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Swords & Crosses: The Story of Opoku Ware School
Our journey has been both long and short. Many are those that have departed this life, unable to share their stories. They were students like us, or teachers, or worked in other capacities within the school. All of these nurtured and formed us into the winners we are today. They and their service, their lives, and contributions should never be forgotten. For them all this book is a memorial.
Our prayer is that the thousands of fingers that turn these pages will be a testament to the many future years ahead of Opoku Ware School, years in which, we believe, it shall move from being one of the best into becoming the very best. The quick today and those departed, through this book still have a voice, speaking of what has been, and inspiring the progress for tomorrow.
We have been forged by the cross of Christ and a mighty sword of tradition.
This is our story.
Katakyie Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng (AF147) and his team have woven an intricate pattern of beauty, exemplified only by the beautiful patterns of the Asante Kente cloth. The beginnings of Opoku Ware School and its progress through the changing phases of Ghana are presented here in an easy-to-read style that will appeal to all students and lovers of history. Ably captured is the pride in identity that has bound together the men known as Akatakyie all this while; a resilient band of achievers. never resting, never floundering.
The story really had to be told.
₵70.00 -
From Achinakrom to Pro-Vice Chancellor: Autobiography of Florence Abena Dolphyne
An autobiography serves the purpose of relating experiences of the writer. These are usually personal experiences and readers can draw inspiration from such experiences.
This is a book written by a renowned academician, but unlike many books written by academics, it reads like a story written by an accomplished novelist. It tells the story of a girl of very humble parentage who was able, by dint of hard work and divine providence, to make it to the very apex of academia. It is a book that tells the story of ‘Mmofraturo’, synonymous with the training of girls to influence their world before the advent of militant feminism. It is a story that gives another peep at the practice of racism in Europe.
But then, it is also the book that confirms the subtle discrimination that women are often subjected to in our education system, even at the highest level.
Moreover, it is a story that teils the history of the practice of education in Ghana over a number of decades. Then, the writer draws us into the age-old issue of family life, foster children, biological children, and the Ghanaian family set up.
From Achinakrom to Pro-Vice Chancellor is a book about friendship and love that tells the story of women, individually and in groups trying to help make others enjoy the life of work and leisure. Furthermore, this book gives a hint that speaking one’s first language can be the source of the survival of an individual in certain critical situations.
This inspiring story is also a personal history of Ghana from pre-independence by someone who has helped to shape Ghana’s education system, women’s rights during the UN Decade for Women, and human rights through Ghana’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is a story of a phenomenal woman who has made Ghana and Achinakrom proud.
₵70.00 – ₵100.00 -
Voices of Ghana: Literary Contributions to the Ghana Broadcasting System, 1955-57 (Second Edition)
Ghana’s first radio programme of original literature, Singing Net, began in 1955 as part of the development of a national radio station in the years leading to independence in 1957. Its centralaim was to bring Ghanaian writers to the forefront of cultural programming as part of the Africanisation of radio in Ghana. It was a critical cultural expression of the radical changes that were unfolding across the colonial world. The programme successfully introduced listeners to a series of pioneering Ghanaian authors who would go on to become significant figures of Anglophone West African literature in the early postcolonial decades: Efua Sutherland, Frank Parkes, Amu Djoleto, Geormbeeyi Adali-Mortty, Albert Kayper-Mensah, Kwesi Brew, Cameron Duodu, J.H. Nketia and many others.
The anthology, Voices of Ghana (1958) is a collection of the poetry, short stories, play scripts and critical discussions that were aired on the Gold Coast (later Ghana) Broadcasting System (1954-1958).Both Singing Net and Voices of Ghana were edited by the BBC producer, Henry Swanzy.
The context of Ghana’s independence, the singularity of the anthology’s history, and the significance of many of the writers all contribute to the importance of this text. This second edition is a timely intervention into recent debates within postcolonial studies and world literature on the importance of broadcast culture in the dissemination of “new literatures” from the colonial world. It includes an unabridged version of the 1958 text, a new introduction and footnoted annotations,which draw on extensive research undertaken in Ghana and Britain. It will appeal to a general readership with an interest in Ghanaian literature, 1950s broadcast culture, the figure of Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the making of a national literature in the era of decolonisation, as well as engaging scholars. The new edition presents a deeply insightful and engaging history of Voices of Ghana and reintroduces the original works on the occasion of the anthology’s 60th anniversary.
