By By: Staff Writer
Are there bookstores in Africa?
Of course there are.
The real question is:
How many Africans have a bookstore within walking distance?
How many towns have a functioning public library?
How many families buy books every month?
How many children grow up seeing books treated like necessities rather than school requirements?
Africa has millions of churches. Millions of bars. Millions of mobile phones.
But how many bookstores?
Walk through many cities and towns across the continent, and you can easily find airtime, alcohol bars, makeshift restaurants, nightclubs, betting shops, and fast food.
Finding a bookstore is often much harder.
That is not a criticism. It is a development question.
Civilizations are built on ideas before they are built on concrete.
A society that consumes more information than it produces eventually becomes dependent on those who create the information.
Books matter because they preserve knowledge, transmit culture, challenge assumptions, and train people to think beyond their immediate circumstances.
No country has ever become a major scientific, technological, financial, or military power without a strong reading culture.
The question is not whether Africa has bookstores.
The question is whether they have enough of them.
And perhaps an even more uncomfortable question:
If ten new bookstores opened tomorrow in your city, would they survive?
How many professional Africans ever visit a book store in a year or know where a book store exists?
This is a free business idea, but research before you jump into it. You might not sell a single book🤣
