• 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.

  • 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)

  • Patrice Lumumba (Panaf Great Lives)

    This book considers the first years of the Congo Republic following independence in 1960. Particular analysis is made of Lumumba’s policies and of western pressures in this crucial experience of the African Revolution.

    The story of Lumumba underlines the correctness of Nkrumah’s Pan-African thesis.

  • Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah

    Containing short extracts from the writings and speeches of the foremost exponent of African liberation, unity and socialism. Part of the basic equipment of every African freedom fighter, and essential reading for all interested in the principles underlying the African Revolution.

  • 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.

  • Destiny and Politics: A Biography of Hon. Samuel Sallas-Mensah

    From a humble beginning as the son of a farmer in a relatively small town, Hon. Samuel Sallas-Mensah, four terms MP for Upper West Akim would perhaps have ended up as a farmer too. In those days, children took after their parents’ trades. Sallas got the chance to go to America and the entire course of his life changed. After a distinguished career in accountancy in the US and later in Nigeria, destiny led his way once more but this time to the country of his birth, Ghana, where eventually, a new career window opened in his life – politics.

    As a Member of the Consultative Assembly his accounting and financial acumen were in evidence as he actively contributed to the District Assembly Common Fund. And as a Member of Parliament he was instrumental in instituting the live television coverage of the sitting of the Public Accounts Committee – legacies to the nation that survive today.

    In this compelling biography the reader come face-to-face with this influential man of few words who is famed to have friends and access to both sides of the Ghanaian political divide. But what would Sallas be remembered for most, a politician, a chartered accountant or family man? More importantly, where else will destiny lead him to?

    “Crispy-delicious narratives, refreshingly-garnished insights. This fascinating biography of a patriot never finishes astonishing you with the twists and turns. But it is the authoritative revelations about a nation and its people that makes this book destined to be relevant to the politics of Ghana.” ~ Business & Financial Times

  • 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.

  • The Legislative System of Ghana

    This book focuses on the legislative system of Ghana. It contains sixteen chapters, each focusing on a unique aspect of the legislative system of Ghana. It outlines the rules, the practice, and procedure that govern the conduct of business and Members in the Parliament of Ghana and its committees, and the various actors involved in the organisation of the legislative business. It breaks into minute forms, the procedural norms, and attitudes that influence members’ behaviour and the various parliamentary outcomes.

    “This study is well researched and presented in a very lucid form…. Indeed, it is a very useful source for students, parliamentarians, and academics on the parliamentary history, procedure, and practice of Ghana’s Parliament.” – Hon Dr. Benjamin Kunbour, Former Majority Leader, Former Minister of Defence and Senior Lecturer, University of Ghana School of Law

  • Frantz Fanon (Panaf Great Lives)

    Required reading for all interested in the Algerian Revolution, and in Fanon’s brief but highly productive contribution. A close study is made of the relationship between Fanon’s ideological development and the content and impact of his political philosophy.

  • An Aroma Of Policing: A Life Of Service In Law Enforcement and Global Peacekeeping (Hardcover)

    Former Inspector General of Police of Ghana (IGP Rtd.) Mr. Mohammed A. Alhassan has written a fascinating book, set out in readable form, about a “Police Barracks boy” born into the Police and, by dint of hardwork, focus and determination, rising to the pinnacle of the Ghana Police Service.

    At a time of multiple security challenges, banditry, impunity, indiscipline and the rise of various social movements, when the role of the Police in maintaining law and order has often been under scrutiny, it is refreshing to read the story of a reformist Police Officer averse to political interference, who put service to citizens, communities, integrity, competence and professionalism as the lodes star of his distinguished career.

    By the time he attained the apex position, (IGP Rtd.) Alhassan had served in several senior international positions and at the United Nations Police (UNPOL) at UN Headquarters. Indeed, he played an important role together with his colleagues at the time, in its conversion from a Unit into a Division under the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

    This background inspired his reforms designed to implant international best policing practices within the Ghana Police Service to make it agile, crime-prevention oriented and people friendly.

    He devotes the concluding sections (pp 621-638) to Proffering bold recommendations to improve the performance of the Police. They pertain to constitutional amendments of the Police Commission, appointment of the IGP to insulate the process from parochial “partisan politics,” institutional restructuring, culture change, community policing, all women Formed Police Units to address pertinent gender issues, among others.

    I fully endorse the book and recommend it as compulsory reading for Police Training Courses at all levels, but also to students of Security Sector Reform, Policy Makers, all serving personnel and the general public at large.

    Mohamed Ibn Chambas

    African Union High Representative for Silencing the Guns in Africa, Former President ECOWAS Commission (2006-2010)

  • Kwame Nkrumah: More Letters from the Conakry Years

    Letters from Stokely Carmichael, Grace and James Boggs, Julia Wright, Shirley Graham DuBois and others make this volume invaluable for Nkrumaists worldwide. For Pan-Africanists everywhere and for those concerned about the present and future welfare of all people of African descent, these additional Kwame Nkrumah Conakry letters will prove inspirational.

    There is no single individual who has contributed more to Africa and its people all over world than Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. In theory and in practice, his great contribution was, primarily, to the African Revolution, the struggle to bring about a liberated, united, and socialist Africa: Pan-Africanism.

    Nkrumah used every occasion to articulate the tenets of Pan-Africanism. First, a people’s identity is derived from their ancestral land base, not from their birthplace, and, therefore, the only land base that Africans justly could claim is continental Africa. Secondly, he understood that only a united, socialist Africa could provide a permanent solution to the exploitation of Africa’s wealth, the exploitation of its people’s labor, and the oppression of its people.

    All of his efforts, therefore, were on behalf of Pan-Africanism. He never stopped writing or speaking about it. *The collection of letters compiled by June Milne, his literary executrix, first published by Panaf in 1990 as well as these additional Conakry letters are proof that the overthrow of his government on February 24, 1966 only strengthened his resolve to fight for Pan-Africanism. In fact, Nkrumah’s most mature beliefs in regard to the African Revolution were articulated in the letters and books written during the Conakry years.

    After the coup, Nkrumah did not waste time corresponding with individuals who did not demonstrate a commitment to the African Revolution. Thus, the Conakry letters represented in this volume are to those individuals whom Nkrumah felt could help him articulate an advanced theory of the African Revolution or, such as in the case of Reba Lewis, could help him stay abreast of current trends in the world, could share information about mutual acquaintances, and encourage him to be mindful of his health.

    The correspondence between him and those represented in this volume was essential in helping him develop his advanced theory of the African Revolution. One of the most critical extensions of this revolutionary theory is his understanding of the role Diasporan Africans play and will continue to play in this Revolution. Letters from Julia Wright and James and Grace Boggs are insightful in this regard. Others such as Reba Lewis help in his crystalizing other concepts.

    One thing for sure, always first and foremost in the mind of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was the quest for the permanent liberation of African people: the achievement of Pan-Africanism. That is why he is the greatest hero. That is also why Osagyefo’s contribution to all people of African descent will never be forgotten.

    *A few of the letters in the Milne collection appear in this collection as well. These letters appear in their entirety here since significant sections of them were omitted in Milne’s work, sections which Pan-Africanists would think most insightful in regard to the African Revolution.

  • 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.

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