In a restaurant in Nigeria’s Lagos, three men and two women have been reading books for over 431 hours in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the longest marathon of reading aloud, part of a campaign to promote literacy in Africa’s most populous country.
Throughout the daunting task, dozens joined the group, some online via a live stream, cheering them on.
By Saturday, when the attempt ended, the reading marathoners had read 79 books authored by Nigerians, taking turns to continuously read out loud literary works and self-help books to give the other team members a chance to catch their breath.
In the country of more than 210 million people, “most people don’t have access to books (and) I participated to encourage inclusive education,” Precious Ukachi told The Associated Press. The 30-year-old was one of the reading marathoners. Others were John Obot, 37, Stephen Oyelami, 23, Temitope Ogunremi, 28, and Ketura Heman, 27.
Obot said the hardest part of the attempt was reading at night. “We had limited time to rest, but what kept me going was the goal.”
The current record holders for the longest reading aloud marathon are a group of five people from the Dominican Republic, who clocked 365 hours and 39 seconds in 2011.
