The first Sierra Leone National Book Fair (SLNBF) took place at the 50/50 building on Tower Hill in Freetown and attracted students from the primary, junior and senior secondary schools as well as the tertiary institutions within the city. Book lovers gathered from 5-7 December 2019 and attended reading events, talks, author readings and discussions about books and reading. “There are so many books here and I am inspired and excited to develop a reading culture,” said Sakinah Marrah, in JSS3 at the Rising Academy Network. Standing by the displayed bookshelves, she said, “All these storybooks are beautiful and I’m very happy to be at the Fair.” Mohamed Kanneh, a teacher from the Rising Academy Network said, “This is a very worthwhile venture. It is an opportunity we did not have when going to school. That is why today I am encouraging my students to take books and just read.” Kanneh said when he asks pupils to write the names of Sierra Leonean authors, they do not know. But now, many of them have seen books written by Sierra Leonean authors… about Sierra Leone. An author and member of the organizers of SLNBF, Oumar Farouk Sesay, said they have a very interesting intellectual package for people visiting the Book Fair. On Friday 6th December 2019, the exhibition called Children’s World included reading games and fun. Other events included; Meet the Publisher, Reading Workshops and a Literary/Cultural evening featuring storytelling, poetry, cultural performances and skits. On the final day of the fair, Saturday 7th December 2019, the events continued with Meet the Authors and a panel discussion on the theme: Women Writing Sierra Leone.
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There were over 1,000 books on display at the Book Fair written by various Sierra Leonean authors – young and old. The youngest published Sierra Leonean author is Nnamdi Carew a 14-year-old boy. He wrote a novella titled, “Tiger Fist”. The cost of the books ranged from Le50,000 to Le175,000. The book collections spanned from children to adult books, fiction and non-fiction, textbooks on core subjects, biographies, memoirs, collections of poems or anthologies. Some of the books on display were: “Land That We Love” by Joyce Ayodeji Wilson, “Along the Peal of drums” by Ambrose Massaquoi, “Voices of Passion” by Abdulai Walon Jalloh, “The Sacrifice of a Virgin” by Abu Noah and “Broken Metaphor” by Oumar Farouk Sesay to name but a few. Emmanuel Joseph, another Sierra Leonean writer said his works have been published in reputable international journals like Dissident Magazine and Astonishing Magazine. He said his poems have been translated into Prussian and published in the Prussian Sugar Tea, Vol 2. Another of the organizers said they hope to make the Book Fair an annual event and build the culture of reading in Sierra Leone.
DT/7/12/19
By David Thoronka
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