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Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism
In Oxford Street, Accra, Ato Quayson analyzes the dynamics of Ghana’s capital city through a focus on Oxford Street, part of Accra’s most vibrant and globalized commercial district. He traces the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. He combines his impressions of the sights, sounds, interactions, and distribution of space with broader dynamics, including the histories of colonial and postcolonial town planning and the marks of transnationalism evident in Accra’s salsa scene, gym culture, and commercial billboards.
Quayson finds that the various planning systems that have shaped the city—and had their stratifying effects intensified by the IMF-mandated structural adjustment programs of the late 1980s—prepared the way for the early-1990s transformation of a largely residential neighborhood into a kinetic shopping district. With an intense commercialism overlying, or coexisting with, stark economic inequalities, Oxford Street is a microcosm of historical and urban processes that have made Accra the variegated and contradictory metropolis that it is today.
“Oxford Street, Accra offers a fresh portrait of a rising African metropolis by one of the most original and skilled critics of the African condition. Deeply researched and packed with detail and bold in scope and analysis, Oxford Street, Accra is a unique addition to the growing body of work on contemporary African Urbanism. This extraordinary book shows the extent to which the future of urban theory might well lie in the global South.” – Achille Mbembe, author of Critique de la raison négre.
KEY SELLING POINTS:
- Oxford Street, Accra is a must-buy as an invaluable companion and compass for both newcomers and returning visitors to Accra.
- Oxford Street, Accra was chosen as one of the ‘UK Guardian’s 10 Best City Books of the World in 2014.’
- Oxford Street, Accra was also the Co-Winner of ‘The Urban History Association’s Top Award in the International Category For Books Published About World Cities in 2013 – 2014.’
- Oxford Street, Accra contains an encyclopedic knowledge of the City of Accra, tracing the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day.
- The book offers a microcosm of historical and urban knowledge of the making of the city that have transformed Accra into the sophisticated metropolis that is it today.
₵160.00 -
The Ewe People: A Study of the Ewe People in German Togo
The Ewe of Ghana, Togo and Benin have been one of the most documented ethnic groups in West Africa, given their encounters with the German, French and British colonial administrations. In 1906, Jakob Spieth, a German Bremen Missionary, published Die Ewe-Stamme. Die Ewe-Stamme is one of the most comprehensive treatises on the history, religion, economic life, traditional social structure, and, indeed, the entire spectrum of everyday life of the Ewe. Published over 100 years ago the book had limited circulation and became increasingly rare to the extent that it almost became a deified piece of work and source of classified knowledge. Additionally, Die Ewe-Stamme was published in German and old non-standard and colloquial Ewe languages. It is hoped this translation of Die Ewe-Stamme into English and contemporary Ewe might create a revival of interest amongst researchers, enhance the understanding for the traditional Ewe culture and become reading material in schools and universities.
₵490.00₵500.00The Ewe People: A Study of the Ewe People in German Togo
₵490.00₵500.00 -
Highlife Time 3
Highlife is Ghana’s most important modern home grown dance-music that has its roots in traditional music infused with outside influences coming from Europe and the Americas. Although the word ‘highlife’ was not coined until the 1920s, its origins can be traced back to the regimental brass bands, elite-dance orchestras and maritime guitar and accordion groups of the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. Highlife is, therefore, one of Africa’s earliest popular music genres.
The book traces the origins of highlife music to the present – and include information on palmwine music, adaha brass bands, concert party guitar bands and dance bands, right up to off-shoots such as Afro-rock, Afrobeat, burger highlife, gospel highlife, hiphop highlife (i.e. hiplife) and contemporary highlife.
The book also includes chapters on the traditional background or roots of highlife, the entrance of women into the Ghanaian highlife profession and the biographies of numerous Ghanaian (and some Nigerian) highlife musicians, composers and producers. It also touches on the way highlife played a role in Ghana’s independence struggle and the country’s quest for a national – and indeed Pan-African – identity.The book also provides information on music styles that are related to highlife, or can be treated as cousins of highlife, such as the maringa of Sierra Leone, the early guitar styles of Liberia, the juju music of Nigeria the makossa of the Cameroon/ It also touches on the popular music of Ghana’s Francophone neighbours.
There is also a section on the Black Diasporic input into highlife, through to the impact of African American and Caribbean popular music styles like calypsos, jazz, soul, reggae, disco, hiphop and rap and dancehall. that have been integrated into the highlife fold. Thus, highlife has not only influenced other African countries but is also an important cultural bridge uniting the peoples of Africa and its Diaspora.
