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In the Company of Men
Harper’s Bazaar: Best Book of the Year
Boston Globe: Best Book of the Year
Ms. Magazine: Best Feminist Book of the Year
Words Without Borders: Best Translated Book of the YearDrawing on real accounts of the Ebola outbreak that devastated West Africa, this poignant, timely fable reflects on both the strength and the fragility of life and humanity’s place in the world.
Two boys venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest, where they shoot down bats with glee, and cook their prey over an open fire. Within a month, they are dead, bodies ravaged by an insidious disease that neither the local healer’s potions nor the medical team’s treatments could cure. Compounding the family’s grief, experts warn against touching the sick. But this caution comes too late: the virus spreads rapidly, and the boys’ father is barely able to send his eldest daughter away for a chance at survival.
In a series of moving snapshots, Véronique Tadjo illustrates the terrible extent of the Ebola epidemic, through the eyes of those affected in myriad ways: the doctor who tirelessly treats patients day after day in a sweltering tent, protected from the virus only by a plastic suit; the student who volunteers to work as a gravedigger while universities are closed, helping the teams overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies; the grandmother who agrees to take in an orphaned boy cast out of his village for fear of infection. And watching over them all is the ancient and wise Baobab tree, mourning the dire state of the earth yet providing a sense of hope for the future.
Acutely relevant to our times in light of the coronavirus pandemic, In the Company of Men explores critical questions about how we cope with a global crisis and how we can combat fear and prejudice.
₵85.00In the Company of Men
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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
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At Long Last
*Available from 25 March, 2022
Despite the challenges, Papa Koto and Mma Asibi take the hard decision. The move takes a wrong turn and Neri is forced to flee with his mother. With the family now apart, the future becomes uncertain. What will be the outcome?
₵50.00At Long Last
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Lagos to London
A tale of two Nigerian students Remi Coker and Nnamdi Okonkwo from different backgrounds who leave the shores of Nigeria full of hope to further their education abroad. Remi from the prestigious Coker family is expected to return home after her law degree to run the family law firm and Nnamdi, frustrated by the federal university strikes plans to escape Nigeria and never return.
The story follows their journey of newfound freedom, self-discovery, hope, unexpected turns, lessons, and the realities of life in the United Kingdom.
₵85.00Lagos to London
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The Riddle of The Oil Thief
It is the untold story of several decades of oil and gas exploitation in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. It x-rays the root causes of insecurity in Nigeria and presents the recipe for the restoration of peace in Nigeria and the entire West African Sub-region.
₵260.00The Riddle of The Oil Thief
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Bahiya, The Little Zebra
Age Range: 8+ years
Bahiya does not want to be striped like all the other zebras in the Serengeti. She wants to stand out and be the most special little zebra in the whole of Africa! Determined to reach this goal, Bahiya and her friend come up with a creative idea for a unique new look. The result … is not what she expected!
Will Bahiya realise how special she is, even with her stripes?
₵30.00Bahiya, The Little Zebra
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We Won’t Budge
Part autobiographical, part social commentary, this is a powerful and insightful look at the situation of border intellectuals at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
In this searing memoir, Manthia Diawara revisits his early years as an emigrant in love with Swedish girls and Western rock and roll music, taking us from the nightclubs of his hometown Bamako to the cafes of Boulevard Montparnasse and the black neighbourhoods of 1970s Washington DC, USA.
This book is about the developed world – that is the former colonisers of the African continent now busy slamming shut its doors to African and Arab immigrants.
It is also about human rights violations and racism against people of colour. Diawara writes that he wanted to give a human face to African immigration in today’s global world. He describes the reasons why many Africans leave the continent – such as poverty, persecution and lack of opportunities – and writes sometimes angrily and sometimes very movingly, about their predicament in Europe and the US, where they are caught between their traditions and the West’s vacuous modernity.
“With humour and the intimacy of a conversatonal tone, Diawara writes of the ‘global’ African as a nomad at the mercy of whirlwinds of economic and political dislocation at home and racism and intolerance abroad. He is not at home in his country; he is not at home abroad. But the nomad refuses to bow down to those whirlwinds, to let evil turn him around, and against all the odds becomes an active contributor to the multiculture of the globe. This is the story of a diasporic soul that finds home in its own resilience and in so may ways it is all our story.” – Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Author of A Grain of Wheat et al)
“We Won’t Budge is destined to become a classic – it is one of the most insightful, layered and moving accounts of the modern African Diaspora.” – Patricia Williams (Author of The Alchemy of Race & Rights et al)
₵85.00We Won’t Budge
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The Butchers of Ogyakrom and Other Short Stories
The Butchers of Ogyakrom is a collection of short stories dating back to the 1980s when Ghana was under the grip of a violent military dictatorship. Who are the real “Butchers in Ogyakrom” and what do they deal in?
