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The Baobab: A Journal of the Council on Foreign Relations-Ghana (Vol 1, No 1 – January 2020)
IN THIS ISSUE
From the President of the Council
Editorial
The Need for a Diplomatic Think Tank
Ambassador James Victor Gbeho
Council on Foreign Relations Overdue
HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana
Kofi Annan Biography
Memories of a Good Man from Africa
Amb Patrick Hayford
Getting to Know Kofi Annan
Excerpts from A Conversation With Mary Chinery-Hesse
(Interview by Lady Ann-Essumạn)
Kofi Annan, Africa and the Responsibility to Protect
Ramesh Thakur
Ghana in United Nations Peace Operations, A Tool of its Foreign Policy
Colonel Festus Boahen Aboagye (Retired)
Peacekeeping Experiences, Creating National Bonds
Major General HK Anyidoho (Retired)
Rethinking a New Global Order
V Antwi-Danso, PhD
Partnerships for Peace in West Africa and the Sahel: Challenges and Opportunities
Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas
About the Contributors
Editorial Policy and Guildlines
History of CFR-Ghana
₵50.00 -
1947-1957: The Story of Ghana’s Independence
“I never realized what a prolonged battle I would have with the politicians, chiefs and people of the Gold Coast in order to give them the independence for which they have been clamouring all these years. Now they are going to have it whether they like it or not” – Sir Charles Arden-Clarke (Governor of the Gold Coast, 1949-1957)
What would have influenced the above statement by the last Governor of the Gold Coast, which reveals the complicated, frustrating and tortuous trajectory of the last decade in the struggle for Ghana’s independence? This book, 1947-1957: The Story of Ghana’s Independence, not only answers this question but critically examines the roots of the nationalist movement and the role plays by several individuals, including Arden-Clarke himself and the various political organizations that led to the independence of the Gold Coast from British rule on March 6, 1957.
₵160.00 -
Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy
The yearlong celebration of Ghana’s Golden Jubilee provides a fitting context for the republication of the book Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy. In the lead-up to the celebration and over the course of the year, the life and times of Kwame Nkrumah will receive unprecedented public attention, official and unofficial. Kwame Nkrumah’s very wide name-recognition is, paradoxically, accompanied by sketchy, often oversimplified knowledge about the events and processes of his life and times. For most of those born after independence in 1957, such knowledge does not extend much beyond who Kwame Nkrumah was and vague notions about he won us Independence.
This book presents new material and new analysis, which helps to clarify aspects of the record, while advancing new perspectives. What comes across clearly throughout the book is the significant contribution of Nkrumah’s vision and personality at a critical moment in the history of Africa and the Third World. He, perhaps more than any other, was able to identify, focus and catalyse the major factors and players driving the struggle for political independence in Ghana and liberation in other parts of Africa. In the process, he committed his life and work totally to a wide variety of activities and processes in Ghana, the continent and in the global Non-Aligned Movement.
“This is an objective study which should be read by all concerned with the history of post-colonial Africa.” – Conor Cruise O’Brien Former Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana, Legon
₵70.00 -
Kwame Nkrumah: Africa’s Man of the Millennium
This book seeks to review various presentations made about the life of the man who led this country in her march towards independence and caught the imagination of the entire continent in the 1960s as he advocated and pushed the frontiers towards continental unity.
The man at the centre of it all – Kwame Nkrumah – is captured in all his facets; his humble beginnings, studies abroad, his return home to work with the UGCC, his political agitations, tenure of office as Leader of Government Business, Prime Minister and President, his removal from office and the role played by internal and external forces, his days in exile, his death and other aspects of his life. These are all presented with a view to enable the reader learn some history as well as good lessons of life.
Interestingly, though largely seen as the first universal African of the 19th Century, Kwame Nkrumah was actually a man of two halves; much loved and much hated all at the same time. How a single personality could be viewed in that manner is better appreciated by reading the book.
₵150.00 -
Thinking Allowed: A Collection of Articles on Events in Ghana, 1978-1981-Through the Eyes of One Woman
This collection of articles by Elizabeth A. Ohene takes the title of the column published in the Daily Graphic between August 1978 and December 1981. They cover momentous events, from the ousting of Gen. I.K. Acheampong, the abortive May 15 attempted coup by Fit-Lt J.J. Rawlings, the June 4 Revolution, through to the Third Republic of President Hilla Limann’s PNP government.
The articles were uncompromising then and, many years later, have a poignant ring to today’s Ghana.
₵100.00 -
Ahwene Pa Nkasa: Standing with JDM
Standing with JDM is quite clear in this title that it does not intend to undermine the former president’s image but to burnish it. What is not clear is whether it was written to coincide with the 2020 Election Year.
It is in two parts, “The Homeland Briefs” and the “Diplomatic Briefs”. Independent of each other, they are held together by what the author calls the “Mahamarabilia” thread – a word he invented to describe his privileged proximity to the 4th president of the 4th Republic of Ghana.
