• Truth Without Reconciliation: A Human Rights History of Ghana (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)

    Although truth and reconciliation commissions are supposed to generate consensus and unity in the aftermath of political violence, Abena Ampofoa Asare identifies cacophony as the most valuable and overlooked consequence of this process in Ghana. By collecting and preserving the voices of a diverse cross-section of the national population, Ghana’s National Reconciliation Commission (2001-2004) created an unprecedented public archive of postindependence political history as told by the self-described victims of human rights abuse.
    The collected voices in the archives of this truth commission expand Ghana’s historic record by describing the state violence that seeped into the crevices of everyday life, shaping how individuals and communities survived the decades after national independence. Here, victims of violence marshal the language of international human rights to assert themselves as experts who both mourn the past and articulate the path toward future justice.
    There are, however, risks as well as rewards for dredging up this survivors’ history of Ghana. The revealed truth of Ghana’s human rights history is the variety and dissonance of suffering voices. These conflicting and conflicted records make it plain that the pursuit of political reconciliation requires, first, reckoning with a violence that is not past but is preserved in national institutions and individual lives. By exploring the challenge of human rights testimony as both history and politics, Asare charts a new course in evaluating the success and failures of truth and reconciliation commissions in Africa and around the world.

  • The Boy from Boadua: One African’s Journey of Hunger and Sacrifice in Pursuit of a Dream

    *Available from 7 February 2023

    Patrick Asare was born and raised by illiterate parents in the remote Ghanaian village of Boadua. His family was so large and impoverished that not even the earnings from crushing hard work could buy enough food to fill their bellies. No one in the village aspired to be educated beyond middle school.

    Until Patrick.

    Numerous obstacles stood in the way of Patrick’s yearning for higher knowledge, including gnawing hunger, lack of sleep, and backbreaking daily chores. During school vacations, he toiled in a jungle farm teeming with poisonous snakes and insects.

    Dedicating every stolen moment to study, Patrick passed the common entrance exam with flying colors. Despite major setbacks, he kept his eye on the prize. He graduated from an elite secondary school and earned his engineering degree in the Soviet Union during the perestroika era. Finding his way to the United States, he taught Russian and math and eventually obtained a superb education from top American universities.

    Patrick’s travels and adventures taught him that, regardless of his hardscrabble childhood, he was a lucky man. He was raised by loving and supportive parents and lived in a society where race was not an issue. Teaching in inner-city high schools alerted him to the particular challenges faced by America’s urban Black youth.

    Patrick’s amazing story offers insights, hope, and inspiration to others who face astronomical odds.

  • Who Owns the Land and Who Rules the Land?

    Ghana is undergoing her fourth experiment in Constitutional Rule − the 4th Republic. She was the first Black African country south of the Sahara to gain her political independence in 1957 but economic independence has eluded her till now. Her development is at a snail-pace at best.

    According to the author, there are certain fundamental bottlenecks in the country’s governance system which make it difficult for her to realize her economic potential. The author compares Ghana’s governance system to Singapore which gained political independence around the same time as Ghana but has successfully transformed from Third World to First World economic status in 30 years and asks why the difference. The author calls for a national debate on the country’s governance system that will lead to a total review of the 1992 Constitution. The following are some of the key issues he calls the nation’s attention to:

     

    • A Feudal Land Tenure System whereby more than 90% of the land mass of Ghana is vested in the Chieftaincy institution as Stool Lands and the remaining 10% vested in the President on behalf of the people of Ghana as Public Lands. A system which greatly impedes development and benefits only a privileged few and yet there are no Land Reforms
    • The Legacy of the Colonial Indirect Rule leading to a “bifurcated state” in which traditional authority runs parallel to civilian political authority
    • An Ineffective Decentralization System which excludes the traditional leaders and refuses to allow the people to elect their own District Chief Executives whom they can hold accountable
    • An Adversarial Political System in which the two main political parties have indulged in violence since independence and thus refuse to reach consensus for national development
    • The Short Tenure of the Executive and Legislature which does not promote long term planning and execution for meaningful development
    • An expensive electoral system which engenders corruption and prevents well-meaning and qualified candidates from offering themselves for governance
    • The Lack of a National Agenda for development and dependence on party manifestoes thus ignoring the Directive Principles of State Policy. Development is thus not progressive but disjointed and depends on which party is in power
    • A Council of State which is merely advisory and has no power to serve as a check on the Executive
    • A National Mindset of Dependency Syndrome and Entitlement Mentality which has resulted in lack of effective mobilization of the populace by the political and traditional leadership. A national psyche that does not promote self-reliance and the can-do spirit
    • A Governance System which tries to copy Westminster and American systems instead of a home-grown system which suits our situation and promotes development
    • An Educational System that fails to build problem-solving abilities and patriotism into the youth and fails to make them proud of being Africans
    • A Very Strong Religious Atmosphere which feeds on superstition and does not enable the teeming members to transform their mindset and focus on teachings which promote hard work, wealth creation and prosperity
  • Book Set: Red Oak Heroes Series (6 Books)

    *Available from 15 August 2023

    Age Range: 10 – 14 years

    This is a bookset of all six titles in the Red Oak Heroes Series:

    • Theodosia Okoh
    • The Big Six
    • Abedi Ayew Pele
    • John Agyekum Kufour
    • Kofi Annan
    • Dr. J. B. Danquah
    Introduce your children and adolescents to these Ghanaian Heroes.
  • I am Not Yvonne Nelson

    I Am Not Yvonne Nelson is an explosive and riveting account of a young woman who sets out to discover herself, but finds out that she has been living with a false identity. The drama and the twists and turns of this moving story have all the markings of a spell-binding movie script, except that the protagonist, who is an actor, is contending with a reality that intermittently soaks her pillow with tears. Uncharacteristic of an autobiography, the author comes to her audience stark naked. The book opens the door widely into the life of the author and exposes the good, the bad and the ugly sides, not only of her life, but also of the make-believe world of celebrities.

