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The Gonjon Pin and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2014
The Caine Prize for African Writing 2014 brings together the five shortlisted authors’ stories along with 12 other stories from the best new writers. Insightful, arresting and entertaining – this collection reflects the richness and range of current African writing.Caine Prize 2014 Shortlisted Stories:
Phosphorescence Diane Awerbuck (South Africa)
Chicken Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia)
The Intervention Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe)
The Gorilla’s Apprentice Billy Kahora (Kenya)
My Father’s Head Okwiri Oduor (Nigeria)The Caine Prize African Writers’ Workshop Stories 2014:
The Lifebloom Gift Abdul Adan (Somalia/Kenya)
The Gonjon Pin Martin Egblewogbe (Ghana)
As A Wolf Sweating Your Mother’s Body Clifton Gachagua (Kenya)
Pam Pam Lawrence Hoba (Zimbabwe)
Lily in the Moonlight Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria)
Running Elnathan John (Nigeria)
The Murder of Ernestine Masilo Violet Masilo (Zimbabwe)
All the Parts of Mi Isabella Matambanadzo (Zimbabwe)
Blood Work Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende (Zimbabwe)
The Sonneteer Philani A Nyoni (Zimbabwe)
Eko Hotel Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria)
Music from a Farther Room Bryony Rheam (Zimbabwe)₵40.00₵45.00 -
The Boy In Love
In what could’ve been love or infatuation, his life rose and sunk from as early as 6 years old. His life from that point on was about who loved him and who he loved: to study, eat, dream, make friends, to excel.
Yes, why would he eat, study or excel at anything when he has had a broken heart or is deeply satisfied with an affection for a certain girl?
30 years on and looking at Rebecca now, he can finally and clearly tell what he felt then to now. He sees beyond feelings. He sees his capacity to provide for a woman; to understand them and care for them; to reason with them and plan a life worthwhile. And he sees it not in gruesome years of waiting (amidst the impatience) but just a decision away.
The joy to finally marry in love and with the loved was abounding. But his fear of the emotional turmoil of his past made him doubt his capacity to love and cherish this woman so.
Only if he had had patience…
Only if he had waited…
Only if he had talked to someone…
₵20.00The Boy In Love
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The Usurper’s Dream (Weaving of the First Gods #1)
“If you can, you wrestle with fate and damn everything else”
The story of Osei Tutu begins under the tyranny of the mighty Denkyira. Destined for a life of captivity, Osei Tutu must risk everything to free his people from the over a century rule of Denkyira. His fight will cause division among the very gods that set him on his path and he will threaten everything in his quest for freedom.
The Usurper’s Dream combines all the elements of pre-colonial legends: adventure, magic and history in describing the lives of its heroes. A delightful, entertaining story with disparate takes on characters whose belief in magic, gods and destiny shapes their lives.
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Jennifer
Due to difficult circumstances beyond her control, Jennifer Hayfron has no other choice than to share the same hotel with Dr Martin when the train on which she is travelling back to school suddenly breaks down at a late hour.
By a fatal coincidence, Jennifer’s foster father comes around from nowhere and sees her daughter and Dr Martin coming out from the hotel and are about to get aboard a parked vehicle. Mr Hayfron’s hasty conclusion is obvious. There is verbal explosion on the spot, as well as a series of interesting drama in the ensuing days.
The story, written for young people has been written in simple readable English.
₵50.00Jennifer
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Nii Noi the Sanitation Officer
Age Range: 6 – 15 years
This book is a thought-provoking piece of a fairly peaceful community that wakes up to the incessant complaints of 13-year-old Nii Noi. Like the dawn of teenage, he becomes, somewhat, shocked by the deplorable sanitary conditions in his neighbourhood.
Fuming at the apathy of everyone around him towards better sanitation practice, Nii Noi becomes a crusader for hygienic living. But as a prophet without honour in his community, it takes the tragedy of a flood to get the community to appreciate the crusade by Nii, and what he desires to achieve: a hygienic, clean and joyful community. The writer, through the voice and eyes of a boy, reveals the innocent naivety and obvious apathy of society, and the power of camaraderie and community to cause change.
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A Painful Decision (Drama on Female Circumcision)
Age Range: 6 – 12 years
Africans have many customary practices. Sometime ago, these customs certainly had some advantages. With the passage of time, however, some of these practices have outlived their usefulness, not to mention the aim they are often associated with. Hence, there is the need for us to either modify these customary practices or abandon them altogether.
It will be discovered, in this play, the great pain and suffering that female circumcision brings to our women.
We do not dispute the fact that it is one of the legacies bequeathed to us by our forebears. Nonetheless, what prevents us from abandoning it since there is nothing to gain from it now or in future? The time has come for us to become selective in the practice of our customs so that only what brings progress to us is maintained.
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Afua and the Magic Calabash
Age Range: 5 – 8 years
Afua and the Magic Calabash tells a story of a maltreated orphan girl who has a magic calabash.₵12.00Afua and the Magic Calabash
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To Have and To Hold (Pacesetters)
To the modern, freedom-loving Phindile it seemed impossible that anyone, least of all a man, could make her compromise her independence. But then she had not reckoned with the determination of the lizard-like Mr Takawira or the charms of the persistent Kudzi.
