• Chasing the Elephant Into the Bush: The Politics of Complacency

    Chasing the Elephant Into the Bush: The Politics of Complacency is an insider’s account of how the governing New Patriotic Party lost power in the closest elections in Africa’s history. The writer believes that providing an accurate account will begin the process of correcting the rumours, lies and myths that are out there about the 2008 elections in Ghana.

    Throughout, the book is liberally sprinkled with quotes and historical references that makes it very informative and interesting. He begins with the state of the nation and the governing party as Ghana approached 2008.

    He then takes the reader through the NPP primary and his own experiences as a losing candidate. There is candid discussion of the rivalries in the campaign that undermined its effectiveness. He takes the reader inside meetings and quotes some of the key players at key moments in the campaign.

    There is candid discussion of the roles of the media, the security forces and civil society. The identification of issues and their use in the campaign is discussed thoroughly. While his sympathies are never in doubt, he is very objective and acknowledges the mistakes made by the campaign, the government and the party. He credits the NDC Campaign for doing certain things well. Amongst these are the deployment of President Mills and former President Rawlings as well as Vice-President John Mahama.

    He reveals the roles of key people, including the President, the Presidential candidate and powerful groups, like the “Kyebi Mafia”. He offers candid assessments of all the key players. He suggests reasons for the NPP defeat and the way to recapture power.

    This will be a very significant first cut and reference point for an account of the 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Ghana.

  • 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.

  • The African Predicament: Collected Essays

    This collection of Kofi Awoonor’s writings comprises essays written over a period of three decades, and includes several previously unpublished pieces. According to the author himself: ‘[they] reflect a life-time of engagement in literature and politics, my two passions…’

    Kofi Awoonor addresses a diverse range of subjects from an African perspective: the slave trade, post-independence history, globalisation, and the fate of the African continent given the twin scourges of poverty and HIV/AIDS. Literary criticism considers the legacy of W.E.B DuBois, and in a contemporary context, Kofi Anyidoho’s poetry. Further essays are reflections composed during the author’s long sojourns in the US: on Negro, Afro-American, black, African-American and African and identities. Further essays cover historical and political topics, such as the overthrow of Nkrumah, and the UN in relation to Africa in the post-Cold War period.

  • Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy

    The yearlong celebration of Ghana’s Golden Jubilee provides a fitting context for the republication of the book Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy. In the lead-up to the celebration and over the course of the year, the life and times of Kwame Nkrumah will receive unprecedented public attention, official and unofficial. Kwame Nkrumah’s very wide name-recognition is, paradoxically, accompanied by sketchy, often oversimplified knowledge about the events and processes of his life and times. For most of those born after independence in 1957, such knowledge does not extend much beyond who Kwame Nkrumah was and vague notions about he won us Independence.

    This book presents new material and new analysis, which helps to clarify aspects of the record, while advancing new perspectives. What comes across clearly throughout the book is the significant contribution of Nkrumah’s vision and personality at a critical moment in the history of Africa and the Third World. He, perhaps more than any other, was able to identify, focus and catalyse the major factors and players driving the struggle for political independence in Ghana and liberation in other parts of Africa. In the process, he committed his life and work totally to a wide variety of activities and processes in Ghana, the continent and in the global Non-Aligned Movement.

    “This is an objective study which should be read by all concerned with the history of post-colonial Africa.” – Conor Cruise O’Brien Former Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana, Legon

  • Kwame Nkrumah: Africa’s Man of the Millennium

    This book seeks to review various presentations made about the life of the man who led this country in her march towards independence and caught the imagination of the entire continent in the 1960s as he advocated and pushed the frontiers towards continental unity.

    The man at the centre of it all – Kwame Nkrumah – is captured in all his facets; his humble beginnings, studies abroad, his return home to work with the UGCC, his political agitations, tenure of office as Leader of Government Business, Prime Minister and President, his removal from office and the role played by internal and external forces, his days in exile, his death and other aspects of his life. These are all presented with a view to enable the reader learn some history as well as good lessons of life.

    Interestingly, though largely seen as the first universal African of the 19th Century, Kwame Nkrumah was actually a man of two halves; much loved and much hated all at the same time. How a single personality could be viewed in that manner is better appreciated by reading the book.

  • Thinking Allowed: A Collection of Articles on Events in Ghana, 1978-1981-Through the Eyes of One Woman

    This collection of articles by Elizabeth A. Ohene takes the title of the column published in the Daily Graphic between August 1978 and December 1981. They cover momentous events, from the ousting of Gen. I.K. Acheampong, the abortive May 15 attempted coup by Fit-Lt J.J. Rawlings, the June 4 Revolution, through to the Third Republic of President Hilla Limann’s PNP government.

