The Voice Interviews: Deborah Ahenkorah

What are your fondest memories of growing up?

We had a light yellow wooden table in our verandah at home and I would wrap my mother’s wax cloth around the table to create what I called, my secret cave. From this cave I would delve into books and read and read and read, travelling many different worlds, living many exciting adventures!

Why the interest in encouraging reading?

I had such a brilliant time with books as a child and I think everyone should have that opportunity too. Also, it is fairly inarguable that reading encourages one to develop curiosity, an understanding of the world and intellectual capacity. These are all solid reasons why reading should be encouraged, especially among young people.

When and why did you start the Golden BAOBAB Prize?

I started the Golden Baobab Prize in my second year of university. Before this I had started a previous organization, Project Educate in Africa, which sent funds and donated books from the United States to different African countries. While this organization’s work was good and necessary to promoting literacy in Africa, I didn’t think it was the solution. If there are no books in Africa, it is because people in Africa are not writing and creating books. So I created the Golden Baobab Prize. It is an annual African literary award that discovers, nurtures and celebrates promising writer of African children’s literature. We connect these writers with leading publishers and partner to ensure that winning African children’s books enter the marketplace.

Why focus on children's stories?

 Children’s stories because it’s a sector that’s largely ignored. Even regions of the world that produce thousands of children’s titles a year have children’s prizes that are ensuring quality production. Africa is not producing enough children’s stories, and before the Golden Baobab Prize, there was no annual continental prize addressing the issue.

Why is reading important?

A people have a reading culture when they have inculcated the habit of seeking out knowledge from wide varieties of books. This reading culture naturally translates into a reasoning culture, an intellectually questioning culture and a culture that is informed about their immediate and far off surroundings. So for instance if people read only novels or only read newspapers or only read the Koran, that is not a reading culture. Now I find that reading in Africa is determined by your purchasing power. Since there are not that many free libraries if your parents cannot afford to buy you books, or you yourself are hustling too much to give a hoot about a book, where is the reading culture? I think that as the middle and upper class in Africa grow, there will be more of a true reading culture.

How do you encourage people to read?

I think people read the things that speak to them. Same with music and movies, you’re drawn to the things you can relate to. So I believe that providing wonderfully written, beautifully illustrated stories that reflect African experiences is one way to getting more young people reading.

What feedback have you received about the project that brought a smile to your face?

We were recently named, by Echoing Green, a leading international social sector investor, as one of the boldest social innovations of our times, addressing some of societies most critical issues. A great honor! We were part of 22 people selected from close to 3,000 applicants from all over the world. It’ll be a very long time before I stop smiling about this!

What advice do you have for anyone thinking of going into publishing as a career?


As we say in Ghana, Chale! Now is really not the time to enter publishing. The industry is in upheaval all over the world as it morphs with technology and nobody knows what it’s going to look like in the next 3 years even. But then again, Africa is a couple of years behind this upheaval so people may want to get in on Africa and once the international industry figures itself out, they can quickly take the new model and apply to African situations. What’s important to contemplate though is that publishing in Africa requires good African writers. So while you wait for the industry to settle down, my best, unbiased advice is to invest in the Golden Baobab Prize and help us discover the new African literary giants for the exciting times up ahead!

Favourite Five: Deborah Ahenkorah

To start off the month of June we bring you Favourite Five by Deborah Ahenkorah. Deborah is the Executive Director of The Golden Baobab Prize, an annual literary prize aimed at inspiring African Children's Literature. Her interview will be up on the blog next week.

She had this to say about her choices: "I read a lot of British and American literature. So the Enid Blytons of course, the Sweet Valley series, the Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, etc. I also got into the Harlequins and Mills and Boons at some point, but let’s not talk about those, ahem. There was also a time when I loved short stories. My school library had a whole bunch of American literature readers with all these wonderful short stories that I could never get enough of. The result of all these books I read was that I always dreamed up fanciful ideas that were not particularly culturally appropriate. For instance, one time I tried to start a babysitters club, but abeg who was hiring? Or the time I was determined my life’s calling was to be an amateur detective in Accra. When I told my dad he laughed and said, “Eyah, my daughter wants to be a policewoman!”