• The Pen at Risk: Spilling My Little Beans

    “The Pen at Risk is more than a memoir. It is a piece of authentic, ungarnished history by a writer and public intellectual who is too modest to accept the title of a historian, but who witnessed and chronicled the most intriguing epochs of Ghana’s national life. Laced with the innate Fante humour, this book is a piece of deep but entertaining non-fiction that is told with the demystified simplicity of one of Ghana’s greatest academics and writers. Kwesi Yankah is a gift to humanity, and this memoir is a greater gift to an unfortunate generation like mine that did not live in the era of the incisive writings of the great Kwatriot.” – Manasseh Azure Awuni, Editor-in-Chief, The Fourth Estate

    “When a citizen who has spent his whole life scrutinising society, turns the spotlight on himself, the risks include this epic engagement that spares no one, him included. In this bare-it-all memoir, the Yankah enigma is fully bared, warts and all.  As it turns out, Yankah has had more than his fair share of privileged roles, ultimately impacting the national narrative. The richness of ethnography here, is as riveting as his urban-savvy accounts of the intrigues of university and national politics. While we watch him weave his wizardry of words, we are also awed by the totality of his humanity. The Pen at Risk is a hilarious package of eruditions. It is about the exalted gossips of our Motherland. The narratives are so sweet they hurt. If this isn’t the best book you have read in years, call me illiterate.” – Kofi Akpabli, Scholar, Author, Journalist

    “In this memoir, Kwesi Yankah  delivers a sparkling tableau of key aspects of his life, tabling his charmed childhood and amazing trajectory as an academic. He then rolls out his long stint as an audacious social commentator and columnist for leading papers (which may have put his pen at risk). With a penmanship characterized by a keen eye for detail, this autobiography is an entertaining and captivating book that should be read by all interested in media and social history as well as autobiography as a literary genre.” – Professor Mansah Prah, University of Cape Coast

    “Intriguing, revealing, and brilliant. The Pen at Risk is unvarnished introspection beautifully strung together with anecdotes in a way that is vibrant and colorful. Kwesi Yankah’s work is a refreshingly modest invitation to see life through a different lens, even for a fleeting moment.” – Dr Obeng Amoako Edmonds, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

  • 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.
  • Contemporary Issues in Foreign Policy, Diplomacy and International Affairs

    This is a collection of essays derived from a series of symposia and online webinars hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations- Ghana.

    From the inaugural symposium chaired by Ambassador James Victor Gbeho, with addresses by The President of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the CFR-Ghana elicits interesting views and opinions from people best placed to be aware of the big picture of contemporary issues in international affairs, particularly from the perspective of how they impact our African Continent.

    Totally informative and engaging, sometimes entertaining and mentally provocative, which challenges us all to seriously reflect upon contemporary issues in foreign policy, diplomacy and international affairs.

    “The setting up of CFR-Ghana is long overdue and I’m glad that finally it has been done. The Executives and Founding Members are to be commended for this achievement and I wish them the very best of luck in the years to come. “

    – H.E President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (President of the Republic of  Ghana)

     

    150.00200.00
  • Critical and Biographical Essays of Nana Dr. S.K.B. Asante: From an African Village to the Global Village and Back (Hardcover)

    Few Ghanaians of any generation have had a career as long, as varied, and as consequential as Nana S.K.B. Asante’s: government attorney; law teacher; international public servant; constitution framer; adviser to sovereign parties; commercial arbitrator; public intellectual; traditional monarch. Just as impressive is the fact that, in each of these substantial roles, Nana has left a trail of writings. My own first encounter with Nana’s scholarship happened during my time at Yale Law School, his alma mater. As an editor on the law review, I was curious to know whether any Ghanaian had been published by the prestigious journal. My search led me to a fascinating article on Ghanaian property and customary law written by Samuel K.B. Asante in the 1965 volume of the journal. At the time of my discovery, his was the only article by a Ghanaian published in the 100-year history of the journal. I would later discover many more of his academic writings, some of which I assigned to my class in my years as a law teacher.

    This book collects in one volume some of Nana’s mostly “non-academic” writings. The essays tell, in characteristically fine prose rich in biography and history, the story of an intellectual-technocrat keen to use his wealth of knowledge to address contemporary problems of development and to put that expertise in the service of his country–and of the developing world at large. The publication of this selection of Nana S.K.B. Asante’s writings, in the 90th year of his life, is a monumental accomplishment and a befitting capstone of a long and distinguished career.

    PROF. H. KWASI PREMPEH
    Executive Director of Ghana Center for Democratic Development

     

    The incredibly rich collection of writings by the eminent international lawyer, scholar, respected global development expert and prominent traditional ruler, Nana S.K.B Asante, takes the reader on a remarkable journey of nearly seven decades of illumination. His vivid experiences, enormous achievements and witty recollections reveal the remarkable growth of a curious mind and a disciplined intellectual dedicated ultimately to the service of humanity from his native village to the global village. In characteristic modesty, Nana claims not to be a historian, but this book is a historical gold mine filled with nuggets of analysis on the evolution of education, law, science, social policy, public service, constitutional development, nation building and chieftaincy in Ghana, enriched with valuable insights into the solid contributions of illustrious men and women. His penetrating and critical analyses of international development cooperation in the fields of investments, energy, water and natural resources in Asia and Africa must be lessons for all developing countries. This rich resource book is highly recommended.

