In the education context of sub-Saharan Africa, reading has received substantial attention in recent years. Reading skills and habits have been identified as a marker of success in formal education, particularly with the current international focus on reading achievement as a measure of learning. Meanwhile, adult literacy continues to be seen as an important feature of human development, and reading skills are carefully tracked in reporting on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This attention given to reading by major international agencies, and by the partners whom they influence, has contributed to a general belief that progress of all kinds can be linked to the ability to read and understand written text. Literacy and reading certainly feature prominently in many aspects of lifelong learning. However, the current interest in establishing so-called reading cultures is handicapped by a significant mismatch in assumptions about the utility and functions of literacy.