Accra, World Book Capital (WBC) 2023

By RODNEY NKRUMAH-BOATENG (rodboat@yahoo.com)

The other day, in a telephone conversation with my friend the writer Kofi Akpabli about
everything and nothing, he mentioned that Accra had been declared the World Book
Capital (WBC) 2023. I gasped. What? When? Why? These three ‘Ws’ flew around my
mind, bumping violently into each other in vain.
How come this was not a headline news event? Or it had slipped beneath the radar, as
the state of the economy, political stories and some salacious gossip about private lives
scrambled for our attention?
UNESCO declaration
After our conversation, I went hunting for this story. Soon I found it on the website of
the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). A press
release dated 22 nd September 2021 and posted on the website read:
"Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, has named Accra (Ghana) as UNESCO
World Book Capital for 2023, following the evaluation of the World Book Capital
Advisory Committee.
"…the city of Accra was selected for its strong focus on young people and their potential
to contribute to the culture and wealth of Ghana. Accra’s proposed programme seeks to
use the power of books to engage these young people, as an effective way of skilling
up the next generation.
"The city proposed to the committee a broad programme that targets marginal groups
with high levels of illiteracy including women, youth, migrants, street children and
persons with disabilities. Measures to be implemented include the reinforcing of school
and community infrastructure and institutional support for lifelong learning, in order to
foster the culture of reading. By championing the publishing sector and other creative

industries, the programme also aims to encourage professional skills development to
stimulate the country’s socio-economic transformation.
"Activities will include the introduction of mobile libraries to reach marginalized groups,
the holding of workshops to promote reading and writing of books in different Ghanaian
languages, the establishment of skills and training centres for unemployed youth and
the organization of competitions to showcase Ghanaian arts and culture and promote
inclusivity.
"The application from Accra also includes a strong human rights dimension, which aims
to raise public awareness about freedom of information and expression, building on its
own promotion of these rights as well as its involvement in World Press Freedom Day.
"The year of celebrations will start on 23 April 2023, on World Book and Copyright
Day."
‘Ghanaians do not like reading’
One of the most popular sayings in this country is that ‘Ghanaians do not like reading’.
Well, what I know is that generally, reading is not a habit one suddenly picks up as an
adult. It is best nurtured from a young age and then it becomes a lifetime habit. I
know a number of people with a string of academic qualifications who do not read
outside their bibles – not even magazines or journals.
Unfortunately, many who have been brought up on a diet of books and a culture of
reading find themselves straying in adulthood, distracted by very busy work and social
schedules, social media and a 24/7 news media cycle of modern society.
I was one of those lost souls, but I have rediscovered the light and have challenged
myself to read at least two books a month this year. Mariama Ba’s ‘So Long a Letter’ is
done, and I am currently on Peter Abraham’s ‘Mine Boy’. I intend to cover fiction,
historical narratives and autobiographies. I am also working quietly on putting a novel
together.

Slow renaissance
Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to a reading culture is access to the right materials
in the first place. For the book lover in Ghana, the main complaints are availability of
titles, finding the right one-stop bookshops where they can get the books they crave
and, with the increase in traffic in cities, the inconvenience and frustration of hopping
from bookshop to bookshop, and the associated stress. For book lovers outside the
capital, especially, these issues are compounded by lack of access to well-stocked
outlets for books.
This is where Booknook.store, a fast-growing online bookstore operating out of Ghana,
comes in. Set up by Kofi Akpabli and his fellow writer and friend Nana Awere Damoah
and some friends, Booknook is the bridge between author/publisher and reader and a
very convenient platform I use regularly.
As Nana Damoah puts it, "Wherever you are in Ghana, Booknook.store should be your
closest bookstore. And you shouldn't be limited in what books you can get because of
your location, whether in Abetifi or Zebilla."
Literary ecosystem
Beyond access to books, there is a support system that must be available and
functional if a reading and literary culture is to have any meaning, and in Ghana, the
signs are encouraging.
For instance, the ‘Pa Gya!’ Literary Festival, a three-day literary arts festival featuring
activities such as readings, panel discussions, performances, book launches and sales,
literary prize awards and many more has been taking place in Accra at the Goethe
Institut for quite some time. The Accra International Book Festival is also another
important pit stop on the literary landscape.
Still on promoting reading, in 2015, Kofi Akpabli and Nana Awere Damoah gave
themselves two targets: to do quarterly public book readings and to extend the activity

beyond Accra. They dubbed it DAkpabli Readathon. A number of book clubs have also
been popping up quietly in the country, especially involving young children.

In September last year, Worldreader Ghana collaborated with the Accra World Book
Capital 2023 Secretariat and other stakeholders to organize the Accra DigiRead
Experience at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly premises, whilst the Naky Nugget
Series, the GBDC, Ghana Education Service and other stakeholders collaborated in
October 2022 to organize the Ashanti Regional Book Fair in Kumasi to promote reading
among children. The Ghana Library Authority has also been involved in several book
reading initiatives across the country.

Afrocentric authors

The exciting thing about all of this is that whilst some of us had to contend with and
gorge on Alfred Hitchcock, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Barbara Cartland, Sidney Sheldon
and Enid Blyton books as little children, the young ones of today have a wide range of
fantastic Ghanaian and African authors to choose from whose stories they can relate to.
The Booknook online store is an excellent resource for this.

Still on the writing side, the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) website has a number
of innovative programmes for writers and would-be writers, whilst the Writers and
Readers Grotto in Accra offers the space for writers and would-be writers to meet with
each other and with readers to discuss their work and get feedback.

Reading enriches our knowledge bank, transports us into worlds we had never imagined
existed, and irrigates and nurtures our imagination. A reading culture may not be a
bread-and-butter affair, but man shall not live by bread alone, as the good book
reminds us. Balance is key. As the American author Mark Twain famously put it, "the
man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read." So grab a
book and get reading.

I wish the Accra, World Book Capital 2023 Secretariat the very best as it rolls out its
programmes to celebrate this important feat.