-Multiple activities to revive reading culture staged during ceremony in Buea
By a correspondent
The Association of New Generation Authors (ANGA) recently joined the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural body, UNESCO, to celebrate World Book Day.
Last April 23, 2025, in Buea, South West Region, ANGA brought together at the Cultural Centre, people of different categories to celebrate this day under its peculiar theme: Read Your Way.
Ahead of this year’s celebration, ANGA had launched an online poetry writing competition with three cash prizes for winners; FCFA 25,000, FCFA 15,000 and FCFA 10,000 respectively.
A number of activities coloured the celebration proper, including a welcome speech from the President of ANGA, spoken word performances, dance, presentation of the theme, debate and award ceremony.
The welcome speech delivered by the Secretary General of ANGA, Marks Abaiko, who represented the President, centred on an emphatic call for an increase in the interest in reading, the importance of books and the necessity of growing the book sector by bringing the stakeholders of the book sector, like editors, publishers and authors, into one canopy. The speech culminated in a congratulatory message to those supporting Cameroonian authors by assisting in publishing and also purchasing and reading their books.
The president’s speech was followed by the presentation of the theme of the day : Read Your Way. ANGA SG, Marks Abaiko held that the religious, political, economic and socio-cultural sectors are designed and regulated by books or knowledge from books.
He said pastors and prophets are inspired and made from reading the book called the Bible; politicians get inspired by the works of Plato, Machiavelli, Sun Tsu and Robert Greene, while economists have been groomed from the works of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. In the same light, the socio-cultural sector has poets and novelists who have been crafted from the works of renowned authors like William Shakespeare. He concluded that what we desire to become in life, we should just read and create our way.
His presentation was proceeded by a public debate on the topic: Is social media reducing or increasing the reading capacity of Cameroonians, with participants standing for and against. Those who were in the position of the fact that social media is increasing readership held that social media has created a space for abundant information, as it’s less expensive to read books in PDF through social media; as a consequence, it has increased readership. While those Against held unanimously that social media causes distraction to so many youth who spend time either watching or making TikTok and Facebook videos for content creation, thus reducing the reading capacity.
The debate session was followed by an award ceremony where cash prizes were given to three outstanding writers. Onela Kemta, the first winner, received FCFA 25000 with an additional FCFA 15000 from a partner and the Regional Delegate of Arts and Culture. The 2nd winner, Victory Kalu, obtained FCFA 15,000 while Lena Nwanja, the 3rd winner, went home with FCFA 10,000.
The event that was graced by the Regional Delegate of Arts and Culture, some founders of NGOs like FAPS Development Organisation, students and media personalities ended at about 7pm.
Initiated by UNESCO, World Book Day is annually celebrated on April 23 to promote the love of reading and the power of books. It aims to foster a reading culture highlighting the role of books in knowledge creation and to celebrate authors and the publishing industry. The day also serves to raise awareness about copyright protection and the importance of intellectual property.