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Perseverance Conquers All: The Autobiography of Kantinka Kwame Donkor Fordwor
As a very poor boy, Kantinka sustained himself in school by selling firewood. He walked four miles every day from village, Breman, to Kumasi to attend school. He recounts how by dint of hard work, he sailed through elementary and secondary school to the Graduate School of Wharton even though fate had prevented him from doing sixth form studies. He recollects how at St. Augustine’s College, Cape Coast, he was cured of a strange disease by a traditional priest. His beloved wife had to discontinue her studies to help him complete his. Kantinka thus passed through a darkness of life which continued in his working life.
His decision to provide a house for the Executive Chairman of the Capital Investments Board, in order to save the Board huge sums of money in rent payments, was so maliciously interpreted that he was editorially castigated and lambasted. His ingenious polices that eventually helped to raise the capital of the African Development Bank from US $200 million to US $100 billion was rewarded with his dismissal as the President of the Bank.
He incurred the ire of his enemies for the appreciation he received from three Kings of Asante Kingdom.
Perseverance Conquers All portrays these midnight sides of Kantinka’s life to let his sun shine brightly. His wife gave him six children any father could wish for, whom he educated as a very responsible father. Providence made him help Ghana in its financial difficulties when he became the virtual Minister of Finance during the reign of Colonel Acheampong. His input to the progress of the Catholic Church has even been more monumental as explained beautifully in the book. Kantinka is indeed the sun at midnight.
Reliance on God, patriotism, philanthropy, hard work, good family life, good parenthood, honesty, and magnanimity is what this life story portrays. This is a book that all must have and read: the student as well as the teacher; the Christian, husband and patriot.
₵90.00 -
The Danquah-Busia Tradition in the Politics of Ghana: The Origins, Mission and Achievements of the New Patriotic Party
The book traces the nation’s political history from its status as a model British African Colony, the Gold Coast, to its attainment of political independence as the modern state of Ghana in 1957, under the leadership of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The author gives full recognition to the overwhelming debt that Ghana in particular and Africa in general owe to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s vision as one of the giants of Pan-African Emancipation.
The book systematically documents the contribution of Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah and Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia in the freedom struggle. The courageous and impressive role of Professor Adu Boahen in the breaking of the so called “culture of silence” in 1988 at the height of the PNDC regime under Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings is acknowledged.
In the concluding Chapter 13 all the leaders of the tradition are assessed – Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah passes the litmus test as a doyen of Ghana politics, with impeccable democratic credentials for human rights and the rule of law. The deviation from the ideals of the Danquah-Busia Tradition by Dr. Busia during his two and half years as Head of Government is commented on. Dr. K.A. Busia challenged the rule of law in its response to the ruling of the Supreme Court in the infamous case of Sallah vs. The Republic.
Other serious deviations from the principles of the Danquah-Busia Tradition were the way in which Dr. Busia implemented the Aliens Compliance Act in 1969. Then also the throwing overboard the belief in meritocracy and the shortcomings of the “zero tolerance of corruption” by President J.A. Kuffour led administration of the Patriotic Party are discussed.
However, the important and positive achievements of the NPP Government under President Kuffour such as the successes in establishing the Ghanaian economy, upholding the rule of law, enhancing good governance, improving the education and health copulation and thus lifting the flag of Ghana high in Africa and in the international community are not ignored.
Some of the criticisms may be harsh but the author is a committed member of the Tradition and he justifies his criticism of the Kuffour government with its own commitment to “ensure that the high ideas and objectives which have guided the Tradition through good and bad times should not at any time and under any circumstance be sacrificed for narrow partisan interest or worse still for personal gain”.
The form and force of the impact of these criticisms must be left to individual assessment and experience. The author has succeeded in intellectually stimulating and provoking democrats and non-democrats of whatever affiliation to digest the contents of this book and make their own judgment. He has opened the door for a fresh appraisal of the noble ideals of the Danquah-Busia Tradition.
In the Way Forward, the author makes some reflections on the future direction of the NPP.
Politicians, opinion leaders, the media, social observers and social critics as well as students of history and political science will find this book invaluable.
₵80.00 -
Reflections on Attributes of the Holy Spirit
Joseph Akwei Allotey had invaluable experiences with the Holy Trinity from his infancy. His love for the Lord and for music spans over 35 years’ membership of five different choirs at home and abroad.
The book shares the transforming power of the Holy Trinity for human well-being and God’s ability to direct humans to great spiritual values that would benefit those who will truly be faithful and obedient to Him. He believes that any person who reads this book about the awe-inspiring and heart-warming attributes of the Holy Trinity will be extremely blessed.
₵55.00 -
Art and the Power of Goodness: A Collection of John Agyekum Kufuor (Hardcover)
**Available from 16 June 2021
FOREWORD BY GORDON BROWN, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
There is a strong correlation between art and power and in this book, Ivor Agyeman-Duah, a cultural and literary historian, looks at it from the art collection of the former President of Ghana – John Agyekum Kufuor.
