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These Bones Will Rise Again
What are the right questions to ask when seeking out the true spirit of a nation?
In November 2017 the people of Zimbabwe took to the streets in an unprecedented alliance with the military. Their goal, to restore the legacy of Chimurenga, the liberation struggle, and wrest their country back from over thirty years of Robert Mugabe’s rule.
In an essay that combines bold reportage, memoir and critical analysis, Zimbabwean novelist and journalist Panashe Chigumadzi reflects on the ‘coup that was not a coup’, the telling of history and manipulation of time and the ancestral spirts of two women – her own grandmother and Mbuya Nehanda, the grandmother of the nation.
Chigumadzi successfully nests the intimate charge of her poignant personal story in the sweeping historical account and mythology of Zimbabwe. – Brian Chikwava, author of Harare North
Chigumadzi’s exploration of personal, family and national history reincarnates in stark, vivid images, many of those interred in the shadows of her country’s ‘Big Men’. – Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of Nervous Conditions
₵80.00These Bones Will Rise Again
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The Fear of Failure: An Autobiography
From Agomanya in the Eastern Region of Ghana, a 65 year old J. P. Adjimani narrates his life and how his fear of failure spurred him on instead of derailing him. In his autobiography, the biochemist unravels why he was never promoted to be a professor despite having a 28-year admirable career in Ghana’s premier university, University of Ghana.
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The Danquah-Busia Tradition in the Politics of Ghana: The Origins, Mission and Achievements of the New Patriotic Party
The book traces the nation’s political history from its status as a model British African Colony, the Gold Coast, to its attainment of political independence as the modern state of Ghana in 1957, under the leadership of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The author gives full recognition to the overwhelming debt that Ghana in particular and Africa in general owe to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s vision as one of the giants of Pan-African Emancipation.
The book systematically documents the contribution of Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah and Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia in the freedom struggle. The courageous and impressive role of Professor Adu Boahen in the breaking of the so called “culture of silence” in 1988 at the height of the PNDC regime under Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings is acknowledged.
In the concluding Chapter 13 all the leaders of the tradition are assessed – Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah passes the litmus test as a doyen of Ghana politics, with impeccable democratic credentials for human rights and the rule of law. The deviation from the ideals of the Danquah-Busia Tradition by Dr. Busia during his two and half years as Head of Government is commented on. Dr. K.A. Busia challenged the rule of law in its response to the ruling of the Supreme Court in the infamous case of Sallah vs. The Republic.
Other serious deviations from the principles of the Danquah-Busia Tradition were the way in which Dr. Busia implemented the Aliens Compliance Act in 1969. Then also the throwing overboard the belief in meritocracy and the shortcomings of the “zero tolerance of corruption” by President J.A. Kuffour led administration of the Patriotic Party are discussed.
However, the important and positive achievements of the NPP Government under President Kuffour such as the successes in establishing the Ghanaian economy, upholding the rule of law, enhancing good governance, improving the education and health copulation and thus lifting the flag of Ghana high in Africa and in the international community are not ignored.
Some of the criticisms may be harsh but the author is a committed member of the Tradition and he justifies his criticism of the Kuffour government with its own commitment to “ensure that the high ideas and objectives which have guided the Tradition through good and bad times should not at any time and under any circumstance be sacrificed for narrow partisan interest or worse still for personal gain”.
The form and force of the impact of these criticisms must be left to individual assessment and experience. The author has succeeded in intellectually stimulating and provoking democrats and non-democrats of whatever affiliation to digest the contents of this book and make their own judgment. He has opened the door for a fresh appraisal of the noble ideals of the Danquah-Busia Tradition.
In the Way Forward, the author makes some reflections on the future direction of the NPP.
Politicians, opinion leaders, the media, social observers and social critics as well as students of history and political science will find this book invaluable.
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Afajato: Stories from Around the Volta Lake
In response to the Aidoo Centre’s call for submissions, 144 entries poured in from writers eager to contribute to this literary exploration of the Volta Region and Togo.
The editors and publishers, committed to fostering diverse voices and storytelling styles, welcomed a range of submissions, including humour, quality flash fiction, and stories with experimental narratives.This book is a collection of stories that made the cut. It follows the success of the Centre’s previous publications, including Adabraka: Stories from the Centre of the World, Larabanga: Stories from the Savannah, The Lockdown: creative nonfiction about living with COVID-19, and Untold Stories Vol. 1.