₵250.00Highlife Time 3
₵250.00 -
Dey English-Ewe Learner’s Dictionary
The Dey English-Ewe Ewe-English Learner’s Dictionary is a bilingual resource designed for learners of all ages. This dictionary offers clear and accurate translations between English and Ewe in both directions, making it an invaluable tool for students, educators, and anyone interested in mastering these languages. It covers a wide range of vocabulary, from everyday terms to specialized language, and includes pronunciation guides and example sentences. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your language skills, this dictionary provides essential support for effective communication and deeper understanding of both English and Ewe.
₵100.00 -
Gbesela Yeye or English-Ewe Dictionary
The first Gbesela was published in 1910; the second, which was a reprint of the first without any alterations, in 1922. The present edition (1930) is a completely new book and is more than double the size of its predecessors.
The Gbesela Yeye or New Interpreter is intended to serve both Europeans and Africans, and this purpose has governed its composition and arrangement. The Ewe reader will expect to learn from it the Ewe equivalent for an English word which he may come across in his English reading. or in conversation. In consequence the Dictionary should contain not only the English rendering of Ewe words, but should also try to explain at least the more important of such English words for which the Ewe language has not yet developed a precise expression, and for which circumlocution or approximation is necessary. The enormous difference in the development of the two languages makes it necessary very often to use in Ewe the same word or phrase for a considerable number of English expressions with their numerous fine shades in meaning, although, in justice to Ewe, it must be admitted that in certain respects the valent. Ewe language abounds in expressions for which English is hardly rich enough to offer an equivalent.
For anyone who wants to acquire the language, the marking of tones is indispensable, as every one will be aware who has ever seriously tried to approach the language. In a Dictionary, where the words stand isolated, even the Ewe Reader will in many cases not be able to find out which word is intended, if the tones are unmarked.
In books for native speakers of the language, however, that is to say in the national literature, very few tone marks are required, because the context explains what is intended to say. Both non-Ewe and Ewe speakers will find the arrangement helpful by which short phrases or sentences have been added to many words, showing how they are used. This is particularly desirable and almost indispensable in the mutual interpretation of two languages which differ so widely as Ewe and English. The Ewe word in isolation in very many cases conveys practically no meaning to the non-Ewe speaker, unless its construction and application are shown in examples.
₵65.00 -
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.
₵40.00 -
Ghana’s 2012 Presidential Election Petition
The story of the presidential election petition as it unfolded outside and inside the courtroom is graphically retold by the author of this book in a straightforward and memorable manner. If you were not among the audience in the courtroom or if you were not a constant watcher of the TV during the hearing of the petition, or if your understanding of the legal process is limited, this book is your best story teller of all that happened.
The author, although a lawyer of many years standing, and a very well-known politician, has not written book on law or politics. His several books deal with history, chieftaincy, culture and conflict in Dagbon. This is his first time of venturing into the politico-legal field. And he has done it well.
Even though the book is intended to tell the story of Ghana’s 2012 presidential election petition, it equally deals with the politics of Ghana and the country’s electoral laws. The book is therefore recommended not only for people who want to know the story of the election petition, but also to politicians and first year law students as well as people interested in law. The book will inspire them.
₵65.00 -
SeedTime: Selected Poems I
In memory of all the Ancestral Voices who prepared the field for our SeedTime…
SeedTime I brings together Selected Poems from Kofi Anyidoho’s first five collections, beginning in reverse order with poems from AncestralLogic & CaribbeanBlues (1993), A Harvest of Our Dreams (1984), EarthChild (1985), Elegy for the Revolution (1978), and BrainSurgery (1985). BrainSurgery, the earliest of these collections, was never published as a collection until it came out together with EarthChild (Woeli Publishing Services, 1985), even though several of the poems had appeared in various journals, magazines and anthologies.
SeedTime: Selected Poems I is a backward glance to those magical years of birth waters flowing across a landscape filled at once with danger and hope, with dying and rebirth in the mystery and miracle of new beginnings so soon after countless brushfires. But the doubt returns again so close behind the hope as we offer trembling prayers in new poems from an old loom: See What They’ve Done To Our SunRise. Yet, somehow, we must open our minds and souls to the Forever Promise of New SeedTimes. This world cannot, must not crumble under our watch.
