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The Pen at Risk: Spilling My Little Beans
“The Pen at Risk is more than a memoir. It is a piece of authentic, ungarnished history by a writer and public intellectual who is too modest to accept the title of a historian, but who witnessed and chronicled the most intriguing epochs of Ghana’s national life. Laced with the innate Fante humour, this book is a piece of deep but entertaining non-fiction that is told with the demystified simplicity of one of Ghana’s greatest academics and writers. Kwesi Yankah is a gift to humanity, and this memoir is a greater gift to an unfortunate generation like mine that did not live in the era of the incisive writings of the great Kwatriot.” – Manasseh Azure Awuni, Editor-in-Chief, The Fourth Estate
“When a citizen who has spent his whole life scrutinising society, turns the spotlight on himself, the risks include this epic engagement that spares no one, him included. In this bare-it-all memoir, the Yankah enigma is fully bared, warts and all. As it turns out, Yankah has had more than his fair share of privileged roles, ultimately impacting the national narrative. The richness of ethnography here, is as riveting as his urban-savvy accounts of the intrigues of university and national politics. While we watch him weave his wizardry of words, we are also awed by the totality of his humanity. The Pen at Risk is a hilarious package of eruditions. It is about the exalted gossips of our Motherland. The narratives are so sweet they hurt. If this isn’t the best book you have read in years, call me illiterate.” – Kofi Akpabli, Scholar, Author, Journalist
“In this memoir, Kwesi Yankah delivers a sparkling tableau of key aspects of his life, tabling his charmed childhood and amazing trajectory as an academic. He then rolls out his long stint as an audacious social commentator and columnist for leading papers (which may have put his pen at risk). With a penmanship characterized by a keen eye for detail, this autobiography is an entertaining and captivating book that should be read by all interested in media and social history as well as autobiography as a literary genre.” – Professor Mansah Prah, University of Cape Coast
“Intriguing, revealing, and brilliant. The Pen at Risk is unvarnished introspection beautifully strung together with anecdotes in a way that is vibrant and colorful. Kwesi Yankah’s work is a refreshingly modest invitation to see life through a different lens, even for a fleeting moment.” – Dr Obeng Amoako Edmonds, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
₵250.00 -
My Life in Law and Politics: Memoirs & Biography of B.J. da Rocha
This book chronicles the life of B.J. da Rocha as a lawyer and politician. B. J., as he was popularly known, was a legal luminary and politician extraordinaire. Born on May 16th 1927, he devoted the entire course of his professional life to entrenching the rule of law, development of legal education, and in the defence of human rights till his death on the 23rd of February 2010.
He was noted for forthrightness, integrity and principled stance on issues on the rule of law and national development.
He played various prominent roles in Law and Politics as a lawyer, director of legal education, law lecturer and first Chairman of the New Patriotic Party.
This account is related by B.J. himself in Part 1, followed by an Epilogue based on interviews B.J. conducted with Mr. Dei, a student of history, for his dissertation.
This book is an exciting read for students of political history in Ghana and is an insightful commentary on Ghana’s chequered political history.
“Here was a man, when comes such another” — Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
₵160.00 -
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.
₵1,250.00 – ₵1,450.00Remnants of a Haunted Past: Forts and Castles of Ghana (Photo Book, Hardcover)
₵1,250.00 – ₵1,450.00 -
Forward Ever: The Life of Kwame Nkrumah
A short biography of Kwame Nkrumah providing an introduction to his life and work. Set within the context of PanAfricanism the book covers the whole period of Nkrumah’s life from childhood through to his death in Bucharest on 27th April 1972.
₵200.00 -
Kwame Nkrumah and the Dawn of the Cold War: The West African National Secretariat, 1945-48
The history of a Pan-Africanist movement based in Britain and its role in the Cold War in Africa
The West African National Secretariat (WANS) has almost been forgotten by history. A pan-Africanist movement founded in 1945 by Kwame Nkrumah and colleagues in London and France, WANS campaigned for independence and unity. Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast in late 1947. The colonial government accused him of being a communist and fomenting the riots of early 1948. He was jailed. This led to the beginning of the Cold War in West Africa.
Drawing on archival research including the newly released MI5 files, Marika Sherwood reports on the work of WANS, on the plans for a unity conference in October 1948 in Lagos, and on Nkrumah’s return home. Sherwood demonstrates that colonial powers colluded with each other and the US in order to control the burgeoning struggles for independence. By labelling African nationalists as ‘communists’ in their efforts to contain decolonisation, the Western powers introduced the Cold War to the continent.
