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The Children’s Africana Book Awards (CABA) are presented annually to the authors and illustrators of the best children’s and young adult books on Africa published or republished in the U.S. The awards were created by Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association (ASA) to encourage the publication and use of accurate, balanced children’s materials about Africa. The awards are presented in two categories: Young Children and Older Readers.

Christian Elongué, our executive Director, is one of 30 literacy leaders named to the International Literacy Association’s (ILA) 2021 30 Under 30 list. The global list celebrates rising innovators, disruptors and visionaries in the literacy field. Christian Elongué is an author and researcher on children and young adult literature. Dismayed by a lack of black characters in books available to African children, Christian founded munakalati.org in 2017 with the goal of building international recognition for African children’s book authors and increasing access to African children books.

Nsah Mala is a Cameroonian poet, writer and children’s author of 2 fantastic, illustrated books which have been well acclaimed for their unique angle and the colorful and beautiful pictures they contain. Muna Kalati had the opportunity to interview him to know more about his journey as an author, his experiences, challenges, and vision of the children’s book industry in Cameroon.

tacey Fru, a South African International Multiple Award-Winning Child Author named a 2020 Global Child Prodigy. She is a Philanthropist and Activist whom at the age of 12 was honoured by the Egyptian President as one of 5 Most Promising African Youths in 2019. The now 13-year-old Stacey wrote her first book “Smelly Cats” at age 7. Since Muna Kalati is promoting Children and Young Adult authors, it was an immense pleasure to gather her views in this regard. In this interview, she openly speaks about her first reading experiences, the authors that inspired her, her reading practices and vision for the development of children literature in Africa.

The problems that readers encounter when visiting libraries are legion and diverse: the lack of updating of the collection, the absence of online information on the collections, the absence of books on African realities, the lack of professional librarians, the bad faith of some readers and the commodification of reading services.

Considered the first Queen Mother of Benin, Idia was the mother of Esigie, the Oba (king) of Benin between 1504 and 1550. A great warrior and wise queen, she is believed to have saved the entire kingdom of Benin in a time of war and turmoil. Thanks to Nigerian-Canadian author Ekiuwa Aire, children can now relive the highly revered Nigerian queen’s story from a real African perspective.