This collection deals with turbulent times in the history of Ghana, particularly the abuse of political power by military rulers. It also deals with the ailments that afflict a neocolonial African country in the era of IMF-led structural adjustment programme (SAP).
What drives a nation’s rulers to seek the help of a devious and ambitious soothsayer? Who’s responsible for the numerous midnight abductions, murders and disappearances in Ogvakrom?
What happens when a Prince ignores his father’s advice and joins forces with poor peasants fighting to defend their land? What does a mother do with a child who is half-snake, half human? Can the Catholic priest save this child?
The stories employ candour, historical honesty and humour to take a swipe the at some of Ghana’s most recent (mis) rulers in times of crisis. It is bound to generate a keen interest, and, of course, controversy.
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The Dancing Money Box
Uncle Akuete makes an unusual promise to his two nieces: ‘Save fifty cedis and win a money box which sings and dances.’
Vida and Amanua try to outdo each other to win the prize but toffees, ice cream and contributing money to help pay Grandma’s hospital bills threaten to make it impossible for the girls to win the prize.
When Uncle Akuete arrives with the dancing box, Vida has only thirty cedis while Amanua seems to have nothing. Vida wonders if Uncle Akuete will give the box away for thirty cedis, or has Amanua got secret savings?
Margaret Safo uses the pen name Peggy Oppong and her entertaining stories have delighted children for years.
₵25.00The Dancing Money Box
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The Shrinking Bowl
Young girls in Ghana confront a challenging socio-economic environment. This novel is the story of one such girl’s life-journey, from childhood to middle-age, and the lessons of this journey. It is a sequel to the author’s first novel, Journey.
“A delightful lifeworld weighted with history and almost untouched in African fiction…a world whose veneer of simplicity belies its tangled dark underbelly. The novel deftly combines the solace of familiarity with a mystery of memory and intimacy…quirky and endearing.” – Professor Helen A. Yitah, Dean, School of Languages, University of Ghana (UG) and Honourary Secretary, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences; former Head, Department of English, UG
“This book is a tour de force of its genre; a journey of discovery through a cultural landscape in a fascinating part of Ghana. Difficult to put down even at the end.” – Nana Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, Communications Consultant; former President, Ghana Association of Writers
₵70.00The Shrinking Bowl
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Maame
In Aakonu, a small village on the coast of Ghana, life is a constant tussle between the reality of the mundane and the superstitions presided over by the local priestess. In this setup, girls in their puberty can only look forward to marriage—often to men old enough to be their fathers and already with other wives. Ahu, a young widow of eighteen, has no choice but to marry an older relative. What she does will change girls in her lineage forever. Through these beautifully told, lyrical stories about herself, her daughter Bomo, the beautiful but tragic Ebela, and the childless Aso, and others, Ahu introduces us to her community, and the beliefs and customs that keep its families together but in the end also stifles its girls futures.
₵38.00Maame
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The Teller of Secrets (Ouida Edition)
In this stunning debut novel—a tale of self-discovery and feminist awakening—a feisty Nigerian-Ghanaian girl growing up amid the political upheaval of late 1960s postcolonial Ghana begins to question the hypocrisy of her patriarchal society, and the restrictions and unrealistic expectations placed on women.
Young Esi Agyekum is the unofficial “secret keeper” of her family, as tight-lipped about her father’s adultery as she is about her half-sisters’ sex lives. But after she is humiliated and punished for her own sexual exploration, Esi begins to question why women’s secrets and men’s secrets bear different consequences. It is the beginning of a journey of discovery that will lead her to unexpected places.
As she navigates her burgeoning womanhood, Esi tries to reconcile her own ideals and dreams with her family’s complicated past and troubled present, as well as society’s many double standards that limit her and other women. Against a fraught political climate, Esi fights to carve out her own identity, and learns to manifest her power in surprising and inspiring ways.
Funny, fresh, and fiercely original, The Teller of Secrets marks the American debut of one of West Africa’s most exciting literary talents.
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A Play of Giants
Described by the author as a ‘Fantasia on Aminian theme’, Wole Soyinka’s new play presents a savage portrait of a group of dictatorial African leaders at bay in an embassy in New York. The resemblance between them and recent historical characters is only too pronounced.
₵30.00A Play of Giants
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Danger Express (Pacesetters)
Where was he now? he (Ishmael) wondered…
Gradually his mind began to clear…Slowly he started to put the shattering events of the recent past into place.
There was something important he had to do. Had to…
The lives of several important heads of state, VIPs and many others including children and the loveable Tom are in the balance. And time is running out for Ishmael.
₵75.00Danger Express (Pacesetters)
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Too Cold for Comfort (Pacesetters)
A young man marries a beautiful girl but this is not, as you might think, the happy ending to our story. Hannah is obsessed by Christian ideals of morality and purity and this leads to conflict and unhappiness. Events take a tragic turn before Hannah is brought to her senses.
₵75.00