• The Children of House No. D13 South Suntresu Kumasi: An Ahwoi & Adu-Gyamfi Siblings’ Collective Biography

    *Available from 15 June 2022

    To describe The Children of House No. D13, South Suntresu, Kumasi, as an intriguing project is an understatement. A collective biography of eight siblings was always going to be a daunting challenge, even if each person told their own story and got it together in one volume. To do it in a coordinated combination of first and third person “voices” would appear to be a bit implausible. To actually achieve the purpose and turn it from a project into an enthralling reading experience deserves all the plaudits this book is likely to gather.

    This book is a collection of life stories of the eight children of Madam Maye Charlotte Hudson, also known as Esi Tutuwa but known to some people as Esi Nkwagye and to the people of South Suntresu, Kumasi as Mrs. Ahwoi. The ‘Ahwois” principally is the collective name of three brothers – Ato, Kwesi and Kwamena – who have played prominent roles in Ghana’s recent history, but the siblings also include five girls, Ama, Adoma, Efua, Naana and Sister Aggie, who also played their part in this thrilling story in their own unique ways.

    For such a collective recall of personal histories to work, a principal requirement is a willingness of all the parties involved to treat the project seriously; of equal importance is the need to treat everyone’s personal history as important, which is what this book has succeeded in doing. It would be right to describe it as an exercise in literary democracy!

    It is not every book project that produces a good book, but this book has done so because at the heart of the project is a good story. And at the heart of that good story is human progress against the odds capsuled in the life of these eight individuals.

    These are the dramatis personae in order of appearance – from the womb – Ato Ahwoi, Kwesi Ahwoi, Mrs. Ama Twum, Kwamena Ahwoi, Mrs. Ama Adoma Bartels-Kodwo, Mrs. Efua Bram-Larbi, Theodora Naana Adu Gyamfi and Mrs. Agnes Appiagyei-Dankah. Theodora Naana Adu-Gyamfi passed away at the age of 28 and so her role ends early except in passing references. However, it is worth recalling that before she died, and in an act that exemplifies the major theme of this book, Naana secretely transferred all the money in her own bank account into that of her six year old niece, Abena Tutuwa Ahwoi, the daughter of her brother, Kwamena.

    The structure of the narrative, which makes it possible to flow, is simply to follow the fortunes of these siblings sequentially in turn through the main phases of their development. The person whose presence permeates the story is the matriarch – Mrs. Ahwoi, nee Maye Charlotte Hudson.

    The book achieves the purpose of showing the “remarkable togetherness and the mutual support system that enabled the children of House No. D13, South Suntresu, Kumasi, to overcome the many hurdles along their individual paths in life as being due to their mother, Madam Maye Charlotte Hudson (Mrs. Ahwoi). Indeed, the matriarch herself is effectively the ninth subject of the biography of the eight children” as Honourable Kwame Preprah states in the Foreword.

    Nana Kwasi Gyan Apenteng

    Consultant in Communication, Media and Culture

    Former Chairman, National Media Commission (NMC)

    Former President, Ghana Association of Writers (GAW)

  • Public Administration (AsanteBrako Political Series)

    Every person is impacted by public administration issues, yet many people do not fully understand the processes involved in getting the problems that confront them addressed by the government. It is an undisputable fact that our very survival as humans, in terms of protection against harm and provision of our welfare needs, hinges heavily on the state. To be able to discharge these functions effectively demands an effective and efficient public administration.

    What is public administration and what makes it relevant? This introductory Public Administration textbook is designed with the intention to provide students and practitioners with concrete tools, not only to understand public administration issues in general, but also to enable them to analyse specific theoretical and practical questions. The book offers an extensive overview of the current thinking on critical issues in the discipline, with an emphasis on accessibility and synthesis, rather than novelty or abstraction.

  • Africa: From Colonialism to Independence (AsanteBrako Political Series)

    Authoritatively and comprehensively compiled, this book, Africa: From Colonialism to Independence, offers a wide-ranging account of the political history of Africa, from pre-colonial times through colonial rule to the period of attainment of political independence. It sheds much light on the traditional political institutions that prevailed on the continent prior to the advent of colonial rule and how they were transformed by the systems of colonial administration as well as the new set of political institutions that emerged following the resistance to colonialism. The book covers all the geographical parts of Africa in a systematic order such that it will be found useful by readers in all geographical locations on the continent and beyond.

