• Grief Child

    Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Africa

    It was midnight. The little village of Susa slept in darkness in the heart of the forest farms, among the tall trees. The mahoganies and sapeles stood tall in the dark sky, providing a canopy over the village and deepening the density of the pitch-dark night. From a distant cluster of neighboring villages, Adu heard a dog bark. Another dog howled. In this village midnight was a dangerous time. It was better not to be awake or hear noises….

    In this haunting tale the power of light struggles with the power of darkness to claim the life of Adu, the “grief child”.

    Grief Child

    40.00
  • Gizo-Gizo: A Tale from the Zongo Lagoon (Hardcover)

    Age Range: 5 – 12 years

    Gizo-Gizo! was awarded Best Book for young people in the 25th Children’s Africana Book Awards.

    In Hausa culture, you always begin telling a story in the same way: The storyteller says, “Ga ta nan ga ta nanku!” “I am about to begin!” And the children respond, “Tazo Mujita!” “We are all ears!”

    Using story as the primary learning, teaching and engagement tool, the Zongo Story Project strives to elevate proficiencies in oral, written, and visual forms of literacy; promote the knowledge building of local history, local culture and local contemporary concerns; and lay the crucial foundation for the acquisition of vital twenty-first century critical thinking skills. The conceptual framework for this project originated out of a larger, community-based initiative called the Zongo Water Project, whose mission is to use water as a way to improve the quality of life for the Zongo.

    Working closely with local teachers, Emily Williamson carried out a series of educational workshops at the Hassaniyya Quranic School in the summers of 2012, 2013, and 2014 to teach students about local water and environmental concerns. Employing the story as the foundational element, Emily engaged students in dialogue, shared readings, performances, writing exercises, and visual art, culminating in community drama performances and original folktales.

    The illustrations and text of this book grew directly out of the work produced in these workshops.

  • Amu the African: A Study in Vision and Courage

    This book is an account of the life and work of Dr. Ephraim Amu, the renowned Ghanaian educationist and reformist — a great creative musician of world rank whose contributions are a cultural heritage for the world. It gives the story of Amu’s life and the contribution he has made to the development of the Church, Education, Morality, the Youth, Agriculture, Nutrition, Ghanaian Cultural Nationalism and, especially, the evolution of Ghanaian music.

    Not since Dr Kwegyir Aggrey has any other Ghanaian influenced more positively the development of Ghanaian culture and pride in the African Personality than Dr Ephraim Amu.

  • 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)
  • The Hundred Wells of Salaga

    Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father’s court. These two women’s lives converge as infighting among Wurche’s people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the 19th century.

    Set in pre-colonial Ghana, The Hundred Wells of Salaga is a story of courage, forgiveness, love and freedom. Through the experiences of Aminah and Wurche, it offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.

  • Between Sisters

    When sixteen-year-old Gloria fails thirteen out of fifteen subjects on her final exams, her future looks bleak indeed. Her family’s resources are meager so the entire family is thrilled when a distant relative, Christine, offers to move Gloria north to Kumasi to look after her toddler son, Sam. In exchange, after two years, Christine will pay for Gloria to go to dressmaking school.

    Life in Kumasi is more grand than anything Gloria has ever experienced. She joins a youth band at church — something that allows her to pursue her great love, singing — and Christine has even promised to teach her to read.

    But Kumasi is also full of temptations — the owner of a popular clothing shop encourages her to buy clothes on credit, and the smooth-talking Dr. Kusi offers Gloria rides in his red sports car. Eventually Gloria is betrayed by the people around her and is disillusioned by her new life. But in the end she decides who she can trust, and draws her own considerable inner resources to put the bad experiences behind her.

    Between Sisters

    28.00
  • Gathering Seaweed: African Prison Writing (African Writers Series)

    This anthology introduces the African literature of incarceration to the general reader, the scholar, the activist and the student. The visions and prison cries of the few African nationalists imprisoned by colonialists, who later became leaders of their independent dictatorships and in turn imprisoned their own writers and other radicals, are brought into sharper focus, thereby critically exposing the ironies of varied generations of the efforts of freedom fighters.

    Extracts of prose, poetry and plays are grouped into themes such as arrest, interrogation, torture, survival, release and truth and reconciliation.

    Contributors include: Kunle Ajibade, Obafemi Awolowo, Steve Biko, Breyten Breytenbach, Dennis Brutus, Nawal El Saadawi, M J Kariuki, Kenneth Kaunda, Caesarina Kona Makhoere, Nelson Mandela, Emma Mashinini, Felix Mnthali, Augustino Nato, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kwame Nkrumah, Abe Sachs, Ken Saro Wiwa, Wole Soyinka, and Koigi wa Wamwere.

    Although an often harrowing indictment of the history, culture and politics of the African continent and the societies from which this literature comes, the anthology presents excellent prose, poetry and drama, which stands up in its own right as serious literature to be cherished, read and studied.

  • The Trouble with Nigeria (African Writers Series)

    The eminent African novelist and critic, here addresses Nigeria’s problems, aiming to challenge the resignation of Nigerians and inspire them to reject old habits which inhibit Nigeria from becoming a modern and attractive country. In this famous book now reprinted, he professes that the only trouble with Nigeria is the failure of leadership, because with good leaders Nigeria could resolve its inherent problems such as tribalism; lack of patriotism; social injustice and the cult of mediocrity; indiscipline; and corruption.

