How to Build a Library at the Nouvel Odéon

As part of the Afriques en Vision festival, MansA is teaming up with the Institut des Afriques for a special CinéMansA Off screening. The film How to Build a Library by Maia Lekow and Christopher King will be screened on Sunday November 23 at 11am at Le Nouvel Odéon cinema, followed by a discussion with Kidi Bebey.

For this screening, MansA joins forces with the Institut des Afriques and the Afriques en vision festival to present the documentary How to Build a Library (2025), by the duo Maia Lekow and Christopher King.

The directors, already noted for their work on Kenyan society(The Letter, 2019), continue their exploration through the journey of two businesswomen in Nairobi who set out to restore the National Library of Kenya - a persistent symbol of the British colonial legacy.

In the course of this work, between dream and disillusion, a sensitive portrait of a country in the throes of change is revealed, where political fractures, gentrification and social inequalities upset the very idea of reconstruction.

How to Build a Library questions the value of knowledge, the transmission of collective memories and the possibility of reinventing institutions inherited from the past.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with Kidi Bebey, journalist, publisher and author, on the issues of memory, heritage and representation in contemporary Kenya.

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