Recommended Items
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Working with Rawlings
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings burst on the Ghanaian political scene with a failed military mutiny on May 15th, 1979. On June 4th 1979, following a successful uprising staged by junior officers and other ranks of the Ghana Armed Forces, he emerged as the Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which ruled Ghana for three months and handed over to a civilian constitutional government on 24th September 1979. On 31st December 1981, he overthrew the constitutional government and formed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) as the Government of Ghana. He was elected a constitutional President in 1992 and assumed office as such on 7th January 1993. He served two terms as President of the Republic of Ghana, finally leaving office on 6th January 2001.
Jerry John Rawlings is an enigma. It was a privilege working with him and being close to him. He and I went through many exciting experiences together. I have documented some of those experiences in this book. But there are many other experiences which I have not documented either because they belong to the realm of confidentiality or of privacy. What I have documented, however, is enough to give present and future leaders some ideas about governance at the highest levels; the dos and don’ts of governance; the skills required for governance and the importance of human relations as a leadership trait.
This is not a book about Jerry John Rawlings. It is not a book about Kwamena Ahwoi. It is not a book about the PNDC. It is not a book about the NDC. It is a book about Kwamena Ahwoi working with Jerry John Rawlings; our working relationship; our ups and downs and our joint commitment to building a better Ghana than the one we found it. Somewhere along the line, we drifted apart. This book is about that as well. It is my hope that Ghana’s leaders of today and our leaders of the future will learn some lessons from my account of Working with Rawlings, leaving out the negatives and accentuating the positives.
₵150.00Working with Rawlings
₵150.00 -
The UT Story: Humble Beginnings – Vol 1 (Hardcover)
How does an Army Captain who failed to obtain a ₵20 million (about $20,000) loan from the banks, set up a successful finance house and cause such a monumental paradigm shift to the lending culture of a country?
Capt. Prince Kofi Amoabeng(Rtd) defied the odds to found Unique Trust Financial Services Limited, which was later rebranded to UT Financial Services Limited and metamorphosed into a Bank (UT Bank) under the UT Holdings Umbrella together with subsidiaries in Germany, South Africa and Nigeria.
In this first instalment of a series of memoirs, PK, as he was affectionately called by his fiercely loyal and dedicated team, shares an inspiring, in-depth, no-holds-barred, behind the scenes, unabashed account of how and what made UT a household name and impacted so many lives.
Written with George Bentum Essiaw, a tenacious, talented writer and filmmaker, The UT Story: Humble Beginnings is replete with profound lessons in entrepreneurship and leadership, employing an effective mixture of orthodox and unorthodox methods grounded firmly in time-tested military principles.
Whatever your background or occupation, this book will fascinate and inspire you to dare.
₵200.00 -
Essential History Primary 6 Learner’s Book
Essential History Primary 6 Learner’s Book
₵52.00 -
Dark Days in Ghana
Kwame Nkrumah, foremost exponent of African unity and socialism, never saw Ghana in isolation from the rest of Africa or from the world revolutionary struggle.
In Dark Days in Ghana, he exposed the true nature of the military-police dictatorship that was established after the overthrow of Ghana’s Constitutional Government on 24th February 1966, setting the event in the context of the wider continental and world situation.
Dark Days in Ghana demolishes the “big lie” that Ghana had needed to be rescued from “economic chaos”. Nkrumah recounts the systematic sell-out of Ghana’s assets to neo-colonialist interests by the military-police junta, and the subsequent reduction of Ghana from democratic statehood to the humiliating position of neo-colony.
Since this book was first published, Ghana has had several governments − military and civilian. None have succeeded in restoring Ghana to the position it occupied in Africa and the world during Nkrumah’s stewardship.
This and other works of Nkrumah demonstrate the accuracy of Nkrumah’s political and philosophical vision, and the clarity of his understanding of the problems and possibilities for all those resisting oppression and exploitation throughout the world, and for the continuing development of continental African unity.
₵120.00Dark Days in Ghana
₵120.00 -
The Boabab Tree of Salaga
Suitable for upper primary pupils and children between 9 and 11 years
Dauda, a twelve-year old boy lives in a village north of Salaga with his parents. He often helps his father, who is a blacksmith, at the forge. He also grazes their sheep and goats.
One night, slave raiders captured everyone from his village. Dauda gets separated from his parents. He is taken to Salaga where he is chained to a big baobab tree before he is later sold off. From Salaga, he, together with many others are marched to the coast and made to board a ship to the Americas to be sold as slaves.
