• Houseboy (African Writers Series, AWS29)

    Toundi Ondoua, the rural African protagonist of Houseboy, encounters a world of prisms that cast beautiful but unobtainable glimmers, especially for a black youth in colonial Cameroon.
    Houseboy, written in the form of Toundi’s captivating diary and translated from the original French, discloses his awe of the white world and a web of unpredictable experiences. Early on, he escapes his father’s angry blows by seeking asylum with his benefactor, the local European priest who meets an untimely death. Toundi then becomes “the Chief European’s ‘boy’–the dog of the King.” Toundi’s attempt to fulfill a dream of advancement and improvement opens his eyes to troubling realities. Gradually, preconceptions of the Europeans come crashing down on him as he struggles with his identity, his place in society, and the changing culture.
  • The Clothes of Nakedness (African Writers Series)

     Winner of The Commonwealth Writers Prize 1999 and The Commonwealth Writer’s Prize Best First Book Africa 1999.
    Gabriel Bukari is an out-of-work taxi driver living from hand-to-mouth in a poor suburb of Accra: honest, kind-hearted, and faithful to his wife. When he meets Mystique Mysterious, the ‘big man’ who can get him a job, he is exposed to temptations he has never faced before.
    In this lively portrait of relations between rich and poor in urban Ghana, Benjamin Kwakye explores the seductive power of corruption and shows how ordinary people can be manipulated to make choices which threaten their community life.
  • The Enemy Within (African Writers Series)

    Set in South Africa in the early 1990s, against a backdrop of de Klerk’s rise to power, Steve Jacobs tells the story of Jeremy Spielman, a Jewish junior barrister, and his defense of a Xhosa man accused of murder.

    The murder trial, an Afrikaner girlfriend, and a mother who has tried to keep him from gentiles his whole life, all force Jeremy to confront his own love-hate relationship with the anti-apartheid struggle, South Africa’s almost unconscious racism, anti-Semitism, and his faith in an unjust legal system.

    Steve Jacobs trained as a lawyer but left his legal career to concentrate on writing. He is an active campaigner against cruelty to animals and has worked with squatters at Crossroads and in a local group opposing a nuclear power station.

  • Beyond the Horizon (African Writers Series)

    Gazing at her naked body in the mirror, Mara reflects on her transformation from naive Ghanaian village girl into a prostitute in a German brothel. Mara has been deceived by her husband, Akobi, into coming to Europe to find a “paradise,” but, as the truth about Akobi and her new life unfolds, she realizes she is trapped. The expectations of her family in Africa force her to remain, living a lie. As she fights back, she finds the revenge she takes can in no way compensate for her loss of innocence and lifetime exile from her homeland.This is a natural storyteller’s compelling and sobering account of the ruthless exploitation of women in Africa and Europe.

    Amma Darko was born in Tamale, Ghana, and grew up in Accra. After living in Germany, she returned to Ghana. Beyond the Horizon, first published in German, is Amma Darko’s first novel.

  • So Long a Letter (African Writers Series)

    Written by award-winning African novelist Mariama Ba and translated from the original French, So Long a Letter has been recognized as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The brief narrative, written as an extended letter, is a sequence of reminiscences—some wistful, some bitter—recounted by recently widowed Senegalese schoolteacher Ramatoulaye Fall. Addressed to a lifelong friend, Aissatou, it is a record of Ramatoulaye’s emotional struggle for survival after her husband betrayed their marriage by taking a second wife. This semi-autobiographical account is a perceptive testimony to the plight of educated and articulate Muslim women. Angered by the traditions that allow polygyny, they inhabit a social milieu dominated by attitudes and values that deny them status equal to men. Ramatoulaye hopes for a world where the best of old customs and new freedom can be combined.Considered a classic of contemporary African women’s literature, So Long a Letter is a must-read for anyone interested in African literature and the passage from colonialism to modernism in a Muslim country.

    Winner of the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

  • The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (African Writers Series, AWS43)

    01
    A railway freight clerk in Ghana attempts to hold out against the pressures that impel him toward corruption in both his family and his country. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is the novel that catapulted Ayi Kwei Armah into the limelight. The novel is generally a satirical attack on the Ghanaian society during Kwame Nkrumah’s regime and the period immediately after independence in the 1960s. It is often claimed to rank with Things Fall Apart as one of the high points of post-colonial African Literature.
  • The Concubine (African Writers Series, AWS25)

    Ihuoma, a beautiful young widow, has the admiration of the entire community in which she lives, and especially of the hunter Ekwueme. Obedient to the expectations of the traditional society they belong to, they forswear their love so that Ekwueme can marry the girl to whom he had been betrothed since birth. But their passion is fated and jealousy, a love potion and the closeness of the spirit world lift this simple tale on to a tragic plane.
  • Mine Boy (African Writers Series, AWS6)

    When Xuma move to Johannesburg he is a naive country boy, but the impact of harsh city life awakens him to the new ways and values of  radically different world. His vision of a ‘man without colour’, a raceless society, is shattered by the realities of his underprivileged existence.
    First published in 1946, this novel was one of the first books to expose universally the condition of black South Africans under a white regime. Abrahams’ forceful but restrained images of discrimination in the gold mines, the appalling housing and Xuma’s simple, humanitarian act of defiance, struck a chord around the world. Mine Boy has remained a central influence on South African fiction for over fifty years.
  • A Man of the People (African Writers Series, AWS31)

    As Minister for Culture, the Honourable M. A. Nanga is ‘a man of the people’, as cynical as he is charming, and a roguish opportunist. At first, the contrast between Nanga and Odili, a former pupil who is visiting the ministry, appears huge. But in the ‘eat-and-let-eat’ atmosphere, Odili’s idealism soon collides with his lusts – and the two men’s personal and political tauntings threaten to send their country into chaos. Published, prophetically, just days before Nigeria’s first attempted coup in 1966, A Man of the People is an essential part of his body of work dealing with modern African history.