Part One has 42 chapters that highlight events like Dumsor, Gitmo 2, Montie 3, Cheating at Elections, Lying and Blaming it on Mahama, Destroying friends and Family and much, much more…It also has intellectual discourses on Traditional Governance and the Ballot Box, Kigali (dangers that could be awaiting Ghana in this Election Year), Ebola and Covid-19 and the history of Ghana’s “coodetas” in new lights that would surprise and reveal…
Part Two, with 25 chapters, is devoted entirely to the author’s diplomatic service and reads sometimes like a coursebook on practical diplomacy and other times like a travelogue with intriguing insights. We come across his encounter with a sex change person (man to woman) and how his life was nearly cut short when his official car and ostrich crashed into each other on the highway from Windhoek to Gaborone. Part Two is so suffused with humour that it is difficult to tell whether he is pulling the reader’s leg or stating facts.
Most of the chapters are illustrated with unique pictures that could stand on their own as stories. It is a beautifully designed book, well laid out reader-friendly. For the first time, a modern version of adinkra, called adinshia, has had a public airing in the book…
Whatever your political persuasion is, your intellect will make you love this beautiful book on Mahama.₵120.00 -
Women’s Leadership in Post-Conflict Liberia: My Journey (Hardcover)
The realities of trying to institutionalize reform in Liberia after 14 years of civil war comes alive in this book, particularly given the capacity constraints the author had to work with – what she describes as the “no money syndrome” coupled with the human and institutional capacity challenges she faced after a prolonged absence of almost 25 years working and living in the Diaspora.
This book is a must-read for all women (and men) who need guidance and mentoring on the challenges, consequences and sacrifices required to stand up for one’s convictions.
₵60.00 -
Working with Rawlings
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings burst on the Ghanaian political scene with a failed military mutiny on May 15th, 1979. On June 4th 1979, following a successful uprising staged by junior officers and other ranks of the Ghana Armed Forces, he emerged as the Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which ruled Ghana for three months and handed over to a civilian constitutional government on 24th September 1979. On 31st December 1981, he overthrew the constitutional government and formed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) as the Government of Ghana. He was elected a constitutional President in 1992 and assumed office as such on 7th January 1993. He served two terms as President of the Republic of Ghana, finally leaving office on 6th January 2001.
Jerry John Rawlings is an enigma. It was a privilege working with him and being close to him. He and I went through many exciting experiences together. I have documented some of those experiences in this book. But there are many other experiences which I have not documented either because they belong to the realm of confidentiality or of privacy. What I have documented, however, is enough to give present and future leaders some ideas about governance at the highest levels; the dos and don’ts of governance; the skills required for governance and the importance of human relations as a leadership trait.
This is not a book about Jerry John Rawlings. It is not a book about Kwamena Ahwoi. It is not a book about the PNDC. It is not a book about the NDC. It is a book about Kwamena Ahwoi working with Jerry John Rawlings; our working relationship; our ups and downs and our joint commitment to building a better Ghana than the one we found it. Somewhere along the line, we drifted apart. This book is about that as well. It is my hope that Ghana’s leaders of today and our leaders of the future will learn some lessons from my account of Working with Rawlings, leaving out the negatives and accentuating the positives.
₵150.00Working with Rawlings
₵150.00 -
1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana (Pocket Size)
1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana
₵15.00 -
How To Get Ahead In Ghana
How to Get Ahead in Ghana takes into consideration the Ghanaian culture, key challenges and presents 10 applicable steps which will help people change how they think, process and act.
₵65.00How To Get Ahead In Ghana
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Death of an Empire: Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Africa
A participant-witness in the history of the transition from Gold Coast to Ghana, Jantuah who died in 2011 at the age of 89, reflects and interprets with unique understanding some of the major events of the 1950s and 60s as well as foreign policy formulation including his role as a diplomat during the Algerian struggle for Independence and France’s Charles de Gaulle’s retrogressive policies; his dealings with the African National Congress and it’s president, Oliver Tambo, an Apartheid and Southern Rhodesia; becoming at the end an executor to his friend – Nkrumah’s Will.
The book also has reflections on Ghana’s Fourth Republic and development on the African Continent since. It is edited with a detailed introduction by Jantuah’s nephew, the development specialist and literacy writer, Ivor Agyeman-Duah, who he worked with over the years on this and is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.
₵100.00 -
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 -
Convention People’s Party Handbook: African Revolution Party (1949-1999)
The first fifty years of the CPP – a historical account.
₵70.00 -
Frantz Fanon (Panaf Great Lives)
Required reading for all interested in the Algerian Revolution, and in Fanon’s brief but highly productive contribution. A close study is made of the relationship between Fanon’s ideological development and the content and impact of his political philosophy.
₵270.00Frantz Fanon (Panaf Great Lives)
₵270.00 -
Patrice Lumumba (Panaf Great Lives)
This book considers the first years of the Congo Republic following independence in 1960. Particular analysis is made of Lumumba’s policies and of western pressures in this crucial experience of the African Revolution.
The story of Lumumba underlines the correctness of Nkrumah’s Pan-African thesis.
₵270.00