Two hundred years later, a stranger visits the same baobab tree at Salaga…who is this stranger?
₵30.00The Boabab Tree of Salaga
₵30.00 -
Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page Wishlist
The Fourth John: Reign, Rejection & Rebound
Rated 5.00 out of 501An influential northern caucus is secretly meeting and grooming him to contest the man who will select him as a vice presidential candidate. A meeting between the first lady and the Brong-Ahafo caucus results in, perhaps, the fastest ministerial reshuffle in the history of the country. At 2a.m., before the breaking of a major scandal, there is a meeting between the president’s friend and the investigative journalist about how to involve the main opposition leader, in the story to minimise its damage to the president in the upcoming election. The wife of the president reports the wife of the vice president to the vice president’s mother. The night before a crucial election, the president and his main contender are locked up in a meeting with Ghana’s most revered traditional ruler.
These and other revealing accounts on governance, policies and programmes of the fourth presidency of Ghana’s Fourth Republic are the intriguing contents of this book. Here, the journalist whose investigations are believed to have contributed to the downfall of the administration gets brutally intimate with the regime.
Rare interviews with key figures of the governing party and historical contexts to contemporary events provide readers and students of African politics the inside story of what is considered the model democracy on the continent. The fluidity of the writing style and humour make this book about politics and governance in Ghana’s Fourth Republic both informative, educative and entertaining.
₵300.00Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Best Seller Items
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Working with Rawlings
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings burst on the Ghanaian political scene with a failed military mutiny on May 15th, 1979. On June 4th 1979, following a successful uprising staged by junior officers and other ranks of the Ghana Armed Forces, he emerged as the Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which ruled Ghana for three months and handed over to a civilian constitutional government on 24th September 1979. On 31st December 1981, he overthrew the constitutional government and formed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) as the Government of Ghana. He was elected a constitutional President in 1992 and assumed office as such on 7th January 1993. He served two terms as President of the Republic of Ghana, finally leaving office on 6th January 2001.
Jerry John Rawlings is an enigma. It was a privilege working with him and being close to him. He and I went through many exciting experiences together. I have documented some of those experiences in this book. But there are many other experiences which I have not documented either because they belong to the realm of confidentiality or of privacy. What I have documented, however, is enough to give present and future leaders some ideas about governance at the highest levels; the dos and don’ts of governance; the skills required for governance and the importance of human relations as a leadership trait.
This is not a book about Jerry John Rawlings. It is not a book about Kwamena Ahwoi. It is not a book about the PNDC. It is not a book about the NDC. It is a book about Kwamena Ahwoi working with Jerry John Rawlings; our working relationship; our ups and downs and our joint commitment to building a better Ghana than the one we found it. Somewhere along the line, we drifted apart. This book is about that as well. It is my hope that Ghana’s leaders of today and our leaders of the future will learn some lessons from my account of Working with Rawlings, leaving out the negatives and accentuating the positives.
₵150.00Working with Rawlings
₵150.00 -
The UT Story: Humble Beginnings – Vol 1 (Hardcover)
How does an Army Captain who failed to obtain a ₵20 million (about $20,000) loan from the banks, set up a successful finance house and cause such a monumental paradigm shift to the lending culture of a country?
Capt. Prince Kofi Amoabeng(Rtd) defied the odds to found Unique Trust Financial Services Limited, which was later rebranded to UT Financial Services Limited and metamorphosed into a Bank (UT Bank) under the UT Holdings Umbrella together with subsidiaries in Germany, South Africa and Nigeria.
In this first instalment of a series of memoirs, PK, as he was affectionately called by his fiercely loyal and dedicated team, shares an inspiring, in-depth, no-holds-barred, behind the scenes, unabashed account of how and what made UT a household name and impacted so many lives.
Written with George Bentum Essiaw, a tenacious, talented writer and filmmaker, The UT Story: Humble Beginnings is replete with profound lessons in entrepreneurship and leadership, employing an effective mixture of orthodox and unorthodox methods grounded firmly in time-tested military principles.
Whatever your background or occupation, this book will fascinate and inspire you to dare.
₵200.00 -
Essential History Primary 6 Learner’s Book
Essential History Primary 6 Learner’s Book
₵52.00 -
Dark Days in Ghana
Kwame Nkrumah, foremost exponent of African unity and socialism, never saw Ghana in isolation from the rest of Africa or from the world revolutionary struggle.
