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When I visited a new library in Uganda in 1988 and discovered its empty shelves, I had no idea that 32 years later Books For Africa (BFA) would be shipping its 50 millionth book to the African continent.

2020 is a momentous year for Books For Africa, as we celebrate 50 million books shipped to Africa! Travel along with our 50 millionth book, “Kofi Loves Music,” as it makes its journey over land and sea, from Minnesota to Ghana.

Books for Africa — a St. Paul nonprofit founded in 1988 that is the largest shipper of donated library and textbooks to the African continent — this month will mark its 50 millionth book sent.

Books for Africa (BFA) will be shipping its 50 millionth book to Africa by the end of 2020. Quite an achievement for a Saint-Paul based organization that started in 1989 with a simple mission: End the book famine in Africa. In 1988, Tom Warth visited a library in Uganda and saw that books were almost non-existent, and the few that occupied the shelves were tattered and worn. Returning to Saint Paul, he started BFA in an effort to provide education through books to African students of all ages.

Through partnership with Books For Africa, the Sierra Leone Book Trust recently distributed over 100 cartons of books to nine different schools in the Wellington community in Freetown.

With the arrival of a recent book shipment to The Gambia, a ceremony was organized to celebrate the occasion, attended by senior officers from the Ministry of Justice and Basic and Secondary Education. Representatives from Armitage Senior Secondary School were also in attendance. This latest book arrival to The Gambia was coordinated by Books For Africa board of directors member Lang Dibba, who manages the "Million Books to The Gambia" initiative.