• A History of Indigenous Slavery in Ghana: From the 15th to the 19th Century

    Academic research and publication on indigenous slavery in Ghana and in Africa more widely have not received attention commensurate with the importance of the phenomenon: the history of indigenous slavery, which existed long before the trans-Atlantic slave trade, has been a marginal topic in documented historical studies on Ghana. Yet its weighty historical, and contemporary relevance inside and outside Africa is undisputed.
    This book begins to redress this neglect. Drawing on sources including oral data from so-called slave descendants, cultural sites and trade routes, court records and colonial government reports, it presents historical and cultural analysis which aims to enhance historical knowledge and understanding of indigenous slavery. The author further intends to provide a holistic view of the indigenous institution of slavery as a formative factor in the social, political and economic development of pre- colonial Ghana.
  • A Danish Jew in West Africa: Wulff Joseph Wulff Biography And Letters (1836-1842)

    Wulff’s life history is of considerable interest in itself. In her biographical essay (Part I) Selena Axelrod Winsnes portrays him as a ‘marginal man’: being a Jew in Denmark at the beginning of the 19th century was to some extent an uphill struggle for those who sought public recognition, and Wulff did not escape discrimination in his administrative career at Christiansborg either, although special circumstances allowed him to hold important positions, and yet, only for the short term.

    Paradoxically, on his arrival to the Gold Coast Wulff — as a Jew — was placed in a middle position in the racial hierarchy dominating the mind-set of his superiors in Copenhagen — between Africans and Europeans. In many respects he shared the fate of Euro-Africans, straddling two worlds and being ‘sealed off’ from the top echelons of the European establishments on the Coast.

    This book comprises two parts. The first is a biographical presentation of Wulff Joseph Wulff , a Danish Jew. It is an essay concerning the last six years of his life, spent on the Gold Coast of West Africa, based on letters he wrote to his family in Denmark. Those letters were published in 1917 as Da Guinea var Dansk [When Guinea was Danish], by Carl Behrens, a member of his family in Denmark. The second part of the book is an edited translation of the letters from Danish into English.

  • Closing the Books: Governor Edward Carstensen on Danish Guinea (1842-50)

    Sitting on the terrace of the royal plantation Frederiksgave, his favourite retreat, Governor Edward Carstensen came to see the inevitable: Denmark had to give up her “possessions” in Africa. As fate would have it, he came to be the instrument by which two centuries of Danish involvement on the Gold Coast was terminated, thereby making way for the emergence of the colonial system that developed there.

    After the abolition of the slave trade, Denmark had struggled to find ways and means to legitimate her continued stay at the Coast. At an early stage the Danes initiated a number of attempts to establish experimental plantations to cultivate export crops such as cotton, coffee and sugar. But a transition from slave trade to “legitimate” products required stability and peace, and a need for control, which the rather limited Danish presence was not able to maintain.

    Closing the Books comprises a compilation of the official reports that the last Danish Governor sent home during his term of office at the Gold Coast. The reports reflect his personal views regarding the economic and political situations there, as well as his ideas on the “civilization of Africa”.

  • African Visionaries

    In over forty portraits, African writers present extraordinary people from their continent: portraits of the women and men whom they admire, people who have changed and enriched life in Africa. The portraits include inventor, founders of universities, resistance fighters, musicians, environmental activists or writers. African Visionaries is a multi-faceted book, seen through African eyes, on the most impactful people of Africa.

    Some of the writers contributing to the collection are: Helon Habila, Virginia Phiri, Ellen Banda-Aaku, Véronique Tadjo, Tendai Huchu, Solomon Tsehaye, Patrice Nganang and Sami Tchak.

  • Selected Speeches of Dr. K. A. Busia: Prime Minister of Ghana (1969-1972)

    This is a compendium of speeches by Dr. K.A. Busia, a world-renowned politician and scholar, Africa’s first Leader of Parliamentary Opposition in an independent country south of the Sahara and Prime Minister of Ghana (1969-1972).

    His commitment to multiparty democracy is demonstrated throughout the pages. For example, he objected strongly to the decision to turn Ghana  into a one-party state in the First Republic, saying, “One-party rule for Ghana, in the light of our traditions, is a step backward from the accumulated wisdom we inherited from our ancestors.”

    Today, one-party rule is a taboo to the Ghanaian constitution and Busia’s preferred economic and governance modules have become the bedrock for governance, demonstrating the continuing relevance of his ideas to contemporary politics.

