"Sam Kotei’s book was one of the first major in-depth studies on the state of the book and publishing in Africa, in which the author looked back on a decade of special efforts to alleviate the “acute shortage of books” identified at the UNESCO meeting on books in Accra in 1968. The author notes that progress was uneven and that many of the problems identified in 1968 still remained, although African publishing had generally made “impressive strides”. The author surveyed the available literature, questioned writers, publishers, printers, libraries, bookshops, national book development councils, and interviewed book industry professional in several African countries in order to produce this overview of the situation in the 1970s and 1980s. Concludes with an examination of the future prospects of the book industry in Africa. Kotei’s book remains a seminal study, not least for purposes of comparison as it relates to the growth of the African book industries since the 1980s." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 290)