In Dark Days in Ghana, he exposed the true nature of the military-police dictatorship that was established after the overthrow of Ghana’s Constitutional Government on 24th February 1966, setting the event in the context of the wider continental and world situation.
Dark Days in Ghana demolishes the “big lie” that Ghana had needed to be rescued from “economic chaos”. Nkrumah recounts the systematic sell-out of Ghana’s assets to neo-colonialist interests by the military-police junta, and the subsequent reduction of Ghana from democratic statehood to the humiliating position of neo-colony.
Since this book was first published, Ghana has had several governments − military and civilian. None have succeeded in restoring Ghana to the position it occupied in Africa and the world during Nkrumah’s stewardship.
This and other works of Nkrumah demonstrate the accuracy of Nkrumah’s political and philosophical vision, and the clarity of his understanding of the problems and possibilities for all those resisting oppression and exploitation throughout the world, and for the continuing development of continental African unity.
₵120.00Dark Days in Ghana
₵120.00 -
The Boabab Tree of Salaga
Suitable for upper primary pupils and children between 9 and 11 years
Dauda, a twelve-year old boy lives in a village north of Salaga with his parents. He often helps his father, who is a blacksmith, at the forge. He also grazes their sheep and goats.
One night, slave raiders captured everyone from his village. Dauda gets separated from his parents. He is taken to Salaga where he is chained to a big baobab tree before he is later sold off. From Salaga, he, together with many others are marched to the coast and made to board a ship to the Americas to be sold as slaves.
Two hundred years later, a stranger visits the same baobab tree at Salaga…who is this stranger?
₵30.00The Boabab Tree of Salaga
₵30.00 -
Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page Wishlist
The Fourth John: Reign, Rejection & Rebound
Rated 5.00 out of 501An influential northern caucus is secretly meeting and grooming him to contest the man who will select him as a vice presidential candidate. A meeting between the first lady and the Brong-Ahafo caucus results in, perhaps, the fastest ministerial reshuffle in the history of the country. At 2a.m., before the breaking of a major scandal, there is a meeting between the president’s friend and the investigative journalist about how to involve the main opposition leader, in the story to minimise its damage to the president in the upcoming election. The wife of the president reports the wife of the vice president to the vice president’s mother. The night before a crucial election, the president and his main contender are locked up in a meeting with Ghana’s most revered traditional ruler.
These and other revealing accounts on governance, policies and programmes of the fourth presidency of Ghana’s Fourth Republic are the intriguing contents of this book. Here, the journalist whose investigations are believed to have contributed to the downfall of the administration gets brutally intimate with the regime.
Rare interviews with key figures of the governing party and historical contexts to contemporary events provide readers and students of African politics the inside story of what is considered the model democracy on the continent. The fluidity of the writing style and humour make this book about politics and governance in Ghana’s Fourth Republic both informative, educative and entertaining.
₵300.00Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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St. Augustine’s College: Conquering With Perseverance – Our Past, Our Present And Our Future
The 724-page book is the first-ever reference book by any college in Ghana. It serves as both a history book on everything one needs to know about the St. Augustine’s College and serves as both an encyclopaedia as well as almanac that compiles in detail, every single one of the over 400 parishes, out-stations and individuals that contributed towards the establishment of the College. It also traces the history of the Gold Coast Catholic as the root of Catholic Education, contribution of the Catholic Church to Ghana’s Education Sector, the establishment of St. Augustine’s College initially as a Teacher Training College in Amisano and subsequent construction and transfer of the College to Cape Coast with a Secondary Department. In all the narration, the authors bring out the undercurrents that led to the clamour of the Gold Coast Catholic faithful to have their own Secondary School and the frustrations that the Catholic Church hierarchy had to endure to have the College established.
The book gives a background to the naming of the College after the foremost Christian Theologian of African descent and how that dove-tailed into the philosophy, unique identity and character of the College’s products. Detailed highlights are given on major roles played by the Society of African Missions and the Congregation of Holy Cross in the holistic development of the College’s students. The College’s scholarship, excellence in sports and role as a citadel of the arts are well explained in the book with an impressive roll-call of outstanding alumni across various sectors as an emphasis to the role of the College within the context of national development. The very essence of campus life, management and curriculum is brought to the fore through reminiscence by APSUnians across its nine decades of existence. The various narrations are interlaced with interviews, discussions with College Management, academic staff and alumni dating as far back as the 1950s.