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The Hornets’ Nest (Pacesetters)
“I sincerely wish you every success in the rally……..and do be careful.”
With these words echoing in his mind, Itemere set off on the East African Rally: with every twist, another problem arises – winning is the least of his worries!
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The Equatorial Assignment (Pacesetters)
The newly appointed Benni Kamba, 009 in the secret service of NISA, risks his life to destroy an international Afro-Mafia organization which is trying to rule all African by planting puppet Presidents in every state. They are led by the megalomaniac Dr Thunder. 009 falls victim to the beautiful Colonel Swipta. His true love is almost forgotten as he penetrates the base from which she and Dr. Thunder operate.
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Love’s Dilemma (Pacesetters)
Towera’s ordered life as one of the first female demonstrators in the Department of Agriculture is threatened when the handsome, plausible Luka Mwawomba is posted to the same place. Towera soon finds herself falling in love with him, in spite of her better judgement. Luka, however, is a weak character and Towera has to struggle with her feelings for him and the knowledge that he is cheating her. What is the answer to her dilemma? Can she overlook his shortcomings?
₵75.00Love’s Dilemma (Pacesetters)
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The Hopeful Lovers (Pacesetters)
Roseline Momoh enters university full of optimism. Her academic record is good, she has been accepted to study the subjects of her choice and, of most importance, she has met and fallen in love with a young medical student, Tade Eji, who reciprocates her feelings. But the relationship is not all that Roseline believes it to be and Tade’s character leads him, in spite of himself, to jeopardize his chances of happiness.
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New Currency: A Historical Novella
New Currency: A Historical Novella celebrates Akan social norms and values, particularly the “wonderful feeling of togetherness” and communal living, uniquely associated with the extended family system and invites the reader to be culturally sensitive and to worry about the Ghanaian culture degradation.
Apart from capturing the chilling, historical realities of the 1979 demonetisation, it successfully regains and celebrates the otherwise fading, but precious extended family values.
In the book, the seasoned author chronicles some aspects of the harrowing military rule of 1979, and narrates the ordeal of a woman about to lose an entire lifetime savings. Specifically, it recounts the widespread commotion and hardships associated with the introduction of a new monetary currency in Ghana from March 13–26, 1979.
The historical novella, set in Sunyani, the Brong-Ahafo regional capital in the same year, captures the widespread public despondency and turbulence associated with the exercise.
The book provides some insight into the period of the country’s history for adults who lived through the turbulence of 1979 as a necessary reminder; and to the present-day youth some awareness of the happenings then.
The thrilling lime green-looking book with yellow and white title inscription on the cover, and thinly opaque adinkra symbols – Mpatapo (knot of reconciliation) and Sesa wo suban (change or transform your life), reflects the theme of the book published by Smartline Publishers.
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The Runaway Bride (Pacesetters)
The wedding has been arranged and the guests and the bridegroom are waiting in the Cathedral – but where is the bride?
What is it that has made life with handsome, wealthy Philip seem impossible after all?
Pamela has got to get away to find herself, her true vocation and – could it be? – love.
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Voices that Sing Behind the Veil: Anthology of Short Stories from Africa and the Diaspora (Hardcover)
This 684-page collection is published in collaboration with the Pan African Writers Association which is based in Accra and affiliated to the continental body, the African Union.
The fifty-six stories come from fifteen African countries and elsewhere; Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and East of the continent, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Great Lakes region, Ethiopia and Tanzania (in setting). They bring in other voices in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, St. Maarten, United States and Britain. The themes are amok and definitely so in a vein of free expression. There are stories of love (of even a man who finds one whilst visiting a dying cancer-patient wife at the hospital in Lagos) or of a husband wrongfully imprisoned in Malawi who upon escape from jail confronts a wife about to wed again, a story very reminiscent of the main character in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s, Weep Not, Child.
There is hate and there is poverty – one from Kenya which reads like the Zimbabwean novelist, Dambudzo Marechera’s 1978 classic, The House of Hunger. Issues of mental health, corpse donation for scientific research and Coronavirus-19 are addressed alongside Pentecostal redemption, fake prophets and the havoc they exert on societies as do their counterparts in Islam.
Contributing writers include distinguished and award-winning writers, academics and emerging talents such Zaynab Alkali (Nigeria), Ben Okri (UK/Nigeria), Molefi Kete Asante (US), Wesley Macheso (Malawi), Ogochukwu Promise (Nigeria), Grace Maguri (Zimbabwe), Athol Williams (South Africa), Martin Egblewogbe (Ghana), Esther K Mbithi (Kenya), Mary Ashun (Ghana), Wale Okediran (Nigeria) among others.
“These extraordinary stories, mesmerising and beautifully written, are surely connected to a past that remains with us, the experiences of day-to-day living and the limitless imaginings of our futures. The discerning editor combines stories that communicate appreciation with apprehension, presence with essence… a good read.” – Toyin Falola, Historian and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair, University of Texas, Austin
₵150.00