• The Creative Potential of African Art Music in Ghana: A Personal Testimony (Companion Booklet to ICAMD CD Recordings)

    This booklet on the Creative Potential of African Music in Ghana: A Personal Testimony is dedicated to the memory of Professor Albert Mawere Opoku for his unique contribution to Dance Theatre in Ghana, his close collaboration with colleagues in artistic research projects, and his enthusiastic and encouraging interest in the creative work of artists in cognate fields. Nothing would have pleased him more than to be part of the launch of the four volumes of CD recordings of a selection of my musical works, for he was always making cassette dubbings of my music for his friends. I believe that this Companion Booklet will be of interest not only to his circle of friends but also to other music lovers, students and the general public.

    With this readership in mind, the scope of the booklet has been limited to a few personal observations. It does not tell the complete story of African Art Music in Ghana or Africa in general, something I hope our younger scholars will work on as scores and other sources of data become available. It is simply the story of an individual composer and his works, his reflections and comments on his experience as an African composer, which he presents in conjunction with the CD recordings of his works as testimonies of the creative potential of African art music. For a fuller and more objective account of my life and work, I would like to refer readers to Eric Akrofi: Sharing Knowledge and Experience: A Profile of J. H. Kwabena Nketia (Afram Publications 2003) and Akin Euba: Creative Musicology: A Study of J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Centre for Intercultural Studies, Berkeley.

  • Trinity High: Big Changes (Trinity High Vol 4)

    Big Changes at Trinity High is the fourth novel in the Trinity High series.

    Trinity High School is undergoing changes that are both challenging and heartbreaking. Naa Atswei, now a form three girl, no longer has to worry about the seniors – she is now one of them. What she and her mates do not know is that, in a strange twist of fate, they now have to worry about the juniors! These new ninos are not only atypical, but are united with one resolve – wage war on all seniors!

  • Lost at the Beach

    Suitable for upper primary pupils and children between 9 and 11 years

    Curiosity lead three children into an unforgettable adventure. Atsu, his twin sister Atsupui and their close friend Akoto venture to an abandoned beach to search for a dead whale which had been washed onto the beach. Not only do they get lost but they soon discover that they were not the only ones in search of the whale. How do they escape from these dangerous strangers and also find their way home?

  • Leadership and the Challenges of Command: The Ghana Military Academy Experience

    Brigadier General Daniel Kwadjo Frimpong was born on 2 February 1953 in Accra. He had his Secondary School Education at Mfantsipim School and the Ghana Secondary Technical School and had his first degree from the University of Ghana, Legon, where he also served as a Teaching Assistant for a year.

    He also has an M.A. in Public Administration from Carleton University, Ottawa (Canada) and studied Strategic Planning and Management at GIMPA.

    Brigadier General Frimpong had his basic Military Training at the Ghana Military Academy and the Cadets Training School in Canada and was commissioned on 21st July, 1973. He undertook a host of Professional Military Courses including the Senior Command and Staff Course in Jaji-Kaduna (in Nigeria). Brig. Gen. Daniel Frimpong has had varied experiences including service with the United Nations in peace-keeping operations in the Sinai, Lebanon and Cambodia. He was a member of the Consultative Assembly, which drew the constitution for the Fourth Republic.

    He has been a Directing Staff in both Ghana and Nigeria at the Senior Command and Staff Colleges prior to being the Commanding Officer of the Ghana Military Academy, the singular experience out of which this book has emerged. He is currently the Military Attache at the Permanent Mission of Ghana to the United Nations in New York.

    In this book Brigadier General Daniel Frimpong extensively discusses virtues, that is the excellences of character that is crucially important not only to military leadership and command but to all kinds of Leadership. Though his views and recommendations were derived from his experience as the Commanding Officer of the Ghana Military Academy, they apply to leadership outside the barracks.

    Among the qualities emphasised are firmness, integrity and determination to adhere to principles and the ability for quick and correct assessment of unexpected situations. His analyses are incisive and convincing.

    There is a lot to learn from this book on how to come to grips with quandaries of leadership.

  • Wuthering Heights (Great Stories in Easy English)

    Wuthering Heights is one of the most famous love stories in the English language. It is also, as the Introduction to this edition reveals, one of the most potent revenge narratives. Its ingenious narrative structure, vivid evocation of landscape, and the extraordinary power of its depiction of love and hatred have given it a unique place in English literature. The passionate tale of Catherine and Heathcliff is here presented in a new edition that examines the qualities that make it such a powerful and compelling novel. The Introduction by Helen Small sheds light on the novel’s oddness and power, its amorality and Romantic influences, its structure and narration, and the sadistic violence embodied in the character of Heathcliff.

