Book Camp Held At AUCC

The Ama Ata Aidoo Centre for Creative Writing (AAACCW) last Thursday, February 22, 2018 held at its Discovery House campus a reading camp for selected schools within Adabraka, a suburb of Accra. The exercise was part of the drive to encourage reading and writing especially among the youth.

The maiden edition saw over 50 pupils drawn from the Additrom Basic and Virgo Preparatory Schools participating in the reading of “The Children of Abuta Village” by its author Roberta Turkson. She expressed delight for being the first writer in the program.

“As engaging as the children were, it makes me realize that I am on the right track writing what engages children. Reading helps children to ask probing question and spark their imagination” Turkson said.

Expressing his excitement about the project, Mr. Samuel Dovo, a teacher at Additron School said “this is a laudable project. Reading is good, it boosts the understanding of children, I wish more universities and Centres will emulate the initiative”.

The Director of the centre, Nana Sandy Achampong, said the project, part of the Centre’s “In Their Own Words” series, is to provoke reading and writing among the youth of Ghana and also to bridge the gap between African writers and their readers. He expressed appreciation to the author and other supporters, especially veteran journalist and philanthropist Mr Pankaj Pyne who refreshed the children with cartons of fruit juice.

“The idea is to create book clubs everywhere that will help prepare the minds and aspirations of the next generation of thinkers. This is a responsibility for all of us...young, old, literate, illiterate, city dwellers, country folk, everyone. A child who reads and writes is an asset for the nation,” he added.

He took the opportunity to invite the media to come onboard to project the initiative.

Named after iconic Ghanaian writer, Ama Ata Aidoo, The Ama Ata Aidoo Centre for Creative Writing (AAACCW) at the African University College of Communications (AUCC) was launched in March 2017. The centre offers courses in Creative Writing – covering topics such as script-editing, short story writing and speech writing. It houses the literary works of Ama Ata Aidoo and other African writers, develops a world class library for aspiring writers, organise conferences and lectures and nurture excellence in non-academic publishing.