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Civilization & Culture (45)
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Expeditions & Discoveries (1)
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Revolution and Democracy in Ghana: The Politics of Jerry Rawlings
Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, who passed away on 12 November 2020, aged 73 years, dramatically appeared on Ghana’s political scene 40 years earlier. In May 1979, Rawlings was briefly jailed following an unsuccessful coup attempt. Rawlings and his comrades were revolted by Ghana’s corruption and economic decline at the hands of its ruling generals. A few weeks later, on 4 June 1979, Rawlings was released from prison by a group of disgruntled soldiers and took power following a successful coup d’état. Following a brief, but turbulent, few months in power, Rawlings’ Armed Forces Revolutionary Council handed over to an elected government in September 1979. Twenty-seven months later, on 31 December 1981, he was back in power, again by coup d’état. This time it was not a brief stay in the hot seat: Rawlings, leader of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), comprising three civilians and three armed forces personnel, remained in power for more than a decade. Seeking to justify the coup, Rawlings claimed that the PNDC was a necessary response to Ghana’s political and economic crisis. In January 1993, democracy returned to Ghana. Jerry Rawlings was popularly elected president twice, eventually standing down in January 2001, as the 1992 constitution demanded. Beginning his political career as a military figure with revolutionary aspirations, Rawlings ended it as a twice democratically-elected civilian president.
These are the brief facts about the political career of Flight-Lieutenant, later President, Jerry Rawlings. More than three years after his passing, Rawlings remains a pivotal, absolutely central, figure in Ghana. His enduring influence in Ghana may be second only to that of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah. On the other hand, there is no more controversial figure in Ghana’s political and economic history than Rawlings. More than two decades after he left political office, nothing divides Ghanaians more than their opinions regarding him. This book seeks to explain how and why Rawlings and the PNDC progressed from an undemocratic military-based regime to laying the foundations for Ghana’s three decades of multi-party democracy. Was Rawlings a patriot who believed passionately in Ghana and did all he could to make the country succeed? Or was he a wrecker who wanted to bring the post-colonial edifice tumbling down in a misguided attempt at revolution? The aim of this book is to enable the reader to draw their own conclusions on these questions.
₵200.00 -
Essential History Primary 3 WorkBook
Essential History Primary 3 WorkBook
₵45.00 -
Bookset: The Trial of J.J. Rawlings & Ogyakrom: The Missing Pages of June 4th (2 books)
Two prolific writers, brothers. One tumultuous period in Ghana’s history. One significant personality.Same perspectives or different? Get this set and find out.About the Trial of JJ Rawlings
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
About Ogyakrom: The Missing Pages of June 4th
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.
₵230.00₵235.00 -
Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World (Paperback)
**Available in 3 weeks after order
‘Fabulously entertaining’ Daily Telegraph
‘This astonishing book reveals some of the most important global events of the twentieth century’ Afua Hirsch
‘Perfect for fans of Frank Abignale Jr.’s Catch Me If You Can‘ Publishers Weekly
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an ingenious Ghanaian con artist ran one of the 20th century’s longest and most audacious frauds.When Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957, it immediately became a target for opportunists determined to lay hold of whatever assets colonialism hadn’t already stripped. The military ousted the new nation’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of stealing the country’s gold and hiding it overseas.
Into this story stepped one of history’s most charismatic scammers, John Ackah Blay-Miezah – a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty, Blay-Miezah declared himself the custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece, if only you would help him rescue it – with a small investment. Over the 1970s and ’80s, he grew his scam to epic proportions, amassing hundreds of millions of pounds from thousands of marks all over the world. He baffled Henry Kissinger, scandalised Shirley Temple-Black, and had Nixon’s former attorney-general at his beck and call. Many tried to stop him, but Blay-Miezah continued to live in luxury, protected by ex-SAS soldiers while he deceived lawyers, businessmen and investigators around the globe.
In Anansi’s Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases the ever-wilder trail of Blay-Miezah – and unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements and African dreams – revealing the untold story of the grifter who beat the West at its own thieving game.
₵375.00 -
Politics in Ghana: From the Earliest Times to the Eve of the Fourth Republic
Politics in Ghana: From the Earliest Times to the Eve of the Fourth Republic has been introduced to equip political science students and avid readers interested in the subject as well as both budding and seasoned politicians with effective tools that give them a firm understanding of Ghana’s political development.
The book provides a bird’s eyes view and a penetrating insight into controversial issues that shaped events and developments of the country from the pre-colonial times through the struggle for independence to the post-independence era.
