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Nearly All The Men In Lagos Are Mad
Nearly All the Men in Lagos are Mad is a collection of twelve short stories featuring characters with unique voices and stories that represent the diverse class, gender and ethnic melting pot that is Lagos.
There’s a story of a young lady who tries to find her oyibo soulmate on the streets of Lagos; another of a pastor’s wife who defends her husband from an allegation of adultery; a wife takes a knife to her husband’s penis; a night of lust between a rising musician and his Instagram baddie takes an unexpected turn.
From Ikorodu to Yaba, Ilupeju to Victoria Island, the stories underscore with wit, humour, wisdom and sensitivity, the perils of trying to find lasting love and companionship in Africa’s most notorious city that will prove universal and illuminating.
There’s a story behind every hustling, hopeful, striving Lagosian trying to make their way to a better life and Damilare Kuku’s characterisations are brilliant distillations of this recognisable mind-set.
Every story is layered; these are people and choices you may recognise in yourself and people you know. Ultimately, these stories will make you laugh, think, feel and remind us all that we are not alone.
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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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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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Asuoyaa by Train
Nyameba, a twelve-year-old boy, had barely two months to write his Common Entrance Examinations. He relocated from his parents’ home to stay with his auntie after his mother travelled out of the country. It was difficult coping with his new environment which, to him, was a bit harsh. He fell into trouble and ran away from home to escape punishment. The main Accra train station became his haven.
There, he met Ato, a young boy of his age who lost his family through the famous Asuoyaa train disaster and now lived at the train station. He made a living as a head porter. Nyameba joined his new friend in the trade just to survive. Sisi, one of the market women he worked for, offered to travel with him on the train to Asuoyaa.
His encounter on the journey, his stay in Asuoyaa and the tragic moment he experienced on his return to Accra, transformed his life for good.
₵24.00Asuoyaa by Train
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Ayorkor
Ayorkor’s beauty was fortified with a good character ingrained by her parents. She had great dreams for the future and was also bent on making her parents proud come what may.
However, her father’s misfortune at his workplace almost derailed her plans. As a JHS Three student, her Basic School final exam was now on the line as her family began to face financial difficulties. Eventually, fate made it necessary for her to relocate to live with her uncle and his wife in another town.
At her new place, Ayorkor made a friend at school who lured her into a very tempting situation. The tough test of Ayorkor’s character and her resolve would then unfold.
₵24.00Ayorkor
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Seidu Drives His Father’s Cow
Seidu drives his father’s Cow
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Storytime with the Animals
After a heavy meal of fufu and palm-nut soup, Kofi Anto, a nine-year old boy decides to visit his friend. Kwaku Manso. On his way Kofi comes across a group of animals including the dog, the goat, the cat, the hen and the lizard under a mango tree. To his greetings all the animals responded eagerly except the lizard, who snubs Kofi for having made a number of attempts on his life with a catapult. However, Kofi soon reconciles with the Lizard and all the other animals he has offended in one way or the other. He then joins them to listen in turns to their delightful stories.
Last of all comes Kofi’s interesting story about the mosquito as the animal’s envoy.
All these stories are simply but vividly narrated by the author.
₵16.25Storytime with the Animals
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Tears of a Mother and Other Stories
If you were Mother Mary, and if your first-born son – the Teacher – was so brutally maltreated and led away to be crucified, what would you do? Cry? Weep? Wail? What would you do?
In this storybook, Mother Mary tells her own story: the sword that pierced her own heart when she saw what the soldiers did to her son. In tears, she stood by and watched, for what could she do?Other stories in this book, narrated by those who met the Teacher personally, reveal great truths and lessons for everyday life. Enjoy the stories of-
1.The cockcrow at dawn during the denials
2.The troubled dreams of the governor 3 wife
3.Why the governor washed his hands before judgement
4.The man from Libya who was forced to carry his cross
5. The reflections of the beam used for the crucifixion
6.The brutal execution of the 1eacher
7.The seven last statements of the TeacherThese are great stories for your reading adventure. The lessons and the truths the narrators learnt are yours for your everyday experience.
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The Minister’s Daughter
A highly pampered little girl from an affluent home loses everything one dark morning. With her dear father gone forever, she must now struggle for survival. Not helping with the situation are an austere and depressing village setting and two feuding women – an aggrieved and bad-tempered nurse and a fashionable teacher with high dreams in a questionable relationship.
In the village school, there is the head teacher who hates this minister’s daughter because of her father. Not even Akuluksi, the one-eyed boy, spares her with deeply hurting teases that breaks her heart. But the minister’s daughter must survive her childhood days.
₵25.00The Minister’s Daughter
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Excess Baggage
Her mother’s desire to escape the poverty trap means Ablokyiyoe must travel with a human trafficker to La Cote d’Ivoire. At first Ablokyiyoe resists, but a fiasco marriage finally forces her to yield. Ablokyiyoe finds herself in La Cote d’lvoire where she is compelled to engage in an illicit trade.
The plot of her jealous mistress leads Ablokyiyoe into the house of a murderer. After her miraculous escape, Ablokyiyoe decides to come back to Ghana, her beloved country for good.
When events don’t go as planned, Ablokyiyoe has to find a way out. Will she be forced to go back to her tormented lifestyle in La Cote d’Ivoire?₵24.00Excess Baggage
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Mornings by the Rails
A young girl desperately waits for her father to come back from work. No one knows where her father is, but there are rumours that he may never return. When a strange disease plagues their village, this young girl loses her mother and all her siblings to the pangs of death. The hope that her father may come back for her keeps her going until she realises that she herself has the fatal disease. She eagerly waits for him by the side of the rails, still hoping to see him one last time. Mornings by the Rails is only one story out of this interesting and thought-provoking collection of short stories. These stories inspire intriguing lessons that will open your mind to a world of awareness coupled with some vital principles for everyday life.
₵24.00Mornings by the Rails
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The Fisher Boy
Kwaku, always vague about his unusual past, opens up about his beginnings as an orphan and fishing slave that overcomes those difficult circumstances.
In his life, he encountered the most evil in people but also the good. His indomitable spirit and faith in the Supreme Being allowed him to achieve the impossible. You will experience despair, anger, joy, and inspiration through Kwaku’s story.₵24.00The Fisher Boy
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The Triangle
Poor Ackarm seems to have been born on the wrong side of fate. Pawned at a tender age due to his parent’s inability to repay a money-lender, Ackarm finds himself in the wicked hands of destiny.
In that evil society, a pawn is the property of his owner. Thus, Ackarm has to endure all sorts of bad treatment meted out to him until a kind man bails him out of his predicament. But like falling from the frying pan into the fire, Ackarm once again finds himself in a wicked web of the Triangle. Something must intervene, or the poor boy’s blood will be shed. In this haunting tale of evil, the ills of the modern day Sakawa networks are revealed.₵24.00The Triangle
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