By Syokau Mutonga, Research & Inventory Manager A while ago, as the realities of COVID-19 and it’s interruptions were setting in, my team and I came across a call for applications that was interested in discussing the state of African libraries. At the same time, Book Bunk was developing a plan to crowdsource the phrase, “Welcome to the Library” in all of Kenya’s indigenous languages. When that project went live, more than 80% of the respondents were not Kenyan native speakers. In fact, most of them who were able to translate the phrase clearly in their mother tongue spoke a European language where the concept of a library in its…

First published on commonwealthwriters.org in September 2015, this piece shaped the formation of Book Bunk and our research department http://www.commonwealthwriters.org/lady-mcmillan-the-library/