How to Build a Library (2025)

In 2017, Shiro Koinange and Angela Wachuka embarked on a mission to revitalise three Nairobi county libraries. They include the McMillan Library, previously a whites-only space. The McMillan remains stuck in time, but not irrelevant: its collection a record of a violent colonial past and a topic for cross-generational conversations. Facing numerous challenges, the project team tangoes deftly with unyielding librarians and charismatic politicians in order to deliver the McMillan. Maia Lekow and Christopher King’s fascinating film immerses us in what it takes to create a public space where everyone is welcome, ideas are encouraged and memories are shared.