Vitabu Books

During the summer of 2014, I signed up for "Story of the Week" by The Library of America. The first email that landed in my inbox was " Storming the Capital " by George R. Gleig (1796–1888), which is excerpted from The War of 1812: Writings from America's War of Independence . It is the tale of an eighteen-year-old British officer who witnessed the sack of Washington on August 24–25, 1814.  Since 2014, I have received more than 450 emails from The Library of America's Story of the Week. To mark each season, I have made it a tradition to select stories sent during periods of the year that are special to me—for example, Christmas, Easter, springtime, midwinter, and American Independence.  On July 5, 2015, I first read " The Special Type " by Henry James (1843–1916). It's from Henry James: Complete Stories 1898–1910 . The narrator, a portrait painter, serves as the go-between in a situation involving an American millionaire estranged from his wife...

Left to right, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kenyan author and academic, and  Handel Wright, author of this tribute to one of Africa's literary giants. Wright is a professor and director of the Centre for Culture, Identity & Education at the University of British Columbia. Wright has published extensively on African cultural studies. Read on... The great Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has passed away .     Ngugi is one of the figures who made me fall in love with African literature. I read his novels in high school, and it was from "Weep Not, Child" and "A Grain of Wheat" that I first learned about Kenya. And when I later attempted to write about African cultural studies as a PhD student, his work, in general and especially his collectively authored play, "I Will Marry When I Want," and the Kamirithu Centre, were instrumental in my articulation of what African cultural studies could be. One never thinks they will actually get to meet their heroes, so I was beside ...

There's a saying that if we surround ourselves with successful and supportive people, we will be challenged to be more, do more, and share. Here's the story of the three Kings: Many immigrant parents require assistance in helping their children gain admission to reputable colleges and universities in the United States. My family, known as "We 3 Kings," had a specific plan.  Our primary focus was on colleges and universities in California because we wanted Ecy to stay close to home in Clovis, California.  My wife, Nina, has been a registered nurse at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, California for around thirty years, with twenty-one of those years spent at St. Agnes Medical Center. Aside from being Ecy's father, I am an entrepreneur, a business innovation author, and the inventor of the Fractal Grid interface. I hold a United States Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO) patent-pending for the Fractal Grid Storage Technology.  Ecy is a co-inventor of the Fractal ...

Bakar Mansaray is a versatile author with a range of literary works including short stories in "A Suitcase Full of Dried Fish" and other stories, a memoir titled "My Afro Canadian Chronicle," a historical non-fiction book exploring the history of minority faith communities called "Muslims in Canada: A Microcosm," as well as novels like "The Ebola War (Angel and Mercy)" Volume One and Two. Following the translation of his debut book "A Suitcase Full of Dried Fish and Other Stories" into Kiswahili, Bakar has been dedicated to developing the Mandingo Scrolls , a platform where he blogs about various topics. These include insights on students at Tampa University in the USA writing comparative or thematic essays on stories from his book 'A Suitcase Full of Dried Fish,' as well as sharing tidbits from the Sahel, discussions on African political volatility, human rights abuses, superstitions, and excerpts from his upcoming book "A...

Cities designated as UNESCO World Book Capitals undertake to promote books and reading for all ages and population groups, within and across national borders, and to organize a program of activities for the year. After Guadalajara (Mexico) in 2022, the city of Accra in Ghana was selected for its strong focus on young people and their potential to contribute to the culture and wealth of Ghana. The year of celebrations will start on 23 April 2023, World Book and Copyright Day. As the twenty-third city to bear the title since 2001, Accra follows Guadalajara (2022) and Tbilisi (2021). Past capitals include Madrid (2001), Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), Anvers (2004), Montreal (2005), Turin (2006), Bogota (2007), Amsterdam (2008), Beirut (2009), Ljubljana (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Erevan (2012), Bangkok (2013), Port Harcourt (2014), Incheon (2015), Wroclaw (2016), Conakry (2017), Athens (2018), Sharjah, (2019) and Kuala Lumpur (2020). Accra’s proposed program seeks to use the power ...

W omen who fight for economic justice in Sierra Leone are often vilified and go unrecognized. But in the social media age, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr has earned significant props as she's gained notoriety among Sierra Leonean men who seize every opportunity to berate and oppress women and girls. Aki-Sawyerr has been the Mayor of Freetown since taking office in May 2018, after winning 309,000 votes representing 59.92% of the votes in the mayoral election. She's a member of the All People's Congress (APC) political party—one of the two major political parties, alongside the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP),  Aki-Sawyerr was recognized with an Ebola Gold Medal by the then-president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, in 2015. Queen Elizabeth II made her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2016. Aki-Sawyerr was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women (BBC), announced in November 2020. In February 2021, Time Magazine named her one of Time's "100 Next...