A non-public studying problem has grown into a much broader dialog about tradition, id and Nigeria’s studying behavior, because the Korean Cultural Centre Nigeria (KCCN) builds a group round Korean literature in Abuja.
Tradition Tournament Assistant and Admin, Habiba Sharon, started her adventure in December 2025 to learn 200 books in a 12 months. Han Kang’s The Vegetarian was once her first select. It quickly led her to extra Korean novels and questions concerning the tradition and historical past in the back of their tales.
Thru its per month Korean Literature E book Dialogue, KCCN is popping that interest into shared conversations that discover how Korean tales mirror reviews acquainted to Nigerian readers.
The discussions have featured works together with The Vegetarian, Choi Eun-young’s Shoko’s Smile, Cho Nam-joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 and Hwang Bo-reum’s Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Book place.
From friendship and reminiscence to gender expectancies and public harassment, the books have precipitated contributors to inspect social realities throughout each international locations.
The dialogue of Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Book place additionally introduced a Nigerian viewpoint via Victoria Emmanuel Okoida, founding father of FantasyBook Café, who shared how a formative years love of studying led her to develop into a instructor and later open her bookstore.
Okoida challenged the perception that Nigerians don’t learn, pointing to readers and communities that maintain hobby in books. On the other hand, she known as for more potent govt funding in studying infrastructure, urging government to determine public libraries throughout native govt spaces.
“Each native govt wishes a library,” she mentioned, arguing that get right of entry to to books will have to no longer rely at the talent to buy them.
The KCCN programme seeks to deepen cultural change via literature, transferring past the rustic’s common song, movies, meals and tv dramas to discover its written tales and concepts.
Yu Jin Lee, Occasions Supervisor and E book Dialog Manager, oversees the guide dialogue programme, which continues with Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Glance After Mother on 29 October 2026, adopted by means of Sohn Received-pyung’s Almond in November.
The Centre additionally welcomes collaboration with guide golf equipment and literary communities within the Federal Capital Territory.
Because the discussions develop, the initiative is appearing how tales from some other nation can spark conversations about shared reviews whilst nurturing Abuja’s literary group.
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