In 1931, the primary library in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, opened its doorways — to white patrons solely.
Almost a century later, Kenyans dressed within the slinky robes, flapper headpieces and tweed fits of that period streamed into the now-dilapidated house in a celebration that was half fund-raiser for the transform of the long-lasting constructing, half reclamation of the town’s public libraries as “palaces for the folks.”
“Our public libraries could be glamorous areas of storytelling,” stated Angela Wachuka, a Kenyan writer. However, she added, “we’re right here to additionally reclaim historical past, to occupy its structure and to subvert its meant use.”
The restoration of the McMillan Memorial Library and others within the metropolis was the brainchild of Wachuka and the novelist Wanjiru Koinange, who based Ebook Bunk, a Kenyan nonprofit, in 2017 to revive and reclaim the town’s public libraries. The purpose was to depart behind their excluding previous and remake them into inclusive areas the place Kenyans can archive and share collective reminiscences, interact in inventive and civic pursuits, and have at their disposal the know-how to assemble and disseminate info.
Amongst their targets is to deliver extra books in African languages to the libraries, and incorporate companies catering to these with visible, bodily or studying disabilities.
“The purpose of Ebook Bunk has been to show libraries into palaces for the folks,” Wachuka stated, “a refuge the place they will collect and share concepts and dream of a greater future.”
Because the friends streamed into the gala, in December, organizers urged them to think about themselves as “rebellious gate-crashers” who, whereas dressed as these previously, had been about to embark on a radically completely different future by which libraries are a vital public good.
Nairobi, a fast-growing metropolis of over 4 million folks, has only a few bookstores or well-funded libraries. Ebook Bunk’s work comes amid heated conversations about city design and about how corruption and colonial methods proceed to form the way in which public infrastructure and areas are designed and who will get entry to them.
“Within the case of Nairobi, there’s virtually an acceptance that sure social divisions ought to exist throughout social courses and completely different societal teams,” stated Fixed Cap, an city planner who has collaborated with Ebook Bunk previously.
Restoring public libraries, he stated, could possibly be a chance to interrupt these boundaries and convey collectively folks from completely different socio-economic, ethnic, racial and non secular backgrounds.
For Wachuka and Koinange, the journey started a decade in the past as they looked for a venue to host an occasion for the Kwani? literary competition. The 2 thought the McMillan library — constructed by Woman Lucy McMillan as a memorial to her American husband, Sir Northrup McMillan, and later bequeathed to the Nairobi Metropolis Council — could be a super venue given its centrality and connection to the town.
However once they walked in, Wachuka stated, they had been stunned to see its crumbling state: Its inside neoclassical structure was fading, its flooring and partitions had been in ruinous situation and its collections had been gathering mud.
Whereas they discovered one other location for the occasion, the 2 instantly started researching the historical past and administration construction of the McMillan library, and shortly after, left their jobs to focus full time on its restoration.
One in all their earlier discoveries was that the McMillan library was the primary of a sequence of different libraries constructed within the metropolis. Solely two had been nonetheless open: the Makadara and Kaloleni libraries, within the metropolis’s low-income japanese suburbs.
After forming a partnership with the Nairobi metropolis administration in 2018, Ebook Bunk first targeted on restoring the 2 smaller libraries, prioritizing the wants of the communities there.
The 2 branches have since reopened, with the Makadara library internet hosting storytelling classes, movie screenings, music performances and a literary competition. The Kaloleni branchis in a neighborhood constructed within the Nineteen Forties by Italian prisoners of conflict, and has turn out to be a hub for kids to do their homework and take part in workshops that assist them, for instance, discover ways to earn cash utilizing their inventive expertise.
Joyce Nyairo, a Kenyan educational and cultural analyst, stated that the restored libraries have the prospect to be “nice equalizers,” significantly for folks from deprived backgrounds.
These libraries, she stated, could be locations the place younger folks can learn, but in addition join and collaborate with friends who share their pursuits or problem their worldviews.
“We’d like areas by which we will carry out our urbanity unashamedly and really feel acknowledged and legitimized by it,” Nyairo stated. “These are areas we will come to, work together with, contribute to, take from and belong.”
Through the years, Ebook Bunk has undertaken a number of initiatives to enrich its imaginative and prescient of restoring libraries. In 2020, it started a analysis venture that has thus far recognized 1,323 public, non-public, institutional and group libraries in at the least 12 Kenyan counties. They’ve produced a podcast concerning the historical past and design of the McMillan library. In addition they launched “Inexperienced Bunk,” a venture that installs photo voltaic panels, establishes group gardens and recycles waste to make libraries carbon impartial.
An enormous digitization venture has additionally preserved tens of 1000’s of images, newspapers and authorities paperwork on the McMillan library courting way back to the 1800s. Ebook Bunk additionally partnered with the Nest, a Kenyan inventive collective, to curate an exhibition from English and Kiswahili newspaper archives from the years 1963, when Kenya grew to become impartial, 1973 and 1983.
And there’s nonetheless a lot work to do to revive the McMillan Memorial Library. The group is elevating $6 million to assist restore the constructing and keep it for 2 years after it opens. McMillan is the one constructing in Kenya protected by an act of Parliament, and renovation plans should undergo strict approval measures spearheaded by Kenya’s nationwide museum.
Earlier than that, Wachuka additionally stated public hearings might be held to ask Kenyans what design facets they wish to see preserved or added — and whether or not the library’s official identify ought to be modified.
Lola Shoneyin, the Nigerian novelist who delivered the keynote speech on the fund-raising gala, stated that the work being carried out now could be for the good thing about future generations, who will discover assist within the areas they’re creating.
“The work Ebook Bunk is doing shouldn’t be a dash. It’s not even a marathon. It’s extra of a relay,” Shoneyin, who can be the organizer of the Ake Arts and Ebook Pageant in Lagos, stated in her speech. “For them to win, we should all be ready to take the baton and run with it when the event calls for.”