The book also does a comprehensive listing of every college alumnus from 1933 when the very first graduates left college till 2017 by their programmes offered and provides 65 coloured pages of very historic privileged pictures some dating as far back as 1930s. The role of the past students’ union (APSU) as one of the most critical stakeholders in the development of the College is clearly established all through the book which closes with prospects on the establishment of an endowment fund to secure the gains made over the decades.
Whether an APSUnian, Augusco parent, Catholic faithful, a historian or researcher, one will require a copy of this historic document to fully appreciate the work of the missionaries in the development of education in Ghana, role of the Catholic Church in the establishment of schools in Ghana among others.
The book is printed on quality paper and stitched hard-bound with dust jacket.
₵130.00 -
African Visionaries
In over forty portraits, African writers present extraordinary people from their continent: portraits of the women and men whom they admire, people who have changed and enriched life in Africa. The portraits include inventor, founders of universities, resistance fighters, musicians, environmental activists or writers. African Visionaries is a multi-faceted book, seen through African eyes, on the most impactful people of Africa.
Some of the writers contributing to the collection are: Helon Habila, Virginia Phiri, Ellen Banda-Aaku, Véronique Tadjo, Tendai Huchu, Solomon Tsehaye, Patrice Nganang and Sami Tchak.
₵130.00African Visionaries
₵130.00 -
Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page Wishlist
To the Thirsty Land: Autobiography of a Patriot by Emmanuel Evans-Anfom
Emmanuel Evans-Anfom, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 101 years, was considered a living legend in Ghana.
He was one of the great pioneers of the medical profession in that country, as well as serving as Vice Chancellor for The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. His memoirs span his lifetime from the end of colonial rule through four and a half decades of independent Ghana. They tell the story of his early upbringing in James Town, the seminal impact of Achimota College on his education and career, and his medical training at Edinburgh University in wartime Britain. At the peak of his professional career, Evans-Anfom was one of the leading surgeons of the country and a renowned educationalist.
₵130.00 – ₵180.00Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageTo the Thirsty Land: Autobiography of a Patriot by Emmanuel Evans-Anfom
₵130.00 – ₵180.00 -
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.
₵130.00 -
The Trial of J.J. Rawlings: Echoes of the 31st December Revolution (2nd Edition)
The Trial of JJ Rawlings narrates the extraordinary circumstances under which a young military officer Flt Lt JJ Rawlings, later to become the longest serving Head of State of Ghana, shot into the limelight to change the course of Ghana’s history and political development.The first edition of the book, originally published in 1986, completely sold out within a year, making this second edition very welcome in response to public request.
This volume is a valuable contribution to our understanding of those ineluctable forces that have changed the contours of our society. Surely, the story of JJ, well told in this volume, cannot fail to grip and hold the reader’s most concentrated attention. – Prof F.A. Botchwey, PhD
₵135.00 -
Prince of Monkeys
Growing up in middle-class Lagos, Nigeria during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ihechi forms a band of close friends in his neighbourhood. They discover Lagos together as teenagers whose differing ideologies come to the fore over everything from film to football, Fela Kuti to God, sex to politics. They remain close-knit until Ihechi’s girlfriend, is killed in an anti-government riot.
Exiled by his concerned mother, Ihechi moves in with his uncle’s family, where he struggles to find himself outside his former circle of friends. Ihechi eventually finds success by leveraging his connection with a notorious prostitution linchpin and political heavyweight, and earning favour among the ruling elite.
But just as Ihechi is about to make his final ascent into the elite political class, he encounters his childhood friends and experiences a crisis of conscience that forces him to question his motives and who he wants to be. Nnamdi Ehirim’s debut novel, Prince of Monkeys is a lyrical, reflective glimpse into Nigerian life, religion, and politics at the end of the twentieth century.
₵135.00Prince of Monkeys
₵135.00 -
My Name is an Address (Hardcover)
Age Range: 8 – 12 years
You are not lost! You are not alone! A GPS system navigates you to where you are going, but your name could lead to what you are looking for. What’s in a name?
Ekuwah Mends uses the alphabet letters to answer that question. She opens a window into her family, history, culture, language, geography, and more. Look through Ekuwah’s actual family photos, Mother’s artwork, and Father’s artifact collection.
My Name is an Address comes to life and touches your heart. Exit the story by finding your own Akan name. Also, return when you need to feel connected. Ultimately, be inspired to find your own address.
₵135.00 -
Move To Ghana: 10 Practical Ways To Relocate To Ghana
This book is for anyone in the diaspora considering or planning to make the move to Ghana now or in the nearest future.
