Maktaba Kuu ya Taifa, Dar es Salaam

Sijui ni wangapi kati ya mamilioni ya watu wanaoishi Dar es Salaam ambao wameingia katika Maktaba Kuu ya Taifa, au wana mazoea ya kuingia humo. Hapa siongelei wanafunzi, kwani hao wanaingia humo. Naongelea watu wasio wanafunzi.

Yawezekana wako ambao wana vijiwe vyao hapa nje ya maktaba, ambavyo wanahudhuria kila siku au kila wiki, lakini hawajawahi kukanyaga ndani ya maktaba hii.

Lakini, Mwalimu Nyerere alipofungua maktaba hii, tarehe 9 Desemba, 1967, alitoa ushauri wa maana, na baadhi ya maneno yake ni haya:

I am also forced to say that we shall probably not be able to go ahead as quickly as we would like, because even when a library service is run with the utmost economy, it still costs quite a lot of money. For a public library should not just be a place where books can be borrowed. It must also be a center for much wider adult education work of all kinds – ranging from the promotion of the desire for literacy by story telling and discussion, to the erudite lectures of visiting professors in our country. The libraries also have an important role to play in overcoming one of their own limitations; for a good librarian backed by a good library, can encourage people to write books as well as read them. Our traditional stories and histories can be written in Swahili so that the whole nation can read them; personal experiences, which are of wider interest, can be written as a story or a book; knowledge gained through practical development work can be written down so that it is shared. (…) (W)e can make our libraries into real cultural and community centers. It is up to us to provide them, to help them develop, and to use them to the full.
(Source: The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation)

Hebu nijaribu kuyatafsiri kwa ki-Swahili:

Vile vile nalazimika kusema kuwa huenda hatutafanikiwa kusonga mbele kwa kasi ambayo tungependa, kwa sababu hata pale maktaba inapoendeshwa kwa umakini kabisa kimatumizi, bado inagharimu hela nyingi sana. Kwani maktaba ya umma isiwe tu mahali pa kuazimia vitabu. Sherti pawe pia mahali pa kutekelezea suala zima la elimu ya watu wazima kwa mapana yake--kuanzia kuhimiza kusoma na kuandika kupitia usimuliaji wa hadithi na uchambuzi wake, hadi mihadhara ya kisomi ya wahadhiri na maprofesa nchini mwetu. Maktaba pia zina wajibu muhimu wa kuchangia katika kurekebisha mapungufu yanayozikabili; kwani mkutubi bora awapo na maktaba bora, anaweza kuwahimiza watu kuandika vitabu sambamba na kuvisoma. Hadithi zetu za jadi na historia zinaweza kuandikwa kwa ki-Swahili ili Taifa zima liweze kuzisoma; taarifa za uzoefu wa watu binafsi, ambazo ni muhimu kwa jamii, zinaweza kuandikwa kama simulizi au kitabu; ujuzi upatikanao katika shughuli za maendeleo unaweza kuandikwa ili na wengine waupate. (...) (Tu)naweza kuzifanya maktaba zetu sehemu halisi za kuendeshea shughuli za kitamaduni na kijamii. Ni juu yetu kuzifanya ziwepo, kuchangia ustawi wake, na kuzitumia kikamilifu kabisa.