• Ansu’s Village

    Age Range: 4 – 7 years

    Have you ever been to a village?

    If you have not, Ansu is here to tell you all about his village and the exciting people who live there. The people in his village are kind and they love visitors. It seems that all the villagers have their opposites. Where there’s ‘a big’ there’s ‘a small’. Where there’s ‘a weak’ there’s ‘a strong’.

    Together they are all happy and make Ansu feel at home.

  • From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland: Urban Mutations in Tanzania

    The name Dar es Salaam comes from the Arabic phrase meaning house of peace. A popular but erroneous translation is ‘haven of peace’ resulting from a mix-up of the Arabic words “dar” (house) and “bandar” (harbour). Named in 1867 by the Sultan of Zanzibar, the town has for a long time benefitted from a reputation of being a place of tranquility. The tropical drowsiness is a comfort to the socialist poverty and under-equipment that causes an unending anxiety to reign over the town. Today, for the Tanzanian, the town has become Bongoland, that is, a place where survival is a matter of cunning and intelligence (bongo means ‘brain’ in Kiswahili). Far from being an anecdote, this slide into toponomy records the mutations that affect the links that Tanzanians maintain with their principal city and the manner in which it represents them.

    This book takes into account the changes by departing from the hypothesis that they reveal a process of territorialisation. What are the processes – envisaged as spatial investments – which, by producing exclusivity, demarcations and exclusions, fragment the urban space and its social fabric? Do the practices and discussions of the urban dwellers construct limited spaces, appropriated, identified and managed by communities (in other words, territories)? Dar es Salaam is often described as a diversified, relatively homogenous and integrating place. However, is it not more appropriate to describe it as fragmented?

    As territorialisation can only occur through frequenting, management and localised investment, it is therefore through certain places – first shelter and residential area, then the school, daladala station, the fire hydrant and the quays – that the town is observed. This led to broach the question in the geographical sense of urban policy carried out since German colonisation to date. At the same time, the analysis of these developments allows for an evaluation of the role of the urban crisis and the responses it brings.

    In sum, the aim of this approach is to measure the impact of the uniqueness of the place on the current changes. On one hand, this is linked to its long-term insertion in the Swahili civilisation, and on the other, to its colonisation by Germany and later Britain and finally, to the singularity of the post-colonial path. This latter is marked by an alternation of Ujamaa with Structural Adjustment Plans applied since 1987. How does this remarkable political culture take part in the emerging city today?

    This book is a translation of De Dar es Salaam à Bongoland: Mutations urbaines en Tanzanie, published by Karthala, Paris in 2006.

  • Southern African Liberation Struggles 1960-1994 (Contemporaneous Documents, 9 Volumes)

    These 9 volumes are the most comprehensive historical record of  the liberation struggles in southern Africa. Comprising 2.4 million words  in 5,394 pages, they record interviews with liberation fighters and supporters in the Frontline states and the extraordinary sacrifices they made so that Africa could at last be free. With the fall of the South African apartheid regime, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) identified the need to record the experiences of the liberation struggles in Southern Africa, from 1960 until that final liberation in 1994. To that end, SADC launched the Hashim Mbita Project – named after the last Executive Secretary of the OAU Liberation Committee.

    The research covered liberation movements in the countries which engaged in liberation wars, the Frontline states and Extension countries; and the Research Project team comprised members from the SADC mainland states of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland. The support received from other regions is documented: Anglophone West Africa, Francophone Africa, North Africa, East Asia, Canada and the United States, Cuba and the Caribbean, the German Democratic Republic (GDR),  Nordic  Countries,   Western  Europe,  the Soviet  Union, Non-Aligned Movement: India, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, Sri lanka; Organisation of African Unity and United Nations.

  • The Mkapa Years: Collected Speeches (3-Volume Box Set, Hardcover)

    This collection of speeches, in three volumes, by the third President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Benjamin William Mkapa (1995–2005), will serve primarily as reference documents to the vision of what he attempted to achieve in his ten years of leadership. His tenure as a leader came at a time when Tanzania’s economy was in dire condition. The legacy of the command economy, which had been in place for much of the 1970s and 1980s, was still felt. There was resistance to change to adopt a market economy, evident in the political tensions and debates about privatisation, an approach following Structural Adjustment Programmes, imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, that had led to stagnation of the economy, high inflation, deteriorating health, education, communication, and transport sector services, as well as general gloom in the country especially among the poor. The bold steps he took during the first half of his administration did not immediately endear him to the public. However, in the ensuing years, slowly but steadily, positive results were achieved, and the social cost of change that the people had endured was appreciated. Relations with development partners and the multilateral agencies that before he took office had sunk to the lowest ebb were restored, and Tanzania, which was no longer unfit to borrow, received the largest debt relief ever and henceforth. Tanzania was on its way to new growth potentials and a vibrant private sector-led economy.

