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At last week's summit in India among the top 20 industrialized nations, the G-20 made the African Union a member, just as it had previously done with the European Union. The move reflects Africa's economic trajectory, which, if demography is destiny, will only grow, since it's the youngest continent. With that youth comes an ever-increasing need for education — and an ever-increasing need for books. It's a need that for 35 years the St. Paul-based organization Books for Africa has heroically tried to address. 

His Excellency Philip Jada Natana, Ambassador or South Sudan to the U.S., and BFA Board Member Charles Adams Cogan pen this op-ed for Minnpost.

Books For Africa, a local non-profit that has shipped millions of books to Africa, is celebrating its 35th anniversary. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS anchor Ben Henry sat down with Patrick Plonski, Executive Director of Books For Africa, to discuss the anniversary.

Late last year, Books For Africa (BFA), with the help of the Department of Defense Humanitarian Assistance Funded Transportation Program, sent 110,000 books to students in Malawi. The books, shared between Kamuzu University and the Malawi National Library Service, has positively impacted thousands of students of all ages across the country.

In celebration of 35 years of promoting literacy, Books For Africa (BFA), the world’s largest shipper of donated books to Africa, will be hosting their 35th Anniversary Gala on Wednesday, September 13. Themed, “A Book for Every Child,” the event will be held at The Depot in Minneapolis and will introduce an upcoming Rotary International project to ship more than 100,000 books to South Sudan.

In this op-ed for Minnpost, BFA Board Member Charlie Cogan discusses the recent coup in Niger, and the broader challenges and opportunities facing Africa's Sahel region: