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Africa Writes Back: The African Writers Series & the Launch of African Literature
June 17, 2008, is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart by Heinemann. This publication provided the impetus for the foundation of the African Writers Series in 1962 with Chinua Achebe as the editorial adviser. This narrative, drawing liberally on the correspondence with the authors, concentrates on the adventurous first twenty-five years.
Africa Writes Back: The African Writer’s Series & the Launch of African Literature captures the energy of literary publishing in a new and undefined field. Portraits of the leading characters and the many consultants and readers providing reports and advice to new and established writers make Africa Writes Back a stand-out book. James Currey’s voice and insights are an added bonus.
GHS 45.00Quick View -
African Traditional Leadership
In this book, Emeritus Professor Jacob U. Gordon has brought together both historical and current literature in traditional African leadership to focus on critical issues of leadership and governance in Africa. The book sets out to provide students of African leadership and development, educators, politicians, traditional leaders and practitioners with a toolbox for understanding the changing role of traditional rulers/chiefs and its future in African life.
It examples leadership dynamics of past African leaders such as Abu Bakr II (14th century), Chaka Zulu, Queen Hatshepsut, Hannibal of Carthage, Makeda the Queen of Sheba, King Mansa Musa, Haile Selassie and Yaa Asantewaa.
It is the author’s hope that this book will help the reader to better understand the complexities of traditional leadership in Africa and key considerations; to appreciate the values of traditional African leadership; and to develop a better appreciation of the importance of good leadership and governance in a global and competitive world that yearns for sustainable peace and security.
GHS 30.00Quick ViewAfrican Traditional Leadership
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Big Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana: Power, Ideology and the Burden of History, 1982-1994
During the 1980s, Ghanaian politics went through remarkable transformations – from revolution, through adoption of a draconian economic reform programme, to the eventual return to democratic government in 1992. This study covers the entire sequence of events, situating them in the broader historical context and offering a sustained explanation of what occurred. Since the eighteenth century, a central theme dominating Ghanaian politics and society has been the relationship between wealth and virtue, and Dr Nugent offers a key explanation of the way in which this theme is still predominant today.
Drawing on research which focuses on different sectors of the body politic – the labour movement, the peasantry, professional associations, the student movement, the churches and the military – this book provides a much-needed synthesis. Dr Nugent gives an in-depth analysis of the 1992 elections, including information based on personal fieldwork and interviews undertaken in the Volta Region. His analysis is situated within the wider context of Africanist historical and political research, while doing justice to the nuances and complexities of Ghanaian political life.
GHS 40.00Quick ViewBig Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana: Power, Ideology and the Burden of History, 1982-1994
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Born in Africa: The Quest for the Origins of Human Life
Africa does not give up its secrets easily. Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind. After a century of investigation, scientists have transformed our understanding about the beginnings of human life. But vital clues still remain hidden.
In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, recounting their intense rivalry, personal feuds, and fierce controversies as well as their feats of skill and endurance.
The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than twenty species of extinct humans. They have firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind but also of the modern human: Homo sapiens. They have revealed how early technology, language ability, and artistic endeavour all originated in Africa; and they have shown how small groups of Africans spread out from Africa in an exodus sixty thousand years ago to populate the rest of the world. We have all inherited an African past.
Martin Meredith’s fascinating account of the exploits of scientists striving to uncover the mysteries of human origins unfolds like an epic detective saga. We all have an African legacy, and in this fascinating and informative book Meredith leads us back to the place where we have rediscovered our common human heritage.
GHS 50.00Quick View -
Che Guevara Reader: Writings on Politics and Revolution
**Available mid February 2019**
Recognized as one of Time Magazine’s ‘icons of the 20th century, Che Guevara became a legend in his own time and now has re-emerged as a symbol of a new generation of political activists. Far more than a guerrilla strategist, Che Guevara made a profound and lasting contribution to revolutionary theory and Marxist humanism as demonstrated in this best selling Reader.
GHS 110.00Quick View -
Elmina, ‘The Little Europe’: European Impact and Cultural Resilience – Hardcover
This is a brief introduction to the history of Elmina, its castle, the people, and their traditions. It outlines the town’s 500-year relations with Europeans, highlighting the transformations that have developed out of these interactions. Written by one of the top historians of Ghana and a leading scholar of the African diaspora, the book is based on original archival information and orally-derived sources. It is also richly informed by the writer’s own personal knowledge as a Nyampa Safohen and citizen of Elmina. Despite the tremendous changes engendered by the European contact, Elmina’s historical development demonstrates an amazing degree of cultural continuity and resilience in its political institutions, social organization, economic systems and worldview.
GHS 50.00Quick View -
Emmanuella’s Special Day – Hardcover
Age Range: 6 months – 2 years
This board book for babies celebrates Ghana’s customary naming ceremony.
An outdooring and naming ceremony is an occasion in Ghana when a newborn experiences the outside world for the first time and receives a name.
GHS 15.00Quick ViewEmmanuella’s Special Day – Hardcover
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Fela: This Bitch of A Life
**Available mid February 2019**
“I’ve never met a more fearless, direct, activist, fiercely radical, rebel, courageous warrior, prolific, and gifted person like FELA. I admired his honesty, was often puzzled by his contradictory lifestyle, was in total awe of his musical genius, relished his outrageous sense of humour, deeply treasured his friendship and was absolutely inspired by his fathomless generosity. This Bitch of a Life illustrates an extremely heartbreaking phase in this incredibly gifted master musician’s experiences. It is filled with so many occasions of savage torture on FELA’s soul, being and psyche: trumped up criminal charges, military onslaught, seamless court appearances. Kangaroo-court convictions and imprisonment accompanied by a nauseating inhumanity that caused FELA unimaginable misery.” — Hugh Masekela, Musician and Friend
African superstar, composer, singer, and musician, as well as mystic and political activist, Nigerian Fela Kuti, born in 1938, was controversy personified.
