takes place inside the room every Monday morning.

There is a group of female lecturers who meet every week to talk about books, movies, magazines and other things of interest. They call themselves the ‘committee of reviewers.’

I have heard so much about reviewers from friends, colleagues and fellow students. They are portrayed as people who are strongly, analytical, critical and sound minded.

In fact, I held them in high regard for their intellect, until recently. I was invited by one of the reviewers to their reviewing session of a literature book titled The Heart of Darkness. I sat in their midst for 60 minutes listening to their rambling about the book in review, and at the end of the session I could not make sense of what the meeting was all about.

They spent the first 20 minutes talking about their weekends with their families and all their indulgences. Some of which was not meant for my hearing because I could not relate to as a man. After this talk, they served biscuits, rusks and tea. This took another eight minutes without attending to the main reason for the session. I thought that this was a waste of my time and perhaps I should excuse myself. Then I was formally introduced by the lady who invited me to the other five members of the committee. They recognised me as a colleague, but she made it clear to the group that my mission was to observe their reviewing session for one of my varsity assignments.

The session was declared open and to my astonishment five of the supposed reviewers said upfront that they did not find the book fascinating. They said it was written in archaic English and it was difficult to comprehend. So they did not read it. The sixth member is an English literature lecturer, and she did her best to narrate the core theme of the book in simple terms.

From her account I gathered that the book was written by Joseph Conrad and the story was set in Congo. The copy she had was 300 pages long, and the main character in the book is named Marlow,  who narrates the story about Belgium’s occupation in Congo and the political situation.

 

ogle.

This reviewer also admitted that the writing was confusing, but it’s an interesting read if one apply his/her mind. She contextualised the book for the rest of the group members; she explained that what was written in the Heart of Darkness is still happening today, “We Africans have so much in our continent, but we still eat crumbs”.

I asked the lady that invited me (who happened to review the book) why was the committee formed? “We formed this group because we want to increase our reading culture” she said, but what I saw did not depict what she said to me.

It was indeed far from what my friends, colleagues and fellow students have conjured in my mind about reviewers.

In my opinion these women are more of a gossip group. They gather weekly to eat biscuits, drink coffee and gossip about their friends and colleagues. Five of the members did not take the purpose of the meeting very seriously. They did not understand the content of the book that was discussed.

            ery Monday morning.