This book offers 10 practical, tried and tested ways you can consider to enable you to take action to begin to live out your dreams. It provides key insights, tips and action points you need to implement in order to succeed.
The book will help the reader to clarify your thoughts, identify opportunities around you and encourage you to start preparing for your journey back home, whether to live or to invest.
₵135.00 -
Black and Bold Queens: Women in Ghana’s History
Available from 9th April, 2023
Age Range: 8 – 15 years
Meet brave and bold women from Ghana who changed the world. The stories of these sixteen powerful women will inspire and uplift you.
₵135.00 -
The Path of an Eagle – Despair, Hope and Glory: Autobiography of Daniel McKorley (McDan)
Daniel McKorley’s autobiography offers a powerful yet gripping insight into the life of the author and, for the first time, enables a window into his total life experiences, the summation of which the public knows.
Having taken his time to detail his life story, the book offers a step-by-step account of his life and how the various experiences of his upbringing have shaped his current station and situation in life. His is a life of contrasts in which his successes in business and professional life sharply contrast with his life of poverty growing up.
The overall structure of the book and the sequencing of the chapters makes for easy and enjoyable reading, and the everyday realities recounted in his words should both evoke empathy and identity in the reader. If the title of the book insinuates comparisons with the eagle and its ways, it is because the author mimics the bird in its tendencies and has charted his life to reflect the fortunes of an eagle – a fitting simile given that the author’s name means “an eagle” in his native Ga tribe of Ghana.
This book is an enchanting piece worth every reader’s time.
₵140.00 -
The Deep Blue Between
Twin sisters Hassana and Husseina’s home is in ruins after a brutal raid. But this is not the end but the beginning of their story, one that will take them to unfamiliar cities and cultures, where they will forge new families, ward off dangers and truly begin to know themselves.
As the twins pursue separate paths in Brazil and the Gold Coast of West Africa, they remain connected through shared dreams of water. But will their fates ever draw them back together?
A sweeping adventure with richly evocative historical settings, The Deep Blue Between is a moving story of the bonds that can endure even the most dramatic change.
₵140.00The Deep Blue Between
₵140.00 -
The Black Pimpernel: Nelson Mandela on the Run
In March 1961, after giving a brief speech at a conference, Nelson Mandela vanished.
For the next eighteen months he was an outlaw, living under assumed identities and in various disguises (sometimes as a chauffeur, sometimes a gardener) as the South African police and secret services, helped by MI5 and the CIA, sought him in vain. His mission? To undergo military training and set up armed resistance to apartheid.
₵140.00 -
Politics in Ghana (1982-1992): Rawlings, Revolution and Populist Democracy
This work was embarked upon as part of my study of military intervention in politics which had become the bane of politics in my country and Africa as a whole. My previous study had encompassed the period 1972-1979 (vide Politics In Ghana 1972 — 1979). The publication was well received and it won several awards. The book decried military rule in the hope that it would discourage military incursions in Ghanaian politics. As the 31 December Revolution unfolded, several friends impressed upon me, and I felt a deep obligation in the same direction, to capture and analyse the events of the time for posterity and for the guidance of my beloved country.
With the advent of the PNDC on 31 December 1981, revolutionary politics was launched, which was geared towards participatory democracy. The PNDC military government claimed that it was not just another military junta but that under the auspices of the military and civilian revolutionary leaders and cadres, the people were taking their destinies into their own hands towards the establishment of grassroots democracy. In the process, as the revolutionaries claimed, all injustices would be redressed, corruption would be eradicated and a new era of prosperity would dawn as “true democracy” was manifested.
My task in this work was to examine critically, the true nature of the PNDC, its composition, declared aims and objectives and whether the politics of revolution which dawned on 31 December 1981, could be justified. It was worthy to study and document whether the Defence Committees, District Assemblies, political and legal institutions of the PNDC, the regime’s human rights record, economic and social policies, responsibility and accountability to the populace, responsiveness in government and its electoral record did lead to a true democracy. The work is seen as a contribution towards answering the question: did the PNDC bring democracy to Ghana?
₵140.00 -
Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree
*Available from 15th September 2019.
Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, this poignant novel by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival. Includes an afterword by award-winning journalist Viviana Mazza.
A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband–these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren’t too far out of reach.
But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors’ radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told.
Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life–her future–is hers to fight for.
₵145.00Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree
₵145.00 -
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
₵150.00