• Migration

    Migration (1)

  • Relocation

    Relocation (1)

  • I Speak of Ghana

    It’s a rare person who can be both funny and wise at the same time. Yet that is exactly the way to describe Nana Awere Damoah’s writings in this small but compelling short story collection about contemporary life in Ghana. In it the reader will find Ghanaman in traffic, or Ghanawoman paying the corrupt policeman. Either way, one knows these are the words of a master story teller who handily blurs the lines between laughing so hard it makes one cry, or crying so hard it makes one laugh.

    I Speak of Ghana is an honest journey of deft oration replete with the sounds (from the harmonious to the cacophonic), smells (including the pleasant and unpleasant), sights (from the eye-catching to the embarrassing), frustrations, triumphs and the mundane – everything that makes the Ghanaian experience finds its way into this book. Unlike the typical ranting about Ghanaian situations, Nana performs an insightful examination of the heart of the matter. Dissimilar to empty praise, Nana thoroughly embraces the issues that give us hope as people connected to Ghana. Narrated with humor, the book is Nana’s eloquence at its best.

  • My First Coup d’Etat: Memories from the Lost Decades of Africa

    My First Coup D’Etat chronicles the coming-of-age of John Dramani Mahama (former President of Ghana) in Ghana during the dismal post-independence ‘lost decades’ of Africa. He was seven years old when rumours of a coup reached his boarding school in Accra. His father, a minister of state, was suddenly missing, then imprisoned for more than a year.

    My First Coup D’Etat offers a look at the country that has long been considered Africa’s success story. This is a one-of-a-kind book: Mahama’s is a rare literary voice from a political leader, and his stories work on many levels – as fables, as history, as cultural and political analysis, and, of course, as the memoir of a young man who, unbeknownst to him or anyone else, would grow up to be vice president of his nation. Though non-fiction, these are stories that rise above their specific settings and transport the reader – much like the fiction of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Nadine Gordimer – into a world all their own, one which straddles a time lost and explores the universal human emotions of love, fear, faith, despair, loss, longing, and hope despite all else.

    An important literary debut from the then Vice President of Ghana, a fable-like memoir that offers a shimmering microcosm of post-colonial Africa.

    ‘A much welcome work of immense relevance.’ ~ Chinua Achebe

  • 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.

    Highlife Time 3

    250.00
  • Sebiticals Chapter X

    For eons, the character of the neglected wise observer has captured imaginations. Be they the community trickster, clown, gossip or drunkard, they have always been a thorn in the flesh of social miscreants. There is no one name for them, as they tend to be many things to many folks. Every society has their version. Audiences love them, hate them and love them again. These fellows have no allies. Their allegiance is to all. Their knife cuts both ways, as does their tongue. Oh, yeah. Ever the custodians of spicy, social secrets, they issue forth the most acidic insults. But, abuse them? Naaah, these characters are insult-proof!

    In this salacious new collection, Nana Awere Damoah has consummated the essences of this conceptual character. More than that, the author has effected their relevance in the national body politic. In Sebiticals Chapter X, Wofa Kapokyikyi the social commentator entertains, informs and pricks the conscience – as does his anecdotal nephew.

    Episode after episode, the reader cannot help but conclude that if there is a time the nation needs a voice of conscience, that time is not tomorrow. Bottomline? A Kapokyikyi is an institution that keeps the morals of society in check.

  • Remnants of a Haunted Past: Forts and Castles of Ghana (Photo Book, Hardcover)

    Yaw Pare is a celebrated Ghanaian photographer. This ground-breaking book richly illustrates the history and legacies of Ghana’s forts and castles through photography. In the same way that the forts and castles themselves bear witness to the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, so too do these photographs provide compelling material and visual testimonies, offering possibilities for understanding that words do not.

    In this book, the photographer’s camera captures a reality that many choose to remember but just as many choose to forget. Ultimately, Remnants of a Haunted Past: Forts and Castles of Ghana constitutes an attempt to document the past so that it is never forgotten in the present.