Each publication has contributed to the Centre’s mission of promoting critical reading, creative writing, and literacy among the youth in Ghana.
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My First Coup d’Etat: Memories from the Lost Decades of Africa
My First Coup D’Etat chronicles the coming-of-age of John Dramani Mahama (former President of Ghana) in Ghana during the dismal post-independence ‘lost decades’ of Africa. He was seven years old when rumours of a coup reached his boarding school in Accra. His father, a minister of state, was suddenly missing, then imprisoned for more than a year.
My First Coup D’Etat offers a look at the country that has long been considered Africa’s success story. This is a one-of-a-kind book: Mahama’s is a rare literary voice from a political leader, and his stories work on many levels – as fables, as history, as cultural and political analysis, and, of course, as the memoir of a young man who, unbeknownst to him or anyone else, would grow up to be vice president of his nation. Though non-fiction, these are stories that rise above their specific settings and transport the reader – much like the fiction of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Nadine Gordimer – into a world all their own, one which straddles a time lost and explores the universal human emotions of love, fear, faith, despair, loss, longing, and hope despite all else.
An important literary debut from the then Vice President of Ghana, a fable-like memoir that offers a shimmering microcosm of post-colonial Africa.
‘A much welcome work of immense relevance.’ ~ Chinua Achebe
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Diamonds, Gold and War: The Making of South Africa
Southern Africa was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world’s richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land. The result was the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and the devastation of the Boer republics.
The New Yorker calls this magisterial account of those years “[an] astute history…Meredith expertly shows how the exigencies of the diamond (and then gold) rush laid the foundation for apartheid.”
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Love Is Power, or Something Like That: Stories
When it comes to love, things are not always what they seem. In contemporary Lagos, a young boy may pose as a woman online, and a maid may be suspected of sleeping with her employer and yet still become a young wife’s confidante. Men and women can be objects of fantasy, the subject of beery soliloquies. They can be trophies or status symbols. Or they can be overwhelming in their need.In the wide-ranging stories in Love Is Power, or Something Like That, A. Igoni Barrett roams the streets with people from all stations of life. A man with acute halitosis navigates the chaos of the Lagos bus system. A minor policeman, full of the authority and corruption of his uniform, beats his wife. A family’s fortunes fall from love and wealth to infidelity and poverty as poor choices unfurl over three generations. With humor and tenderness, Barrett introduces us to an utterly modern Nigeria, where desire is a means to an end, and love is a power as real as money.₵85.00 -
The Anglican Story in Ghana: From Mission Beginnings to Province of Ghana
The Anglican Church, by virtue of being the Christian communion most closely tied to the colonial history of the West Africa sub continent, could be said to be the oldest historic mission ecclesial body within the region. Emeritus Professor Canon John Samuel Pobee’s work The Anglican Story in Ghana is the only published full length monograph of Ghanaian Anglicanism since Church of England missionaries first set foot on the soils of the then Gold Coast in the middle of the 18th century. It is a historical account that features insights into the work and activities of the various dioceses of the Anglican Church including their contributions to education, social evangelism and education in particular. Each chapter is illustrated with pictures of key personnel dating back to the colonial era.
“The yester-years have lessons for us today and for our new life as a province. So this publication is timely, galvanizing us to take lessons to make a success of the new venture. The study challenges us to search for a creative renewal that is thoughtful and mindful of its pedigree and also endeavours to be the Una Sancta in Ghana, Africa.” – Most Rev. DR. Justice Ofei Akrofi, Archbishop of the Church of the Province of West Africa & Bishop of Accra
“It is a privilege to commend this study to all in the Anglican Church in Ghana and beyond, inviting you “to read, mark and inwardly digest” it and above all to take lessons from this story for the renewal of our Church and Province.” – Rt. Rev. Daniel Yinka Sarfo, Bishop of Kumasi Diocese & Presiding Bishop, Joint Anglican Diocesan Council
“The Anglican Story in Ghana is not merely the history of a church chronicling ecclesial achievements, no. It is a well written mission history of the Anglican Church that enables us to appreciate the acts of the Holy Spirit in helping the collaborative efforts of western missionaries and their local helpers to bring God’s word to God’s people.” – Very Rev. Prof. J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Ghana
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The Report on the Commission of Inquiry into the Ayawaso West Wuogon Events
The Report on the Commission of Inquiry into the Ayawaso West Wuogon Events
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Lagos: City of the Imagination – Hardcover
“I don’t think you can be in Lagos without becoming aware of its potency; when Lagos gets itself organised it will be extremely powerful; and already – without organisation – it is very powerful.” Rem Koolhaas, 2002
Lagos is fast becoming a global city – a place people visit for curiosity and the vibe as much as for business or family. The mesmerising energy and intensity of the city have to be experienced to be understood. But what is the story of Lagos? When did the city begin? Who were the first inhabitants? When did it become the city of iniquity and wisdom that continues to confound all who encounters it? Who have been the key chroniclers of this real yet imaginary city?
