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Showing posts from June, 2013

Dear Africa, where are your contemporary writers, books, libraries?

Today was a blog waiting to happen. Only, it’s not going to be about the Ghanaian and African Embassies in the West as I’d intended – don’t worry, it will have its time too – but rather about contemporary books, libraries and reading in major African cities like Accra, Lusaka, Jo-burg, Lagos, Dakar. It features some   great insights from people on Facebook   and Twitter on   Africa’s reading culture   and access to contemporary books. Yesterday I participated in a very fruitful Virtual Americanah Book Club meeting with two of my friends – one in Accra, Ghana and the other in Maputo, Mozambique – and we had a swell time reflecting on Chimamanda Adichie’s latest, how it resonates with us, the different themes and so on. I posted some of my thoughts and a tweep asked where they could get the book. I have gotten this question so many times this year – especially after   my “summer reads” blog   - and so I automatically responded “Amazon” and sent a link. Then the question hit me:   Wh