Nigerian city of Port Harcourt named 2014 World Book Capital
Baku, April 25 (AZERTAC). The city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, has been nominated the UNESCO World Book Capital City for 2014.
According to the selection committee it chose Port Harcourt for the quality of the programme it presented. It focused on youth and the impact it will have on improving Nigeria’s culture of books, reading, writing and publishing to improve literacy rates.
Each year, the committee bestows the title of World Book Capital to a city which has committed itself to promoting books and reading, and to highlight the vitality of literary creativity. The nomination does not imply any financial prize, but it is an exclusively symbolic acknowledgement of the best programme dedicated to books and reading, UNESCO said.
Port Harcourt is the 14th city to be designated World Book Capital following Madrid (2001).
The title “World Book Capital” is conferred by UNESCO on a city in recognition of the quality of its programmes to foster the promotion of books and to encourage reading. The concept was initiated in 2001 with Madrid as the first city to be given the title, followed by Alexandria in 2002 and New Delhi in 2003. Incheon was recently nominated World Book Capital 2015.
The yearlong activities of the Port Harcourt World Book Capital are designed to enlist the participation of stakeholders in the book industry (writers, publishers, book sellers, librarians, readers) and the general public.
The activities proposed include: opening ceremonies, opening of the Port Harcourt Book Centre (PHBC), organizing of children and youth programmes (The Walking Book, Book Clubs, The Reading Tree (RT), Essay Competition), writers and arts programmes (The Port Harcourt Book Festival, Writers in Residence, The Book-of the Month, Books on the air - radio, television and the World Wide Web, Drama Performances), library development and community programmes, as well as sustainability and legacy programmes and round-off programmes.
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