Victoria Ellen Smith is a Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Ghana, Legon
₵75.00 -
Leadership in Africa Redefined – Untold Stories
The story on leadership in Africa is not a good one. It is a story in which the key actors are often corrupt, authoritarian politicians. And yet, this is only one side of the story.
The untold story is that Africa is also home to leaders who are imaginative, adaptable, ethical, and empowering. These are leaders who are transforming the spaces they serve on this continent. They are redefining leadership in Africa.
The time has come where we need to stop defining our leadership by the worst of us. We need to learn from the best of us.
Taaka Awori’s Leadership in Africa Redefined offers concrete principles to guide the practice of this form of leadership. Using the stories and lessons from outstanding leaders on the continent, Taaka Awori illustrates the idea that your leadership reflects who you are as a person. Her hope is that this book will be an inspiration and a practical guide to support each reader in becoming the leader Africa needs and deserves.
₵75.00 -
Next Level Education Game Changer
**Available in Ghana from 20 January 2021
Next Level Education Game Changer seeks to engage our readers on how the theme “Quality Secondary, Technical & Vocational Education; A Catalyst for National Development” for the 91st Speech & Prize Giving Ceremony at Achimota Secondary School in Ghana on November 3rd 2018, inspired research work and findings that could contribute to a change in the educational landscape in Ghana.
The book provides insights from students at Achimota Secondary School in 2018. Singapore’s educational system, considered the best in the world, was adopted as a benchmark, against which some educational proposals have been made.
₵95.00 -
SeedTime: Selected Poems I
In memory of all the Ancestral Voices who prepared the field for our SeedTime…
SeedTime I brings together Selected Poems from Kofi Anyidoho’s first five collections, beginning in reverse order with poems from AncestralLogic & CaribbeanBlues (1993), A Harvest of Our Dreams (1984), EarthChild (1985), Elegy for the Revolution (1978), and BrainSurgery (1985). BrainSurgery, the earliest of these collections, was never published as a collection until it came out together with EarthChild (Woeli Publishing Services, 1985), even though several of the poems had appeared in various journals, magazines and anthologies.
SeedTime: Selected Poems I is a backward glance to those magical years of birth waters flowing across a landscape filled at once with danger and hope, with dying and rebirth in the mystery and miracle of new beginnings so soon after countless brushfires. But the doubt returns again so close behind the hope as we offer trembling prayers in new poems from an old loom: See What They’ve Done To Our SunRise. Yet, somehow, we must open our minds and souls to the Forever Promise of New SeedTimes. This world cannot, must not crumble under our watch.
“Quintessential Anyidoho…a harvest of the master craftman’s gems across time and space. SeedTime brings a refreshing newness to old songs, and, for new ones, a touch of creative genius we have come to associate with the poet’s pedigree; a timeless legacy of a poet-laureate, whose voice waxes even stronger in his twilight years.” − Mawuli Adjei, author, poet and literary scholar
“A collection of haunting poems in which we SEE the turbulent variety of our history, and HEAR the English language teased to express the many rhythms of the African’s eternal homesickness.” − Prof. A. N. Mensah, Department of English, University of Ghana
₵100.00SeedTime: Selected Poems I
₵100.00 -
Ghana: A Concise History from Pre-Colonial Times to the 20th Century
This is a comprehensive survey of the history of Ghana from the earliest times to 1992. It discusses the evolution of the different ethnic groups and the social, economic and political institutions and systems they created. It also examines the development of state systems , their contact with the outside world and the economic , social and political consequences of that contact. It discusses the loss of political independence, the recovery of sovereignty and the emergence of the modern state of Ghana.
The study ends with an examination of the attempt by various rulers after independence to make one nation out of the people of Ghana and promote their economic and social well-being. The book has grown out of lectures the author has delivered to University students over the years. The material has, however, been written in a language that can be understood by all Senior High School students and the general public.
₵110.00 -
Being the Change
Being the Change is a masterpiece for all Change Makers and those who desire to change the status-quo, by moving to the next level in their life, career or other pursuits. It contains practical lessons on how by our resilience, we can change our communities, nations, our worlds, and even ourselves; by becoming the change we desire. It reiterates that “The change we always desire must always come from us”.
The author shares valuable collections of his work as a Member of Parliament; from connecting over 4500 youths to various job models on the MADINA Job Center, impacting Muslim communities through the Islam Project, Service Above Self Best Teacher Awards and other Educational Interventions, Heath Outreaches and many more. In less than two years, the Author introduced 5 New Private Members Bills personally and with other colleagues. The Book also shares a number of incredible articles written by or about the author, spanning governance, judiciary, rule of law, economy, security among others. This book in short, is a compendium of the life, work, practices, inspirations and the experience of a Change Maker. You will find inspiration to become the Change you desire after reading this book.