  • Nursery Writing Book 5

    Age Range: 4+

    These six workbooks are intended for pre-school children. They have been designed to help them apply their practical and oral skills to more concrete written work.

    The books are graded in difficulty to provide a gradual introduction to a variety of concepts, and give opportunities for children to reinforce and develop skills and understanding.

    They include activities designed to stretch the more able child.

    A variety of essential pre-reading and early mathematical skills are covered, including:

    • left-to-right coordination
    • sequencing
    • matching
    • colour recognition
    • shape recognition
    • number recognition
    • counting
    • number writing practice

    The exercises are fun to do, whilst providing a firm foundation in essential pre-school concepts, and should prove to be a firm favourite with children, parents and teachers.

  • African Pianism: Twelve Pedagogical Pieces

    “African Pianism refers to a style of piano music which derives its characteristic idiom from the procedures of African percussion music as exemplified in bell patterns, drumming, xylophone and mbira music. It may use simple or extended rhythmic motifs or the lyricism of traditional songs and even those of African popular music as the basis of its rhythmic phrases. It is open ended as far as the use of tonal materials is concerned except that it may draw on the modal and cadential characteristics of traditional music.

    “Its harmonic idiom may be tonal, atonal, consonant or dissonant in whole or in part, depending on the preferences of the composer, the mood or impressions he wishes to create or how he chooses to reinforce, heighten or soften the jaggedness of successive percussive attacks. In this respect the African composer does not have to tie himself down to any particular school of writing if his primary aim is to explore the potential of African rhythmic and tonal usages.”

    Although I have felt the need for this kind of material even in the 1950s, most of the Twelve Pedagogical Pieces in this volume were written when the school of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana was established in the 1960s in order to give the African piano student being nurtured on simplified and original versions of Western piano repertoire something with African rhythmic and tonal flavour that may enrich his experience, shapes his orientation, sense of timing and coordination of rhythmic and tonal events.

    As the titles of the pieces indicate, I have used a variety of traditional and popular sources as the basis of the compositions. Each source establishes a framework of rhythmic and tonal configuration from which a few idiomatic derivatives are made and used in the inner and outer structures of the piece in such a way as to create a perpetual feeling of propulsive motion. Each piece is sustained by a particular quality of motion created in this manner.

    As in traditional African practice each piece can be repeated once or twice except where a definite closure is indicated by a retard. The pianist can also select a number of them and play them as a suite. A few of them such as the Volta Fantasy and Meditation can stand on their own as concert pieces and have been presented in that manner by both African and Western pianist. It is my hope, there- fore, that some of the pedagogical pieces will be of general interest. – J. H. Kwabena Nketia

  • Sharing Knowledge and Experience: A Profile of Kwabena Nketia – Scholar and Music Educator

    Kwabena Nketia was a renowned scholar, linguist, composer, poet, researcher, teacher and musicologist in Ghana. His writings have become standard reference works on African musicology, and his work spanned many countries and interests. Nketia maintained a strong interest in Afro-American concerns, African musical traditions and Africans and blacks in the diaspora; and he worked tirelessly on establishing a theoretical framework of African music; consciousness of African identity in music; and to produce publications representing his own musical culture.

    This biography concentrates on the educational and research aspects of Nketia’s work, assessing the importance of his contribution to African musicology, thought on music education, and practical application of ethnomusicology and composition in teaching method, and exercises in African rhythm.

  • Adaku at the Homowo Festival

    Age Range: 7 – 12 years

    Twelve year old Adaku lives in Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Her father is always telling his children stories about their tribe, the Gas. He believes that a person must know his roots.

    During the school vacation, Adaku travels to the Greater Accra Region to spend the holidays with her grandparents in a large fishing village near Accra.

    She arrives just before the Homowo festival of the Ga people, and is plunged into various strange and interesting activities.

    Join Adaku as she learns about the history of her people and the Homowo festival.

  • Eʋegbe Sɔsrɔ Gbale 5

    Suitable for children from 6 years and above, learning the Ewe language. Having books in one’s mother tongue is an essential tool in teaching young children to read.

  • Eʋegbe Sɔsrɔ Gbale 6

    Suitable for children from 6 years and above, learning the Ewe language. Having books in one’s mother tongue is an essential tool in teaching young children to read.

  • Asante Kasasua Nwoma 5 (Asante Twi)

    Suitable for children from 6 years and above, learning the Twi (Asante) language. Having books in one’s mother tongue is an essential tool in teaching young children to read.

  • Asante Kasasua Nwoma 6 (Asante Twi)

    Suitable for children from 6 years and above, learning the Twi (Asante) language. Having books in one’s mother tongue is an essential tool in teaching young children to read.

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