Lawrence Darmani, MAI Africa Regional Trainer

The church in Africa has exploded in the last century, increasing the need for literature that can help it address critical issues: discipling believers, battling AIDS, overcoming poverty and stabilizing democracy. Church leaders also need written materials to help bring reconciliation and hope to those suffering from the scars of tribal enmity and other divisions.

Africa is the world's youngest region–children under 15 make up 43% of its people. Publishing leaders are recognizing the need to encourage the next generation to read, and to provide Christian teaching through quality literature.

Since our founding, MAI has provided training and encouragement for Christian publishers in Africa. MAI has provided training in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Here's how we've helped...

• Encouraged the development of writers and editors for Sierra Leone's only locally created Christian magazine, Catalyst.
• Helped foster the creation of Africa Christian Writers Association in Kenya.
• Networked publishing leaders from throughout Africa to discern needs and cooperate on joint projects.
• Trained budding writers in Kenya, Ghana and former Zaire (the Democratic Republic of Congo).
• Provided strategic management consulting to publishers in Kenya, Benin, Burkina Faso and Tanzania.
• Helped develop children's writers in Nigeria.
• Led editorial and marketing training to publishing staff from seven francophone countries in West Africa.
• Introduced Hutu and Tutsi university students to Christian publishing in Burundi.
• Coordinated the publication of Journeys into Creativity, a book in which African authors describe their writing journeys.
• Provided training for staff at the first bookstore for Africa Christian Press in Ghana.
• Coordinated publishing internships for literature workers from Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire.

Kenya: A Nation in Search of Peace

As Kenya reeled from post-election violence in early 2008, one Christian writer put his pen to work for peace. Samuel Kahura Chege lost his own father in past tribal killings and hopes to help fellow Kenyans reconcile and find lasting peace. The following is an excerpt from his soon-to-be-published book, Let’s Save Our Nation. 

I learned of my father’s cruel death through the media. Five people from my village near Burnt Forest, in Eldoret had been killed on that fateful night in 1993. The scene was horrible. Dad was butchered like a sheep in what was believed to be an ethnic cleansing…

Three months after dad’s burial, the situation had calmed down. I went to the area to see whether there was anything to salvage. Our houses had been razed completely, our livestock stolen, and our crops harvested from our farm!…

As I investigated for three days, I realized those who had stolen our household goods and burned our houses were people known to us...People I had lived with, gone to school with, and worshiped with in the same church for years...

This troubled me for months. Should I avenge? Should I ever have anything to do with people from the tribe that killed my father? This and many other disturbing questions haunted me.

Finally, I learned through the church about the true meaning of sincere forgiveness and reconciliation...Deep from my heart I forgave those who looted our properties, burned down our houses, stole our livestock, as well as those who killed my dad—I didn’t know who specifically...

The next time I visited my rural home in Burnt Forest, I visited some of my neighbours from the community that had killed my father. I started to show them love...Today, we are great friends...The love I developed helped us to reconcile, although it took some time.

To be able to start living in peace as one nation after the recent post-election violence...we must be ready to forgive and pursue reconciliation. This is very hard, "But with God all things are possible."

MAI continues to collaborate with the largest Christian publisher for Francophone Africa, Centre de Publications Evangeliques (CPE). French-language publishers in Africa struggle with minimal resources and training opportunities compared to their English counterparts. This spring MAI and CPE partnered to lead a third regional training workshop for publishers, this time in West Africa.

Trainers Tony Collins of Lion Hudson plc and Lawrence Darmani of Ghana travelled to Mali in May to lead workshops for 50 publishers, writers and booksellers from 9 West African nations. 

Photo by Greg Burgess

Up from the Ashes in Côte d’Ivoire
Bookstore Goes from Bankruptcy to Success

By Lawrence Darmani

At MAI’s writer and bookseller workshop in Mali last spring, 50 writers and booksellers from French-speaking West Africa honed their skills with trainers Tony Collins and Lawrence Darmani. Here’s the story of bookseller Ghislain Canteih Yao:

Ghislain Canteih Yao had a successful business importing and exporting mangos, papayas and other tropical fruit across French-speaking West Africa. But, he longed to do full-time ministry and was praying for God’s direction. Then Yao learned of a Christian bookstore that was about to collapse in downtown Abidjan, the capital of Côte d’Ivoire.  

“I saw the Lord opening a door for me to put my desire for missions into effect through the bookshop,” he says. 
Photo: Yao (R) recounts his story to Lawrence Darmani

The bookstore owner, Adbo Rene, and his wife were set to declare bankruptcy and migrate to Canada. Rene’s chain of six stores had almost all been looted and razed during the country’s six-year civil war. Aleph Librairie, the last store in the capital, was a shell of its vibrant past. The aisles were empty, old books lined the shelves and unpaid bills piled high. 

Yao offered to help Rene and his wife revamp the bookstore. Despite the couple’s plans, they dreaded the business’ closure and its impact on their witness. Born and bred a Muslim, Rene had practiced Islam among the local Lebanese community until his wife, an evangelical, led him to Christ. As a result, family and friends shunned him completely. If Rene’s last Christian bookstore flopped, it would fuel their scorn forever.

Skeptical, the couple offered Yao six months to revive it.

A Strategic Mission
“It was the biggest challenge of my life,” Yao says. With his young wife, he left the fruit business and they dove in. They prayed, moved, consulted and took multiple risks. And to the amazement of Rene and his wife, the bookstore began to turn. 

“Where there is a will there is a way,” Yao believes. He knocked on door after door, seeking customers at schools, government offices, non-profits, and even in residential neighborhoods. He stocked popular products like textbooks and stationery and offered discounts to school principals. He presented the importance of reading at meetings of Parent-Teacher Associations. For every potential customer who declined Yao’s offers, he noted that several others accepted.

The U-Turn
In six months, the turnaround was visible and Rene’s debt had diminished. Parents and school staff began adding Christian books to their purchases. Yao built relationships with many parents who now number among some 200 shoppers a day who visit Aleph Librairie in the city’s main business center.

Customers buy calendars, gift items, music cassettes, CDs and DVDs and stationery. Yao says these “bait products” draw people to the Bibles and Christian literature.

“I praise the Lord that parents are noticing the role Christian books play in the lives of children and youth,” he says. But his hunt for indigenous reading materials has confronted him with the stark reality of their scarcity. As a result, he hopes to help produce and promote locally-authored Christian books soon.