WRITING DESTINY – A YOUTH LITERARY WORKSHOP FOR LIBERIA 

First report – March, 2026

Vamba Sherif Foundation was established in 2025 with the mission to bring about a tangible difference in the lives of young people in Liberia in particular and in Africa in general. 

One of the principal goals of the foundation is to conduct a series of workshops in Liberia and elsewhere in Africa to help develop and guide talents on their way to writing compelling stories  that would lead to publication. The goal is to give young people the chance to tell their own stories. For we believe that a country’s future and successes are determined in parts by how it regards itself, and this perception or image is determined by its artists, including its writers. The work of these writers and artists are like mirrors that reflects how a country sees itself. One of the great writers of Africa and the man regarded as the Father of African Cinema, Ousmane Sembene, once said, ‘We are stories.’ And because this is so, it is  important that we learn to tell these stories very well. 

It is out of this desire to teach young people to tell their stories very well that we launched a crowdfunding campaign last year that could enable us to take the first steps in helping young people on their way to becoming writers and artists. 

It’s thanks to the efforts of all the donors who responded to our call that we were able to achieve the goal of conducting our first workshop: One World – a theme that developed into Writing Destiny – A Youth Literary Workshop For Liberia at the end of January. We took on this latter theme because our aim is to try to tie the destiny of our young writers with the passion in them to express themselves. It’s as if we are asking them to write their destinies into existence, which in the case of our founder happened. He came to the Netherlands as a refugee and wrote his destiny into existence by writing his first novel at the age of 25.   

From the onset it was important to reach as many young people as possible and urge them to participate in the workshop. The challenge we faced was how to encourage them to come to the workshop and by what means. We achieved this goal by working closely with local writers and organizations on the ground in Liberia. 

Organizations who helped with Writing Destiny workshop:

1. Forte and Kpoto Booktore is owned and operated by Othniel D. Forte. Mr. Forte is a Liberian publisher and writer who agreed to make his bookstore available for the workshop. He was also co-host of the workshop, and our main contact person in our attempt to set up the workshop. 
2. Liberia Writers Association. This is the biggest writers’ organization in Liberia, and through it we were able to reach twenty young people. Some members of this association also participated in the workshop.  
3. Poetry Foundation. This foundation is led by an energetic young man named Soko Sheriff, who was no relation to our founder. They were meeting for the first time. Soko was able to mobilize more than twenty five young people, mostly female, to attend the workshop. One of the participants was S Mujee A Kanneh. Mujee turned out not only to have talent for writing but he was also good photographer. He was the one who took the pictures that are included in this report. 
4. 231 Unfiltered. This is a Liberian led creative and cultural platform designed to bring people together through dialogue, art, music, food, and nature. It was launched as a space where Liberians can share ideas, confront social issues and celebrate community. 231 Unfiltered invited our founder Vamba Sherif to spend an afternoon with them and share his experience as a writer. It was a mini workshop that followed the main workshop. 
5. University of Liberia. The oldest and largest institution of learning in Liberia was involved with this workshop and encouraged its students to attend. After the workshop, our founder Vamba Sherif and local Liberian writers gave a reading at the Fendell Campus of the University of Liberia, just outside of Monrovia. It was a well-attended event. The University of Liberia also hosted the book launch that followed the workshop. The book was the official Liberian launch of our founder Vamba Sherif’s English version of his novel that was first published in Dutch as De Zwarte Napoleon and last year in English as The Emperor’s Son.   

The book launch, like the workshop, was a resounding success. It was not only attended by a large audience, but also by high ranking government officials, including The Minister of Finance, Honorable Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan; Minister For Presidential Affairs, Honorable Mamaka Bility; Justice Kabineh Janneh; Director of National Port Authority, Sekou Hussein Dukuly; Dr. Andrew Cole, a career medical doctor and one of Liberia’s renowned medical practitioners; and Vamadu Sheriff, a career educator and scientist who resides in Saint-Louis but who returned to Liberia where he leads a STEM office. He’s working to make Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics a cornerstone of Liberian education.  

