Garowe International Book Fair

People who attended the book fair having a look at the books and getting to know each other.

A book fair is a display or exhibit of books by a group of publishers,book-dealers or authors for promoting sales and stimulating interest of people to start reading/develop a reading culture.

Garowe held it's second ever book fair this past weekend and the event was very high key with the president officially opening it and then buying a lot of books to donate to libraries in the town so that people and especially the youth can read more because as they say books are eye-openers and if there is group of people who need to have their eyes wide open it is the youth(who the youth is, is what I really can't say because increasingly everyone is a youth and nobody is old :-D :-D).

The event ran for 3 days and I went for it on the second day and I really liked it (at the risk of being that person who likes everything because mostly I talk about the things I like).It was very well organised and I will for sure be going for more book fairs Insha aa Allah.

The book fair was;

Books

Some of the books at the book fair.

Somali children stories.

There were a lot of books at the book fair,mostly in Somali but some had English translations.The books covered a lot of different genres and I am sure they must have been a treat for all the people who could read Somali.What I really liked about the way the fair and the book exhibition was organised is that they had a sitting area where if one wanted to check out a book they could sit with it for as long as they wanted,which meant that if you really wanted a book and say you couldn't afford to buy it,you could just sit and read it.It also helps in avoiding make purchases you might end up regretting like I was so happy to see Fatima Jibrell''s book 'Peace and Milk 'only to look through to find that it's a picture book, a good one but I wasn't willing to pay 40 USDs for it and because of this sitting area,I sat and looked at all the pictures and their captions :-) :-) and read it for free!


Cultural Exhibition

In addition to the books there were pictures and drawings showing the Somali culture :-).The ones I loved the most are:

Hair stories-I recently decided to stop relaxing my hair and nobody supports my decision(although they are warming up to it) so anytime I ask 'niambie nywele yangu inakaa aje? the answer I always get is 'kama ya watu wa zamani'.and I saw the top pictures and I almost laughed out loud.

This crash course on Somalia-Somalia's Livestock and wildlife,Somalia's handicrafts,Somalia's national dishes and the pictures of the Somali currency from 1900 till now!

Lectures and Talks

Dr.Kapchits who did the talk on the role of Somali proverbs and yes he spoke only in Somali.

In addition to the book exhibition where you could read any of the books,the event also had lectures and talks and on request the organizers gave you a program so that you would know which talks were on for each day, so that you could plan to attend the ones that interest you, What I didn't know was that the lectures/talks were in Somali.I went for the talk on the role of Somali proverbs but shock on me; no English word was uttered in the one hour that I sat through it but going by how much people laughed and clapped it must have been good.Also the lecture hall was always full which means that definitely people loved these sessions.

Meeting the stars

Books of Somali folktales that I got for Sokor and Maryaney signed by the author :-) :-) and he was kind enough to write them messages of how they should be writers in the future.

I will be lieing to say I know any Somali authors because Warsan Shire is British-Somali right?. I was so excited when I saw Fatima Jibrell promoting her book because she is some sort of celeb, I think maybe her book wasn't mainly why she attended because God knows she has enough money(I think) without the sales of that book.She also attended the lecture/talk on the role of the Somali proverbs, and was sitting only two people away from me,at this point I thought maybe I should have bought her book and I would have had a reason to say hi and ask for a picture.

The Garowe Book fair was such a good and fun experience for me :-) :-).