Providing a rich exploration of a neglected history, this book sheds light for the first time on a crucial historical moment in the history of West Africa and the developmental trajectory of West African independence.
₵75.00 -
The Path of an Eagle – Despair, Hope and Glory: Autobiography of Daniel McKorley (McDan)
Daniel McKorley’s autobiography offers a powerful yet gripping insight into the life of the author and, for the first time, enables a window into his total life experiences, the summation of which the public knows.
Having taken his time to detail his life story, the book offers a step-by-step account of his life and how the various experiences of his upbringing have shaped his current station and situation in life. His is a life of contrasts in which his successes in business and professional life sharply contrast with his life of poverty growing up.
The overall structure of the book and the sequencing of the chapters makes for easy and enjoyable reading, and the everyday realities recounted in his words should both evoke empathy and identity in the reader. If the title of the book insinuates comparisons with the eagle and its ways, it is because the author mimics the bird in its tendencies and has charted his life to reflect the fortunes of an eagle – a fitting simile given that the author’s name means “an eagle” in his native Ga tribe of Ghana.
This book is an enchanting piece worth every reader’s time.
₵140.00 -
Selected Speeches of Kwame Nkrumah (Volume 2)
The death of Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana, demonstrated a great irony: a man so much maligned and rejected in life, should be so praised and loved in death. The force of his personality, his convictions in the face of powerful opposition, and his vision for Ghana and a pan-Africa, are evident in his speeches. The speeches in this second of five volumes are arranged chronologically.
₵70.00 -
The First Vice President: A Biography of JWS de Graft-Johnson (Hardcover)
In the late 1970s, Joe de Graft-Johnson appeared on the national political scene as an Association of Recognized Professional Bodies executive, overlapping with his tenure as president of the Ghana Institution of Engineers. During this time, Joe actively demonstrated against the socioeconomic decline and lack of regard for professional guidance by the military regime. Joe subsequently won the People’s National Party’s nomination and became the Republic’s Vice President in 1979. Before this, he had transformed the Building and Road Research Institute into a prominent voice in using natural resources to address developmental needs, imbued as he was, with nation-building.
Joe grew up within a family tradition of service to the country, instructed by lessons such as his grandfather’s contributions through the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society. The Mfantsipim School and the historical significance of Cape Coast had also left their mark on him.
Later, in exile, still focused on national development, he fought for the transition to democracy.
The First Vice President chronicles the extraordinary life of Joe, spent in dedication to his country.₵185.00 -
Joy: A Biography of Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu
“At just 18 months of age, in 1959, Henrietta overcame the first of a lifetime of recurring challenges. One day she was rushed to a private hospital in Kumasi by her mother, feverish and weak. Her pulse was faint and everyone was scared. The doctor scolded Elizabeth for waiting for so long before bringing Henrietta to the hospital.
“This is a hopeless case,” the doctor said to the distraught mother and asked back home with her child. Even after being dismissed from the hospital, Mama Elizabeth still remained on the premises, imploring; her arms firmly around her sick baby. Evidently out of pity, the doctor said, ‘Okay, I’m going to cut you a deal. Go home with the child. If tomorrow morning comes and she is still alive, bring her for treatment.’”
This biography vividly captures how that 18-month-old baby survived, persevered and rose to become a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Joy is a captivating account of three generations committed to the pursuit of excellence community and public service. It is the testimony of the nurturing powers of education. It is the testimony of a woman whose life epitomises fairness, family and faith.
“This book offers a lot more than a record of scholarly excellence and legal brilliance. In elegant prose, the author succeeds in combining these illuminating historical essays with a perceptive sociological case study of the ‘middle class’ in Ghana. On all counts. Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu’s biography is a literary treasure.” − Nana Prof. SKB Asante, Omanhene of Asante Asokore and Past President of Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences
₵150.00 – ₵200.00Joy: A Biography of Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu
₵150.00 – ₵200.00 -
Voice from Conakry
The texts of broadcasts to the people of Ghana made in Conakry by Kwame Nkrumah between March and December 1966 on Radio Guinea’s “Voice of the Revolution”. Their purpose was first to expose the true nature of the coup of 24th February 1966; and secondly to encourage resistance.