In an accessible and engaging writing style, the book effectively analyses the nexus between the geographical features of the country, particularly the ethnic and regional distributions of the people and how they impacted on the political development during the period under review. It also traverses the constitutional development and other factors that triggered political action from the late 1800s to the eve of the Fourth Republic. Ghana witnessed three republics each of which was truncated by military juntas that provided interim administration to fill the hiatuses before the eventual transition to democratic rule for the fourth time. Factors that occasioned the interruptions and the subsequent return to constitutional rule together with the performances of the various regimes and their ramifications are incisively analysed.
Politics in Ghana: From the Earliest Times to the Eve of the Fourth Republic is an authentic reference document for any person who is thirsty for a better understanding of political events that preceded the final return to constitutional rule in 1993.
₵100.00 -
The Mumfordians: Memories of a Sea Boy
In one beautiful swoop, this book takes you to the nostalgic past and the aspirational future of an African nation still in the throes of defining self-determination. With the brilliance of powerful recalls, it dissects the socio-cultural as well as the political. It is one man’s journey from an idyllic African fishing village, through his self-improvement to become the executive secretary of a Pan-African body travelling several capitals of the world in the service of his employer.
It is also a book about people − their history, their dreams and the ills they seem unable to decidedly confront. But what makes The Mumfordians a keepsake is its richness in national promise and communal nostalgia.
₵210.00 -
Kwame Nkrumah: A Leninist Czar or Radical Pan Africanist and Visionary?
There have been several misconceptions and distortions concerning the Man Kwame Nkrumah. This book attempts to correct these. It sheds light on the life and accomplishments of Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana and Africa’s Man of the Millennium. It does an objective appraisal of him through critical issues that engaged his energies during his time; including his world outlook, the nature and direction of the African revolution; African unity and the role of the state; the DR Congo and imperialism; democracy, the nation and social justice; etc.
₵20.00 -
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 -
Kwame Nkrumah: Contributions to the African Revolution
Drawing on the published works, correspondence and speeches of Kwame Nkrumah, as well as on contemporary press reportage during Nkrumah’s final months in Ghana, Doreatha Mbalia offers a view of the theory and practice of the visionary proponent of a united African continent.
This work traces the development Mbalia sees in Nkrumah’s theory and practice, from the early formation of his unique ideology that emphasises the crucial role of socialism in the progress towards a united African continent, to the coup that ended his Presidency of Ghana and his subsequent belief that the people of Africa must, when diplomatic and political means had failed, raise arms against neo-colonialism. Mbalia urges that Nkrumah’s vision still points the way to Pan-African unity.
₵570.00 -
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 -
Baba Chibsah: Inspirational Story of an Illustrious Migrant
Baba Chibsah: Inspirational Story of an Illustrious Migrant is one of those books that take the reader on a journey of illumination. At the core of the story is the life of Baba Chibsah, who was both a visionary and practical man who was driven by his own idealism and belief in God and community to achieve goals he could not have comprehended when he set out from his home in the Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), to work in the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1922. His immediate aim was to earn enough money to buy a bicycle. Taking every opportunity that came his way, the acclaimed founder of Tafo Zongo never went back but created a community and values worth celebrating.
His adventures read like a story out of a thriller movie. However, the story breaks free of its boundaries and becomes the history of a whole generation. This book teaches more about life in pre-independence times, not only in Ghana but in our West African sub-region than most textbooks. Here the story of migration, impact of European colonial policy, social interaction, Islamic movements and trends, and indeed the development of the Tafo-Suame enclave in Kumasi are all laid out here in cinematic detail.
Alhaji Seidu Kibsa Sawadogo aka Alhaji Seidu Chibsah has not only honoured his father and his generation but also produced a history masterpiece.
₵200.00 -
The Children of House No. D13 South Suntresu Kumasi: An Ahwoi & Adu-Gyamfi Siblings’ Collective Biography
*Available from 15 June 2022
To describe The Children of House No. D13, South Suntresu, Kumasi, as an intriguing project is an understatement. A collective biography of eight siblings was always going to be a daunting challenge, even if each person told their own story and got it together in one volume. To do it in a coordinated combination of first and third person “voices” would appear to be a bit implausible. To actually achieve the purpose and turn it from a project into an enthralling reading experience deserves all the plaudits this book is likely to gather.
This book is a collection of life stories of the eight children of Madam Maye Charlotte Hudson, also known as Esi Tutuwa but known to some people as Esi Nkwagye and to the people of South Suntresu, Kumasi as Mrs. Ahwoi. The ‘Ahwois” principally is the collective name of three brothers – Ato, Kwesi and Kwamena – who have played prominent roles in Ghana’s recent history, but the siblings also include five girls, Ama, Adoma, Efua, Naana and Sister Aggie, who also played their part in this thrilling story in their own unique ways.
