For Haitian author Yves Antoine, his trip to Conakry, capital of Guinea, in April was more than a first-time tourist visit to an off-the-beaten-track destination. It was a time for making mind-to-mind connections.

"I am moved by the people, history and the interest in literature," said the author of 12 books, one of which, Heros et rebelles du monde noir (Heroes and Rebels in the Black World), includes a profile of Nelson Mandela.

Antoine was attending the inauguration of a year-long event that Guinea is hoping will change its image in the eyes of the world. On June 30, 2015, UNESCO announced that Conakry would be the World Book Capital from April 2017 to April 2018. This cultural initiative started in 2001 with Madrid, Spain, chosen as the first World Book Capital. Since then, two other African cities have received the honor, Alexandria in Egypt and Nigeria's Port Harcourt.

Distinct identity

The year-long celebrations in Guinea, including literary salons and an official song composed for the event by Guinean artist Cheick Omar, Welcome to Conakry, the World Book Capital, will serve several major functions.

The first is that it will give this West African country a distinct identity.

"It will raise our country's prestige and international visibility, making it better known and not confused with other Guineas in the world," said Alpha Amadou Bano Barry, a sociology professor in Conakry. He was referring to the fact that the country is regularly confused with Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. This has led to the republic often being called Guinea-Conakry. "Guinea is a small place on the African map. So it [World Book Capital] is, first of all, a matter of visibility."

Emmanuel Bamba, Vice Commissioner of Conakry World Book Capital for North America, described the identity the country is striving for: "In Africa you have different countries that have taken leadership in different areas. For instance, Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, is the film capital of Africa. Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire is the music capital; Bamako, Mali is the photography capital. If you take modern art, it is Dakar in Senegal. If you take fashion, it is Niamey in Niger. Conakry wants to be the book capital of Africa. Every time you mention Conakry, you think of books. This is our goal."

Low literacy rate

From 2013 to 2015, Guinea suffered an Ebola epidemic, which hit trade and tourism and saw the economy slump.

That's why, Bamba said, he personally got involved in the book capital event. "We want to send out a positive image of Guinea where we have a vibrant youth who are, like any other youth in the world, eager to participate in the development of the country, the continent and the world. This is one of the opportunities we have seized to improve the image that was damaged by the Ebola."

Non-Guineans too are delighted, like Joschka Philipps, a sociologist who has written a book on the youth gangs of Conakry, Ambivalent Rage. "When I heard of Conakry being the World Book Capital, I was extremely excited because Conakry is a place of creativity, resilience and surprise," he said. "It's also a place with a lot of poetry."

But despite its formidable phalanx of novelists and poets, Guinea suffers from a low literacy rate. United Nations Economic Commission for Africa put adult literacy in Guinea in 2012 at 34 percent. In the CIA World Factbook, an annual publication of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, updated in July, only 30.4 percent of the country's population aged 15 and above can read and write.

"Since independence [from France] in 1958, the education system was weak," Barry explained. "Currently, the education budget represents only 3.8 percent of the GDP. Besides, there is no literacy policy that makes it mandatory for children to go to school at the right age. Also, schools are often in remote areas, not easily accessible."

Barry thinks international finance must be mobilized to revamp the education system. If the World Book Capital doesn't generate funds for that, it will at least create fresh interest in reading among Guineans while foreigners would be interested in reading Guinean authors. "The fact that Guinea is receiving so many writers and researchers is increasing the interest in reading in a country where the level of reading is low," he said.

Bamba, though he moved to Washington, D.C. in 2008 to work as a software developer and has since then acquired American citizenship, is working with other non-resident Guineans in North America to "build a bridge between our new countries and Guinea to promote Guinea and give back to Guinea."

One City, One Library

One initiative for this is the One City, One Library campaign that the group has started to improve Guinea's literacy. The campaign kicked off in October 2016 at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. to collect books and money to build a library in each of the 35 major cities in Guinea.

With the money and books collected so far, the first step has been to renovate a dilapidated youth center in Nongo so that it can serve as a library. Bamba said the campaign will continue even after April 2018, till the goal has been reached.

In 2008, Conakry had its first book fair. Called 72 Hours of the Book, the book fair is held for three days in Conakry in each April. It has become an annual fixture, creating interactions between writers, readers and booksellers.

In addition, there are cultural and people-to-people interactions. In June, Bamba brought three Canadians - a mathematician and two authors from Quebec - who taught maths and literature at a local school. "They speak French and came to discover Guinea and participate in the World Book Capital events," Bamba said. "They taught in a high school and encouraged the young people to receive an education and explore the world. So it was a good exchange."

The World Book Capital event has also drawn the attention of the international community. Guinea held a presidential election in 2010, and Alpha Conde became the president. Conde, who was re-elected in 2015, is also the current chairperson of the African Union.

Bertrand Cochery, the French Ambassador to Guinea, took part in a promotional video for the World Book Capital event, saying while politics and elections had been a major agenda, it was time to move away from voters to readers.

"All countries want their populations to become a population of readers," Cochery said. "I think the voters will be very good readers. And it's important to be a good reader in order to be a good voter."

Ugandan award-winning author Mildred Barya said she grew up on Guinean writer Camara Laye's semi-autobiographical L'Enfant Noir (The African Child). She hailed the event as an exciting opportunity to reach out across borders. "I think it is exciting for [both] Guineans and non-Guineans because it offers an opportunity to showcase not only Guinean literature, but also literature from other countries," she said. "Books migrate more easily than humans and have a higher chance of being received warmly as non-residents or even permanent residents with the freedom to travel and share. Books never become refugees in a country of their non-origin."

To have Guinea as a center of literary exchanges and interactions, she said, would revive reading while promoting literacy. "It's also a gesture of hope that literature can and does go beyond the failures of politicians to connect borders and people."