₵270.00Voice from Conakry
₵270.00 -
Justice Daniel Francis Annan: In the Service of Democracy
Justice Annan’s public service in Ghana’s recent history embodies how an individual, acting in concert with compatriots, can direct the course of history using institutions which may prevail at a specific conjuncture in that history.
The objective of producing this biography of Justice Annan is to extrapolate from his life as a public servant, especially during the critical period of 1982- 1992 when he was a key member of the PNDC, and the 1993 – 2000 when he was Speaker of the first and second Parliaments of the Fourth Republic, the lessons and insights that add value to the existing knowledge of how social and political dynamics are purposefully managed even in the most challenging times; and how key institutions like Parliament are nurtured in a nascent democracy to literally turn dust into gold. The weight of the biography therefore leans heavily on Justice Annan’s public service during the two periods indicated above.
This biography was sponsored by the IDEG under its Senior Citizen Scholar in Residence Programme, which is non-partisan and open to all who have distinguished themselves in rendering service to our dear country Ghana. We hope that this publication will inspire institutions and individual philanthropists, both Ghanaian and foreign, to contribute generously to the funding of the programme. The programme aims at deepening our knowledge and understanding of the momentous conjunctures in our history that have shaped the content and trajectory of Ghana’s young democratic state.
₵160.00 -
Ghana Our Heritage
Age Range: 8 years and above
A comprehensive book that introduces both young and old to Ghana, its history, culture, traditional systems, languages, people, food and more!
This book provides basic education about Ghanaian history, cultural practices and heritage for the Ghanaian child. Though it is useful for every Ghanaian (as well as non-Ghanaians), it was specifically designed to educate the Ghanaian child in the diaspora.
The book gives a foundation of Ghanaian history and cultural practices to enable readers understand and appreciate Ghanaian heritage.
₵48.00Ghana Our Heritage
₵48.00 -
Sebitically Speaking
Sebitically Speaking is an uplifting elixir that courses through the hearts and minds of readers and awakens their consciousness regarding how to improve themselves and their country. In confronting the complicated issues that perpetually frustrate Ghanaians, Damoah’s style was not to depress or provoke insanity, but to deftly inspire readers with a view to affecting positive change.
For someone who has written four great books, Sebitically Speaking is an incontrovertible confirmation of Damoah’s literary genius. His uncanny ability to transform debilitating and chaotic socio-political topics into an exhilarating literary rollercoaster, using a perfect blend of wit and humour, and inducing a mixture of laughter and tears from readers, is especially evident in this book.
Sebitically Speaking is an irresistible literary tiger nut that every lover of Ghana must chew.
₵70.00Sebitically Speaking
₵70.00 -
Beyond Fear and Power: Osahene Boakye Djan – Pioneer Journey from the Village to the City and Back
On 2nd June, 1979, the military high command of the Ghana Armed Forces picked up intelligence of an impending coup against their regime from the 5 Battalion, the only fighting unit in Accra at the time.
General Odartey Wellington, the then Army Commander, informed his lower commanders to take steps to order Captain Boakye Djan, the D Company Commander of the 5 Battalion of Infantry to stop it.
On 4th June, 1979, Captain Boakye Djan emerged to become the substantive head of government and official spokesperson of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council of Ghana.
This is the story of one of Africa’s great military masterminds and why he has survived it all.
₵150.00 -
Ghana: A Tortuous Walk from Colonial Rule to Self Government and After – An Observer’s View
In Ghana: A Tortuous Walk from Colonial Rule to Self-Government and After – An Observer’s View, the author takes the stand of an engaged citizen who watched the closing transformation of tribal states into colonial Gold Coast, and its metamorphosis into independent Republic of Ghana. Through his attachment to his nation, and from the perspective of an observer of the political process, he emotively describes the procession of events, the people and passions that brought the momentous occasion of independence, the dashing of hopes as political stability was continually disrupted through coup d’etats, and the character and contributions of the various regimes that took over the leadership of Ghana. He takes us on a walk through the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and now the 4th Republic, and describes the promises that the present dispensation of democracy makes to the Ghanaian. His presentation of how present-day Ghana has evolved explains the mixed emotions of anxiety and hope that shape the national outlook and the consistent angst exuding through fractious political groupings.
The book is a must read for every person who wishes to know and understand the various events that have shaped the Ghana of the early 21st century.
₵50.00
