Reverend Acheampong E. S. Builderman, a theologian, educational consultant and author, has called on Ghanaians to make reading, writing and critical thinking a national culture, saying a nation that reads extensively is better positioned to build a knowledge-driven economy.
He said literacy should no longer be understood merely as the ability to read and write but as a foundation for intellectual independence, responsible citizenship, spiritual maturity, innovation and national development.
Rev Builderman, Missions Director and Lead Pastor of Thanksgiving Place Ministries Incorporated in Accra, made the call ahead of International Literacy Day, observed globally on September 8.
He said a society that neglected reading ultimately weakened its capacity to think, question, innovate and preserve its own story.
"Our history was not written by us," he said, stressing the need for Africans to become more intentional about researching, documenting and telling their own stories.
According to him, Africans must return to the discipline of reading and research if they are to distinguish historical fact from inherited assumptions and develop the intellectual capacity required to shape their future.
Rev Builderman said his own intellectual journey had involved extensive research into colonialism, African history, religion and civilisation. He said reading gives people the capacity to interrogate what they have been told.
The Reverend Minister said the challenge facing Africa was not simply illiteracy in the conventional sense, but also the failure to cultivate a population that reads deeply, thinks critically and applies knowledge responsibly.
He said Christians, in particular, must become people of the word and people of knowledge, capable of engaging Scripture, history, science, economics, culture and contemporary social questions intelligently.
He said knowledge acquired through reading should ultimately translate into character, competence and action.
"If we read but do not think, we have only accumulated information. If we think but do not act, knowledge has not yet become transformation," he said.
Rev Builderman said churches had an important role to play in creating communities where reading, writing, research and intellectual inquiry were encouraged alongside prayer and spiritual formation. He urged pastors and Christian leaders to challenge young people to read beyond religious literature and engage books that would broaden their understanding of society, history, leadership, economics, science, governance and human development.
The call for a stronger reading culture is closely connected to Rev Builderman's latest literary project, Africa Beware: The Chains, the Choice, and the Almighty God Who Sets a Continent Free, a work that examines questions surrounding Africa's history, identity, slavery, colonialism, leadership and development.
The book was inspired, he said, by questions from his daughters while they were studying African history. Their questions compelled him to revisit issues that many adults had either failed to interrogate or had become accustomed to accepting without sufficient examination.
"Before any history lesson taught an African child that her past was small, the map on the wall had already taught her that her continent was small – the lies reached her before she could even read," he said.
Rev Builderman said the book sought not merely to revisit historical grievances, but to encourage Africans to recover their humanity, confront historical injustice and accept responsibility for the future.
He urged parents to introduce children to books early, schools to strengthen reading cultures, churches to establish libraries and reading programmes, and young people to make reading a disciplined part of their daily lives.
"Education does not end when you leave school. The moment you stop learning, you begin to surrender your capacity to grow," he said.
"A reading nation builds a knowledge economy," he said, urging Ghanaians to use International Literacy Day as an opportunity to rediscover the power of books and knowledge. "Knowledge, when transformed into responsible action, becomes a force for national renewal."
