Ghana Books

Good repository for first-hand and secondary facts, sources, etc. Almost invaluable for a reader of Ghana and Africa's past socio-political contexts.

Mr. Kimble does not dilute it with commentary, and that is appealing. This book is thoroughly resourcesful.

Although limited to Ghanian culture, this interactive publication serves as a useful resource tool and springboard in discovering the significance of symbols often found in African objects and textiles. Several Adinkra stencils symbolic of specific proverbs, social concepts and/or ideas are contained therein; they can be effectively used in craft-related stenciling and art activities. (I used STENCILS: WEST AFRICA: GHANA for a special Social Studies/Language Arts unit I developed for my first graders and for a Grades 2-5 African Heritage After School Program. The use of these materials and information contained therein has proven educational, enlightening, and stimulating for my young learners!) West Africa: Ghana (Ancient and Living Cutlures) is worth the purchase for educators, parents, and/or those interested learning about other cultures!

I don't understand when other reviewers call this book "excellent". I have been researching telecommunications policy for a decade or so. Now my focus lies with Africa. So I bought this book hoping it would be one step in plugging the drought on literature on telecommunications research in Africa. However, what I found was very disappointing. This 335 page hardcover book going for $[$$]contains an account which covers merely 81 pages, sometimes with 10 page double spaced chapters. The remainder of the book contains appendix after appendix of statistics and other irrelevant questionannaires that could have easily been incorporated within the discussion to enrichen the analysis. I find the analysis of Ghana simply a description of who owns what, and what policies are in place with no critical situating of the argument within the conceptual ideas surrounding the governance of telecommunications and the drivers of reform within the sector. Osei-Mensah lost a great opportunity to critically dissect the major dynamics underlying telecommunications in Ghana.
For a good case study of an African country please see Robert Horwitz's book on South African communications reform.
I will give away this book.

I am a Fictional Character that has had the privledge of canvasing the world in the sake of Democracy. I have helped a Soviet sub commanader defect, saved the english crown and have become the President of the United States. Once on a quite vacation I went to Africa. Having a backround in communication intelingence, I picked up the book while looking for a little light reading. I was thoroughly impressed by the knowledge of the author. This book kept me away from enjoying my vacation. But the knowledge I gained was more than worth it. Being the Fictitious President is hard work. But because I am fictitous I have plenty of time to read. If your fictitious, I suggest reading this book.

Having been in the telecommunication business for 13 years and having travled all over the world, I can say with authority that this book is one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure to read. Well written, concise and a real blend of factual cases and detail oriented facts, I highly recommend this book.

James Moxon was a British colonial administrator in Ghana, who genuinely believed the rhetoric about Ghana's Volta River Project as it approached realization in the late 1950's and early 1960's. His book on the topic is one of the standards in a sparse literature about what turned out, on balance, to be a disastrous venture that Ghana has never fully recovered from.

Fifty years on, few people remember what a big deal this was at the time. Ghana was the first Sub-Saharan African state to become independent, in 1957. Its leader, Kwame Nkrumah, was a passionate and articulate pan-Africanist, with visions of a united and rapidly industrializing continent. The Volta offered a chance to launch that transformation with vast supplies of cheap electricty. But despite Nkrumah's efforts to navigate the vicious cross-currents swirling through the developing world as a result of the Cold War, Ghana became another pawn in the Great Game. The Volta River Project was ultimately built, but on terms that benefitted the international aluminum industry instead of the people of Ghana. Weeks after the project was completed Nkrumah was gone, overthrown in a US-supported military coup. Ghana has managed to avoid many of the horrors that have been visted on other parts of the continent, but despite rich natural resources, it remains one of the poorest nations on earth today. The fateful decision to bet the country on a single large-scale development scheme is a big reason why.

Moxon's account of the planning and construction of the Volta River Project has not aged particularly well. He writes with a chummy British colonial style that some will find annoying, and recounts events from a "just-so" perspective (not uncommon in historical literature) that provides little context for just why events unfolded as they did. Nevertheless, it remains one of the few detailed narratives of the construction of the Volta project, and one of the few books widely available on the topic at all.

Reading this book, Volta: Man's Greatest Lake, makes me wonder how things could have shaped up were Nkrumah's era not brought to an abrupt end by the coup of February 1966.

The presence of the Volta Dam today is a monumental story of the achievement of a patriot, a doer, and a man of immense ambition and aspiration for his country. Regretably, it is also an unfinished story; about a dream gone awry because of the misguided thinking and naivete of two reckless soldiers and the greed of foreign interest.

One cannot escape noting the sacrifice, in both human and fiscal terms, which was brought to the building of the dam. The displaced people of the area. The lost heritage of those belonging to that part of the land and many other less tangible but deeply felt aspects of their lives, all of which were sacrificed for a worthy cause to build the Volta Dam ... To move a nation forward. And then to have the driving force behind this progress removed, and the spirit of a people truncated by a mil

Reading this book, Volta: Man's Greatest Lake, makes me wonder how things could have shaped up were Nkrumah's era not brought to an abrupt end by the coup of February 1966.

