• Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism

    In Oxford Street, Accra, Ato Quayson analyzes the dynamics of Ghana’s capital city through a focus on Oxford Street, part of Accra’s most vibrant and globalized commercial district. He traces the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. He combines his impressions of the sights, sounds, interactions, and distribution of space with broader dynamics, including the histories of colonial and postcolonial town planning and the marks of transnationalism evident in Accra’s salsa scene, gym culture, and commercial billboards.

    Quayson finds that the various planning systems that have shaped the city—and had their stratifying effects intensified by the IMF-mandated structural adjustment programs of the late 1980s—prepared the way for the early-1990s transformation of a largely residential neighborhood into a kinetic shopping district. With an intense commercialism overlying, or coexisting with, stark economic inequalities, Oxford Street is a microcosm of historical and urban processes that have made Accra the variegated and contradictory metropolis that it is today.

    “Oxford Street, Accra offers a fresh portrait of a rising African metropolis by one of the most original and skilled critics of the African condition. Deeply researched and packed with detail and bold in scope and analysis, Oxford Street, Accra is a unique addition to the growing body of work on contemporary African Urbanism. This extraordinary book shows the extent to which the future of urban theory might well lie in the global South.” – Achille Mbembe, author of Critique de la raison négre.

    KEY SELLING POINTS:

    • Oxford Street, Accra is a must-buy as an invaluable companion and compass for both newcomers and returning visitors to Accra.
    • Oxford Street, Accra was chosen as one of the ‘UK Guardian’s 10 Best City Books of the World in 2014.’
    • Oxford Street, Accra was also the Co-Winner of ‘The Urban History Association’s Top Award in the International Category For Books Published About World Cities in 2013 – 2014.’
    • Oxford Street, Accra contains an encyclopedic knowledge of the City of Accra, tracing the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day.
    • The book offers a microcosm of historical and urban knowledge of the making of the city that have transformed Accra into the sophisticated metropolis that is it today.
  • Abrefi’s Red Letter Day: A True Story Based on Adolescent Reproductive Health

    Age Range: 9 – 17 years

    Sex education, particularly, guidance in a girl’s first menstrual experience, has been presented in an interesting, friendly and easy to understand manner. It is good for girls, parents, counsellors and educationists all over the world.

  • The Unconventional Mother: How I Nurtured My Daughter with Disability into a Global Leader

    01

    If you think you have seen it all, this is the book that makes you stop. No, you haven’t. The extent that a super hero of a mother goes to keep her daughter alive and functional would fire you up and revise your notes about this thing called life.

    Struck at birth by an unexpected combination of strange conditions, the life of a young girl was hanging in the balance from day one. The reader cannot help but be thrilled by how a mother – in the name of God – went to battle with and against science, eventually gifting to us a world-class professional.

    Sometimes a medical journal, sometimes a family drama, sometimes a life-and-death page-turner, the episodes in this book involve diverse experts, hospitals across several countries, unusual insights on health as well as a redeeming grace of the highest order. This roller coaster lifesaving journey fortifies your resolve in your own particular struggle. When you finish The Unconventional Mother, the phrase ‘it is possible’ will taste different in your mouth.

  • Understanding Your Child’s Temperament

    Raising a child these days has become a heavy task that baffles many parents. The social changes and the pressures they exert on the family have left many parents totally helpless as to what to do to make the best out of their children. Understanding your child’s temperament will help you discover their talents and potentials, why they act the way they do, and how you can best relate to them. You will also know their strengths and weaknesses and what career opportunities await them. This book will enable you to guide your children in all areas of their lives.

  • Sexual Predators & Child Grooming

    Sexual grooming of children refer to actions or behaviours used to establish an emotional connection with a minor, and sometimes the child’s family, to lower the child’s inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. It can occur in various settings, including online, in person, and through other means of communication.

    This book attempts to shed some light on where to  draw the line between genuine concern and grooming, what grooming is  why you must know about it, how the predator gains access to a potential victim, coerce them to agree to the abuse and reduce the risk of being caught and signs to look out for.

  • Nice Things To Remember

    What nice things do you want to remember? At home, at school, on the street, in the farm, when you travel, wherever you are, there are nice things to remember.

    This book is for all children—to remind you about some of these nice things which you will like to remember

  • There is an Elephant in my Wardrobe

    Age Range: 5 – 8 years

    Have you ever wished for someone who will listen to your worries? Adun does. When an elephant arrives at her home, Adun is happy to have a new friend with big ears. Adun’s happy feelings go away when Erin the elephant begins to eat her clothes. Friends should be kind to one another. How will Adun make the elephant leave her wardrobe when it is stronger than her?

     

  • Contemporary Parenting

    In this current era, women have had to take up jobs to support the home, especially in roles formerly dominated by men. In order to juggle the responsibilities of work and motherhood, the need to assign some responsibilities to caregivers or nannies is gradually gaining grounds. This book explores the contemporary phenomenon of engaging nannies and domestic assistants as a component of contemporary parenting and in addition, shares some best practices on how to prepare to do so more effectively.

    The book has extensive discussions on behavioral needs and developmental stages in children. It also captures the influence of technology and social media on children, effects of strained parental relationships on children and parenting children with special needs. It further touches on parenting in a world of changing sexual orientations.

    This book is well researched and beneficial to parents, guardians and those planning to have children. It is a page turner and highly recommended to everyone.

  • Aníké Elèko

    Age Range: 7 – 12 years

    Aníké has to hawk èko every morning but that does not stop her from going to school. She loves school and wants to be a doctor.

    However, her mother has decided her fate: once she finishes primary school, she will join her Aunt Remí in the city as a tailor.

    When a mystery guest visits Àníké’s school, she has the chance to win a scholarship that will change her fate. Will the help of her friends Oge, Ìlérí and Àríyo the cobbler be enough?

    Written by Sandra Joubead and illustrated by Àlàbá Ònájìn, ÀNÍKÉ ELÉKO tells a colourful story
    of one girl’s courage in the face of opposition to her dreams.

     

    Aníké Elèko

    40.00
  • 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.

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