  • Proceedings of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013 – Education for National Development)

    Proceedings, Founder’s Week Celebrations, 2013

    Contents

    Foreword — Professor Takyiwaa Manuh

    Presidential Address: Education in the Age of Rapid Technological Advancement — Professor Francis K.A. Allotey

    Basic Education in a Changing World: Rethinking the Role of Stakeholders in Ghana — Dr. Christiana Amoako-Nuama

    The Quality and Inclusivity of Basic Education across Ghana’s three Northern Regions: Assessing Learning Effectiveness and Efficiency towards the Post 2015 Era — Dr. Leslie Casely-Hayford

    Reviewing Secondary, Technical Education and Skills Training in Ghana — Dr. George Afeti

    Skills Diversification to meet Current and Future Labour Market Opportunities in Ghana — Professor G.K.S. Aflakpui

    Higher Education beyond the Labour Market — Professor Helen Lauer

    Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture: Knowledge and Innovation for Agricultural Development — Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere

  • S.D. Dombo: A Biography of An Iconic Ghanaian Statesman (Hardcover)

    One of the ways to know about the history and foundations of a society is to read about how her pioneers lived their lives and chartered courses that have defined various aspects of the nation’s life as well as the motivations that inspired their actions and the philosophies that underpinned their conduct.

    Ghana is a nation with a rich history of men and women whose contributions have resulted in her success story as a beacon in the comity of nations.

    This book gives account of the life and works of one of the notable founders of the West African country in the centre of the world. It is a story of courage, fortitude and foresight exhibited by a real gem of a leader — Chief Simon Diedong Dombo: a traditional ruler, an educationist, a politician and a revered statesman.

  • Me, My Thoughts & I

    “Welcome to the wonderful world of what’s inside my head.”
    Me, My Thoughts & I is a collection of poems and random thoughts which gives an insight into Liz Kamille’s feelings and opinions on a range of different topics. It gives a little inspiration here, a little motivation there, and also aims to show that we all go through some similar things!
  • Ogyakrom: The Missing Pages of June 4th (Fireman Series) – Hardback

    Kwesi Yankah is currently the Minister of State for Tertiary Education in Ghana. Until April 2017, he was Vice Chancellor of Central University, Ghana, and was previously Professor of Linguistics and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Ghana. Yankah, an inimitable satirist, is a proud product of Winneba Secondary School, University of Ghana and Indiana University, USA, where he did his doctorate. Well known in literary and academic circles, Professor Yankah has been a Public Intellectual since the late 1970s when, at 27, he started an anonymous column in The Catholic Standard newspaper, under the pseudonym Abonsam Fireman. The credit for the column, in a suppressive political environment, was often mistakenly given to the two great luminaries PAV Ansah and Adu Boahen.

    Later in 1986, when Yankah returned from doctoral work at Indiana University, he introduced another weekly column, Woes of the Kwatriot, this time in The Mirror which he sustained for a period of ten years. In 1996, the Ghana Journalists Association honoured him for ‘the longest running column in the history of Ghanaian journalism.’ His writings, both literary and academic, have won for Yankah various awards including the WEB Du Bois Award (GAW), the Zora Hurston Award (GAW), the Ghana Book Development Award (GBDC) and the Gold Book Award given by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    The present volume represents landmarks within 22 months of Yankah’s weekly column in The Catholic Standard, from January 1979 to March 1980. It is inspired by topical issues in two military regimes (General F Akuffo’s SMC 2, Rawlings’ June 4th Revolution) and one civilian government (Hilla Limann’s PNP). This compilation altogether allows a veiled peep into the most turbulent period in Ghana’s political history, Rawlings’ June 4th Revolution, including preceding events and the aftermath of the Revolution. In the words of Dr Anthony Bonnah Koomson, Editor of The Catholic Standard at the time of Yankah’s celebrated column: “The book captures a momentous era in Ghana’s immediate political history, reminiscences of which the author has sough to recreate and preserve with phenomenal linguistic skill. It presents, through satire, an accurate heartbeat of a people under intense political paralysis.”

    This book makes compelling, even if hilarious, reading on Ghana’s enigmatic June 4th Revolution.

  • Ogyakrom: The Missing Pages of June 4th (Fireman Series) – Paperback

    Kwesi Yankah is currently the Minister of State for Tertiary Education in Ghana. Until April 2017, he was Vice Chancellor of Central University, Ghana, and was previously Professor of Linguistics and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Ghana. Yankah, an inimitable satirist, is a proud product of Winneba Secondary School, University of Ghana and Indiana University, USA, where he did his doctorate. Well known in literary and academic circles, Professor Yankah has been a Public Intellectual since the late 1970s when, at 27, he started an anonymous column in The Catholic Standard newspaper, under the pseudonym Abonsam Fireman. The credit for the column, in a suppressive political environment, was often mistakenly given to the two great luminaries PAV Ansah and Adu Boahen.

    Later in 1986, when Yankah returned from doctoral work at Indiana University, he introduced another weekly column, Woes of the Kwatriot, this time in The Mirror which he sustained for a period of ten years. In 1996, the Ghana Journalists Association honoured him for ‘the longest running column in the history of Ghanaian journalism.’ His writings, both literary and academic, have won for Yankah various awards including the WEB Du Bois Award (GAW), the Zora Hurston Award (GAW), the Ghana Book Development Award (GBDC) and the Gold Book Award given by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    The present volume represents landmarks within 22 months of Yankah’s weekly column in The Catholic Standard, from January 1979 to March 1980. It is inspired by topical issues in two military regimes (General F Akuffo’s SMC 2, Rawlings’ June 4th Revolution) and one civilian government (Hilla Limann’s PNP). This compilation altogether allows a veiled peep into the most turbulent period in Ghana’s political history, Rawlings’ June 4th Revolution, including preceding events and the aftermath of the Revolution. In the words of Dr Anthony Bonnah Koomson, Editor of The Catholic Standard at the time of Yankah’s celebrated column: “The book captures a momentous era in Ghana’s immediate political history, reminiscences of which the author has sough to recreate and preserve with phenomenal linguistic skill. It presents, through satire, an accurate heartbeat of a people under intense political paralysis.”

