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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 -
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 -
Augustine Kwasiga Younge: The Great Musician, Composer, Educator, Scouter and Counselor — The Pioneer in Revitalization and Africanization of the Catholic Liturgy and Mass in Ghana (Pre-Order)
**Available from 20 June 2022
When the Catholic Church realized the itching urge to inject more African Culture in her Christian worship to revitalize the Liturgy and Mass in the 1960s, Mr. A.K. Younge, alias “Master Younge,” in a solo effort revolutionized the Roman Catholic Church musical scene by initially replacing the “Old Latin Hymns” with traditional tunes accompanied by African musical instruments. As his determination persisted, he found himself in the greatest imbroglio as some church elders and musicians cast insinuations for what they believed to be anti-Christ (Catholic). With much encouragement from his dear wife Catherine Afiwor Younge and full support by the Papal See in Rome, Master Younge delved deeper. He came out with many compositions and innovations that provided the foundation that seemed to meet the aspirations and expectations of the awakened African Catholicism in Ghana and the Keta Diocese.
If traditional African drums, bells, and rattles are heard in Catholic churches today in Ghana, we must, with all certainty and reverence, remember the efforts of Master Younge. He made it happen. His Era’s selected contemporaries also covered include: Adalbert Kodjo Mensah Tibu, Philip Gbeho, Emmanuel Gakpo Gadzekpo, Togbe Afiatsoa II: Mr. George Kwame Akordor, and Cornelius Kofi Doe-Williams (alias CK).
₵150.00₵200.00 -
Thank You Lord!: He Inhabits our Praise
Thank you Lord! To declare this on a sun-dappled meadow is within the ability of the feeblest of persons. But what of when turbulent currents rush across this pleasant landscape, bringing darkness and fear? Is God still good?
Struck with a diagnosis of life-threatening organ disease, Adeline, found herself in whirlpools of pain, fear and perplexity. Clutching the wheel of her vessel, struggling to find direction and stay afloat in uncharted territory, the writer finds she has little control over events.
At the end of this memoir, the reader will share the writer’s joy of discovery, her gratitude and love of the redeemed for the Redeemer, her trust of the sailor, that her Captain will bring her safely through the torrents to the harbour of His love. The reader too, will surely declare in praise -Yes, Thank you Lord!
This memoir has a place on every shelf and is of great value for everyone who seeks to find meaning in the ups and downs of life.
Elizabeth-Irene Baitie Award Winning Author
₵150.00 -
Bookset: Spiderman Tales & Red Oak Supplementary Readers (8 books)
Age Range: 5 – 10 years
8 books for children between 5 and 10 years. Including 2 exciting titles from the famous British/Ghanaian author Peggy Appiah and a delightfully-illustrated collection of 7 Ananse stories by Adolika Nenah Sowah.
The titles in this set are:
- King of the Trees
- Kofi and the Crow
- The Harmattan Man
- The Contest and Other Spiderman Tales
- The End of a Traitor
- Obenewa
- Ama’s Dream
- Afua and the Mouse
₵140.00 -
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.
₵110.00Abrokyire Nkomo
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An Available Vessel for the Lord’s Pleasure
An Available Vessel for the Lord’s Pleasure can best be described as the continuation of the book of The Acts of the Apostles in the Bible. It is a collection of over 60 powerful testimonies which demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. The reader is sure to relate to more than one testimony shared in the book.
It is an undeniable fact that this book was birthed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Kuukua Maurice Ankrah tells us stories from her childhood, her career and her intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. With each flip of the pages of this book, she makes you fall in love more and more with the third person of the God Head, the Holy Spirit. One is left in no doubt when reading the testimonies in An Available Vessel for the Lord’s Pleasure that the Holy Spirit is still at work in the lives of believers just as He was in the days of Paul the Apostle.
Delve in and have an awesome encounter.
