Home 5 Articles and Reports 5 Nairobi’s Children Share Hopes for the Future in Library Time Capsule

Nairobi’s Children Share Hopes for the Future in Library Time Capsule

by | Aug 15, 2022 | Articles and Reports, News

Book Bunk, the body that is spearheading the restoration of Kenya’s public libraries, has created a time capsule carrying the hopes and dreams of children who use the library. It has been buried in the grounds of Nairobi’s Eastlands library where it will remain until 21 July 2032.

Children of Nairobi’s library community were invited to write letters in which they shared their hopes for their country. What will be Kenya’s future in the coming decade, and how do they want to fit into it? What do they want from Kenya politically, socially, economically and culturally?

The time capsule has been designed by local visual artist Ami Doshi Shah and now sits buried within the library’s grounds. A record of the capsule has been captured at the International Time Capsule Society and Book Bunk believes it may be the first registered from Africa!”

The initiative is part of a number of projects aimed at preserving Kenya’s heritage and focusing on the experience of ordinary people. A project called ‘the Missing Bits’ is inviting people to add crowd-sourced audio and images to the #NRBLibraries digital archive. Organiser noticed that various aspects of daily life were not recorded in the material digitised at Nairobi’s librairies and the Missing Bits project seeks to fill those gaps.

Members of the public have been invited to visit the Kaloleni Library in Kaloleni, Eastlands Library in Makadara and the famous McMillan Memorial Library on Banda Street in the centre of Nairobi “to record conversations about your version of events surrounding key moments in your life and in Kenya’s history. You are also invited to bring your photos, letters and other personal archives, digitise these, and add them to these libraries’ digital collections”.

It is hoped that the material will form an important part of Kenya’s history, capturing memories which otherwise might be lost for ever.

 

Recent News

10Jul
Winnie-the-Pooh Turns 100

Winnie-the-Pooh Turns 100

New 100th Anniversary editions of the original Winnie-the-Pooh stories and poetry by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard are in the works, along with an authorised prequel and sequels, to be published by Farshore from October 2025. The Glasgow-based children’s publisher, an imprint of HarperCollins, the exclusive publisher for the classic Winnie-the-Pooh titles in the UK […]

10Jul
UK Launches National Year of Reading

UK Launches National Year of Reading

The UK Government has announced a National Year of Reading in 2026 to counter the decline in reading among children and young people.  The initiative has already received the support of all the major publishers.  The hope is to “kick start a reading revolution” as just one in three aged eight to 18 said they […]

09Jul
Is The Salt Path Story as True as It Claims

Is The Salt Path Story as True as It Claims

The author of the best-selling memoir The Salt Path has been accused of stealing £64,000 before losing her home after she failed to pay off her debts, as well as fabricating or giving misleading information about some elements of her book. The 2018 book, and recent film adaptation, told the story of a couple who […]

Related Posts

UK Launches National Year of Reading

UK Launches National Year of Reading

The UK Government has announced a National Year of Reading in 2026 to counter the decline in reading among children and young people.  The initiative has already received the support of all the major publishers.  The hope is to “kick start a reading revolution” as...

Father Develops App to Make Reading Engaging for Children

Father Develops App to Make Reading Engaging for Children

A father who said he wanted to find a more positive way of getting his son interested in technology and reading has developed a free personalised story app. Jason from Bradley Stoke in Bristol, came up with idea of Lapp in August 2023, before spending 18 months...

Is The Salt Path Story as True as It Claims

Is The Salt Path Story as True as It Claims

The author of the best-selling memoir The Salt Path has been accused of stealing £64,000 before losing her home after she failed to pay off her debts, as well as fabricating or giving misleading information about some elements of her book. The 2018 book, and recent...

Previous Next
Close
Test Caption
Test Description goes like this