Education has been the key to success in many African societies, but what happens when one is slow to read or write? Excellent academic performance has often been used to foretell a child’s future success. The better you are at schoolwork, the brighter your future seems.
In Africa, mild or prolonged learning difficulties often get attributed to being bewitched or cursed. Those experiencing these difficulties get deemed as “dumb” or “stupid” with bleak futures. This is however a misconception to an undiagnosed learning disorder, Dyslexia.
While many become naturals at reading and writing, there is a population in Africa suffering in silence.
What causes Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning disorder where individuals experience difficulties spelling, reading or writing. It is neurobiological, meaning part of the brain that processes language fails to effectively do so, hence the inability to decode and identify speech sounds.
Comprehension of speech sounds and their relation to letters and words is often rocket science to those with the condition, compared to the average learner.They also exhibit a variety of symptoms according to the particular type of dyslexia they may have.For instance, those who find it hard picturing words in their minds may suffer from visual dyslexia,while those who cannot keep up with sequences (such as days of the week) may have Developmental Neglect Dyslexia.
Other symptoms include slow reading, difficulty spelling, interchanging letters in words, confusing letters (example p and q or b and d) and difficulty in remembering words.
Why is dyslexia a silent tragedy in Africa?
Lack of awareness is a major challenge. For this reason it often goes undiagnosed and attributed to non-scientific factors such as witchcraft.
In most circumstances, educators and parents fail to understand the condition leaving it untreated. Most African Countries lack trained professionals such as psychologists, language and speech therapists to diagnose and treat the disorder.
Most public schools lack funding and specialized learning materials for the affected. Large class sizes and failure to properly train teachers, creates ground for bullying the affected due to their slowness in learning.
Advocacy for the condition is slowly but steadily growing. With organizations such as Africa Dyslexia Organization, Dyslexia Organization Kenya and Bloom Dyslexia steeping up to raise awareness and debunk myths, Africa is on the right path.
Is there hope for dyslexics?
Dyslexia is not a general intelligence problem. Those with the condition have exhibited strengths such as having exponential creativity, extraordinary episodic memories, great reasoning and problem solving.
Depending on where one lies on the spectrum (mild or severe), there are ways to improve their reading, writing and comprehension skills. This could be through structured literacy learning or specialized approach.
Artificial Intelligence has also proven to help advance and support learning. Dyslexia is manageable and Africans with the condition can achieve educational success.
Dyslexia is not a disease but a superpower.
Author: Nicole Kaggia is a freelance journalist and an alumna of the 2025 CNN Academy.