Writers and individuals who helped with Writing Destiny Workshop

6. Saah Millimono was one of the main facilitators of the workshop. Saah is a an award winning Liberian novelist. He suffers from severe hearing impairment. But despite this disability, Saah has managed to write novels and short stories. He was at the workshop every day to share with the participants his knowledge and experience. His most famous novel Boy, Interrupted was published by Kwani in Kenya in 2015. Our founder Vamba Sherif has maintained more than ten years of contacts with Saah, helping him financially whenever he could, and the two met for the first time during the workshop.
7. Nvasekie Konneh was another facilitator of the workshop. Nvasekie is a famous Liberian poet, activist and writer of the Liberian civil war memoir, Land of My Father’s Birth. He was once a popular columnist in Liberia before the war, known for his sharp pen, which advocated social justice. He fled to the US, where he still resides. We were lucky that he was in Liberia at the same time as when we were conducting the workshop and he agreed to be part of the workshop. Every day, he generously shared his writing experience and life story with the attendees, focusing on the techniques that he used and the hurdles he faced while writing and how he overcame them.
8. James Varney Dwalu is a Liberian children’s book writer of such titles as Blama’s Dream, Varney and the Monkey Bridge, and Hunting at Night. He’s also president of the Liberian Association of Writers, the biggest literary organization in Liberia. He was glad to participate as a facilitator. He not only shared his experience as an author, but he gave the participants tips on how to handle issues as contracts, copyrights, intellectual property issues in Liberia. These were invaluable tips that almost none of the participants knew. 
9. Comfort  Sia, a woman worked with Othniel D. Forte of the Forte and Kpoto Bookstore to set up the tables, share the food among the participants and carter to their needs during the workshop. 
10. Linnia F. Chea, Omar L Sherif and Malik Sherif are all members of the Vamba Sherif Foundation and were available at the bookstore to help with coordinating workshop.
11. The Cultural Ambassador of Liberia Honorable Kekura Kamara was involved from the very beginning with helping to set up the workshop. Through him, we were able to gain access to some government officials and let them know about what we were doing in Liberia. 
12. The Dean of the College of engineering Honorable Hun-Bu Tulay of University of Liberia was very instrumental in organizing the events at the University.
13. Professor Tanya Garnett is a distinguished professor of gender studies. She was the one who interviewed Vamba Sherif during the events at the University of Liberia 

Food and beverages

It was important for us that the participants didn’t go hungry when attending the workshop. The workshop began at 10am in the morning and went on till 3pm in the afternoon. That’s why we made sure that there was enough food, bottled water and beverages for all the participants. 

Electricity 

Because the current in Monrovia is unreliable, we bought gas every day to power the  generator that was attached to the bookstore. That way the fans and air-conditioners in the rooms could operate.

Posters, banners and publicity

Even before Vamba Sherif travelled to Liberia to conduct the workshop, we had begun to prepare for the event. Vamba Sherif gave a lengthy interview with a popular radio/television station about his return to Liberia during which he emphasized the importance of the workshop. We printed large banners and posters that were set up at the entrance to the bookstore and in the book store itself. We paid for publicity in big newspapers like The Daily Observer. 

Reception

On his arrival, Vamba Sherif was received at the airport by The National Troupe of Liberia, an renowned troupe that consisted of dancers, drummers and singers. The troupe intoned, ‘Welcome Home, Welcome Home.’  We are attaching a video of the reception. 

Participants

We were surprised by the large turnout. On our first day, we had 25 young people who showed up for the workshop. That number increased to 45 the next day when members of the Poetry Foundation joined. What was remarkable about this foundation was that the majority of the members were young women. As a result we had more young women than men in our workshop. This was important for us a foundation, because women are overwhelmingly underrepresented in the arts, including writing, in Liberia.  

Vamba Sherif shared his long experience as teacher of creative writing in the Netherlands with the participants. What was most exhilarating was to see was the level of enthusiasm among the students. It was as if they had been waiting for just such a workshop. They read from their work, listened to the facilitators and interacted with them. 

Here’s a link to an essay by one of the participants, a brilliant young poet, Azairous Zeon, describing his experience at the workshop:

https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberia-writing-community-convergence-on-vamba-sherifs-writing-workshop

BEYOND THE FIRST WORKSHOP – THE NEXT STEP

Writing Destiny was meant to inspire the young people of Liberia to write or build on the writing that they are already doing. From the essay by one of the participants, you can see that we succeeded in that regard. At the end of the workshop, we gave the students an assignment to write essays, poems or stories that would be edited and eventually included in the anthology: Pepper Coast, An anthology of Liberian Writings. 

To get to an anthology with of the best stories will require at least five rounds of workshop, building on the success of the first. We want to help our students write their destinies into existence. And we need the support of donors to realize that goal.