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Tanzanian lawmakers have decided to ban ‘The Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ from all school and public libraries with immediate effect for violating ‘cultural norms’. Education Minister Adolf Mkenda announced the ban on Monday and said the government will monitor both public and private schools to ensure there are no copies available.

Quite why the book has ruffled ‘cultural feathers’ is unknown, but the children’s series has sold 275 million copies worldwide since it first appeared in 2007. The books follow the illustrated adventures of a school kid and have been translated into 69 languages.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is not alone on the ‘let’s burn some books’ list. Amongst the noted banned books are Sex Education: A Guide to Life, which have the terms ‘transgender’ and ‘LGBTQIA’ in its evil pages.

“We are banning these books from schools and other education institutions because they contradict Tanzanian cultural norms and morals.”

According to IOL, the Tanzanian government called on parents to check their children’s school bags to ensure they did not have the books. The move is perhaps in response to President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s recent address to university students where he referred to the dangers of “imported cultures”.

It appears as if the Tanzanian government has taken a harder stance against what they term ‘practices contrary to our cultures and prohibited by religious books.” They would be well advised to remember the other famous book burners from the 1940s. Banning ideas that are contrary to your current ‘ideology or cultural values’ have never ended well for any country.

Mkenda said they were on a first list of “unacceptable books” and urged the public to report other similar books as part of an ongoing investigation.

Countries should never suppress information or oppress creativity and curiosity. What next? Banning girls from driving? Outlawing pencils because they are used to write ‘culturally unwelcome’ words.

My own son has about ten of the Wimpy Kid books, and his response to the ban summed it up perfectly: ‘That’s stupid.’ As for me, you can take my books away when you pry them from my cold dead fingers.

[source:iol]