₵110.00Being the Change
₵110.00 -
The Right Stuff Comes In Black Too (Hardcover)
The right stuff is a designation that was used originally to describe the early astronauts who pioneered space travel for the United States of America. They exhibited an extraordinary ability to perform in the challenging circumstances one finds in outer space.
This term can be used to describe Blacks of Extraordinary achievements in Movies, Sports, Business and many fields including Technology. This is how we describe the achievements of Dr. Thomas Mensah, who has succeeded against incredible odds. Ebony Magazine calls him a genius in the October 2006 publication.
He is the author of four books on Engineering Innovation and was awarded 7 US Patents in Fiber Optics in the short time frame of six years. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors USA.
CBS Television News in America on February 25, 2017 Black History Month Program dedicated a special feature interview on him, titled Celebrating the Engineer Who Revolutionized the Internet. This segment was televised worldwide.
His Innovations have impacted many fields of Engineering, including the Military and Defense, the Environment, Theme Parks, Nanotechnology and the Internet Platform. From Fiber Optics Development to cutting-edge research in Nanotechnology, Dr. Mensah is a Modern day thought leader, a Technology Innovator and one of the most brilliant minds of the 21st Century. He truly embodies the description of the Right Stuff Comes in Black Too.
₵120.00 -
St. Augustine’s College: Conquering With Perseverance – Our Past, Our Present And Our Future
The 724-page book is the first-ever reference book by any college in Ghana. It serves as both a history book on everything one needs to know about the St. Augustine’s College and serves as both an encyclopaedia as well as almanac that compiles in detail, every single one of the over 400 parishes, out-stations and individuals that contributed towards the establishment of the College. It also traces the history of the Gold Coast Catholic as the root of Catholic Education, contribution of the Catholic Church to Ghana’s Education Sector, the establishment of St. Augustine’s College initially as a Teacher Training College in Amisano and subsequent construction and transfer of the College to Cape Coast with a Secondary Department. In all the narration, the authors bring out the undercurrents that led to the clamour of the Gold Coast Catholic faithful to have their own Secondary School and the frustrations that the Catholic Church hierarchy had to endure to have the College established.
The book gives a background to the naming of the College after the foremost Christian Theologian of African descent and how that dove-tailed into the philosophy, unique identity and character of the College’s products. Detailed highlights are given on major roles played by the Society of African Missions and the Congregation of Holy Cross in the holistic development of the College’s students. The College’s scholarship, excellence in sports and role as a citadel of the arts are well explained in the book with an impressive roll-call of outstanding alumni across various sectors as an emphasis to the role of the College within the context of national development. The very essence of campus life, management and curriculum is brought to the fore through reminiscence by APSUnians across its nine decades of existence. The various narrations are interlaced with interviews, discussions with College Management, academic staff and alumni dating as far back as the 1950s.
The book also does a comprehensive listing of every college alumnus from 1933 when the very first graduates left college till 2017 by their programmes offered and provides 65 coloured pages of very historic privileged pictures some dating as far back as 1930s. The role of the past students’ union (APSU) as one of the most critical stakeholders in the development of the College is clearly established all through the book which closes with prospects on the establishment of an endowment fund to secure the gains made over the decades.
Whether an APSUnian, Augusco parent, Catholic faithful, a historian or researcher, one will require a copy of this historic document to fully appreciate the work of the missionaries in the development of education in Ghana, role of the Catholic Church in the establishment of schools in Ghana among others.
The book is printed on quality paper and stitched hard-bound with dust jacket.
₵130.00 -
African Visionaries
In over forty portraits, African writers present extraordinary people from their continent: portraits of the women and men whom they admire, people who have changed and enriched life in Africa. The portraits include inventor, founders of universities, resistance fighters, musicians, environmental activists or writers. African Visionaries is a multi-faceted book, seen through African eyes, on the most impactful people of Africa.
Some of the writers contributing to the collection are: Helon Habila, Virginia Phiri, Ellen Banda-Aaku, Véronique Tadjo, Tendai Huchu, Solomon Tsehaye, Patrice Nganang and Sami Tchak.
