Zines from Lamu, Kenya

The African Library recently acquired 23 zines from the Swahili region of Lamu, Kenya. The booklets were produced in January 2025 as part of the Lamu Maktaba Ya Sanaa Project, initiated by Karin Voogd. The booklets are about the Lamu culture and the Lamu area and cover a variety of themes, such as the Lamu theatre, the Shela tragedy of 1979, and Lamu’s fishing heritage. All books are handmade and self-published by artists, journalists, teachers, and librarians across the region.

The Lamu Maktaba Ya Sanaa Project offers its writers the opportunity to express their knowledge on subjects of their choice, often topics that have rarely been written about. The books are now available in the Lamu Maktaba Ya Sanaa Collection at Fort Lamu Library. Readers in Lamu can now access these books in their local languages and read works written by local authors on local topics.

The recently acquired zines are currently exhibited at the African Studies Centre and complement the Swahili zine collection acquired in 2023. After the exhibition, the booklets will be catalogued and made available for consultation in the library's reading room. For more information on the project and opportunities to sponsor future publications, please visit the project’s website.

On Wednesday 16 April 17:00-19:00, ASCL organises a presentation of the magazines by Karin Voogd, visual artist and writer.

Ursula Oberst