The presence of the Volta Dam today is a monumental story of the achievement of a patriot, a doer, and a man of immense ambition and aspiration for his country. Regretably, it is also an unfinished story; about a dream gone awry because of the misguided thinking and naivete of two reckless soldiers and the greed of foreign interest.

One cannot escape noting the sacrifice, in both human and fiscal terms, which was brought to the building of the dam. The displaced people of the area. The lost heritage of those belonging to that part of the land and many other less tangible but deeply felt aspects of their lives, all of which were sacrificed for a worthy cause to build the Volta Dam ... To move a nation forward. And then to have the driving force behind this progress removed, and the spirit of a people truncated by a mil

This is a great book -- I purchased it for my son's class project (6th grade) and it was very helpful. It was well written and very interesting. It's a bit expensive, but well worth it.

I am very disappointed with this book. It is juvenile in nature and way overpriced. I expected a book of several hundred pages -- this book is 76 pages. There is little substance to it. I will be returning it.

An excellent picture book that depicts an African Naming Ceremony. It illustrates the roles played by various members of the family and tribe.

This little book is not what I expected. Not well written and tells very little about how to organize a Naming Ceremony...which was what I had expected. I don't recommend.
Laura

A disclaimer first:

I have not read this book in seven years. My recollection may be fuzzy. As far as I am aware this book was never reprinted, and I have struggled to find a copy. I have only recently found a copy in South Africa which I have bought and begun re-reading.

At any rate, I think that this book is a very worthwhile read. It is suprising, poetic and dense. The density of the writing may put people off, but it is certainly worth it. This book has qualities that are missing in much popular literature. Each page is full with imagery, wordplay and metaphor that requires real work on the part of the reader.

It feels like (in my opinion) an ancient (greek, roman, etc) mythology placed into a futuristic setting, but with all the strangeness that exists in our modern world. Surrealism prevails, but in a telling (and for its time, possibly prophetic) way.

For example, in the modern warfare described in this book, each side can only have as much army as can fit in one side of a prescribed area (like a soccer field). Because it is under the auspices of the UN, each side can only shoot into the ground during the battle, so as not to injure anyone. At lunch, all of them take a break and mingle at the supplied catering, afterwards, back to war. One of Major Gentl's cunning plans (with which he won a battle) was to remove all air suipport and require all his troops to fire into the air. The resulting confusion led to a victory.

Finally, the level of description and depth of writing is unsurpassed, though difficult, so this is not a book for someone who wants to have an easy ride.

A disclaimer with ammendments:
The above disclaimer applies. At the moment I am reading it with my wife, almost as a bedtime story kind of thing. Loving it.

Kojo Laing is my homeboy. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book of his to anyone. It's a confusing tale of humans, animals and plants living together in a futuristic world whilst a series of 'friendly' wars are raging on. If you are taken aback by the cover of the book, you should be because once you start reading you are surely going to get confused.

I'm an avid reader of books in the African Writers Series. "Major Gentl and the Achimota Wars" does a disservice to the quality of African storytelling as evidenced by the writings of Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Sembene Ousmane and other accomplished African writers. I simply don't get Laing's poetic style of writing. I cannot find any literary value to this book.

my only concern is that there are supplementals to up grade the publication every quarter

Well written book that gives both historical background and cultural information. The book tends to focus on the northern parts of Ghana (i.e. Tamale), and some assumptions are made by the author that do not reflect the southern regions quite as accurately. This is not intended as a tourist guide!

This book is rather nicely organized into various chapters, in accord with the various vehicles the proverbs use to make their points ('God', 'people', 'plants', 'animals' etc.). But very little material is cited as to how proverbs are made use of in Akan society. [For more on that - by all means see the exemplary treatise 'The Proverb in the Context of Akan Rhetoric: a Theory of Proverb Praxis', written by Kwesi Yankah, and/or Yankah's 'Speaking for the Chief: Okyeame and the Politics of Akan Royal Oratory'].

Opoku's 8-page introduction barely scratches the surface, though there are brief, almost too succinct blurbs at the beginnings of some of the chapters (especially valuable are those on linguists' staffs, Adinkra symbols, and gold weights).

Opoku gives each proverb in Akan, followed by an English translation (many of these he did himself), plus usually an 'explanation', sometimes several lines in length. The trouble is that such explanations are contextual, and Opoku doesn't cite the context. We read in Yankah that context determines the commentary/explanation of the proverb. A proverb will often 'change meaning' according to how it is used, which is determined largely by situational (social, political, religious or even aesthetic/artistic) context.

Often the main metaphorical thrust that a given proverb makes evident doesn't jibe at all with the 'explanation' that Opoku has cited/attached. He doesn't give (or doesn't know) the context, and it's difficult, even impossible in some instances, to see/guess/understand the point that's being made by the 'explanation'. I don't doubt that there is a point, but it's rather a senseless exercise to give an explanation which neither the reader nor Opoku can ever hope to understand given the sparseness of the documentation. In numerous instances I am tempted to think the person who 'gave/attached' the explanation was/is metaphorically challenged - but then again I don't know the context.

Then there is the occasional proverb for which I am dying for an explanation - it's a riddle to me. What's a poor fellow to do?