Buried in the tsunami of publishing news from the Frankfurt Book Fair, this story of a Ghanaian publisher’s Award actually broke mid-month.
Recognized as an “outstanding leader promoting inclusion worldwide” Ghana’s Deborah Ahenkorah this October was one of three joint-winners of the Global Center for Pluralism Awards.
Described in the press release as,
a young Ghanaian social entrepreneur and book publisher bringing African children’s stories to life,
Deborah Ahenkorah is no stranger to awards, being executive director of the Golden Baobab Awards. Golden Baobob, founded in 2008 is a,
literary nonprofit social enterprise increasing African representation in children’s literature. Golden Baobab finds and supports the continent’s most talented writers and illustrators through the Golden Baobab Prize and connects them to publishing opportunities and skills development training.
Ahenkorah also is behind African Bureau Stories, an Accra, Ghana based publishing house that.
produces delightful children’s books by African writers and illustrators for children.
On winning the award, Ahenkorah said,
I feel incredibly blessed to receive this award and after a decade of work championing the importance of African literature for children, this honour highlights how much closer we are to the goal of placing African children’s literature on a deserving global pedestal. I continue to look forward to that day when you can walk into a bookstore anywhere in the world and find incredible African stories available for all.
From the press release:
This year, the Global Centre for Pluralism received over 500 applications spanning 74 countries for the 2019 Global Pluralism Awards—more than double the submissions to the inaugural awards in 2017. All nominees undergo a rigorous review and jury selection process.
The Global Pluralism Award celebrates pluralism in action. As a result of their sustained achievements to promote respect across differences, the Award winners are helping to build more inclusive societies, in which human diversity is valued and thrives.
The three winners each receive CAN $50,000 and in-kind support to advance their work in promoting pluralism.
Other winners were Aung Kyaw Moe, Executive Director Centre for Social Integrity, Myanmar , and Bojana Dujkovic of ‘Learning History that is not yet History’ (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia). Both deserving winners, of course, but beyond the scope of this publishing-focussed post.