Veteran journalist and writer Kaye Whiteman has given us a gem that answers these questions and more. Lagos: City of the Imagination explains the origins of Lagos as both outpost of the Benin Empire and also the city run by the White Cap Chiefs. Whiteman shows that Lagos was always multicultural and cosmopolitan, with the Portuguese and later educated returnees from Sierra Leone and artisans from Brazil adding to the eclectic mix.
The book examines the key moments in the history of Lagos: from the concerted attack by the British in the 1860s, Independence in 1960, the 1966 coup through to FESTAC and the assassination of Murtala Muhammed. Also included are vivid character portraits of some of the most powerful Lagosians in history, from Oba Kosoko and Madam Tinubu, to well-regarded colonial figures such as Sir Bernard Bourdillon and those – like Lord Lugard – not so fondly remembered.
As the name suggests, Lagos: City of the Imagination deals extensively in those for whom Lagos is the backdrop of their work, from highlife musicians and Fela Kuti to Wole Soyinka and, more recently, the American-Nigerian writer Teju Cole.
Lagos: City of the Imagination is an absorbing and delightful “must-read” for anyone with an interest in one of the most dramatic cities of the 21st century.
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Ogyakrom: The Missing Pages of June 4th (Fireman Series) – Paperback
Kwesi Yankah is currently the Minister of State for Tertiary Education in Ghana. Until April 2017, he was Vice Chancellor of Central University, Ghana, and was previously Professor of Linguistics and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Ghana. Yankah, an inimitable satirist, is a proud product of Winneba Secondary School, University of Ghana and Indiana University, USA, where he did his doctorate. Well known in literary and academic circles, Professor Yankah has been a Public Intellectual since the late 1970s when, at 27, he started an anonymous column in The Catholic Standard newspaper, under the pseudonym Abonsam Fireman. The credit for the column, in a suppressive political environment, was often mistakenly given to the two great luminaries PAV Ansah and Adu Boahen.
Later in 1986, when Yankah returned from doctoral work at Indiana University, he introduced another weekly column, Woes of the Kwatriot, this time in The Mirror which he sustained for a period of ten years. In 1996, the Ghana Journalists Association honoured him for ‘the longest running column in the history of Ghanaian journalism.’ His writings, both literary and academic, have won for Yankah various awards including the WEB Du Bois Award (GAW), the Zora Hurston Award (GAW), the Ghana Book Development Award (GBDC) and the Gold Book Award given by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The present volume represents landmarks within 22 months of Yankah’s weekly column in The Catholic Standard, from January 1979 to March 1980. It is inspired by topical issues in two military regimes (General F Akuffo’s SMC 2, Rawlings’ June 4th Revolution) and one civilian government (Hilla Limann’s PNP). This compilation altogether allows a veiled peep into the most turbulent period in Ghana’s political history, Rawlings’ June 4th Revolution, including preceding events and the aftermath of the Revolution. In the words of Dr Anthony Bonnah Koomson, Editor of The Catholic Standard at the time of Yankah’s celebrated column: “The book captures a momentous era in Ghana’s immediate political history, reminiscences of which the author has sough to recreate and preserve with phenomenal linguistic skill. It presents, through satire, an accurate heartbeat of a people under intense political paralysis.”
This book makes compelling, even if hilarious, reading on Ghana’s enigmatic June 4th Revolution.
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Seeing New Facets of the Diamond: Christianity as a Universal Faith – Essays in Honor of Kwame Bediako
In the five years since Kwame Bediako passed away there has been a growing desire among colleagues and friends to put together a book that would honour his memory.
The title has been chosen to reflect the range of interests and concerns that motivated Bediako’s scholarly work, including his founding and nurturing of ACI, originally named Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Centre for Mission Research and Applied Theology (ACMC), located at Akropong-Akuapem in Ghana. His vision was for the renewal of Christianity as a universal faith, not just in Africa, but also in the non-Western world generally, and with a long-term view to a renewal of the faith in the West. The image of facets of the diamond was his way of describing his vision of the unity-in-diversity that is the biblical mandate for the world church.
