• Letters of Hope To My Younger Self

    A legacy project, Letters of Hope to My Younger Self is a compilation of testimonials and inspirational stories from notable Ghanaians across the globe. They too, experienced failure, fears, discouragement, and missteps. Knowing what they have been able to overcome and then go on to achieve in life, tells us that we too, have the power to break through our challenges and achieve higher heights.

    Throughout the book, readers will learn about the challenges and lessons that have impacted individuals across generations.

     

  • Truth Without Reconciliation: A Human Rights History of Ghana (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)

    Although truth and reconciliation commissions are supposed to generate consensus and unity in the aftermath of political violence, Abena Ampofoa Asare identifies cacophony as the most valuable and overlooked consequence of this process in Ghana. By collecting and preserving the voices of a diverse cross-section of the national population, Ghana’s National Reconciliation Commission (2001-2004) created an unprecedented public archive of postindependence political history as told by the self-described victims of human rights abuse.
    The collected voices in the archives of this truth commission expand Ghana’s historic record by describing the state violence that seeped into the crevices of everyday life, shaping how individuals and communities survived the decades after national independence. Here, victims of violence marshal the language of international human rights to assert themselves as experts who both mourn the past and articulate the path toward future justice.
    There are, however, risks as well as rewards for dredging up this survivors’ history of Ghana. The revealed truth of Ghana’s human rights history is the variety and dissonance of suffering voices. These conflicting and conflicted records make it plain that the pursuit of political reconciliation requires, first, reckoning with a violence that is not past but is preserved in national institutions and individual lives. By exploring the challenge of human rights testimony as both history and politics, Asare charts a new course in evaluating the success and failures of truth and reconciliation commissions in Africa and around the world.

  • Flags of the World (Hardcover)

    Age Range: 8+ years

    In this complete compendium of the world’s flags, each nation’s flag is paired with facts and tidbits of history. These flags provide a window into the histories, values, and cultures of countries around the world.

    Waving in the wind, a flag may not seem like a code. But hidden in the stripes, stars, suns, moons, and colors of the world’s flags are the keys to understanding different countries’ shared histories and cherished ideals.

    Flags do much more than identify countries and groups of people. In every color, pattern, and design, the citizens and governments of countries announce their allegiances and herald their history. If you know what to look for, a flag can reveal major insights into another country’s history and culture.

     

  • The African Writers’ Handbook

    Available from 27 June 2022

    African Books Collective and the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation organised the African-Writers Publishers Seminar in Tanzania in 1998. Major African writers and publishers hammered out a ‘New Deal’ for relations between the two.

    This practical manual includes the ‘New Deal’ statement, and carries forward the work of the seminar. Intended for the aspiring or not yet established creative writer, the answers are given on how to get published, how publishing works, relations with publishers, and how to find resources. With an introduction by Niyi Osundare, the book is in two parts. First, respected African writers and publishers contribute their experiences and perspectives on writing and publishing in Africa — Dapo Adeniyi, Walter Bgoya, Henry Chakava, Cyprian Ekwensi, Taban lo Liyong, Kole Omotoso, Onsonye Tess Onwueme, Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare and the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, Yvonne Vera and Paul Tiyambe Zeleza.

    A massive amount of practical information and resource materials is given on prizes, writers’ organisations, magazines, vanity and self-publishing, literary agents, censorship, book fairs, resources for writers on the Internet and more. James Currey, Mary Jay, Michael Norton and Hans Zell also contribute.

    ‘…A veritable mine of advice and practical information and also experiences and ideas, a reference work of great quality…’ — Takam Tikou, No 8, 2000

  • The Boy from Boadua: One African’s Journey of Hunger and Sacrifice in Pursuit of a Dream

    *Available from 7 February 2023

    Patrick Asare was born and raised by illiterate parents in the remote Ghanaian village of Boadua. His family was so large and impoverished that not even the earnings from crushing hard work could buy enough food to fill their bellies. No one in the village aspired to be educated beyond middle school.

    Until Patrick.

    Numerous obstacles stood in the way of Patrick’s yearning for higher knowledge, including gnawing hunger, lack of sleep, and backbreaking daily chores. During school vacations, he toiled in a jungle farm teeming with poisonous snakes and insects.

    Dedicating every stolen moment to study, Patrick passed the common entrance exam with flying colors. Despite major setbacks, he kept his eye on the prize. He graduated from an elite secondary school and earned his engineering degree in the Soviet Union during the perestroika era. Finding his way to the United States, he taught Russian and math and eventually obtained a superb education from top American universities.

    Patrick’s travels and adventures taught him that, regardless of his hardscrabble childhood, he was a lucky man. He was raised by loving and supportive parents and lived in a society where race was not an issue. Teaching in inner-city high schools alerted him to the particular challenges faced by America’s urban Black youth.

    Patrick’s amazing story offers insights, hope, and inspiration to others who face astronomical odds.

  • Who Owns the Land and Who Rules the Land?

    Ghana is undergoing her fourth experiment in Constitutional Rule − the 4th Republic. She was the first Black African country south of the Sahara to gain her political independence in 1957 but economic independence has eluded her till now. Her development is at a snail-pace at best.

