Guardian · 28 days ago

‘The Goal Has Been to demystify’: How a Colonial Nairobi Library Was Restored and Given Back to the People |...

When Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange first descended into the basement of Nairobi's McMillan Memorial Library-a neoclassical building once reserved for whites only-they found more than dust-covered volumes and colonial-era council minutes; they found a blueprint for transformation. Through their project Book Bunk, they have spent nearly a decade restoring three libraries across the Kenyan capital, turning spaces that once excluded most Kenyans into community hubs offering everything from computer literacy classes to safe havens for children's education. "The goal has been to demystify libraries and turn them into spaces that are huge multipliers of what's possible," Wachuka explains, describing work that extends beyond architectural restoration to rebuilding the very idea of who a library serves. Perhaps most telling is the shift in one mother's understanding: libraries are no longer intimidating institutions where payment might be required, but places where her children learn to articulate themselves with confidence-a quiet revolution in a building that once stood as a monument to segregation.