Thus, Bediako’s interpretation of the African Christian story, to which he devoted so much of his time and energy – ‘the surprise story of the modern missionary movement’ – was always in relation to the wider Christian story, whether of earlier periods or of other contemporary settings around the world.
This collection of essays has sought to achieve a good representation of mentors, colleagues and disciples from around the world. The contributions come from a variety of countries, theological disciplines and perspectives, and represent either a direct outworking of his vision and initiatives or a connection with them. Taken together, they demonstrate Bediako’s conviction that the theological creativity emerging in Africa is also for the benefit of the mission of the world church. All the essays key into the general theme from contributors’ own particular perspectives and areas of specialisation and capture something of the vision that inspired Kwame Bediako, which he shared, and the legacy he has bequeathed.
In addition, they make a contribution to a deeper understanding of world Christianity in our time and provide pointers to the ongoing scholarly task in the service of the church in mission. For it is vital that we continue to see new facets of the diamond that is the universality of the Gospel, as lived and proclaimed through the world church.
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Perseverance Conquers All: The Autobiography of Kantinka Kwame Donkor Fordwor
As a very poor boy, Kantinka sustained himself in school by selling firewood. He walked four miles every day from village, Breman, to Kumasi to attend school. He recounts how by dint of hard work, he sailed through elementary and secondary school to the Graduate School of Wharton even though fate had prevented him from doing sixth form studies. He recollects how at St. Augustine’s College, Cape Coast, he was cured of a strange disease by a traditional priest. His beloved wife had to discontinue her studies to help him complete his. Kantinka thus passed through a darkness of life which continued in his working life.
His decision to provide a house for the Executive Chairman of the Capital Investments Board, in order to save the Board huge sums of money in rent payments, was so maliciously interpreted that he was editorially castigated and lambasted. His ingenious polices that eventually helped to raise the capital of the African Development Bank from US $200 million to US $100 billion was rewarded with his dismissal as the President of the Bank.
He incurred the ire of his enemies for the appreciation he received from three Kings of Asante Kingdom.
Perseverance Conquers All portrays these midnight sides of Kantinka’s life to let his sun shine brightly. His wife gave him six children any father could wish for, whom he educated as a very responsible father. Providence made him help Ghana in its financial difficulties when he became the virtual Minister of Finance during the reign of Colonel Acheampong. His input to the progress of the Catholic Church has even been more monumental as explained beautifully in the book. Kantinka is indeed the sun at midnight.
Reliance on God, patriotism, philanthropy, hard work, good family life, good parenthood, honesty, and magnanimity is what this life story portrays. This is a book that all must have and read: the student as well as the teacher; the Christian, husband and patriot.
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Unfinished Journey: The Life and Times of VCRAC Crabbe
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, says this about the book:
“The Life of Justice Crabbe has surely not been all rosy. He has suffered painfully from people who envied and misunderstood him. But through it all, he came out better, fearless and incurably optimistic. We learn from some of his painful experiences recounted in this book that misfortune is only a missed-fortune. We should always believe as individuals and as a nation that the best is yet to come! Clearly, part of his secret for aging so gracefully is being content with the lot that life grants him and not to carry any negative emotions in his body.”
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5 Presidents, 8 Elections, 30 Years Later: How Ghanaians See Their Democracy
Ghana’s Fourth Republic, a multiparty democracy, has seen five presidents, held eight successful elections and, as of this writing, is in its thirtieth year. This makes it unique in several ways, compared to previous attempts at multiparty democracy, in that it is the longest-lasting republic so far in the country’s post-independence history. It has outlived the first, second, and third republics combined by more than eighteen years.
What explains this unique period and change in the political trajectory of Ghana? Why has the country’s most recent attempt at multiparty democracy lasted this long?
Drawing on answers to questions in the Afrobarometer survey, administered nine times at periodic intervals between 1999 and 2022, this book describes in twenty themes and fifty-one observations, how Ghanaians see their democracy. The book covers themes such as trust in institutions, partisanship, support for democracy, governments handling of the policy priorities of Ghanaians, among many others. The book points out the key lessons of the last thirty and the challenges ahead in the country’s efforts to deepen democratic governance.₵95.00