How To Build a Library

A reckoning with Kenya’s colonial past by rebuilding a library.

How can one contribute to the reckoning of a country’s colonial past? Author Shiro Koinange and publisher Angela Wachuka have set out to do just that. This documentary follows their work to rebuild and restore Nairobi’s oldest library. Until 1958, the magnificent McMillan Memorial Library in the Kenyan capital was reserved exclusively for white Europeans.

With great enthusiasm, Koinange and Wachuka begin the work of transforming the building into a cultural center for the entire Kenyan population. In the process of preserving the architectural and literary heritage, they encounter challenges related to local politics and fundraising; and they must make tough decisions about how much of the difficult colonial past should be present in the library’s collection. This is an inspiring film about reclaiming the history of one’s own country and culture.