“Quintessential Anyidoho…a harvest of the master craftman’s gems across time and space. SeedTime brings a refreshing newness to old songs, and, for new ones, a touch of creative genius we have come to associate with the poet’s pedigree; a timeless legacy of a poet-laureate, whose voice waxes even stronger in his twilight years.” − Mawuli Adjei, author, poet and literary scholar
“A collection of haunting poems in which we SEE the turbulent variety of our history, and HEAR the English language teased to express the many rhythms of the African’s eternal homesickness.” − Prof. A. N. Mensah, Department of English, University of Ghana
₵100.00SeedTime: Selected Poems I
₵100.00 -
Ghana Geological Survey Authority Act, 2016 (Act 928)
Ghana Geological Survey Authority Act, 2016 (Act 928)
₵23.40 -
Concise Text On The Law Of Contract in Ghana (Hardcover)
This book is strictly designed for undergraduates who have followed a course of lectures based on standard works on contract law. It is intended to supplement your course materials, lectures and textbooks; it is a guide to revision rather than a substitute for the amount of reading that you need to do in order to succeed. Contract law is a vast subject as evidenced by the volume of material contained in standard works on the subject. It follows that a revision work cannot cover all the depth and detail that the student needs to know, and it does not set out to do so. The aim is to provide a concise overall picture of the key areas for revision.
₵150.00 -
Politics in Ghana: From the Earliest Times to the Eve of the Fourth Republic
Politics in Ghana: From the Earliest Times to the Eve of the Fourth Republic has been introduced to equip political science students and avid readers interested in the subject as well as both budding and seasoned politicians with effective tools that give them a firm understanding of Ghana’s political development.
The book provides a bird’s eyes view and a penetrating insight into controversial issues that shaped events and developments of the country from the pre-colonial times through the struggle for independence to the post-independence era.
In an accessible and engaging writing style, the book effectively analyses the nexus between the geographical features of the country, particularly the ethnic and regional distributions of the people and how they impacted on the political development during the period under review. It also traverses the constitutional development and other factors that triggered political action from the late 1800s to the eve of the Fourth Republic. Ghana witnessed three republics each of which was truncated by military juntas that provided interim administration to fill the hiatuses before the eventual transition to democratic rule for the fourth time. Factors that occasioned the interruptions and the subsequent return to constitutional rule together with the performances of the various regimes and their ramifications are incisively analysed.
Politics in Ghana: From the Earliest Times to the Eve of the Fourth Republic is an authentic reference document for any person who is thirsty for a better understanding of political events that preceded the final return to constitutional rule in 1993.
₵100.00 -
A Comprehensive Course in Twi (Asante)
Asante Twi is the most widely spoken of the dialects of the Akan language. Akan is spoken by about 44 percent of Ghana’s population as a first language, and is also used as a second language by a large number of the remainder. This book is meant to introduce a non-Twi beginner to the spoken language.
It may also be used by those who have some knowledge of the language, but who want to improve their competence in it, and also has a considerable English-Twi vocabulary. The main focus of this course is the spoken language, and every effort has been made to ensure that the dialogues are as natural and as close to current everyday usage as possible.
This book is a must not only for anyone who wants to relate to people in Ghana whether he or she is on a short or an extended visit, but also for other Ghanaians who are interested in the Twi language or require a working knowledge in the language.
Professor Florence Abena Dolphyne taught in the Department of Linguistics in the University of Ghana from 1965-2001. She has published several books, including The Akan (Twi-Fante) language: Its Sound Systems and Tonal Structure, A Course in Oral English and the accompanying Teachers’ Handbook, and the best-selling Emancipation of Women: An African Perspective.
₵50.00 -
From Britain to Bokoor: The Ghanaian Musical Journey of John Collins
Highlife, a popular West African genre, is easily the soundtrack to the life journey of the nation Ghana. And if there is one personality who has contributed the most to documenting it, it is Professor John Collins, a naturalized Ghanaian of British descent and a professor of music at the University of Ghana, Legon. Collins originally accompanied his parents to Ghana in 1952, when his father was setting up the philosophy department at the University of Ghana. Returning to Britain with his mother, Collins was educated in Bristol, Manchester and London, earning a science degree. He was also playing music and then he returned to Ghana in 1969 to study archaeology and sociology at the University of Ghana.
Eventually he himself became an academic teaching and researching popular music. This book captures the life and music career of Collins. What makes him an enigma is his personal involvement on the road as a guitar playing member of concert party bands. His working relations with Fela, E.T. Mensah, Kofi Ghanaba, Victor Uwaifo, Prof. J. H. Kwabena Nketia and many legendary names in the music space of West Africa make him a legend in his own right. This is the story of a “white man” man who came to Africa to legitimize the place of highlife as consequential to world music
₵250.00