He was swept to international celebrity on a wave of scandal and flamboyance, and when he died of AIDS in 1997, more than a million people attended his funeral. But what was he really like, this man who could as easily arouse violent hostility as he could unswerving loyalty?
Carlos Moore’s unique biography, based on hours of conversation and told in Fela’s first-person vernacular, reveals the icon’s complex personality and tumultuous existence. Moore includes interviews with fifteen of his queens (wives); photos; and an updated discography.
GHS 95.00Quick ViewFela: This Bitch of A Life
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Guns Over Kigali: The Rwandese Civil War -1994 (A personal account)
Guns Over Kigali is a personal account of the events leading up to the Rwanda genocide in 1994 through the eyes of Ghanaian UN peacekeeping soldier who served as the UNAMIR Deputy Force Commander and Ghana Contingent Commander.
GHS 30.00Quick View -
Highlife Giants: West African Dance Band Pioneers – Hardcover
‘Highlife is the only music in this country that has stood and will continue to stand the test of time.’ – Victor Olaiya
As West Africa’s oldest form of popular music, highlife was the soundtrack of the independence era. Its influence still resonates today.
Highlife Giants is an intimate portrait of the pioneering artistes of West Africa’s music scene from the 1920s onwards. It contains interviews with stars such as E.T Mensah, Kofi Ghanaba, King Bruce, Bobby Benson, Victor Uwaifo, and Ignace De Souza revealing priceless behind-the-scenes moments such as Louis Armstrong giving Eddie Okonta a trumpet with a golden mouthpiece after seeing him perform. Highlife Giants charts the development of this rich and varied popular form which is hugely influential on contemporary West African music from Afrobeat to hiplife.
Blending European and African-American styles with traditional African patterns, highlife music contributed to the development of post-independence national identity in both Ghana and Nigeria. As such, highlife remains crucial in generating social commentary, protest and contributing to the formation of a pan-African musical identity.
For those who lived through the era, Highlife Giants will be a compendium that invokes treasured memories. For their children and grandchildren, this book will inspire an interest in the rich musical history of West Africa.
GHS 60.00Quick View -
Hilla Limann: Scholar, Diplomat, Statesman – A Biography
Prof Ivan Addae-Mensah’s biography of Dr. Hilla Limann is a masterpiece. It comprehensively fills a gap in a period of our history that not much has been written on. For those scholars, students, politicians, researchers, interested in the governance, political history, economic development and international relations of Ghana, this is a must read. — His Excellency D.K. Osei (Former Ghana Ambassador to Denmark and the Scandinavian Countries, Former Secretary to Ex- President J.A. Kufuor and Diplomat in Residence, Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy)
The greatest value of this biography lies in the fact that this is a contribution by a person who was first and foremost a friend, and also worked closely with him before, during and after his presidency. Addae-Mensah’s Hilla Limann validates the ancestral saying that: “life is lived but understood backwards.” It contributes toward finding leadership and governance in Africa. To be African is to derive pain from this biography. It shocks and traumatizes. Who are we? Was independence worth it? What was the struggle about and for? Reading this biography shows the urgent need for an energizing vision to get rid of the demons of despair and redeem the worth of Africa for Africans. — Nana Kobina Nketsia V (Senior Lecturer in History, University of Cape Coast and Omanhen of Essikado Traditional Area)
We should honour those who have laboured hard for Ghana and not for self. It is no use preaching against corruption when those who are not corrupt have nothing but penury to show when they leave office. The example of Dr Limann would be of no avail unless it strengthens our will to establish an appropriate pension for retired presidents. — Ambassador K.B. Asante (Public Servant, Diplomat, Educationist, Politician)
GHS 140.00Quick View -
Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
This groundbreaking international bestseller lays to rest many myths about the Holocaust: that Germans were ignorant of the mass destruction of Jews, that the killers were all SS men, and that those who slaughtered Jews did so reluctantly. Hitler’s Willing Executioners provides conclusive evidence that the extermination of European Jewry engaged the energies and enthusiasm of tens of thousands of ordinary Germans.
Goldhagen reconstructs the climate of “eliminationist anti-Semitism” that made Hitler’s pursuit of his genocidal goals possible and the radical persecution of the Jews during the 1930s popular. Drawing on a wealth of unused archival material, principally the testimony of the killers themselves, Goldhagen takes us into the killing fields where Germans voluntarily hunted Jews like animals, tortured them wantonly, and then posed cheerfully for snapshots with their victims. From mobile killing units to the camps to the death marches, Goldhagen shows how ordinary Germans, nurtured in a society where Jews were seen as unalterable evil and dangerous, willingly followed their beliefs to their logical conclusion.
“Hitler’s Willing Executioners is an original, indeed brilliant contribution to the…literature on the Holocaust.”–New York Review of Books
“The most important book ever published about the Holocaust…Eloquently written, meticulously documented, impassioned…A model of moral and scholarly integrity.”–Philadelphia Inquirer
GHS 40.00Quick View
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