    The book gives penetrating descriptions of the colonial policies of all the major colonial powers and dilates on the positive and negative impacts of colonialism on the African subjects and African political institutions as well. It also gives a vivid account of the struggles by the Africans to get rid of the European hegemony. This straightforward, illustrated and factual text allows the reader to access personalities and events on the African continent during the period under review.

    In fact, the book Africa: From Colonialism to Independence is an authentic reference material for the avid reader, students and tutors of African political history as well as those who are enthusiastic to know more about African politics.

  • Understanding Political Institutions (AsanteBrako Political Series)

    Understanding Political Institutions comprehensively addresses both the theoretical and practical aspects of institutions in governance and politics. Written in an accessible style, the text is designed to introduce readers to political institutions and how they function to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the state.

    The focus of the text is on meanings, origins, features, structures, principles, theories and functions of both formal and informal political institutions, including the legislature, executive and judiciary, as well as civil society organizations, such as political parties, interest groups and the media. Other institutional processes and principles like separation of powers, checks and balances, rule of law, electoral processes and systems and constitutions are discussed.

    Each chapter features the key issues discussed, a summary of contents and sample examination questions. Understanding Political Institutions is indeed an essential reader and a must-read for anyone who is interested in gaining adequate knowledge about how both formal and informal political institutions function in a state.

  • 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.

  • The Experience of Politics: A Manual for Ghanaian and African Politicians

    P.K.K. Quaidoo was educated at St. Augustine’s College, Cape Coast, Achimota College and the University of Bristol where he graduated in Mathematics, Philosophy and Latin, Magna cum laude. He was later elected to Parliament (1954-56; 1957-61) where he established himself as a debater with outstanding courage, thus earning the nickname ‘Asem Yi Di Ka’ (say it and be damned!).

    He held several portfolios as a Cabinet Minister: Trade and Labour (1957-58), Communications (1958) and Social Welfare (1960-61). He travelled widely: to Europe, the USA, Canada and the Far East and within Africa. He was decorated by the late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia as a Knight Companion of the Lion of Juda.

    Mr. Quaidoo often contributed articles to the Catholic Standard. He got married and had two sons and four daughters.

    Contents

    • Preliminary requirements
    • Field discipleship and apprenticship
    • Strategies of reform and maintenance
    • Some puzzling questions about Ghanaian society
    • They also serve who only stand and wait
    • Building the support base
    • Inside the political arena
    • Global vision and horizon
    • The field of labour at a glance
    • Relics of the past
    • Priorities, programmes and the timetables.
  • Labour Law in Ghana: An Essential Guide

    This text is specifically designed to provide an essential guide to the labour law of Ghana. It is a very comprehensive text, covering all aspects of this area of the law, including the distinction between contract of service and contract for services, formation of the contract of employment, termination of the contract of employment, the rights and duties of employers and workers, dismissal of an employee, the distinction between the terms ‘termination’ and ‘dismissal’, as used in the context of employment, strikes as legitimate weapons in the hands of employees/workers and lockouts as legitimate weapons in the hands of employers, occupational health and safety, retirement and pensions and workmen’s compensation.

    The author presents the material in a very simple, straightforward and logically coherent manner and this makes reading the text very fascinating. It is an essential resource for all those seeking to get to grips with this fascinating area of law. Lawyers, Judges, HR Practitioners, Trade Union Leaders, Employers and Workers or Employees will find this text an invaluable resource. Lecturers and students of labour law will also find this text very useful as it fully and thoroughly covers the syllabus requirements of the LLB Laws, BA Human Resource Management, MBA Human Resources and related courses.

  • 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.

  • Accra Aca Blɛoo: The History of the Accra Academy from James Town to Bubiashie (Hardcover)

    Accra Aca Bleoo – the first comprehensive history book on the Accra Academy – captures nine decades of the school’s history, including the most epic events and pivotal moments. It takes the reader through the life journeys of the founders and those who believed in their dream to educate the underprivileged youth of the Gold Coast. It also recounts the aspirations and achievements of successive administrations of the school and how they overcame the challenges of their time and influenced the character of their students.

    The book brings to light several unknown facts about the Accra Academy and examines the educational policies that have influenced its development and growth.

    It is not only informative and educative but also entertaining, as it is interspersed with interesting stories and several pictures that will undoubtedly take the minds of alumni back to the good old days and give other readers a perspective into how life in the school has evolved.

    This book is the outcome of many hours of personal interviews and research, and is intended for anyone interested in the history of education in Ghana and what has made the Accra Academy what it is today.

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