Abubakar did not like to read when he was young. It felt like a boring chore. One day, he borrowed a book from the library out of curiosity, and that was the first time he experienced the magic of reading and its power to transport you to different worlds. But the magic only lasted a while. He stopped reading for fun and only read textbooks for school.
As a teenager, he developed avascular necrosis, a medical complication of Sickle Cell anemia and couldn’t attend school. He started to read again and recaptured that magic briefly. And when he stopped reading this time, he found a void was left where the books had been.
When Abubakar moved to the U.S from Sierra Leone, he felt this void grow, and it pulled him back into reading. He read incessantly and devoured books. He also discovered writing to be the best therapy for all the trauma caused by sickle cell anemia. He wanted to be able to express himself the way the authors of his favorite books did. Reading motivated him to write.
When Abubakar moved back home to Sierra Leone in 2025, he was driven by a strong need to share his newfound passion for writing and reading with the young people in his Country, so he founded The Konima Institute with the hopes of inspiring generations of storytellers and equipping them with the power of Literacy.