This story was written by Abdullahi Jimoh and originally published by Minority Africa on November 22, 2024. This revised version is republished below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The children at the heart of Yenagoa’s Kpansia Market, in Bayelsa State in Nigeria, are hard to miss. Throughout the day — while many of their peers are in school — they walk and play around the market, often barefoot, rolling discarded tires when they are not in a canoe paddling in the hunt for fish to help their parents. Marvelous Akumogbia, 12, shared:
I was in Primary six when I stopped going to school. Though I wasn’t happy about it, it was due to my parents’ financial struggles.
Akumogbia’s parents are fishermen and couldn’t afford his school fees, so they asked him to drop out and join them in fishing, despite his desire to continue his education, making him one of countless out-of-school children in Nigeria.
A place of refuge
It’s also hard to miss the Yellow House Library in Yenagoa. Its tall wooden frame, covered in bright yellow tarpaulin, stands out. Inside, eager children browse the bookshelves, settle onto plastic chairs or wooden benches, and immerse themselves in stories. Founded in 2021 by Babawale Babafemi, the library began as a reading club to boost literacy among out-of-school children. Babafemi also wanted a safe home for the collection of children’s and adult books he inherited from his father.
“My father was a former principal at a school in Kwara State. He was an erudite principal who loved to read,” Babafemi told Minority Africa in an interview.
The library is open every weekend and welcomes anyone who wants to lose themselves in the world of books. Upon arrival, the children are divided into groups, each group selecting a book to review each week. Currently, more than 60 children attend regularly. The impact this library has made on the children shows how libraries can contribute to intellectualism and the overall literal growth of a society. Before the late former governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha built the first library in 2002, there was no library in the whole state.
As of 2018, Bayelsa had only three public libraries. Meanwhile, it is one of Nigeria’s 23 educational disadvantages (EDs) states where education is considered unimportant. Being a coastal region, community members only give fishing a priority due to poverty, and that worsens the number of out-of-school children in the state.
“The children are easy to identify. I see them every day from Monday to Friday not going to school while their mates do,” Babafemi says.
I get them to take me to their parents. When I ask their parents or relatives why the children were not in school? They say there’s no money to send them there, so I will talk them into allowing their children to visit my library every weekend.
According to a recent UNESCO report, over half of the global out-of-school population (51 percent) is in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 32 percent in 2000. In 2023, it was estimated that 250,000 of the 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria are from Bayelsa State.
Babafemi believes that being literate can be the key to a good life and explains how it has impacted his own journey:
Reading and writing have played a major role in my life; the people I have met who have shaped my life are from my literary circle. Reading also enhances my mental health.
Using funds raised on social media, Babafemi covers the transport fare for some of the kids each weekend and also provides refreshments to encourage them to attend the literary club. The club gives the children books to take home, which will be discussed the subsequent week, to encourage them to form a personal reading habit.
The library’s impact is evident. Through regular reading and group discussions, in addition to tutoring handled by Babafemi and his friends, children like Akumogbia have re-enrolled in school, performing exceptionally in the entrance exams. Rejoice Ekizam, a member of the library, shares a similar story.
I joined one year ago, and the teaching in the library helped me in the entrance examination.
Ekiza stopped going to school in 2021 because his family could not afford his NGN 4,000 (around USD 2.45) per day school fees. In 2023, he met Babafemi, who dedicated time to teaching him. Now, Ekiza has returned to school with the aid of constant teaching. She excels in both English and Mathematics. She shared:
When I started with the children, to be honest, there was no improvement. They had left school for a long period, and learning seemed strange to them. I dedicated four months to them. Now, there is an improvement as I have enrolled six of them who passed the entrance examination to school.
Twice a year, in order to further encourage children and the community to embrace reading and learning, the Yellow House Library hosts a spelling bee dubbed a “Street Slam” at the local market square. The competition draws in young contestants from around the community, giving them a stage to showcase their spelling skills. In 2022, 14-year-old Blessing Perekosufa, an avid Yellow House Library attendee with dreams of becoming a doctor, won first place.
Perekosufa helps her family earn a living by hunting periwinkle with a canoe. Three years ago, she dropped out of a government school due to her parent’s inability to afford the fees. Since then, the library has become her favorite place, where she immerses herself in a wide range of literature. She told Minority Africa:
I started visiting Yellow House Library three years ago to improve my literacy. I felt so excited when I took second position in the competition. I will never forget the library when I grow up.
Her favorite book is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah.”
Reading a mature book like ‘Americanah’ has not only enabled me to master some big new words but also improved my fluency in English language speaking.
Babafemi says that Nigeria’s popular spelling bee competitions rarely include teens from underserved homes, so he organized Street Slam to make them feel included. Ebitare Okilo, 12, another out-of-school child, spends much of his time in his aunt’s shop, yet he managed to take second place in the competition held in November 2023.
“Discussing storybooks with my colleagues is part of my attraction to the library, and our instructors are friendly,” Okilo says. His favorite book is Lark Sontag’s “What Every Child Should Know.” Having read the book several times, he has learned about the challenges of growing up and how to cope with them, which has given him great hope for the future.
Structural challenges
Despite all the good the library is bringing to the community, it faces significant challenges, with limited resources being at the forefront. The children receive no support from their parents, who can barely afford to transport them to the library. In an effort to help Babafemi continue paying their school fees, the children came up with a surprising suggestion: selling sachet water to raise funds.
“Before the library, they had been doing many menial jobs to stay afloat,” Babafemi says. “I know some of the teens from the market, some ground pepper, and some will help carry loads for a fee. To be honest, it’s not something I wish to encourage, but there’s the need for stability.”
The library has also been affected by flooding, which has destroyed some of its book collection. Bayelsa, a South-South state, is one of the 33 of the 36 states in Nigeria that has begun to face annual flooding disasters linked to the climate crisis.
Despite the hurdles, Babafemi and the children press on, envisioning a future where the library grows and accommodates more readers. For Okilo, the Yellow House Library represents a chance at a better future. At the last spelling bee held in November 2023, he stood proudly in the square holding a placard that read in part “We grow through what we go through…but we grow in strength, hope and grace.”
For the children of the Yellow House Library, each book represents a chance to dream and a life beyond the fishing trade.
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Previously Published on globalvoices.org with Creative Commons License
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Photo Credit: Illustration by Minority Africa, used with permission.
The post A Library Becomes a Lifeline for Out-of-School Children in a Nigerian Fishing Community appeared first on The Good Men Project.