    These collected speeches tell this story and tell it well, in great prose laced with wit and quotations from world political and literary sources, which is an evidence of his erudition as a literature student and journalist.

  • Kwahu State Book: Asaase Aban (Hardcover)

    Information captured in the Kwahu State Book entails the history of Kwahu paramountcy including the five divisions of the Kwahu Traditional Area namely Adonten, Nifa, Benkum, Kyidom and the Gyase division; with histories of royal families, towns and villages under the divisions mentioned are well captured. Towns captured include Abene, Abetifi, Obo, Aduamoa, Pepease, Atibie, Bokuruwa, Nkwatia, Obomeng, Bepong, Asakraka, Kwahu Tafo, Pitiko, Akwasiho, Mpraeso, Twenedurase, Kotoso, Jejeti, Oframase, Awenare, Nkorkoor (Nkawkaw), Nteso, Tease, Kwahu Praso, just to mention few. The book also presents histories of the Zongo Community of Kwahu, the Okwawu Football Club, churches, schools and profiles of the prominent personalities (the Kwahu Golden members) of Kwahu.

    The Kwahu State Book has fourteen (14) sections with each segmenting several topics and sub-topics about the history and cultural practices of the Kwahu Traditional Area. Other information in the book include chronology of chiefs and genealogy (family tree) of all the royal families. All of these have been codified into a single voluminous book of over 2,800 pages. It is the first of its kind in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa.

    All of these have been codified into a single voluminous book of over 2,800 pages. It is the first of its kind in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa.

  • Akan Kasadwini (Akan Oral Literature)

    The book is a pioneering work of Akan oral literature written in the Akan language. It gives a theoretical view of oral literature and a detailed account of the major genres of oral literature in Akan. It deals with an introduction to literature and some aspects of stylistics. It ushers students of literature into some of the crucial issues of literature. The book deals with what literature is, and what it can afford to individuals and the society as a whole. It considers literature as an indispensable aspect of any society’s life. It also identifies the main characteristics of literature with specific reference to oral literature.

    The book treats some of the major terms in literature and supports them with examples. The book has 25 chapters and each chapter addresses, performance, composition, structure, functions and literary devices. Each chapter ends with sample questions that will help students to revise what they have learned from the chapter.

    The book is in response to the needs of students at the WASSCE, Diploma and Degree levels to the subject matter of oral literature in Akan. This book will also help Training College students both in their course work at college and also in their teaching.

  • Falls in Ghana: Unified Guide Books & A Coffee Table Photobook (Chasing Waterfalls with Steve Ababio & Gina Arthur)

    Waterfalls in Ghana are interesting, delightful and well worth the effort to seek out and explore. While Ghana does not have any with the sheer vast height or width of say Niagara Falls on the US-Canada border, or Victoria Falls in East Africa, falls in Ghana offer a much closer personal interaction in that you can stand under or much closer to the cascades and bathe or swim in their plunge pools.

    The Chasing Waterfalls with Steve Ababio & Gina Arthur Guide books help make your personal journey a lot easier and more rewarding as you get to pick and choose the sort of experience you prefer. The Coffee Table Book is the perfect gift for anyone you’d like to introduce to Ghana, for your own enjoyment.

    1,300.001,350.00
  • Falls in Ghana: A Visual Collection of Waterfalls and Cascades in Ghana – A Coffee Table Photobook (Chasing Waterfalls with Steve Ababio & Gina Arthur, Hardcover)

    Waterfalls in Ghana are interesting, delightful and well worth the effort to seek out and explore. While Ghana does not have any with the sheer vast height or width of say Niagara Falls on the US-Canada border, or Victoria Falls in East Africa, falls in Ghana offer a much closer personal interaction in that you can stand under or much closer to the cascades and bathe or swim in their plunge pools.

    The Chasing Waterfalls with Steve Ababio & Gina Arthur Guide books help make your personal journey a lot easier and more rewarding as you get to pick and choose the sort of experience you prefer. The Coffee Table Book is the perfect gift for anyone you’d like to introduce to Ghana, for your own enjoyment.