    1,250.001,450.00
  • Abrokyire Nkomo

    For many Africans, the dream of travelling to Europe or America represents a burning lifetime ambition that they would do anything (well, almost) to achieve. So what is it really like out there? What is the story behind the rosy images of the west that are beamed to Africa on television, in movies and in the glossy magazines? What is the reality behind the grim stories we hear at times from our friends and relatives abroad? Just how hard, or easy, is it out there? This book is a collection of a number of articles written by the author and seeks to address these issues. Written in a conversational style, it is an attempt to provide an interesting, witty, yet serious insight into the good, the bad and the ugly sides of life abroad, and raises several issues that should engage the attention of the contemporary African whether at home or abroad.

    Abrokyire Nkomo

    110.00
  • Sebitically Speaking

    Sebitically Speaking is an uplifting elixir that courses through the hearts and minds of readers and awakens their consciousness regarding how to improve themselves and their country. In confronting the complicated issues that perpetually frustrate Ghanaians, Damoah’s style was not to depress or provoke insanity, but to deftly inspire readers with a view to affecting positive change.

    For someone who has written four great books, Sebitically Speaking is an incontrovertible confirmation of Damoah’s literary genius. His uncanny ability to transform debilitating and chaotic socio-political topics into an exhilarating literary rollercoaster, using a perfect blend of wit and humour, and inducing a mixture of laughter and tears from readers, is especially evident in this book.

    Sebitically Speaking is an irresistible literary tiger nut that every lover of Ghana must chew.

  • The Imported Ghanaian

    With her rose tinted glasses firmly in place, the Imported Ghanaian deluded herself, believing that she could simply waltz into Kotoka International Airport with a grin like the winning ticket in the national lottery, and the band would strike up whilst the jubilant nation screamed, “Akwaaba-o, akwaaba, our sister has returned back to us.” She returned home thinking she was as Ghanaian as any other and that she would fit in snugly with the skills of a chameleon. The reality proved otherwise as she plunged headfirst into the endurance test of living in Ghana, where nothing is ever what it seems. Layer by layer, as if peeling an onion, each ‘coming back home’ cultural reality weaves her through a world where you can never be too sure, where an invitation is not exactly an invitation, where you have to die to find out how popular you are, and where being a Ghanaian and being Ghanaian are often two opposing concepts.

  • Aluta Insomnia

    This book of reflections is about a Ghana boy who travels within his country and around the world, sharing the anecdotes graciously. Whether it is a visit to see the US President at the White House or a trip to an Ada village called Totimehkope, each story is down a memory lane that is paved with nuggets of wisdom. The work showcases the beauty of being alive to the moral and developmental happenings around us. The author’s capacity to smell and milk story ideas from the most mundane scenario is remarkable.

    A neurosurgeon by profession, his words cut and heal clinically in equal measure. Page after page, he operates as in the theatre − precise, penetrating, productive. If you love the brilliance of Ernest Hemingway and Ayi Kwei Armah, you will never stop reading Teddy Totimeh.

    Sometimes, you do not know what you did right to be rewarded with a priceless gem. Aluta Insomnia is one such gift!

    Aluta Insomnia

    90.00
  • Adaku at the Homowo Festival

    Age Range: 7 – 12 years

    Twelve year old Adaku lives in Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Her father is always telling his children stories about their tribe, the Gas. He believes that a person must know his roots.

    During the school vacation, Adaku travels to the Greater Accra Region to spend the holidays with her grandparents in a large fishing village near Accra.

    She arrives just before the Homowo festival of the Ga people, and is plunged into various strange and interesting activities.

    Join Adaku as she learns about the history of her people and the Homowo festival.

  • Open and Closed: A Book of Opposites from Ghana

    Age Range: 2 – 5 years

    Learn the opposites whilst celebrating everyday life in Ghana, West Africa.