For such a collective recall of personal histories to work, a principal requirement is a willingness of all the parties involved to treat the project seriously; of equal importance is the need to treat everyone’s personal history as important, which is what this book has succeeded in doing. It would be right to describe it as an exercise in literary democracy!
It is not every book project that produces a good book, but this book has done so because at the heart of the project is a good story. And at the heart of that good story is human progress against the odds capsuled in the life of these eight individuals.
These are the dramatis personae in order of appearance – from the womb – Ato Ahwoi, Kwesi Ahwoi, Mrs. Ama Twum, Kwamena Ahwoi, Mrs. Ama Adoma Bartels-Kodwo, Mrs. Efua Bram-Larbi, Theodora Naana Adu Gyamfi and Mrs. Agnes Appiagyei-Dankah. Theodora Naana Adu-Gyamfi passed away at the age of 28 and so her role ends early except in passing references. However, it is worth recalling that before she died, and in an act that exemplifies the major theme of this book, Naana secretely transferred all the money in her own bank account into that of her six year old niece, Abena Tutuwa Ahwoi, the daughter of her brother, Kwamena.
The structure of the narrative, which makes it possible to flow, is simply to follow the fortunes of these siblings sequentially in turn through the main phases of their development. The person whose presence permeates the story is the matriarch – Mrs. Ahwoi, nee Maye Charlotte Hudson.
The book achieves the purpose of showing the “remarkable togetherness and the mutual support system that enabled the children of House No. D13, South Suntresu, Kumasi, to overcome the many hurdles along their individual paths in life as being due to their mother, Madam Maye Charlotte Hudson (Mrs. Ahwoi). Indeed, the matriarch herself is effectively the ninth subject of the biography of the eight children” as Honourable Kwame Preprah states in the Foreword.
Nana Kwasi Gyan Apenteng
Consultant in Communication, Media and Culture
Former Chairman, National Media Commission (NMC)
Former President, Ghana Association of Writers (GAW)
₵250.00 -
Public Administration (AsanteBrako Political Series)
Every person is impacted by public administration issues, yet many people do not fully understand the processes involved in getting the problems that confront them addressed by the government. It is an undisputable fact that our very survival as humans, in terms of protection against harm and provision of our welfare needs, hinges heavily on the state. To be able to discharge these functions effectively demands an effective and efficient public administration.
What is public administration and what makes it relevant? This introductory Public Administration textbook is designed with the intention to provide students and practitioners with concrete tools, not only to understand public administration issues in general, but also to enable them to analyse specific theoretical and practical questions. The book offers an extensive overview of the current thinking on critical issues in the discipline, with an emphasis on accessibility and synthesis, rather than novelty or abstraction.
₵40.00 -
Africa: From Colonialism to Independence (AsanteBrako Political Series)
Authoritatively and comprehensively compiled, this book, Africa: From Colonialism to Independence, offers a wide-ranging account of the political history of Africa, from pre-colonial times through colonial rule to the period of attainment of political independence. It sheds much light on the traditional political institutions that prevailed on the continent prior to the advent of colonial rule and how they were transformed by the systems of colonial administration as well as the new set of political institutions that emerged following the resistance to colonialism. The book covers all the geographical parts of Africa in a systematic order such that it will be found useful by readers in all geographical locations on the continent and beyond.
The book gives penetrating descriptions of the colonial policies of all the major colonial powers and dilates on the positive and negative impacts of colonialism on the African subjects and African political institutions as well. It also gives a vivid account of the struggles by the Africans to get rid of the European hegemony. This straightforward, illustrated and factual text allows the reader to access personalities and events on the African continent during the period under review.
In fact, the book Africa: From Colonialism to Independence is an authentic reference material for the avid reader, students and tutors of African political history as well as those who are enthusiastic to know more about African politics.
₵60.00 -
Understanding Political Institutions (AsanteBrako Political Series)
Understanding Political Institutions comprehensively addresses both the theoretical and practical aspects of institutions in governance and politics. Written in an accessible style, the text is designed to introduce readers to political institutions and how they function to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the state.
The focus of the text is on meanings, origins, features, structures, principles, theories and functions of both formal and informal political institutions, including the legislature, executive and judiciary, as well as civil society organizations, such as political parties, interest groups and the media. Other institutional processes and principles like separation of powers, checks and balances, rule of law, electoral processes and systems and constitutions are discussed.
Each chapter features the key issues discussed, a summary of contents and sample examination questions. Understanding Political Institutions is indeed an essential reader and a must-read for anyone who is interested in gaining adequate knowledge about how both formal and informal political institutions function in a state.
₵100.00