    The articles were uncompromising then and, many years later, have a poignant ring to today’s Ghana.

  • International Relations: An Introduction (AsanteBrako Political Series)

    International Relations: An Introduction provides a broad and comprehensive account of issues encountered in the discipline for both under-graduate and graduate students, as well as beginners who are interested in the study of the discipline. Crafted in a lively, clear and highly accessible introduction to international relations and the key concepts in the discipline, the book is designed systematically to build a solid foundation and an effective understanding of concepts, principles, practices and theories of international relations.

  • Ahwene Pa Nkasa: Standing with JDM

    Standing with JDM is quite clear in this title that it does not intend to undermine the former president’s image but to burnish it. What is not clear is whether it was written to coincide with the 2020 Election Year.
    It is in two parts, “The Homeland Briefs” and the “Diplomatic Briefs”. Independent of each other, they are held together by what the author calls the “Mahamarabilia” thread – a word he invented to describe his privileged proximity to the 4th president of the 4th Republic of Ghana.
    Part One has 42 chapters that highlight events like Dumsor, Gitmo 2, Montie 3, Cheating at Elections, Lying and Blaming it on Mahama, Destroying friends and Family and much, much more…It also has intellectual discourses on Traditional Governance and the Ballot Box, Kigali (dangers that could be awaiting Ghana in this Election Year), Ebola and Covid-19 and the history of Ghana’s “coodetas” in new lights that would surprise and reveal…
    Part Two, with 25 chapters, is devoted entirely to the author’s diplomatic service and reads sometimes like a coursebook on practical diplomacy and other times like a travelogue with intriguing insights. We come across his encounter with a sex change person (man to woman) and how his life was nearly cut short when his official car and ostrich crashed into each other on the highway from Windhoek to Gaborone. Part Two is so suffused with humour that it is difficult to tell whether he is pulling the reader’s leg or stating facts.
    Most of the chapters are illustrated with unique pictures that could stand on their own as stories. It is a beautifully designed book, well laid out reader-friendly. For the first time, a modern version of adinkra, called adinshia, has had a public airing in the book…
    Whatever your political persuasion is, your intellect will make you love this beautiful book on Mahama.

  • 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.

  • Ghana: A Tortuous Walk from Colonial Rule to Self Government and After – An Observer’s View

    In Ghana: A Tortuous Walk from Colonial Rule to Self-Government and After – An Observer’s View, the author takes the stand of an engaged citizen who watched the closing transformation of tribal states into colonial Gold Coast, and its metamorphosis into independent Republic of Ghana. Through his attachment to his nation, and from the perspective of an observer of the political process, he emotively describes the procession of events, the people and passions that brought the momentous occasion of independence, the dashing of hopes as political stability was continually disrupted through coup d’etats, and the character and contributions of the various regimes that took over the leadership of Ghana. He takes us on a walk through the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and now the 4th Republic, and describes the promises that the present dispensation of democracy makes to the Ghanaian. His presentation of how present-day Ghana has evolved explains the mixed emotions of anxiety and hope that shape the national outlook and the consistent angst exuding through fractious political groupings.

    The book is a must read for every person who wishes to know and understand the various events that have shaped the Ghana of the early 21st century.

  • The Last Bath: A True Story

    Age Range: 8 years and above

    The Last bath is a true story of slavery and emancipation based on the sequential murals painted by the Ghanaian artist Obeh. Obeh completed a series of murals in 2016, that illustrate real-life experiences had by some Guamanians who were captured and enslaved. The Donkor Nsuo (Slave River) is in the ancestral river park located in Assin Manso, a town in the Central Region of Ghana.

    Obeh is an artist from Assin Manso, Ghana. He was chosen to paint this series of murals to tell the history of enslavement to emancipation, as it occurred in Ghana. Completed in 2016, his portrayals depict some of the unforgettable horrors of the slave trade.

  • Heritage Pack: Ghana Our Motherland (6 books)

    Age Range: 8 years and above

    A set of five books for young ones and anyone looking for a quick and easy appreciation about the country Ghana: its history, culture, traditional systems, languages, people, food and more!

    These books provides basic education about Ghanaian history, cultural practices and heritage for the Ghanaian child. Though they will prove useful for every Ghanaian (as well as non-Ghanaians), they are especially beneficial for parents who are keen on educating the Ghanaian child in the diaspora.

    These books give a foundation of Ghanaian history and cultural practices to enable readers understand and appreciate Ghanaian heritage.

    There is a bonus book that talks about Africa!

Main Menu