  • The Housemaid (African Writers Series)

    A dead baby and bloodstained clothes are discovered near a small village. Everyone is ready to comment on the likely story behind the abandoned infant. The men have one opinion, the women another. As the story rapidly unfolds it becomes clear that seven different women played their part in the drama. All of them are caught in a web of superstition, ignorance, greed and corruption.

  • FaceOff With The International ‘MP’

    Face-Off With the International ‘MP’ is a compilation of short stories, drama, different purposed letters, and jest, all garnished with an unusual but perfect mix of satire, wit and logic. The book walks readers through the experiences of the only ‘Member of Parliament’ representing a virtual constituency. The book brings to life issues in politics, romance, educational and career experiences both home and abroad, and short memos – files that the International ‘MP’ deals with 24/7. The right dose of laughter, the fluidity of Nkrumah-Boateng’s unmatched imagery, the apt description of everything Ghanaian plus the solitary enjoyment of his entitlement as the only untenured MP combine to make this book a must-read.

    “I introduce to you a reverently irreverent writer who pulls no punches, wears no kids’ gloves, bars no holds and suffers no fools gladly. There is not a topic that Rodney is shy to address, and frontally and bluntly too.” — Anan Anan Ankomah, Managing Partner, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah

    “Rodney glides you along on a momentum of choleric rhetoric and suddenly explodes your mind into an amusement park of satire, laced with intelligent and exciting lines of literary mischief.” — Jason Tutu, Research & Development Expert

    “Nkrumah-Boateng uniquely mixes truth and poetic satire: his wit, crisp humour, eloquence and fluid writing style, and the heretical elegance with which he makes his points, made you want to kick something…Little wonder a major radio station mistook his satirical narrative as fact, and serialized it on radio!” — Kofi Bentil, Lawyer/Vice President, IMANI

    “Rodney’s writing always leaves me wanting more.” — Dr. Victor Bampoe, Former Deputy Minister for Health

  • 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.

  • Going to Town

    Professor Paul Archibald Vianney Ansah (1938-1993), Ex-Director of the School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana; reputed scholar, communicator, journalist, critic; a devout Christian, an uncompromising advocate of democracy, freedom and justice; generous, humorous, pedantic, but also defiant and choleric. Close associates called him “Uncle Paul”; his students made an acronym of him: PAVA. The world knows him as P.A.V. Ansah. His death on 14th June, 1993, created a big void in journalism, and dented the writer’s crusade against oppression and dictatorship in Africa.
    From 1968 when he assumed the editorial seat of The Legon Observer until his death, the name Paul Ansah became perhaps the most revered epitome of incisive journalism in Ghana. By 14th June, 1993 when he died, P.A.V. Ansah, over a quarter of a century had succeeded in perfecting a paradigm in Ghana’s journalistic tradition. Write-and-be damned was its hallmark, and Going-to-Town its colloquial shibboleth. Avid readers of Paul Ansah’s column in The Ghanaian Chronicle weekly, for which he wrote in his last years, eventually got used to the ominous prelude of his weekly sojourns to town.
    In this book, the editors put together a selection of the newspaper contributions of Paul Ansah from 1991 till his death in June 1993. The articles were mostly published in his column in the Ghanaian Chronicle, but also include his contributions in the Free Press, Independent, and the Standard.
    His writings, reflecting a broad range of themes, have been grouped under four overlapping headings: Media, Politics, Society, and International.

    Going to Town

    90.00
  • A Place of Beautiful Nonsense

    The Imported Ghanaian, after much hair tearing out, bashing her head against the cultural walls that keep shifting, got with the plan and figured out the survivors guide for those who want to stay. Not for the faint hearted, as usual she does it with much humour and a dab of acid.
  • Growing Up

    Many years ago, there were rites of passage in the African communities. These were important initiations that consciously prepared young people in their transitions through life. These days, however, young people are left to figure out their maturity by themselves. This situation has plunged many young people into frustration and despair because they made mistakes on the journey. Some others have handled it quite well and are reaping the benefits.

    This book contains real life experiences of young people who are growing up. With the youngest contributor being 21 and the oldest being 40, everyone can relate to the contents of the book. The lessons in the books are captured through the fear, disappointment, failures, successes and accomplishments of the contributors. It also speaks to diverse sub-topics that influence a growing young person such as parenting, broken homes, death, faith, and education.

    Our hope is that reading the stories in the book will give you an awakening to the fact that you need to set your own growing path and walk through it. Definitely, you too can share your story about Growing Up with us and others. You will be helping them just as this book is helping you.

    Growing Up

    25.00

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