Vitabu Books

 There are many young talented writers in Freetown, but no one’s read their stories because there are few publication houses. (See updates below) Luisa Roberts, who stays at Newton, has been writing since she was six. She’s now 18. She said she must have written over a hundred pieces, but in the end, they all get tucked away in her cupboard or placed on top of a table as decoration. Luisa said her uncle always tells her she's wasting her time because her stories will never get published.   In 2014, Mabinty Dumbuya won second prize in a high school writing competition held by Dr. G. E. Hallowell, director of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corp. Mabinty said she was quite proud that her essay on Ebola had won a prize. Since she started writing some years back that was the first time something good ever came out of it. Mabinty also said that she'd be happy if a publishing house is built in Freetown.    It's true there are no publishing houses in the city, but there i

Two Novembers ago when @KhanyoMjamba published “10 of Africa’s longest serving presidents” in This Is Africa's African Identity, Yayah Jammeh was number 9 on the list. Like all the other men in Mjamba's lineup, Jammeh had ruled over his country for more than two decades after some bloody coup and revolution. Coups, revolutions, and power struggles are the focus of Ibrahim Whyte Sesay, a Sierra Leonean born writer based in the United States. In November 2016, Sesay published two books looking at fictional coups in Sierra Leone, as well as world wars in the east and west, up North, and down south. Below are excerpts from Whyte's comments in a recent chat with Vitabu. "After the CIA and the Belgians assassinated Patrice Lumumba (the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1961, a mere seven months after Congo became independent, has anything really changed? "African leaders know that they rule, not just by the domestic ballot and/or bul