From a matrilineal household in Kumasi that is connected to the visual and palace art in the ancient imperial Kingdom of Ashanti, Kufuor travelled the world from Oxford into the pantheon of great personages and power. Along the way, whether in villages in Ethiopia or among the Maasai in Kenya, across the Maghreb into Morocco, infatuation with the Persia classical period, Ottoman or Asia Minor’s remains of modern day Turkey, northern Lebanon and parts of Greater Asia, some of these acquisitions came by way of gifts and purchases.
They reflect family life and belief, ancient trade relations and routes as well as patterns of contemporary geo-politics. It could be through Benin bronze sculpture with facial stratifications or of metal smelted Malian Islamic crusaders on horseback or a herdsman from a Sahel water well.
These works, seventy of which form the basis of this book with few external ones, include resistance art in the fashion of the ‘empire fights back’ against British West African colonial conflict engagements and resultant Independence.
₵200.00 -
Special Book Launch Set: Autographed Hardcover of From Achinakrom to Pro-Vice Chancellor (plus paperback and Emancipation book)
This is a special launch set – limited – that includes an autographed copy of the hardcover of Prof Florence Dolphyne’s new autobiography, a paperback version of the autobiography and a copy of her best-selling book The Emancipation of Women: An African Perspective.
Blurb for the Autobiography
An autobiography serves the purpose of relating experiences of the writer. These are usually personal experiences and readers can draw inspiration from such experiences.
This is a book written by a renowned academician, but unlike many books written by academics, it reads like a story written by an accomplished novelist. It tells the story of a girl of very humble parentage who was able, by dint of hard work and divine providence, to make it to the very apex of academia. It is a book that tells the story of ‘Mmofraturo’, synonymous with the training of girls to influence their world before the advent of militant feminism. It is a story that gives another peep at the practice of racism in Europe.
But then, it is also the book that confirms the subtle discrimination that women are often subjected to in our education system, even at the highest level.
Moreover, it is a story that tells the history of the practice of education in Ghana over a number of decades. Then, the writer draws us into the age-old issue of family life, foster children, biological children, and the Ghanaian family set up.
From Achinakrom to Pro-Vice Chancellor is a book about friendship and love that tells the story of women, individually and in groups trying to help make others enjoy the life of work and leisure. Furthermore, this book gives a hint that speaking one’s first language can be the source of the survival of an individual in certain critical situations.
This inspiring story is also a personal history of Ghana from pre-independence by someone who has helped to shape Ghana’s education system, women’s rights during the UN Decade for Women, and human rights through Ghana’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is a story of a phenomenal woman who has made Ghana and Achinakrom proud.
₵200.00 -
From Achinakrom to Pro-Vice Chancellor: Autobiography of Florence Abena Dolphyne
An autobiography serves the purpose of relating experiences of the writer. These are usually personal experiences and readers can draw inspiration from such experiences.
This is a book written by a renowned academician, but unlike many books written by academics, it reads like a story written by an accomplished novelist. It tells the story of a girl of very humble parentage who was able, by dint of hard work and divine providence, to make it to the very apex of academia. It is a book that tells the story of ‘Mmofraturo’, synonymous with the training of girls to influence their world before the advent of militant feminism. It is a story that gives another peep at the practice of racism in Europe.
But then, it is also the book that confirms the subtle discrimination that women are often subjected to in our education system, even at the highest level.
Moreover, it is a story that teils the history of the practice of education in Ghana over a number of decades. Then, the writer draws us into the age-old issue of family life, foster children, biological children, and the Ghanaian family set up.
From Achinakrom to Pro-Vice Chancellor is a book about friendship and love that tells the story of women, individually and in groups trying to help make others enjoy the life of work and leisure. Furthermore, this book gives a hint that speaking one’s first language can be the source of the survival of an individual in certain critical situations.
This inspiring story is also a personal history of Ghana from pre-independence by someone who has helped to shape Ghana’s education system, women’s rights during the UN Decade for Women, and human rights through Ghana’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is a story of a phenomenal woman who has made Ghana and Achinakrom proud.
₵70.00 – ₵100.00 -
J. A. Braimah: Biography of a Trailblazer (Hardcover)
This well researched book is not just a biography of the first-ever Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister from Northern Ghana, but a packed chronicle of the stormy political period of the pre- and immediate post-independent Ghana, narrated through the lens of a man in whose soul the development of Ghana – and Northern Ghana in particular – burns. It highlights the slow but momentous inclusion of Northern Ghana in the affairs of the Gold Coast.
The mistrust that characterized the relationship between Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the leaders of Northern Ghana, which culminated in the formation of the Northern Peoples Party, and Northern Ghana’s struggle for a dignified independence; makes this biography a must have for scholars, students, politicians and all who are interested in the twists and turns of this period.
₵100.00₵150.00J. A. Braimah: Biography of a Trailblazer (Hardcover)
₵100.00₵150.00 -
Environmental Management and the Responsibility of the Privileged (The J.B Danquah Memorial Lectures, Series 13; 1980)
This centers on the J.B Danquah Memorial Lectures Thirteenth series, February 1980 in Accra.
₵15.00 -
To the Thirsty Land: Autobiography of a Patriot by Emmanuel Evans-Anfom
Emmanuel Evans-Anfom, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 101 years, was considered a living legend in Ghana.