  • Ghana: A Concise History from Pre-Colonial Times to the 20th Century

    This is a comprehensive survey of the history of Ghana from the earliest times to 1992. It discusses the evolution of the different ethnic groups and the social, economic and political institutions and systems they created. It also examines the development of state systems , their contact with the outside world and the economic , social and political consequences of that contact. It discusses the loss of political independence, the recovery of sovereignty and the emergence of the modern state of Ghana.

    The study ends with an examination of the attempt by various rulers after independence to make one nation out of the people of Ghana and promote their economic and social well-being. The book has grown out of lectures the author has delivered to University students over the years. The material has, however, been written in a language that can be understood by all Senior High School students and the general public.

  • 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?

  • Remnants of a Haunted Past: Forts and Castles of Ghana (Photo Book, Hardcover)

    Yaw Pare is a celebrated Ghanaian photographer. This ground-breaking book richly illustrates the history and legacies of Ghana’s forts and castles through photography. In the same way that the forts and castles themselves bear witness to the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, so too do these photographs provide compelling material and visual testimonies, offering possibilities for understanding that words do not.

    In this book, the photographer’s camera captures a reality that many choose to remember but just as many choose to forget. Ultimately, Remnants of a Haunted Past: Forts and Castles of Ghana constitutes an attempt to document the past so that it is never forgotten in the present.

    1,250.001,450.00
  • King Alboury Cooks the Best Jollof (Africa’s Little Kings & Queens)

    Age Range: 3 – 8 years

    A must-have for every child’s library. Loved by children around the world and teaches them the importance of kindness and community.

    King Alboury Cooks the Best Jollof is a fictional story inspired by King Alboury Ndiaye, the last King of the Jollof Kingdom in Senegal. A must-have for every child’s library.

    In this story, King Alboury loves to cook and his favourite meal to make is his famous jollof rice. His ancestors invented the recipe, and so he is the only one who knows the secret. However, King Alboury has a problem, his troublesome neighbours, the Chuchus people. Every time the King cooks his special Jollof rice, their tummies start to rumble so loud that they become jealous. Rumour has it that they are plotting against the Jollof Kingdom, but don’t worry, King Alboury has a plan!

  • Steps for the Progress of the Black Race: Guides for Black Man’s Redemption (Hardcover)

    The book talks about Black history and traces it to when Blacks were successful. The author shows how the current difficult condition of Blacks in the world is surmountable if they will do the right thing. That right thing is Blacks changing their behaviour for the better. The author believes that everybody’s condition in which he/she finds himself or herself can be changed if the necessary conduct is applied. The book encourages Blacks not to give up in the quest to make their conditions better.

    The narrative concludes with the biographies, inventions and achievements of some prominent Blacks across the ages and across the world.

  • Beyond the Political Spider: Critical Issues in African Humanities (African Humanities Series)

    Beyond the Political Spider: Critical Issues in African Humanities by Kwesi Yankah is the first title in the newly established African Humanities Association (AHA) publication series.

    By integrating his own biography into a critique of the global politics of knowledge production, Yankah, through a collection of essays, interrogates critical issues confronting the Humanities that spawn intellectual hegemonies and muffle African voices. Using the example of Ghana, he brings under scrutiny, amongst others, endemic issues of academic freedom, gender inequities, the unequal global academic order, and linguistic imperialism in language policies in governance.

    In the face of these challenges, the author deftly navigates the complex terrain of indigenous knowledge and language in the context of democratic politics, demonstrating that agency can be liberatory when emphasising indigenous knowledge, especially expressed through the idiom of local languages and symbols, including Ananse, the protean spider, folk hero in Ghana and most parts of the pan-African world.

    “Fascinating snapshots from an engaged scholarly life in Africa, valuable as an archival resource for the understanding of this period of higher education in Africa.” – John Higgins, Arderne Chair in Literature, Department of English Literary Studies, University of Cape Town

    “This book is unique and gives a powerful rendition of the state of the Humanities in Africa (with Ghana as a case in point). It grapples with some of the pertinent issues dogging the Humanities in Africa. It comments on the Humanities scholarship in Africa, and subtly throws a challenge for future scholarship. It draws on African traditions, communal heritage, and governance in discussing the role and place of the Humanities in Africa. It also brings into the analysis the ever-changing imperatives and modernity in re-configuring African Humanities.” – Mark Benge Okot, Head of Department, Literature, Makerere University, Uganda

    “Beyond the Political Spider’ effectively draws, in a unique fashion, from literature, history, linguistics and other cognate disciplines in the African Humanities.” – Sati Umaru Fwatshak, Department of History, University of Jos, Nigeria

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