The purpose of the ACBWG is to promote the reading and reviewing of African and Caribbean books. The group reads books about African and Caribbean areas, countries and people, no matter who wrote them.
About 8 to 10 years ago John Whitfield (The Chair of the monthly group meeting) was in the library and reached for a book at the same time as another fellow. During the conversation John found out that the other fellow was from Trinidad and asked him if had read books by any Trinidadian writers and hoped he might say C L R James, but he replied that he didn’t know any Trinidadian writers. The other fellow from Trinidad went on to explain that as as they wrote in English their books were amongst all the other English-language books and as he had come to the UK at the age of 4, no-one had told him of any names or titles. He said that if he wanted a Polish or French book he would go to their dedicated shelves, but that was not an option for Trinidadian books. John offered to compile a list and hand it to him if they were able to meet again in a fortnight. John went on to ask a number of friends what should go on the list. "One friend said serendipitously. 'What use is a list? Start a book group!' So we did!"
ACBWG meets on the first Saturday of each month at 3PM on the ground floor of Chelmsford Library. The address is Chelmsford County Hall, Market Road, Chelmsford CM1 1QH
Towards the end of the year (around October) each member is given the opportunity to suggest a couple of books by writing the book title, author and stating whether fiction or non fiction. All of the suggested book titles are then mixed up and 12 are randomly selected. The initial 12 are the 12 books to be read through the year (1 each month).
When the annual list is drawn up an attempt is made to alternate African and Caribbean books with a few non-fiction books included. The member who suggested a book title has first refusal of introducing it on the month their book is due for review by the book group. If they are unable to do this another book group member can volunteer to lead the review of that book. We have also had an author introduce their own book.
If copies of selected books are not available through the library, there are a few other book sources as follow:
More information is available from acbwg.essex@gmail.com
At the monthly book group meeting each attender is asked to display a small notice on the table bearing their name.
The monthly book group meeting is administered informally by someone other than the prior selected book introducer. The book group administrator hands over proceedings to the book introducer to lead the brief introduction to the book, this is followed by a group discussion about the book with all members being given the chance to comment on the book and what insights they have to share about the book. The administrator then sums up the session and bring the meeting to a close.
Book groups are a mutual activity, in which all views are heard with respect. All those attending have the opportunity to express their views of the book read. If you are interested, please feel free to join us and see how the group functions.
We have read books about, or by authors from the following places:
ALGERIA, ANGOLA, BARBADOS, BOTSWANA, CAMEROON, CUBA, DJIBOUTI, EGYPT, GHANA, GUADELOUPE, GUYANA, HAITI, JAMAICA, KENYA, MOROCCO, NIGERIA, RWANDA, SENEGAL, SIERRA LEONE, SOMALIA, SOUTH AFRICA, TANZANIA, TRINIDAD, UGANDA, ZIMBABWE!