₵130.00African Visionaries
₵130.00 -
From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland: Urban Mutations in Tanzania
The name Dar es Salaam comes from the Arabic phrase meaning house of peace. A popular but erroneous translation is ‘haven of peace’ resulting from a mix-up of the Arabic words “dar” (house) and “bandar” (harbour). Named in 1867 by the Sultan of Zanzibar, the town has for a long time benefitted from a reputation of being a place of tranquility. The tropical drowsiness is a comfort to the socialist poverty and under-equipment that causes an unending anxiety to reign over the town. Today, for the Tanzanian, the town has become Bongoland, that is, a place where survival is a matter of cunning and intelligence (bongo means ‘brain’ in Kiswahili). Far from being an anecdote, this slide into toponomy records the mutations that affect the links that Tanzanians maintain with their principal city and the manner in which it represents them.
This book takes into account the changes by departing from the hypothesis that they reveal a process of territorialisation. What are the processes – envisaged as spatial investments – which, by producing exclusivity, demarcations and exclusions, fragment the urban space and its social fabric? Do the practices and discussions of the urban dwellers construct limited spaces, appropriated, identified and managed by communities (in other words, territories)? Dar es Salaam is often described as a diversified, relatively homogenous and integrating place. However, is it not more appropriate to describe it as fragmented?
As territorialisation can only occur through frequenting, management and localised investment, it is therefore through certain places – first shelter and residential area, then the school, daladala station, the fire hydrant and the quays – that the town is observed. This led to broach the question in the geographical sense of urban policy carried out since German colonisation to date. At the same time, the analysis of these developments allows for an evaluation of the role of the urban crisis and the responses it brings.
In sum, the aim of this approach is to measure the impact of the uniqueness of the place on the current changes. On one hand, this is linked to its long-term insertion in the Swahili civilisation, and on the other, to its colonisation by Germany and later Britain and finally, to the singularity of the post-colonial path. This latter is marked by an alternation of Ujamaa with Structural Adjustment Plans applied since 1987. How does this remarkable political culture take part in the emerging city today?
This book is a translation of De Dar es Salaam à Bongoland: Mutations urbaines en Tanzanie, published by Karthala, Paris in 2006.
₵130.00 -
Black and Bold Queens: Women in Ghana’s History
Available from 9th April, 2023
Age Range: 8 – 15 years
Meet brave and bold women from Ghana who changed the world. The stories of these sixteen powerful women will inspire and uplift you.
₵135.00 -
They Call Me Archie: Amazing Journey of Destiny
ONE FOR THE GIRLS
There are some life stories you just cannot beat. Each time the names of such champions drop, one might as well perform a rite of acknowledgment…any. Their lives have graced hundreds of lives, and hundreds of lives continue to be redeemed through them. They have seen it all. Done it all. They love and they are loved. These individuals have given, and still have more in store. According to the Canon of the Classics, these persons, even the gods envy.
Rosina Aboagye Acheampong is one such mortal. From the precocity of her childhood, her dance with life has been one amazing ball of faith … and chance, nay, destiny. These captivating pages reel out the adventures of a pathfinder, a mould breaker and a pacesetter. Yes, her name might be synonymous with Wesley Girls, but be it at the national or community level, to list what she has achieved is to embark on the impossible.
Beautifully, however, Archie the Matriarch does not seem to see the power of her influence. She only wants to give thanks and praise.
Not only does this book make interesting reading, it also gives deep insights into the author and her experiences as one of Ghana’s influential and foremost educationists. It is, undoubtedly, a must-read book! – John Agyekum Kufuor, former President of Ghana
I am yet to hear of any group of students who passed through her hands…who do not remember her with utmost respect and affection. – Professor Ama Ata Aidoo
As the Headmistress, she re-defined the role. Indeed, the personality she brought to the position is irreplaceable and iconic. – Ambassador Evelyn Anita Stokes
₵150.00 -
Abrewa Nana: A Trajectory of Life – An Autobiography (Hardcover)
Professor Addo-Fening’s life story is an inspiration to read. From humble beginnings, he rose to the peak of academic life. In all his life experiences, he shows his gratitude and humility. This book is a delight to read and I recommend it to all. – Professor Alison M. Howell, Formerly of Akrofi-Christaller Institute, Akropong-Akuapem, Ghana
When the Historian sets out to write his own life story, what we get is a truly fascinating account. Here in Professor Robert Addo-Fening’s autobiography, we have a scintillating conversation with a master craftsman. Well done! – Dr. Maureen O. Iheanacho, Independent Scholar and Researcher, Accra, Ghana
₵150.00