    This book makes compelling, even if hilarious, reading on Ghana’s enigmatic June 4th Revolution.

  • African Traditional Leadership

    In this book, Emeritus Professor Jacob U. Gordon has brought together both historical and current literature in traditional African leadership to focus on critical issues of leadership and governance in Africa. The book sets out to provide students of African leadership and development, educators, politicians, traditional leaders and practitioners with a toolbox for understanding the changing role of traditional rulers/chiefs and its future in African life.

    It examples leadership dynamics of past African leaders such as Abu Bakr II (14th century), Chaka Zulu, Queen Hatshepsut, Hannibal of Carthage, Makeda the Queen of Sheba, King Mansa Musa, Haile Selassie and Yaa Asantewaa.

    It is the author’s hope that this book will help the reader to better understand the complexities of traditional leadership in Africa and key considerations; to appreciate the values of traditional African leadership; and to develop a better appreciation of the importance of good leadership and governance in a global and competitive world that yearns for sustainable peace and security.

  • Proceedings of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (Volume XXVIII, 1989 – The Future of Our Cities)

    Proceedings, 1989.

    Contents

    The Academy at 30: Future Agenda — E. Evans-Anfom

    What Role May One Expect of the Regional Capitals of Ghana in the Country’s Development? — K.B. Dickson

    The Role of Architecture and Planning — P.A. Tetteh

    Transport — E.K.A. Tamakloe

    Satellite Communications — S.A. Okang

    The Challenges of Modernism — S.T. Addo

    The Sociology of Urban Life — Max Assimeng

    Crime and Delinquency — D.N.A. Nortey

    Health Aspect of Water and Waste Management — S.N. Otoo

    Waste Management — N.A. Armah

    The Development of School Education in the Gold Coast (Ghana) since 1471: Some Observations and Reflections — Madjaben Dowuona

  • Proceedings of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (Volume XXXVI, 1997 – Land as a Resource for Development)

    Proceedings, 1997.

    Contents

    Intellectual Agenda for Coping with Social Reality — J.H. Kwabena Nketia

    Security of Title to Land in Ghana — Enoch D. Kom

    Land Utilization for Development: Constraints and Suggested Solutions — B.J. da Rocha

    The Institutional Capacity for Land Utilization for Development: Constraints and Suggested Solutions — Seth Opuni Mensah

    Land Resource Management for Agricultural Development — Kasim Kasanga

    Land Resource Management for Human Settlement and Industrial Development — Paul W.K. Yankson

    Land as Capital — P.A. Koranchie and M. Owusu-Ansah

    Religion and National Identity: Assessing the Discussion from Cicero to Danquah — Kwame Bediako

    Efficient Utilization of the Vertic Soils of the Accra-Plains: Prospects, Constraints and Way Forward — Yaw Ahenkora

  • The Trial of J.J. Rawlings: Echoes of the 31st December Revolution (2nd Edition)

    The Trial of JJ Rawlings narrates the extraordinary circumstances under which a young military officer Flt Lt JJ Rawlings, later to become the longest serving Head of State of Ghana, shot into the limelight to change the course of Ghana’s history and political development.The first edition of the book, originally published in 1986, completely sold out within a year, making this second edition very welcome in response to public request.

    This volume is a valuable contribution to our understanding of those ineluctable forces that have changed the contours of our society. Surely, the story of JJ, well told in this volume, cannot fail to grip and hold the reader’s most concentrated attention. – Prof F.A. Botchwey, PhD

  • The Mind of Africa

    The Mind of Africa, written while the author was A Fellow of  All Souls College, Oxford, was a fruit of that enlarged perspective. After several years, he visited Ghana in 1962. There Kwame Nkrumah, then President of Ghana, successfully persuaded him to return to teach at the University of Ghana, Legon and he subsequently resigned from All Souls. In 1968, he went to the United States as a visiting professor. This was followed by invitations to teach at various academic institutions there, including Berkeley and Stanford. He subsequently settled in California, where he continued to teach and research philosophy in the University of California at Santa Cruz until his retirement.

    The Mind of Africa appeared at a time when a number of African countries were obtaining, or fighting for, their political freedom from their colonial rulers; and becoming independent nations expecting to build new societies in accordance with their own visions and conceptions, though not necessarily jettisoning all the features of their colonial heritage. Building new societies requires appropriate ideologies and philosophies fashioned within the crucible of their cultural and historical experiences. Thus, the relation between ideology and society is taken up at the very outset of the book… The Mind of Africa is important for Africa’s future and identity.

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