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Guts and Grit: The Compelling and Inspirational Stories of Six Successful Ghanaian Entrepreneurs
How can a nation address the menace of a growing number of unemployed youths? Why is the private business endeavour perceived largely as a big risk? What does it take for one to brave the storm and establish a flourishing enterprise? This book highlights the success stories of some of Ghana’s current entrepreneurs despite all the obstacles they have faced. Guts and Grit serves as a revelation to our public officials and the society at large towards a behavioural change in how private enterprises are seen, regarded and treated.
The frank and engaging case studies provide the catalyst for dismantling the obstacles to achieving business success. The success stories so freely shared offer a source of inspiration and a springboard to the young people who would be willing to take up entrepreneurship.
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“Guts and Grit is a book that chronicles the gut-wrenching stories of entrepreneurs who have braved significant odds to build viable businesses in a developing economy context.
In choosing to write this book, Alex Banful, the author could not have made a better choice. The choice of entrepreneurship should not be surprising, given that there is at least four decades of scholarship to demonstrate that entrepreneurship, new business venturing, and the development of small and medium enterprises are crucial to Africa’s growth.
Guts and Grit will soon become a leading cross-over entrepreneurship textbook that will be useful
for executive training, undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes in Africa and other emerging economy contexts.” − Prof. Robert E. Hinson, Ph.D., DPhil.; Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Kigali, Rwanda
₵100.00 -
A Sense of Savannah: Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana
Caution: For fear of emitting loud, embarrassing laughs, do not read this book in public.
When Kofi Akpabli was posted to the northern border town of Paga to do his national service, he thought it was just going to be another ‘national suffering’. But when he encountered love at first sight with the landscape and the people, he was soon to realise that something close to destiny tied him to the place.
The author was welcomed to a world refreshingly different from the back streets of Accra and Cape Coast. He discovered the smell of dawadawa, the taste of pito and the mystery of border towns. Over a period of seven years, Kofi criss-crossed the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Regions.
His real life adventures have been published in a cross-section of Ghanaian newspapers. By popular request, here comes A Sense of Savannah, a witty collection of travel tales that best express the character of Ghana’s savannah setting. While the entertaining narratives are guaranteed to interest a wide range of readers, what makes A Sense of Savannah worth reading is how the author generously dishes out well-researched facts and humour in equal measure.
As story after story shows, Kofi is always on the road:
– In Wa, he is ‘arrested’ and forced to drink beer without end on a Sunday morning
– In Bolgatanga, his well-shirted body gets sprayed with goat urine from the top of a bus
– In Tamale, during curfew hours and against the background of Wangara music, he spends the night on hard, cold asphalt
– And on a busy market day in Navrongo, he is told, ‘you have no conscience!’
Relax, grab a seat and let A Sense of Savannah drive you through the rather interesting northern half of Ghana.
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Tickling the Ghanaian: Encounters with Contemporary Culture
A book on contemporary Ghanaian culture and heritage.
In this book, Kofi Akpabli seeks to unravel what at all tickles the Ghanaian. Is it Sunday afternoon’s after church Omo Tuo and beer, or when Ghana is ‘beating’ its arch-rivals in sports, Nigeria?
Articles in this book include the two that won him the CNN/Multichoice Journalist Award for Arts and Culture back to back in 2010 and 2011, becoming the first journalist, in the award’s history, to have won one category back to back: The Serious Business of Soup in Ghana and What is Right with Akpeteshie.
Following his usual humorous style of writing, Tickling the Ghanaian promises to be funny and educating. Kofi takes a different view of what we have perceived as always to be archaic. Kofi has eyes of details and tells his story the best way it could possibly be told.
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5 Presidents, 8 Elections, 30 Years Later: How Ghanaians See Their Democracy
Ghana’s Fourth Republic, a multiparty democracy, has seen five presidents, held eight successful elections and, as of this writing, is in its thirtieth year. This makes it unique in several ways, compared to previous attempts at multiparty democracy, in that it is the longest-lasting republic so far in the country’s post-independence history. It has outlived the first, second, and third republics combined by more than eighteen years.
What explains this unique period and change in the political trajectory of Ghana? Why has the country’s most recent attempt at multiparty democracy lasted this long?