    DR. AGNES AKOSUA AIDOO
    Former Social Policy Adviser, UN Economic Commission for Africa

     

    This masterpiece by Nana SKB Asante which narrates his life journey from his hometown at Asokore to Achimota, academia, diplomacy and finally back home is unique, inspiring and educative. The Book covers a broad spectrum of academic disciplines including constitutional law, commercial law, criminal law, international law, chieftaincy, leadership and governance, sociology, history and religions. It provides a vivid account of the constitutional history of Ghana from the author’s personal knowledge. The author who had the singular honour to chair the Committee of Experts which gave birth to Ghana’s 1992 Constitution also held the positions of Solicitor-General and Deputy Attorney-General under different democratic and military governments. Nana SKB Asante has used simple diction to convey his wealth of knowledge, experience and wisdom, acquired from both local and international levels in different capacities to inculcate in his audience the spirit of patriotism. The book is a must read!

    JUSTICE DENNIS DOMINIC ADJEI, FGA
    Justice of The Court of Appeal

  • Beyond the Political Spider: Critical Issues in African Humanities (African Humanities Series)

    Beyond the Political Spider: Critical Issues in African Humanities by Kwesi Yankah is the first title in the newly established African Humanities Association (AHA) publication series.

    By integrating his own biography into a critique of the global politics of knowledge production, Yankah, through a collection of essays, interrogates critical issues confronting the Humanities that spawn intellectual hegemonies and muffle African voices. Using the example of Ghana, he brings under scrutiny, amongst others, endemic issues of academic freedom, gender inequities, the unequal global academic order, and linguistic imperialism in language policies in governance.

    In the face of these challenges, the author deftly navigates the complex terrain of indigenous knowledge and language in the context of democratic politics, demonstrating that agency can be liberatory when emphasising indigenous knowledge, especially expressed through the idiom of local languages and symbols, including Ananse, the protean spider, folk hero in Ghana and most parts of the pan-African world.

    “Fascinating snapshots from an engaged scholarly life in Africa, valuable as an archival resource for the understanding of this period of higher education in Africa.” – John Higgins, Arderne Chair in Literature, Department of English Literary Studies, University of Cape Town

    “This book is unique and gives a powerful rendition of the state of the Humanities in Africa (with Ghana as a case in point). It grapples with some of the pertinent issues dogging the Humanities in Africa. It comments on the Humanities scholarship in Africa, and subtly throws a challenge for future scholarship. It draws on African traditions, communal heritage, and governance in discussing the role and place of the Humanities in Africa. It also brings into the analysis the ever-changing imperatives and modernity in re-configuring African Humanities.” – Mark Benge Okot, Head of Department, Literature, Makerere University, Uganda

    “Beyond the Political Spider’ effectively draws, in a unique fashion, from literature, history, linguistics and other cognate disciplines in the African Humanities.” – Sati Umaru Fwatshak, Department of History, University of Jos, Nigeria

  • Waning Strength of Government: Essays on Nigerian Governance

    In Waning Strength of Government, Obaze draws on twenty-three of his various speeches, policy briefs, lectures and op-eds, to render exploratory essays that dissect some common patterns and trajectories that point anthetically to factors and conducts, which ought to constitute the strength of government, but don’t.  In so doing, he unmasks the prevailing weaknesses and waning strength of government – the attendant consequences, and their prevalence and implications for Nigeria.

    Such developments, with the attendant reversals, some nondescript and some dramatic, but replete with absence of resilience, leads the author to assert that democracy, “once characterized as probably the greatest expansion of freedom,” has come under assault from within its ranks, as shifts in geopolitics combine with ascendancy of non-state actors to undercut democracy.  Cognizant of the suggestion that the democratic system as conceptualized, has not just worked as expected, but is rather dysfunctional, the author asserts that nowhere is this consideration more evident and concrete than in Africa, Nigeria included.

    Waning Strength of Government piggybacks on the assertion that Nigeria’s “democracy is in reverse gear” and “the story is that of regrets and missteps.” Obaze employs an inquiry and excursion model using the flipside of McGeorge Bundy’s 1968 seminal book, The Strength of Government, to analyze leadership, political and governance challenges that continue to dog Nigeria’s nascent democracy.  The essays in this volume, which are clustered into four groupings; democratic imperatives; domestic development challenges; foreign policy dimensions and leadership and governance, explore some Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT), as well as general challenges and uncertain aspects of Nigeria’s affected democracy.

    In this very important work on Nigerian contemporary politics, leadership and dilemmas confronting the nation, the point is made severally, and vehemently too, that the strength of government is not about military capacity or use of force; but about the upholding the rule of law, consolidating democratic institutions and entrenching the social contract between the government and the governed.

  • Are You Not A Nigerian? Thoughts on a Nation at Crossroads

    *Available from 15th September 2019.

    Are You Not A Nigerian? chronicles a country’s fourth attempt at democratic governance after many years of military dictatorship. Through his personal experiences and observations, Báyọ̀ Olúpohùndà captures the reality of Nigeria’s socio-political environment at the turn of the millennium, the collapse of dignity in service, and the ubiquitous “Nigerian factor” that creates entitlement.

    Are You Not A Nigerian? examines the lost opportunities, the disappointment of successive administrations, and the dilemma of a nation at a crossroads.

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