Volunteer ship offers cheap books

A ship carrying more than a million cheap books has docked in Douala, aiming to give Cameroonians access to thousands of previously unavailable and unaffordable titles.

The ship, the MV Doulos, is staffed entirely by volunteers and funded by a German charity, Good Books for All.

Francis Vosloo director of the charity, said the ship carried at least 8,000 different titles. All the books had been donated by publishers and were on sale for about one third their normal price, he added.

The ship opened its bookshop to the public on Friday, with buyers keen on a thin pamphlet entitled "AIDS: Understanding and Prevention" that was on sale for 600 CFA (US 90 cents).

English language course books and dictionaries, and computing textbooks, which were selling at 6,000 CFA ($9) instead of the regular price of 19,000 CFA ($28), were also popular, according to buyers.

Many shoppers were buying textbooks for specialist courses or for children still at school, while others said it was difficult to find non-French books in the Francophone city.

"A lot of work still needs to be done to educate people [in Cameroon]. Many people are held back in life due to the high cost of books," said the Secretary-General of Littoral Province, Simon Kamsa Patrick, during the official opening of the bookshop on Friday.

The 350 crew members of the MV Doulos, including the Dutch captain, are volunteers from 40 different countries. The ship has visited 89 countries and the organisers estimate that 16 million people have been on board to buy books.

The ship is scheduled to leave Douala on 1 October, on course to Libreville, Gabon.