Following on from Aline’s post this week about the African Library Projects’s 5th anniversary celebration and fund-raising event, Harambee!, which means “Let’s pull together to get it done!” in Swahili, we bring you in full our new interview with the organisation’s founder, Chris Bradshaw. For more information and links, see the sidebar on Chris’ interview page on the PaperTigers website.
Chris founded the African Library Project (ALP) in 2005, with the goal of increasing literacy in Africa. Since then, with the help of literacy activist volunteers and organized book drives, ALP has created over 500 small, free lending libraries in various countries of Africa, such as Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi.
Chris lives in Portola Valley, California.
PT: What motivated you to start the African Library Project?
CB: I spent my Junior Year Abroad studying in Sierra Leone and traveling throughout western and central Africa. I was deeply touched by the warmth of people and troubled by the potential lost in just trying to survive given the everyday challenges of extreme poverty. As a 20 year old, I felt overwhelmed by this and did not know what I could do that would have much of an impact.
Fast-forward 30 years to 2004… on a homeschooling field trip to southern Africa with my husband and two children, ages 9 and 13, while pony trekking in the tiny, remote mountain kingdom of Lesotho, I discovered there was just one library in the entire country. Noodling along on my horse, I couldn’t stop thinking about the US bookshelves overflowing with once-read books and landfills filling up with what would be a precious resource in Lesotho.
PT: How did the first library come about and what was the process of going from one library to more libraries like?
CB: When I got back to the village, I met with the manager of the lodge that had rented us our horses and asked if they had ever considered having a library. “We have always wanted a library, but did not know how to get books!” I offered to provide books if the local leadership would provide space and staffing for the library and commit to running it as a village enterprise. Two months later, I contacted them and they happily reported that the library building was half done! I was committed. The village decided to give the task of developing the library to a US Peace Corps Volunteer who was scheduled to arrive soon. I thought this was a great idea. If you have never seen a library, how would you know what to do?
A little miracle happened next. When the Peace Corps Volunteer arrived, she was a retired librarian! Together, along with many generous American book donors, we developed five small libraries throughout Malealea Valley, the first of now 562 African Library Project libraries.
Eventually, I decided to partner with Peace Corps Lesotho to establish libraries throughout the country. I found it inspiring to work with the smart, capable and passionate Americans who serve in Peace Corps. They and their villages were ecstatic to get books and many American schools and groups were eager to make a concrete and personal contribution to Africa.
PT: How do you determine which countries (and which towns and communities) will receive book donations?
CB: We’ve grown a lot since our first libraries. We will work in any stable English-speaking African