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Ahwene Pa Nkasa: Standing with JDM
Standing with JDM is quite clear in this title that it does not intend to undermine the former president’s image but to burnish it. What is not clear is whether it was written to coincide with the 2020 Election Year.
It is in two parts, “The Homeland Briefs” and the “Diplomatic Briefs”. Independent of each other, they are held together by what the author calls the “Mahamarabilia” thread – a word he invented to describe his privileged proximity to the 4th president of the 4th Republic of Ghana.
Part One has 42 chapters that highlight events like Dumsor, Gitmo 2, Montie 3, Cheating at Elections, Lying and Blaming it on Mahama, Destroying friends and Family and much, much more…It also has intellectual discourses on Traditional Governance and the Ballot Box, Kigali (dangers that could be awaiting Ghana in this Election Year), Ebola and Covid-19 and the history of Ghana’s “coodetas” in new lights that would surprise and reveal…
Part Two, with 25 chapters, is devoted entirely to the author’s diplomatic service and reads sometimes like a coursebook on practical diplomacy and other times like a travelogue with intriguing insights. We come across his encounter with a sex change person (man to woman) and how his life was nearly cut short when his official car and ostrich crashed into each other on the highway from Windhoek to Gaborone. Part Two is so suffused with humour that it is difficult to tell whether he is pulling the reader’s leg or stating facts.
Most of the chapters are illustrated with unique pictures that could stand on their own as stories. It is a beautifully designed book, well laid out reader-friendly. For the first time, a modern version of adinkra, called adinshia, has had a public airing in the book…
Whatever your political persuasion is, your intellect will make you love this beautiful book on Mahama.₵120.00 -
Working with Rawlings
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings burst on the Ghanaian political scene with a failed military mutiny on May 15th, 1979. On June 4th 1979, following a successful uprising staged by junior officers and other ranks of the Ghana Armed Forces, he emerged as the Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which ruled Ghana for three months and handed over to a civilian constitutional government on 24th September 1979. On 31st December 1981, he overthrew the constitutional government and formed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) as the Government of Ghana. He was elected a constitutional President in 1992 and assumed office as such on 7th January 1993. He served two terms as President of the Republic of Ghana, finally leaving office on 6th January 2001.
Jerry John Rawlings is an enigma. It was a privilege working with him and being close to him. He and I went through many exciting experiences together. I have documented some of those experiences in this book. But there are many other experiences which I have not documented either because they belong to the realm of confidentiality or of privacy. What I have documented, however, is enough to give present and future leaders some ideas about governance at the highest levels; the dos and don’ts of governance; the skills required for governance and the importance of human relations as a leadership trait.
This is not a book about Jerry John Rawlings. It is not a book about Kwamena Ahwoi. It is not a book about the PNDC. It is not a book about the NDC. It is a book about Kwamena Ahwoi working with Jerry John Rawlings; our working relationship; our ups and downs and our joint commitment to building a better Ghana than the one we found it. Somewhere along the line, we drifted apart. This book is about that as well. It is my hope that Ghana’s leaders of today and our leaders of the future will learn some lessons from my account of Working with Rawlings, leaving out the negatives and accentuating the positives.
₵150.00Working with Rawlings
₵150.00 -
It Happened in Ghana: A Historical Romance 1824-1971
It Happened in Ghana carries a positive message. Conceived as a literary work, it demonstrates that racial prejudice based on skin colour is not a pervasive and unalterable human condition.
The principal characters who are both Black and White are embroiled in various encounters, notably wars, slave trade, colonialism and post colonial reconstruction. Regardless of their skin colour and cultural differences, they make friends or fall in love secretly during these encounters. When they are forced to part company by the cessation of hostilities or whatever brought them together, they serve in various capacities in new locations outside their original places of domicile. They are accepted or integrated into existing social structures because of the warmth oftheir personalities and the manner in which they are able to adjust themselves to the pressures and challenges of new environments.
Changes in the circumstances of the principal characters or their descendants enable them not only to restore broken relationships but also to identify themselves with the cause of freedom and justice or to reconnect in various ways with the development aspirations of Ghana where it all started.
₵40.00 -
They Came From Ghana: The Two Worlds of Kwame and Kwabena Boaten
In this historical novel of 19th century Gold Coast, two young Ashanti boys are introduced to the unfamiliar but fascinating world of the white man. Kwame and Kwabena Boaten are eager to learn the ways of their mentors, Tedlie and Bowdich, to become doctor and administrator respectively so they can come back and help their own people. Despite the curtailment of their government sponsorship in London, they get benefactors to help them continue their education. They however have to contend with racism and bullying from Hardwick as well as inordinate hatred from Dupuis, Under-Secretary and later His majesty’s Envoy to the Guinea Coast (whose machinations dog them all their lives). How do they survive? Kwabena reminds Kwame, ‘If they attack us – we can bear rough handling. [But] they cannot break our spirit; we are Ashanti remember; and afterwards we shall carefully plan our revenge.’ Do they succeed in the face of all the odds?
