Bulle Abdullahi used to work in a bank. He often, almost always, spent his one-hour lunch break reading. Some of his colleagues took to borrowing books from him – he had quite a collection of them at home. Many of those he lent were never returned.
One day, a concerned lady colleague asked ‘Why do you give out your books for free?’ It was a remark that eventually led to Bulle establishing the Nuria Bookstore back in 2015. Now, he has a bustling bookshop on the first floor of the Bazaar Plaza on Moi Avenue. Last year, he opened a branch in Nyali. And Bulle can claim to have one of the leading online bookstores in Kenya.
From postings on social media, from signboards and its own website, I saw that Nuria Bookstore describes itself in three different ways: The Honest Online Shop, The Home of Independent Authors, The Home of African Books. In an article in the World Literature Magazine , J L Powers describes it as a ‘small bookstore with an outsized collection of books you won’t find anywhere else in the world’.
If you are a foreign tourist or an expat who wants to find out the realities of Kenyan culture and what you won’t find in the many tour guides – online or in print – then brave the boisterous traffic and jostling pavements of downtown Nairobi and pay Nuria Bookstore a visit. I did that a few days ago, and I found that many Kenyans are relishing what this bookshop has to offer: a store with a usual range of fiction and non-fiction books, but one with a main focus on books by African writers – particularly Kenyan ones.
Bulle is a man with an infectious enthusiasm about what he has achieved with his bookstore; he also has a strong commitment to supporting young Kenyan writers, and an ambitious plan for documenting and preserving important books on the variety of African cultures, past or present. ‘I want to help in preserving African texts,’ he said.
‘Texts written by Africans and texts written by others about Africa. I want to create a kind of museum of African books. Some will be about history; some will be about politics; some will be about culture – yes, whether traditional or current. Perhaps the only country in Africa that has done this is Egypt. I realise for us it will be a very big project.
With regard to what Bulle has already achieved, he has stocked books by 2,900 African authors, and 2,400 of them are Kenyans. He has been keen to support writers from communities right across Kenya – particularly those communities that don’t have a publication record like the Kikuyu and the Luo. He has recognised that many writers face a publication problem.
‘I have a manuscript, but how do I sell it?’ is the question often asked by young writers, Bulle says. His answer for many of them is self-publication. In this, Nuria can give good advice and recommendations about editors, designers and printers. Many of the books on the Nuria bookshelves are self-published. In the World Literature Today magazine article, Bulle is quoted as saying, ‘We have tapped into this dynamic by embracing self-published authors, understanding that they often bring fresh, unfiltered perspectives that resonate with local audiences.’
With regard to his general stock of books, I asked him about what kinds are favoured by his customers. He said that Kenyans are very interested in politics, so memoirs of politicians and political analysts are very popular. I reminded Bulle about the times, not so very long ago, when bookshops that had copies of books such as John le Carré’s The Constant Gardener or Michela Wrong’s Our Turn to Eat had to keep them under the counter. I told him how I once asked Chan at Bookstop whether he had the new gardening book, and how he smiled, reached down and then handed me le Carré’s novel. ‘Things are very different here now,’ Bulle said, as he passed me a copy of Miguna Miguna’s Treason: The Case against Tyrants and Renegades and Joe Khamisi’s Looters and Grabbers: 54 Years of Corruption and Plunder by the Elite, 1963-2017. He suggested that such freedom wouldn’t be found in our neighbours, such as Tanzania, Rwanda or Uganda.
I told Bulle about a conversation I had had when I visited the Pocket Library at the Jaffery Sports Club in Lavington a year or so ago. When I asked what were the most popular books younger people were borrowing, I got the answer ‘American romantic novels by writers such as Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts and Colleen Hoover’. Bulle laughed. He said that some of his best-selling books are the relationship ones by Kenyan authors such as Joan Thatiah’s Confessions of Nairobi Women and Confessions of Nairobi Men, Dan Okello’s The Dating Luo Man, Y W Wamuyu’s How to Date a Nyeri Woman, and Jackson Biko’s Big Little Fights. He said this pocket-sized Biko book is the current best-seller.
I was with Manka, the Administrator of the newly-formed and small Nairobi Writers’ Club. She was delighted to hear about the success of the latest Biko book. She was also pleased to find books by other members of the club, such as Rupert Watson’s Culture Clash, Jagi Gakunju’s Living on the Edge, Samuel Kisika’s Until Further Notice and Freddie del Curatolo’s Nairobi: The Visible City.
Some years ago, many people thought that social media on the internet would mean that people across the world would buy fewer books. But Bulle agrees with Chan of Bookstop that the opposite is the case – actually, more people are buying books. Bulle said that it all depends on how you use the algorithms. His main advertising is on Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook. I asked him how much impact book reviews in newspapers have. ‘Not so much these days,’ he said. Ok, then I must get more familiar with TikTok and the like.
