In an Accra bus station, a little girl thumbs through videos on TikTok, headphones on, her laughter silent but audible. A street vendor nearby flips through a stack of romance novels, their covers burned golden by the sun, curled at the edges.
There was a moment when these books were out of stock by lunchtime. Now they sit undisturbed.
Ask anyone under 25 in Ghana when they last finished a novel for fun, and many will smile. Some may even laugh. “I’m not a reader,” they’ll say, as if reading is a language they’ve forgotten or never learned. It’s tempting to call it a crisis. But what if it’s a transition?
The Death of the Page
There was a time when reading was the "vibe". Bookstores buzzed. Libraries if there were just a handful of them were treated like temples or even a treasure. Children sat in rings to listen to stories, not stare at screens.
Now, most children in Ghana hardly read except when school forces them to. Read to memorise. Read and forget. What we call "chew and pour."
Paperbacks are expensive. Most Ghanaian homes don't own a single one. Libraries are underfunded and understaffed, as if students read the same 3 or 4 government-approved novels.
A book is not just hard to find, it's hard to buy. For many families, buying a novel is a luxury, not a habit.
The Emergence of the Phone
And yet teenagers are still reading. They just don't call it by that name.
They read captioned Instagram posts that unfold like diary summaries. They read Twitter threads that are flash fiction. They binge WhatsApp story updates full of drama, suspense, and cliffhangers. Thousands read fanfiction on the web, never handling a tangible book.
TikTok, usually considered the books' enemy is ironically the silent rescuer of reading. On the platform, "BookTok" is powerful.
Book nerds post tear-drenched quotes, flip pages, and cry over cliffhangers. These small clips tease. Users ask: What book is that? Why was she crying? What happens next?
Reading hasn’t died. It’s just shapeshifted into something faster, flashier, and sometimes even deeper. We’re reading differently. Not necessarily less.
Still Holding On
But not everyone has let go of the page. Like me, I never leave home without a book in my bag. Sometimes people stare when I read in public like I'm carrying something illegal but I don't mind.
Books are like doors to other places. And in this country, we all need escape.
All over Ghana, readers are keeping the flame alive. Book clubs meeting once a month. Young authors publishing novellas online. Flash book festivals in Accra.
And then there are others handling anonymous TikTok pages to post pages from stories, hoping to make someone stop scrolling long enough to read a line that stays with them.
Rebirth in the Digital Age?
We’re not going backward. Technology isn’t the enemy. If anything, it’s the new library.
E-books, audiobooks, and short stories in digital form are becoming readily available. Anybooks, even free PDFs from Telegram channels are making reading accessible to those who cannot afford print editions.
The writers, too, are changing. They're building stories within small spaces. Using voiceovers. Intermingling images and words. Today's Ghanaian reader might no longer be turning the pages. They swipe. They tap. They listen.
That doesn't indicate that they don't care. It's just that they've changed but is that sad? Absolutely not!!
The Last Word
So no, reading is not dead in Ghana.
It's been wounded, maybe. Destructed. Misunderstood. But it's also being reborn quietly, digitally, differently from the ashes just like the mythical Phoenix bird.
We may not always notice it, but the story still whispers. In text bubbles. In book reviews on TikTok. In girls like me, stashing novels in bags like secret weapons. In boys inlove writing poetry on broken phone screens. In me. In you.
We just need to listen closely.
Because the next chapter? It's already in progress.
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