Books for Africa in Brazza

The 2010-2011 English Language Fellow
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

Liberating Knowledge in Brazzaville

The political diplomacy team left the embassy on an overcast October Brazzaville afternoon with the mission of literary liberation in mind. Hundreds of boxes of Books for Africa textbooks, novels, and training manuals stacked five feet high lay in wait silently collecting dust in the embassy warehouse.

It was time for these books to see the light of day.

When the team- Public Affairs Officer Shayna Cram, IRC Clerk Nzounza Prude Esperance, Audio Visual Specialist Serguei-Bracy Ndinga-Momo, and English Language Fellow Lori Runkle arrived at the warehouse- they surveyed the weighty stacks of potential learning and began to organize, unpack, sort and label. Five boxes stuffed with writing manuals and speech materials were labeled with masking tape for delivery to the Ministry of Communication. Six boxes were destined for the Villa Washington English Program. Science books were headed for bookshelves in Congo’s National Lab, and assorted college level publications found a new home at Marien Ngouabi University.

According to Public Diplomacy Program Coordinator, Lejuste Moukoubouka, “Young people in the Congo don’t have the right resources. Books are outdated. People hunger for knowledge, but they don’t have the proper resources. The fact that students can have access to these materials will enable them to learn competitively with the rest of the world.”

“In the states, we take books for granted. Here they mean so much,” said Cram about the Books for Africa shipment she was unpacking in the warehouse in Brazzaville.

The public diplomacy team helped spread the written word throughout Brazzaville in partnership with Minneapolis-based Books for Africa. Their shared goal was to help end the book famine in Africa. Opening every box was a pleasant surprise.