Category: Distribution
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Nuria Bookstore opens new branch in Nyali, Mombasa
Kenyan book store Nuria opened its second branch in Nyali, Mombasa on Monday, July 28, 2025. In 2015, Abdullahi Bulle set up the Nuria bookstore, named after his mother, in Nairobi, Kenya; Nuria also incidentally is a play on the word “nuru,” which is “light” in Kiswahili. He started selling what was in vogue at…
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UNESCO’s African Book Industry report launches in Paris
The African Book Industry: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Growth, a report commissioned by UNESCO, was launched in Paris, France, on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. The African Book Industry: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Growth‘ is the first-ever comprehensive mapping of Africa’s book industry, revealing a sector brimming with untapped potential. The new report, commissioned…
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Text Book Centre celebrates 60th anniversary with Penmanship Awards
Kenyan bookstore chain Text Book Centre celebrated its 60th anniversary with the inaugural Penmanship Awards on Thursday, April 24, 2025. In 1964, Mr S V Shah operated a bookshop in Fort Hall, or modern-day Muranga town, while Mr Meneklal Rughani operated a bookshop in Nyeri. A year later, they partnered to start the Text Book…
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Soma Nami’s second branch opens in Nairobi.
Kenyan bookstore Soma Nami opened its second branch in Ngara, Nairobi on the weekend of June 7 – 9, 2024. Despite trying times in Kenya’s economy, the book-selling business continued in leaps and bounds in 2024. Half Price Books which already has branches in the Village Market Mall, one in the Central Business District, and…
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Soma Nami Books website under cyber attack
The website of leading Nairobi-based bookstore Soma Nami Books was a victim of a cyber attacker alleging antisemitism on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Soma Nami Books is a bookstore that focuses on Pan African and Feminist reads founded by Muthoni Muiruri and Wendy Njoroge in Nairobi, Kenya in 2021. It has quickly become one of…
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Okada Books set to shut down on November 30.
Nigeria’s digital publishing and bookselling platform Okada Books is set to cease operations on Thursday, November 30, 2023. In 2013, Okada Books was launched by Nigerian writer Okechukwu Ofili to simplify the distribution and selling of books in Nigeria. It was built on making self-publishing easy while connecting writers to people who would pay for…
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Nuria Books takes up Naivas’ Kenyan book distribution
Popular bookstore Nuria Books has taken up the distribution of Kenyan books for megastore Naivas. The deal was made public on November 20, 2023. In 2021, leading retailer Naivas Supermarkets announced a new initiative to bring books by Kenyan writers to be known to their many customers. The initiative called for Kenyan authors and publishers…
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Kenya National Library Services launches VTabu virtual Library.
The Kenya National Library Services launched its new virtual Library VTabu in Nairobi on July 12, 2023. Vtabu, a new virtual library from the Kenya National Library Services aims to encourage a reading culture and provide an avenue through which one can grow and hone their skills in a particular field, anytime and anywhere. The…
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Nuria Books announces its Top 100 Kenyan books of 2022.
Kenyan bookstore Nuria Books announced its Top 100 Kenyan Books of 2022 on Monday, January 9, 2023. In 2015, Abdullahi Bulle set up the Nuria bookstore; named after his mother, in Nairobi, Kenya; nuria also incidentally is a play on the word “nuru” which is “light” in Kiswahili. He started selling what was in vogue…
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African Poetry Book Fund receives $343,750 grant
The African Poetry Book Fund at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln received a $343,750 grant from the Poetry Foundation to study poetry book distribution in Africa on July 13, 2022. The African Poetry Book Distribution Project, led by Kwame Dawes, George W. Holmes University Professor of English, will improve the understanding of poetry book distribution —…
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Bisi Adjapon’s “The Teller Of Secrets” for One Read in December 2021
Bisi Adjapon’s novel The Teller Of Secretswas revealed to be the One Read Africa offering for December 2021 on December 10, 2021. One Read is a mobile application, brought to you by Nigeria’s Sterling Bank and Ouida Books, aimed at promoting writers, publishers and other players in the African book industry to create a community…
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Heroe Book Fair 2022 announces dates, theme, bookstore partnership.
Heroe Book Fair 2022, to happen from March 22 – 26, revealed their theme as well as Soma Nami Books as their official bookstore, on October 28, 2022. Heroe Book Fair was founded by Kenyan writer Lorna Likiza to bring together Anglophone, Francophone and German speaking writers, poets, publishers and literary enthusiasts from Africa and…
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Naivas’ “A Kenyan Writers Path” launches on World Literacy Day 2021.
A Kenyan Writers Path, a new project from retailer Naivas, launched at the Ciata Mall, Ridgeways, Nairobi on World Literacy Day, Wednesday, September 8, 2021. Naivas Supermarket, one of the biggest retailers in Kenya, made a callout for books from writers and publishers in June. With the new concept “A Kenyan Writers Path” they asked…
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Jahazi Press acquires Mukoma Wa Ngugi’s “Unbury Our Dead with Song.”
Jahazi Press has acquired the East African rights to Mukoma Wa Ngugi’s Unbury Our Dead with Song in a statement sent out on September 2, 2021. In 2020, a new publishing outfit called Jahazi Press led by Prestige Books’ Ahmed Aidarus was unveiled in Kenya. The company has since acquired the rights to Yvonne Adhiambo…
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African book-focused Soma Nami Books launches in Nairobi.
Soma Nami Books, a new bookshop founded by Muthoni Muiruri and Wendy Njoroge, launched in Nairobi, Kenya on Friday, August 6, 2021. Muthoni Muiruri and Wendy Njoroge met at a book club and made a connection over their shared love of books several years ago. In February 2021, they launched an online bookstore www.somanami.co.ke with…