Drawing on answers to questions in the Afrobarometer survey, administered nine times at periodic intervals between 1999 and 2022, this book describes in twenty themes and fifty-one observations, how Ghanaians see their democracy. The book covers themes such as trust in institutions, partisanship, support for democracy, governments handling of the policy priorities of Ghanaians, among many others. The book points out the key lessons of the last thirty and the challenges ahead in the country’s efforts to deepen democratic governance.₵95.00 -
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!
₵90.00Aluta Insomnia
₵90.00 -
Ashawo Diaries: Tales of Adwoa Attaa
A most intriguing intercourse of tragedy and sex
The titillating intrigues of a good bad girl…delightful reading: sometimes light, sometimes dark; always with ponderous insights! – Koku Dotse
Ashawo Diaries makes for engaging reading, and beyond connecting with earlier literary forebears, it is important to think about how such a novel enters the Ghanaian social landscape where sex is traditionally a public taboo. Ashawo Diaries is a text that challenges sanitized perspectives of Ghana. – Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang, Lecturer, Department of English, University of Ghana, Legon
[The author] is zealous towards unearthing the ills of society. I describe her as the “perfect role model of today’s world”. I am not surprised she took this bold step to write this story. Though bold for our traditional society, l am of the view that she held the bull by the horn. The story…will surely leave readers scratching their heads with excitement. – Dr (Mrs.) Nana Ama Pokuaa Arthur, Lecturer, KNUST
A thrilling page-turner. Amoafowaa is fluid in narration, and succinct in description. – Rebecca Obuobisa-Darko, Personnel Officer, Ga East Municipal Education Directorate
Cecila’s Ashawo Diaries is storytelling meddled in art, obviously, science and a game of the protagonist. Daring diary entries with erotic sprinkles, gripping and sustaining, which depicts the struggles of a native daughter in contrast to Richard Wright’s native son, the zigzag turns of life and the map of love, friendship, pleasure, identity, re-identity as compasses at each turn. Poetically written and with a feminist undertone. – Grace Ihejiamaizu, Lecturer, University of Calabar, Founder of IKapture and Opportunity Desk, Nigeria
Ashawo Diaries raises queries on why young girls should experience sexual suppression in a cultural context like Ghana where children are valued, moral standards are held high and sexual discussions silenced. – Dr. Georgina Yaa Oduro, Director, Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD), University of Cape Coast
₵90.00 -
The Enemy of the State and Other Stories
Set in the fictional African country of Ghaspata, a country a bit too suspiciously like Ghana, these eleven short stories hinge on themes of identity, violence, love and cruelty, fear, desperation, and man’s search for happiness and meaning.
Adolika Nenah Sowah’s quirky imagination produces an oddly familiar world, laced with bolts of striking new realities that the author weaves into her stories – a teacher strangled by the very trees whose branches he uses to cane children, and a mysterious okro plying the skies of Ghaspata.
Compelling, ironic, bizarre, and immensely humorous, The Enemy of the State and Other Stories is sure to leave readers highly entertained.
₵85.00 -
Raising Effective Learners: Tips for Nurturing Academic Success
Irrespective of their disposition or innate ability, every learner can develop the right skills and attitudes that can propel them to achieve high academic success. Raising Effective Learners: Tips for Nurturing Academic Success abounds with Dr. Gideon Sappor’s expertise and enthusiasm for seeing every learner achieve their possible best. This captivating book is organized into six chapters − each a gem, concerned with providing appropriate support to parents and carers who desire to support their children develop essentially authentic Self-Regulated Learning (SRL).
Each strategy is packed with practical advice on the role of the parent and carer, and what they can do to support their child. Ultimately, this readable and well-organised book combines research-based evidence and clear, practical, and concise advice on how to harness the development of SRL skills in children.
Raising Effective Learners: Tips for Nurturing Academic Success therefore serves to inspire, sensitise, and equip parents and carers with the real opportunities that foster the development of their children.₵80.00