YO’ Books Limited is the South Sudan’s leading & independent bookstore committed to offering a quality selection of affordable new, bargain, and gently read books in print and digital format, as well as gifts and educational items for customers of all ages and backgrounds, ensuring that both local and international content is easily available at local prices.
We believe that books have power to change us - “for good”. We belief that South Sudan as a new Country need long term, sustainable good changes and books have a role to play due to their good, supportive and positive influence. We are passionate about the written word and seek to share our love of reading to help create and sustain a community of lifelong and active readers in South Sudan.
We strive to provide a hospitable and nurturing environment to encourage the healthy exchange of ideas by hosting numerous readings, book clubs, panel presentations, book launches and on-line discussions.
We are committed to engaging with the many diverse peoples and organizations in South Sudan, particularly in Juba City, but also on a national and international scale, to work towards the goals of a knowledgeable public and a peaceful and environmentally sustainable South Sudan and Africa as a whole.
The idea of YO’ Books started way back in 2010 by Mr. Yohanis Riek, who arrived in Juba, South Sudan, in February 2010 at the age of twenty four to study at University of Juba’s Medical School. Despite a limited basic school education as a result of civil wars, he became a passionate reader, buying a book a week.
Mr. Yohanis Riek, having nowhere to access books himself, then conceptualized the idea of having a bookstore where people with the same problem will have access to books. He then raised and invested private funds into the initiative, ensuring that it would be more than a place for people with means to buy books but also a place for low income people to feel welcome.
Soon YO’ Books, as it is affectionately known by many people in town, became a literary gathering place. The booths, and especially the round table and stools were filled with students, faculty, and townspeople often engaged in spirited discussions about books and current events.
He began this new adventure with 300 titles purchased from Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Pearson Education and Oxford University Press. But it did not stop there. In April 2017, CINOP Global asked Yohanis to establish a library for their training center in Juba located at the Multi-purpose Training Center. This provided opportunity to scale up and establishing a full-fledged bookstore company.
Since opening our doors in 2017 in Juba Town, we have been able to offer our customers an alternative to the ordinary. We carry an extensive inventory of new and nearly new books from classic literature to current bestsellers. Our staff are knowledgeable and friendly and able to help you choose the perfect book for you or your family.
In addition, many of the YO’ Books’ events are planned in conjunction with University faculties, student organizations, and departments. We have also kept up with the growth of e-Books, with the development of a full service website, http://www.yobooks-ss.com/, offering customers the opportunity to order books 24 hours a day.
We believe that many customers need to look at, touch and feel a book before they buy, so being a ‘clicks and mortar’ store can afford them the best of both worlds. We have also lived up to our goal of bringing readers and writers together, with a literary event schedule including more than 12 events a year for adults, youth and children, and attended by hundreds of people annually.
In 2017, we initiated the Signed First Edition Club. Each month, club members receive a signed First Edition of a newly published book selected by the YO’ Books for its literary merit and potential collectability. The club now boasts over 100 members.
The YO’ Books is proud of its history and its continuing role in South Sudan’s community life. This year we are celebrating our 1st anniversary as a company and expect to celebrate many more in the years to come.
The year 2017 was an extra achievement for us, YO’ Books received an Award from the South Sudan NGO Forum in recognition of our outstanding work in the category of most innovative empowering Youth Initiative at the 2017 NNGOs and citizen exposition held at Nyakuron Cultural Center on Oct 28.
YO’ Books Limited believes that a literate and better informed population can speed up South Sudan’s chances of development and recovery from decades of war, as well as from sliding back into instability. YO’ Books Limited also seeks to be a source of inspiration for self-motivated learning.
In addition to selling new titles, YO’ Books supports book drives and collects used books and textbooks through a network of 5 university campuses and partnerships with over 10 NGOs and schools nationwide.
So far, the company has converted more than 10,000 books into over $30,000 in funding for literacy and education. In the process, we’ve also diverted more than 250 books from landfills and dustbins in Juba.
