Dinner with new friends

It’s been almost a year since I arrived in Brussels and how time has flown! In the last twelve months I’ve met many interesting and creative people from all over the world, the kind of people it’s been a pleasure to learn from and to know. They’ve all been generously encouraging and personally inspiring in their individual ways.

Last night, I was lucky enough to be in the company of such a group of people thanks to my new friends, Lies and Sulaiman, who hosted a lovely dinner party with a creative, engaging, caring collective: Cleve, Lee, Anne and Tim, Omar and, of course, Tamara, who introduced me to Lies and Sulaiman in the first place.

At several points in the evening, the discussion turned to ‘my’ library idea. During the course of numerous conversations, the assembled intellects pointed out the following:

• Reading is a form of escapism.
  I recently interviewed Andy Thornton, Director of AfriKids UK. He told me that people, in their generosity if not in their wisdom, would donate toilets to villages in Ghana where there was no plumbing. And yesterday when I remarked that people in the north were too poor to worry about reading books Cleve pointed out that that wasn’t necessarily the case, that reading can often be a form of escapism for those living a harsh reality. Later on, Sulaiman told me that when he was living in a refugee camp as a child, he and his brother would voraciously read copies of month-old newspapers to stay in touch with the world and maintain their knowledge but also to escape into other worlds. Moral of the story: Never underestimate the importance of books and reading to anyone and never underestimate the value of knowledge. Books (and newspapers / newsmagazines) may age but the knowledge contained within them never dates, even if the world has moved on, the world contained within their pages still has a value.

• Get members to donate books.
  I was telling Lee about my plan to charge for membership to subsidise other/rural branches and the various levels of benefits associated with each membership. He suggested that one way to subsidise membership would be to get people to donate their old books in exchange for a reduced rate. This hadn’t occurred to me before. By offering this incentive, it encourages books to be recycled as well as growing the collection. Or, even better, get people to donate a book in addition to their subscription. Both great ideas!

• Facilitate the move from an aid economy to a knowledge economy.
  Omar, who has spent his life working for the UN and is now retired, said he had two big regrets about African development: the failure of African leadership and the dependence on aid. Omar has a lot of knowledge gained from vast experience of development around the globe. He’s passionate about Africa moving from an aid-dependent economy to a knowledge economy and books, of course, play an important role in this.

• Developing a reading/writing culture.
  At the end of the night, Tamara, my Malawian friend and South London homegirl who’s lived in Nigeria - Lagos, no less - became my Socratic interlocutor. ‘Will people be willing to pay to read books?’ ‘Who will your market be?’ ‘How will it make money?’ ‘What sidelines can you add on?’ All extremely valid questions which need airtight answers in order to firm up the idea. Then she raised my biggest bugbear – the lack of (internationally renowned) Ghanaian authors, especially in comparison to Nigerian authors – Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ben Okri, Chimanda Ngozi Adichie, E.C. Osundu, Teju Cole, the list goes on… This is, of course, very true. The aim of the library is obviously to encourage and develop a reading culture but, through this, develop a writing culture too. Almost every successful writer is an avid reader. The two go hand-in-hand. As well as a repository of books, the library will also hold writing workshops, host writer events with visiting authors and, over time, develop a publishing arm as an added incentive to encourage budding writers. She pointed me to the wonderful Cassava Republic Press, a Nigerian publishing house whose mission is to change 'the way we think about African fiction'.

‘My library idea’ is now ‘our’ library idea! Thanks to everyone for their generous input. I look forward to many more dinners where ideas are shared and refined in the company of talented, creative and caring people.