Noel Smith effortlessly weaves a brilliant tale of sheer determination, ambition, intrigue, love and altruism, through the treacherous terrain of the slave trade, missionary activities and disease ridden expeditions, and historical insight.
₵40.00 -
The Secret of the Purple Lake
The Secret of the Purple Lake is a collection of five interlinked stories that take us from Ghana to Orkney, and from Spain to Norway and Thailand. As a minor character from one story assumes a major role in the next, we meet a fascinating cast, including Imoro the magic elephant, the Walrus Prince, and the Wild Princesses of Rousay. The protagonist of the opening tale, The Fisherman’s Daughter, has to retrieve her dead father’s bones from the bottom of the sea, in order to bring harmony back to her seaside village. In fulfilling her task, she must evade the clutches of The Fish-man of the Purple Lake. The Fish-man, a monstrous creature with the body of a man and the head of a fish, was once a beautiful boy from the Sahel, and has his own story about how he became the Fish-man.
₵75.00 -
Death of an Empire: Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Africa
A participant-witness in the history of the transition from Gold Coast to Ghana, Jantuah who died in 2011 at the age of 89, reflects and interprets with unique understanding some of the major events of the 1950s and 60s as well as foreign policy formulation including his role as a diplomat during the Algerian struggle for Independence and France’s Charles de Gaulle’s retrogressive policies; his dealings with the African National Congress and it’s president, Oliver Tambo, an Apartheid and Southern Rhodesia; becoming at the end an executor to his friend – Nkrumah’s Will.
The book also has reflections on Ghana’s Fourth Republic and development on the African Continent since. It is edited with a detailed introduction by Jantuah’s nephew, the development specialist and literacy writer, Ivor Agyeman-Duah, who he worked with over the years on this and is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.
₵100.00 -
Kwame Nkrumah and the Dawn of the Cold War: The West African National Secretariat, 1945-48
The history of a Pan-Africanist movement based in Britain and its role in the Cold War in Africa
The West African National Secretariat (WANS) has almost been forgotten by history. A pan-Africanist movement founded in 1945 by Kwame Nkrumah and colleagues in London and France, WANS campaigned for independence and unity. Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast in late 1947. The colonial government accused him of being a communist and fomenting the riots of early 1948. He was jailed. This led to the beginning of the Cold War in West Africa.
Drawing on archival research including the newly released MI5 files, Marika Sherwood reports on the work of WANS, on the plans for a unity conference in October 1948 in Lagos, and on Nkrumah’s return home. Sherwood demonstrates that colonial powers colluded with each other and the US in order to control the burgeoning struggles for independence. By labelling African nationalists as ‘communists’ in their efforts to contain decolonisation, the Western powers introduced the Cold War to the continent.
Providing a rich exploration of a neglected history, this book sheds light for the first time on a crucial historical moment in the history of West Africa and the developmental trajectory of West African independence.
₵75.00 -
The Pied Piper (Ladybird Readers Series Level 4)
Age Range: 5 – 8 years
Everyone in Hamelin was happy until the rats came. One day, a man went to see the mayor. “I can make the rats leave Hamelin, ” he said.
Ladybird Readers is a graded reading series of traditional tales, popular characters, modern stories, and non-fiction, written for young learners of English as a foreign or second language.
Beautifully illustrated and carefully written, the series combines the best of Ladybird content with the structured language progression that will help children develop their reading, writing, speaking, listening and critical thinking skills.
The four levels of Readers and Activity Books follow the CEFR framework and include language activities that provide preparation for the Cambridge English: Young Learners (YLE) Starters, Movers and Flyers exams.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a Level 4 Reader, is A2 in the CEFR framework and supports YLE Flyers exams. The longer text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, more complex past and future tense structures, modal verbs and a wider variety of conjunctions.
₵28.00 -
David Copperfield (Bestselling Illustrated Classics)
Growing Up!
Young David Copperfield, orphaned as a child, abandoned by a vicious stepfather, must learn to make a life for himself. In Charles Dickens’ brilliant novel, we learn of David’s early harsh years. . . his adoption by his eccentric aunt. . . his betrayal by a childhood friend. . . the pressures of starting a career. . . immature, young love. . . and finally career success and personal happiness.
Charles Dickens’ sensitive portrayal of David’s early years has made David Copperfield one of the world’s most beloved novels.
₵25.00