Literacy and Individual Consciousness

In this article by F. Niyi Akinnaso describes the term "individual consciousness"
as the totality of that person’s individuals knowledge, thoughts, beliefs,
impressions, and feelings in ways that can be represented in the behavior. This
is especially true in speech and writing that most individuals participate in.
Akinnaso wants to show that human interaction within the cultural context have
helped shape individuals view of literacy and from this have shaped their
individual consciousness.
The quote that stuck out at me was the point were Akinnaso states that his teachers
had a profound effect on the way literacy was viewed by him. He states,
"first of all, it has to be noted that I had no reading partner at home. There was no one [that] read to me and almost no one to read to. In the absence of
domestic literacy, much of my learning in the early years took place in
school" (page 145, Literacy and Individual Consciousness, By F. Niyi
Akinnaso). The reason that this quote is so important to the text is because itshows how important that his teachers were in shaping his view of literacy and
the impact that it could have on him as a student. His teachers showed him the
usefulness of learning this literacy and the practical applications in his life
that it could be applied to.
The term that is critical to the text is literacy (page 139, Literacy and
Individual Consciousness, By F. Niyi Akinnaso). The term is important because
it was one of the ways that he helped his father early on. By acquiring this literacy he was able to help his father
count the pounds of cocoa that was harvested by the village. Later on in the

story after he acquired an English form of literacy. Akinnaso’s view of literacy changed throughout his village
life (scribal to political, then to recorder to negotiator). It shows how
literacy is constantly evolving and changing shape and for these reasons can
have a different impact on you as an individual. Even though you loss a sense
of yourself through acquiring new literacy. It’s this literacy that will help shape the person you wereand want to become.
The idea in this text is how literacy shaped Akinnaso life and the ways in which he
views it now. Even though he wasn't able to gain access to literacy early on in
his life, usually only from simple sources such as Sunday school, books, or
higher education were some of the earlier ways in which Akinnaso was able to
gain access to this literacy. Through this however the further he became
literate in "English" the more he lost a sense of his tribal "dialect."
Finally, through his ability to gain access to "proper" dialect he was able to
help his village when people were trying to take advantage of the tribal
villagers. Through this literacy he was able to shape a new sphere of his life
in which he surrounded himself with educated elite in the nearby city. Akinnaso
began to associate literacy with not only small tribal functions but also with
social organization in the villagers local government, which was a microcosm of
which was provided by the village branch, which was the Cooperative Union.