AO: This excerpt from Githethwa's post describes Ukombozi library.
We present books to JULAWATA from Ukombozi Library in Nairobi. Ukombozi means liberation in Kiswahili. The
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AO: This excerpt from the interview highlights the importance to the leadership of Ukombozi library of rooting it within the working class struggles in Kenya and the importance of...Read more
AO: This quote underlines the historical context of the Bretton Woods' Structural Adjustment Policies which heavily influenced the situation of libraries and educational institutions today....Read more
AO: This excerpt from the interview situates the establishment of PALIAct Ukombozi library as a initiative to counter a mindset that reading is only for school and instead to promote and...Read more
AO: This excerpt from the interview describes why Ukombozi Library was seen to be needed -- especially highlighting the perceived gap in progressive content in publically accessible libraries and...Read more
AO: This excerpt describes some of the projects (more detailed in the full interview) that give a sense of what Progressive Librarianship might look like.
A project-
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AO: This quote from the interview highlights the consequences of explicitly deciding not to be part of the dominant corporate scholarly publishing infrastructure despite the financial pressures...Read more
AO: This excerpt from the interview raises the argument that of the work that is published and distributed, there is little content of relevance to working class Kenyans....Read more
AO: This excerpt from the interview outlines how the library is governed and who the most frequent users are.
The library is run by a steering committee of
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AO: This excerpt from the interview highlights the thinking by Ukombozi library leadership about form, format and language choice in scholarly publications in order to engage with a working class...Read more
AO: This interview with Shiraz Durrani and Kimani Waweru by Stephanie Kitchen was conducted in 2017 and published in Read African Books. Waweru manages the Ukombozi Library on a day-to-day basis and Durrani is the founder of Vita Books, one of the collaborating founders of the library.Read more