  • Mumaizu and the Hippos

    Age Range: 5 – 7 years

    Mumaizu lives in Wechiau, a village in the Upper West Region of Ghana. His father, Agba Tungbani, is the head tour guide for the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary. One day, Agba surprises Mumaizu with an invitation to see the hippos.

    The Sanctuary, established in 1998, protects approximately 20 hippos along a 40-kilometre stretch of the Black Volta River.

  • Nsempiisms

    Listed as one of the top ten exceptional non-fiction writers from Ghana by Gird Center, Nana Awere Damoah brings to his readers another must-read, this time a fast-paced, short, straight-to-the-point, shot-from-the-hip, collection. The author proves why he is seen as one of the rising voices of his homeland, using words to speak truth to power.

    “Nana Awere Damoah is a multi-talented writer [who] believes in creating his own style anytime he writes. In his non-fiction writing, Nana introduces a diversity of style using poetry, storytelling and satire.” Gird Center

    “I envy the mind of Nana Awere Damoah. Nsempiisms is deep, insightful and piercing, yet Damoah’s writing flows with breezy simplicity.” Kwaku Sintim-Misa (KSM)

    Nsempiisms

    45.00
  • Swords & Crosses: The Story of Opoku Ware School

    Our journey has been both long and short. Many are those that have departed this life, unable to share their stories. They were students like us, or teachers, or worked in other capacities within the school. All of these nurtured and formed us into the winners we are today. They and their service, their lives, and contributions should never be forgotten. For them all this book is a memorial.

    Our prayer is that the thousands of fingers that turn these pages will be a testament to the many future years ahead of Opoku Ware School, years in which, we believe, it shall move from being one of the best into becoming the very best. The quick today and those departed, through this book still have a voice, speaking of what has been, and inspiring the progress for tomorrow.

    We have been forged by the cross of Christ and a mighty sword of tradition.

    This is our story.

    Katakyie Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng (AF147) and his team have woven an intricate pattern of beauty, exemplified only by the beautiful patterns of the Asante Kente cloth. The beginnings of Opoku Ware School and its progress through the changing phases of Ghana are presented here in an easy-to-read style that will appeal to all students and lovers of history. Ably captured is the pride in identity that has bound together the men known as Akatakyie all this while; a resilient band of achievers. never resting, never floundering.

    The story really had to be told.

  • FaceOff With The International ‘MP’

    Face-Off With the International ‘MP’ is a compilation of short stories, drama, different purposed letters, and jest, all garnished with an unusual but perfect mix of satire, wit and logic. The book walks readers through the experiences of the only ‘Member of Parliament’ representing a virtual constituency. The book brings to life issues in politics, romance, educational and career experiences both home and abroad, and short memos – files that the International ‘MP’ deals with 24/7. The right dose of laughter, the fluidity of Nkrumah-Boateng’s unmatched imagery, the apt description of everything Ghanaian plus the solitary enjoyment of his entitlement as the only untenured MP combine to make this book a must-read.

    “I introduce to you a reverently irreverent writer who pulls no punches, wears no kids’ gloves, bars no holds and suffers no fools gladly. There is not a topic that Rodney is shy to address, and frontally and bluntly too.” — Anan Anan Ankomah, Managing Partner, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah

    “Rodney glides you along on a momentum of choleric rhetoric and suddenly explodes your mind into an amusement park of satire, laced with intelligent and exciting lines of literary mischief.” — Jason Tutu, Research & Development Expert

    “Nkrumah-Boateng uniquely mixes truth and poetic satire: his wit, crisp humour, eloquence and fluid writing style, and the heretical elegance with which he makes his points, made you want to kick something…Little wonder a major radio station mistook his satirical narrative as fact, and serialized it on radio!” — Kofi Bentil, Lawyer/Vice President, IMANI

    “Rodney’s writing always leaves me wanting more.” — Dr. Victor Bampoe, Former Deputy Minister for Health

Main Menu