  • The Hard Decision

    *Available from 25 March 2022
    After waiting for many years, Papa Koto and Mma Asibi finally have a child. They are determined to make him a more useful person. How they choose to do it may make them end up stepping on toes. Will they go ahead with their plans?

    “A delicious read, a read-worthy first book, The Hard Decision by Jean-Philip Lawson is yet another evidence of the rejuvenation of literature in our homeland.” Nana Awere Damoah, Author & Engineer

  • Abrokyire Nkomo

    For many Africans, the dream of travelling to Europe or America represents a burning lifetime ambition that they would do anything (well, almost) to achieve. So what is it really like out there? What is the story behind the rosy images of the west that are beamed to Africa on television, in movies and in the glossy magazines? What is the reality behind the grim stories we hear at times from our friends and relatives abroad? Just how hard, or easy, is it out there? This book is a collection of a number of articles written by the author and seeks to address these issues. Written in a conversational style, it is an attempt to provide an interesting, witty, yet serious insight into the good, the bad and the ugly sides of life abroad, and raises several issues that should engage the attention of the contemporary African whether at home or abroad.

    Abrokyire Nkomo

    110.00
  • Ghana Praise: Tunes from Ghana, Africa and the World

    African churches have inherited a rich tradition of hymnody from the West, but for too long the musical heritage of Asia and even of Africa itself has been neglected. Ghana Praise is a first step towards correcting this situation.

    It contains 144 tunes by Ghanaian composers: 4 songs from Northern Ghana and 28 spirituals from Ghana’s Pentecostal churches. For the first time, the wealth of music by present and past generations of Ghanaian musicians is available in print for all to use; the geographical and denominational barriers which have discouraged the spread of hymn tunes in the past are breaking down.

    In addition, Ghana Praise brings you 19 tunes from the rest of Africa and 33 from other parts of the world.

    Ghana Praise is accompanied by a words book, Asempa Hymns, which contains words to fit the new tunes, as well as a selection of the most well-known Western hymns.

  • Asempa Hymns (Words)

    Asempa is the Twi word meaning “Good News”. Here is an English language hymn book with a difference. It not only includes 200 of the most popular British, German and American hymns, but it also brings together a similar number of compositions from Africa, Asia, and the rest of the world.

    Produced in Ghana, Asempa Hymns contains some 90 items from that country including 28 “Ghana spirituals” traditionally sung by the Pentecostals but now gaining popularity in all churches. In many of these, there is a distinctive Ghanaian flavour, which this book and the companion music collection Ghana Praise make available for the first time to Christians in other lands.

    The Western tradition of hymnody has served Africa well for many years, but the rich traditions of other countries have failed to spread, held up by barriers of language, denomination and communication. The appearance of Asempa Hymns, with its wide choice of hymns, from nearly all the continents, will help brothers and sisters in Christ in many lands to realise a new fellowship in song and will shorten the distances that divide us.

  • Letters To My Future Wife

    The content of this book is not different from the title. It is a collection of letters – letters to Serwaa. They are intriguing love letters from a young man to a young woman with whom he intends to spend the rest of his life. She is his wife-to-be, but certain issues must be settled before they take the irrevocable oath.

    The topics are on serious issues that can bind or break relationships. The letters are mainly the products of the writer’s creative mind. Some are triggered by real life situations. But the reader will find it difficult to distinguish between the two. The reason is not difficult to find. A reader who has been in a relationship or marriage can identify with almost every situation in those letters.

    Manasseh uses the simple and conversational tone to convey deep messages. He has not failed to spice them with witty African proverbs that give readers the mature flavour that must accompany the thought-provoking pieces. Those who are still battling with what to look out for in a lasting relationship will find a helpful guide in this book. It will be of help to the man whose mother still decides how he should relate with his future wife. The lady who is yet to discover that good boyfriends do not often make good husbands will find useful lessons in Letters to My Future Wife. The couple whose marriage is yet to be blessed with a child will find something comforting in this book. And those who find pleasure in reading for relaxation will find this book therapeutic.

  • Sister Nommo the Saviour

    Age Range: 6 – 8 years

    Paa Nao wanted his wife to give him a baby boy who would become a lawyer, doctor or an engineer. Nommo was the first child, though Maa Kuu later had boys. Paa Nao educated the boys but not Nommo his daughter, insisting that a girl’s place is in the kitchen. When disaster struck and Maa Kuu’s life was at stake, it was Nommo who, through her cleverness, saves her mother from death at the hands of a strange little man, after her professionally trained brothers have failed.
  • No Sweetness Here and Other Stories (African Writers Series)

    In this collection, Ama Aita Aidoo explores postcolonial life in Ghana with her characteristic honesty and humor. Tradition wrestles with new urban influences as Africans try to sort out their identity in a changing culture. True to the tradition of African storytelling, the characters come to life through their distinct voices and speech. If there is no sweetness, there is the salt essential to life, even if it comes from tears, and the strength that comes from a history of endurance.

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