He was one of the great pioneers of the medical profession in that country, as well as serving as Vice Chancellor for The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. His memoirs span his lifetime from the end of colonial rule through four and a half decades of independent Ghana. They tell the story of his early upbringing in James Town, the seminal impact of Achimota College on his education and career, and his medical training at Edinburgh University in wartime Britain. At the peak of his professional career, Evans-Anfom was one of the leading surgeons of the country and a renowned educationalist.
₵130.00 – ₵180.00To the Thirsty Land: Autobiography of a Patriot by Emmanuel Evans-Anfom
₵130.00 – ₵180.00 -
Waning Strength of Government: Essays on Nigerian Governance
In Waning Strength of Government, Obaze draws on twenty-three of his various speeches, policy briefs, lectures and op-eds, to render exploratory essays that dissect some common patterns and trajectories that point anthetically to factors and conducts, which ought to constitute the strength of government, but don’t. In so doing, he unmasks the prevailing weaknesses and waning strength of government – the attendant consequences, and their prevalence and implications for Nigeria.
Such developments, with the attendant reversals, some nondescript and some dramatic, but replete with absence of resilience, leads the author to assert that democracy, “once characterized as probably the greatest expansion of freedom,” has come under assault from within its ranks, as shifts in geopolitics combine with ascendancy of non-state actors to undercut democracy. Cognizant of the suggestion that the democratic system as conceptualized, has not just worked as expected, but is rather dysfunctional, the author asserts that nowhere is this consideration more evident and concrete than in Africa, Nigeria included.
Waning Strength of Government piggybacks on the assertion that Nigeria’s “democracy is in reverse gear” and “the story is that of regrets and missteps.” Obaze employs an inquiry and excursion model using the flipside of McGeorge Bundy’s 1968 seminal book, The Strength of Government, to analyze leadership, political and governance challenges that continue to dog Nigeria’s nascent democracy. The essays in this volume, which are clustered into four groupings; democratic imperatives; domestic development challenges; foreign policy dimensions and leadership and governance, explore some Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT), as well as general challenges and uncertain aspects of Nigeria’s affected democracy.
In this very important work on Nigerian contemporary politics, leadership and dilemmas confronting the nation, the point is made severally, and vehemently too, that the strength of government is not about military capacity or use of force; but about the upholding the rule of law, consolidating democratic institutions and entrenching the social contract between the government and the governed.
₵75.00 -
Not My Time to Die
“Reading Yolande Mukagasana’s book in French at the age of 15 changed my life.”- Gaël Faye
Originally published as La mort ne veut pas de moi in 1997, this book was the first survivor testimony to be published about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
In 1994 Yolande was an unconventional nurse and mother of three who enjoyed wearing jeans and designer glasses. She ran her own clinic in Nyamirambo and was planning a party for her wedding anniversary. But when genocide started everything changed. Targeted because she was a successful Tutsi woman, she was separated from her family and had to flee for her life.
Mukagasana’s gripping memoir describes the betrayal of friends and help that came from surprising places. Quick-witted and courageous, Yolande never lost hope she would find her children alive.
Translated from the French by Zoe Norridge.
₵100.00Not My Time to Die
₵100.00 -
Times, Thoughts and Ideas: Selected papers of Professor Anya O. Anya (Volume 1)
Selected papers of Professor Anya O. Anya.
Compiled and Edited by Ndubuisi Ofondu, Ireke A Kalu Onuma, Ogbonna Oleka.
₵75.00 -
Times, Thoughts and Ideas: Selected papers of Professor Anya O. Anya (Volume 2)
Selected papers of Professor Anya O. Anya.
Compiled and Edited by Ndubuisi Ofondu, Ireke A Kalu Onuma, Ogbonna Oleka.
₵75.00 -
Destiny and Politics: A Biography of Hon. Samuel Sallas-Mensah
From a humble beginning as the son of a farmer in a relatively small town, Hon. Samuel Sallas-Mensah, four terms MP for Upper West Akim would perhaps have ended up as a farmer too. In those days, children took after their parents’ trades. Sallas got the chance to go to America and the entire course of his life changed. After a distinguished career in accountancy in the US and later in Nigeria, destiny led his way once more but this time to the country of his birth, Ghana, where eventually, a new career window opened in his life – politics.
As a Member of the Consultative Assembly his accounting and financial acumen were in evidence as he actively contributed to the District Assembly Common Fund. And as a Member of Parliament he was instrumental in instituting the live television coverage of the sitting of the Public Accounts Committee – legacies to the nation that survive today.
In this compelling biography the reader come face-to-face with this influential man of few words who is famed to have friends and access to both sides of the Ghanaian political divide. But what would Sallas be remembered for most, a politician, a chartered accountant or family man? More importantly, where else will destiny lead him to?
“Crispy-delicious narratives, refreshingly-garnished insights. This fascinating biography of a patriot never finishes astonishing you with the twists and turns. But it is the authoritative revelations about a nation and its people that makes this book destined to be relevant to the politics of Ghana.” ~ Business & Financial Times
₵45.00 -
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.
₵170.00