    190.00210.00

    I am Not Yvonne Nelson

    190.00210.00
  • A Journey Through Careers (16 books)

    Suitable for children from 8 years and above.

    A journey through careers is a 16-book collection to help educate the youth about some common careers that they must know about before making career goals in life or receive training for a particular vocation.

    Books in this set (16)

    A Journey through careers in

    Agriculture and Natural Resources
    Architecture and Building Construction
    Art and Communication
    Business and Administration
    Education and Training
    Finance and Insurance
    Government and Public Administration
    Health Science
    Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation
    Human Service
    Information Technology
    Law Enforcement and Public Safety
    Manufacturing, Technical and Vocational Skills
    Transporation, Distribution and Logistics
    Retail and Wholesale
    Engineering and Mathematics

  • Africa in Search of Prosperity

    Africa is a major player in global economic engineering. It is also a great development partner, a vital player in the economies of Asian nations who are eager to explore long awaited market possibilities that it presents by forging alliances with hi-growth emerging economies in Africa.

    This new economic order is shifting the developmental narratives as Africa’s rich potential market has become more attractive with a population of nearly one billion.

    The author of this book is a long time transnational business executive. Although he indicates a level of despair at times, he is quite hopeful of Africa’s prospects. His lived experience as an economist and policy advisor to Presidents, is reflected in these essays that address developmental issues from the colonial economy with those of the new states.

    In this, the author uses the experience of Ghana as an example and a site for an analytical perspective. He examines and writes about the issues of natural resource exploration, the oil economy, human skills and also looks at the vital factors of education, religion and the attendant attitudes to development.

  • Ghanaian Law of Copyright

    Andrew Amegatcher has been an authority on the law of copyright in Ghana for many years. This second edition of the Ghanaian Law of Copyright is not only an academic treatise on the law of copyright generally and as it applies in Ghana, but is an excellent tool for disseminating knowledge of copyright law.

    Since publication of the first edition a major piece of legislation, PNDC Law 110 1985 on Copyright has been replaced by another, the Copyright Act 2005, Act 690. The second edition includes new topics and a chapter on international copyright, including TRIPS, the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

  • A Country to Love and to Serve: Memoirs of a Ghanaian Diplomat

    This epic memoir chronicling the author’s diplomatic journey is a superb and enticing story, richly told. The narration provides great insights into the personal life and professional travails of a quintessential diplomat who rose from humble beginnings to be one of the eminent Ambassadors of the nation. Most fascinating is how adeptly the author combines the demands of motherhood and family with her tasks in the complex world of diplomacy.

    The memoir provides great insights, important lessons and best practices in diplomatic practice that should be invaluable for the nation’s policy makers and diplomats. The story told through A COUNTRY TO LOVE AND TO SERVE should be a real inspiration for young diplomats and a must read for any student of diplomacy.

  • 5 Ghanaian Presidents and China: Patterns, Pitfalls, and Possibilities

    In Five Ghanaian Presidents and China, Lloyd Amoah tackles China’s meteoric rise to global prominence and what this means for African countries including Ghana. Focusing on Ghana’s relations with China over the last sixty years, the work discusses and interrogates how generations of Ghana’s leaders, from Kwame Nkrumah to Akufo-Addo, have approached the China question since the 1950s.Combining archival data, policy information, interviews and conversations with former Ghanaian presidents, scholars and high state officials, with the sounds and sights from his long years of travel through China and intimate observation of Ghanaian policy formation processes, Amoah, finds that ultimately Ghana’s engagement with China is a matter of strategy. In this work the case is made that descriptions of China’s engagement with Africa as “neo-colonial” are both alarmist and simplistic. Five Ghanaian Presidents offers a far more nuanced account and shines some light on how African and other countries in the Global South can exploit China’s tectonic reshaping of global trade, technology, diplomacy, finance, politics, business and economics.

  • Principles & Practice of Taxation

    This book covers all the principles and practice of taxation in Ghana. The book is current and straight to the point, devoid of any technical tax jargons. The cases and exercises at the end of each chapter capture the applications of the principles. Some of the cases are quite lengthy; particularly the style of examiners, the objective is to expose users to both principles and dynamics of the practice of taxation as well as examination.

  • Special Book Launch Set: Autographed Hardcover of From Achinakrom to Pro-Vice Chancellor (plus paperback and Emancipation book)

    This is a special launch set – limited – that includes an autographed copy of the hardcover of Prof Florence Dolphyne’s new autobiography, a paperback version of the autobiography and a copy of her best-selling book The Emancipation of Women: An African Perspective.

    Blurb for the Autobiography

    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 tells 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.

  • Selected Papers and Lectures on Ghanaian Law (Hardcover)

    This book is a compendium containing chapters based on various papers and lectures on Ghanaian law delivered by the author. Its contents deal with a wide range of topics expected to be of interest, not only to Ghanaian lawyers, but also to lawyers in general and other persons interested in the legal process in developing countries.

    The topics include the legal system and legal education in Ghana, the Judiciary, human rights and good governance, and business law.

    The variety of topics treated means that the book can be regarded almost as a mini Reader on Ghanaian law.

  • General Acheampong: The Life and Times of Ghana’s Head of State (Hardcover)

    A magnificent book…brilliant in shedding light on some of the most important but little known dark passages in our national history…worth reading by anybody who truly seeks knowledge about our recent past.

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