    According to the author, there are certain fundamental bottlenecks in the country’s governance system which make it difficult for her to realize her economic potential. The author compares Ghana’s governance system to Singapore which gained political independence around the same time as Ghana but has successfully transformed from Third World to First World economic status in 30 years and asks why the difference. The author calls for a national debate on the country’s governance system that will lead to a total review of the 1992 Constitution. The following are some of the key issues he calls the nation’s attention to:

     

    • A Feudal Land Tenure System whereby more than 90% of the land mass of Ghana is vested in the Chieftaincy institution as Stool Lands and the remaining 10% vested in the President on behalf of the people of Ghana as Public Lands. A system which greatly impedes development and benefits only a privileged few and yet there are no Land Reforms
    • The Legacy of the Colonial Indirect Rule leading to a “bifurcated state” in which traditional authority runs parallel to civilian political authority
    • An Ineffective Decentralization System which excludes the traditional leaders and refuses to allow the people to elect their own District Chief Executives whom they can hold accountable
    • An Adversarial Political System in which the two main political parties have indulged in violence since independence and thus refuse to reach consensus for national development
    • The Short Tenure of the Executive and Legislature which does not promote long term planning and execution for meaningful development
    • An expensive electoral system which engenders corruption and prevents well-meaning and qualified candidates from offering themselves for governance
    • The Lack of a National Agenda for development and dependence on party manifestoes thus ignoring the Directive Principles of State Policy. Development is thus not progressive but disjointed and depends on which party is in power
    • A Council of State which is merely advisory and has no power to serve as a check on the Executive
    • A National Mindset of Dependency Syndrome and Entitlement Mentality which has resulted in lack of effective mobilization of the populace by the political and traditional leadership. A national psyche that does not promote self-reliance and the can-do spirit
    • A Governance System which tries to copy Westminster and American systems instead of a home-grown system which suits our situation and promotes development
    • An Educational System that fails to build problem-solving abilities and patriotism into the youth and fails to make them proud of being Africans
    • A Very Strong Religious Atmosphere which feeds on superstition and does not enable the teeming members to transform their mindset and focus on teachings which promote hard work, wealth creation and prosperity
  • The First Vice President: A Biography of JWS de Graft-Johnson (Hardcover)

    In the late 1970s, Joe de Graft-Johnson appeared on the national political scene as an Association of Recognized Professional Bodies executive, overlapping with his tenure as president of the Ghana Institution of Engineers. During this time, Joe actively demonstrated against the socioeconomic decline and lack of regard for professional guidance by the military regime. Joe subsequently won the People’s National Party’s nomination and became the Republic’s Vice President in 1979. Before this, he had transformed the Building and Road Research Institute into a prominent voice in using natural resources to address developmental needs, imbued as he was, with nation-building.

    Joe grew up within a family tradition of service to the country, instructed by lessons such as his grandfather’s contributions through the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society. The Mfantsipim School and the historical significance of Cape Coast had also left their mark on him.

    Later, in exile, still focused on national development, he fought for the transition to democracy.
    The First Vice President chronicles the extraordinary life of Joe, spent in dedication to his country.

  • No Be From Hia

    A homecoming tale of a family brought together by migration and torn apart by tragedy and secrets. In a search for identity, love and acceptance – two ordinary girls travel from London to Lusaka to Lagos in order to save their family and discover their destiny.
    Meet the Ayomides and the Kombes – Zambian-Nigerian-Jamaican powerhouse families brought together during the post-colonial migration of the 1960’s to the UK – and later separated by death, divorce and betrayal. Scattered between London, Lusaka, and Lagos, only the new generation can save this family.
    Maggie Ayomide and Bupe Kombe are cousins on either side of the world who couldn’t be more different. Zambian-Nigerian and Zambian-Jamaican, both yearn for their disbanded family to reunite. When Bupe leaves Brixton to go to secondary school in Zambia, she brings light and disorder to Maggie’s world. However, the girls are hindered by dark family secrets such as the mysterious death of their late grandmother, and Maggie’s missing Nigerian father.
    From the blazing streets of Brixton riots to multi-party elections in Zambia to glitzy Independence Day celebration and adventurous nightclubs in Lagos, this heartwarming story breathes life into the modern-day result of postcolonial Africa and 20th Century migration as it follows two ordinary girls trying to find their identity and reunite their family.

    No Be From Hia

    185.00
  • Book Set: Red Oak Heroes Series (6 Books)

    *Available from 15 August 2023

    Age Range: 10 – 14 years

    This is a bookset of all six titles in the Red Oak Heroes Series:

    • Theodosia Okoh
    • The Big Six
    • Abedi Ayew Pele
    • John Agyekum Kufour
    • Kofi Annan
    • Dr. J. B. Danquah
    Introduce your children and adolescents to these Ghanaian Heroes.
  • Bookset: African Folktale Series (8 books)

    Age Range: 7 – 12 years
    In these beautifully illustrated, collectable library of easy-to-read traditional folktales with their moral lessons, test questions, and activities for the young ones, classic African stories are brought magically to reality. The stories in the African Folktale Series (AFS) are filled with moral lessons that have been handed down from many generations to the present in many African countries from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroons, Liberia, the Gambia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania to Zimbabwe. The traditional African elders who inhabited an ancient continent brimming with wisdom successfully utilized these folktales to socialize their youngsters to the moral requirements of their society to insure order, security and growth.

  • Montessori Bookset: Numeracy, Writing, Reading, Environmental Studies and Natural Science Skills – KG1 (5 books)

    Suitable for children between 2 and 6 years.

    Montessori Skills provides a comprehensive and interesting exercises through the ‘Do it Yourself guides, providing learners with step by step instructions to help them develop new practical skills in writing, numeracy, literacy, environmental studies and nature science skills.

  • Montessori Bookset: Numeracy, Writing, Reading, Environmental Studies and Natural Science Skills – KG2 (5 books)

    Suitable for children between 2 and 6 years.

    Montessori Skills provides a comprehensive and interesting exercises through the ‘Do it Yourself guides, providing learners with step by step instructions to help them develop new practical skills in writing, numeracy, literacy, environmental studies and nature science skills.

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