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Title: A Sense of Savannah: Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana Author: Kofi Akpabli Publishers: TREC Genre: Travelogue Year of Publication: 2011 Pages: 150 Country: Ghana At a time when local tourism has been reduced to annual school excursions to manufacturing plants in Accra and Tema, Kofi Akpabli has opened to the general Ghanaian public and the world at large the beauty locked within a place that's hardly ever travelled to by most Ghanaians, the northern regions comprising Northern Region, Upper East Region and Upper West Region. In this tour-guide cum travelogue, Kofi Akpabli documents his personal experience of travelling to these seemingly remote places in Ghana, mixing his experience with facts. The results of which is a well-crafted book that points to beautiful tourist destinations and the excellent human relations exuded by the people he met. In  A Sense of Savannah  Kofi tried to present to us a different narrative, one tha...

Title: Tickling the Ghanaian - Encounters with Contemporary Culture Author: Kofi Akpabli Genre: Non-Fiction/Contemporary Culture Publishers: TREC Pages: 142 Year of First Publication: 2011 Country: Ghana For Kinna's Ghana Literature Week Kofi Akpabli is a creative writer I have come to admire. His is a journalism completely circumscribed by the field of Creative Writing. His style, of combining keen observation, difficult questions and mirthful writing, makes him unique in this expansive field of words, sentences and descriptions; a field where most practitioners resort to sensationalism, outright lies, and trivialisation, stretching an already suspicious occupation to its negative extremum, to grab people's attention and glean some fame for themselves. Such is the shitload on discerning ears that some, having exceeded their elastic limit, have tuned out from radio, permanently. To such individuals, Akpabli's writing has come as a relief. For having g...

A new, witty, travelogue by CNN/Multichoice African Journalist for Arts and Culture, Kofi Akpabli, is about to be launched. The launch date is Wednesday March 30, 2011 . Writing in his very usual manner, Kofi warns at the back of the book Caution: For fear of emitting loud, embarrassing laughs do not read this book in public. Again, I quote what led to the writing of this book. From the back cover: 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 ...

Beginning today, there is a series of literary activities happening in Accra, Ghana. Here is a list of them and what they are about. World Poetry Day at PAWA House (Today, 21st March, 2011) Today, 21st March 2011 is World Poetry Day and to celebrate this day, the Ehalakasa TalkParty would be participating in a poetry performance at the PAWA House at 6 o'clock pm. This event is a collaboration between the Ghana Association of Writers and the Ehalakasa TalkParty movement.  However, currently taking place is a Street Performance/Flash Mob. This is to let the people know more about the Ehalakasa Poetry Movement and to ensure that poetry and spoken word, as art forms, become synonymous with Ghanaian life. From Ehalakasa's fan page on facebook : E HALAKASA!!! IT LIVES IN US! COME JOIN US TO CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL POETRY DAY IN A JUBILANT WAY! There will be street performances from Ehalakasa poets with unsuspecting members of the public as the audience.  We are meeting at Odo Rice...

Here in Ghana I met a friend who happens to share both my passion and profession. This friend, though not a Ghanaian, has read enough African-authored books to hold meaningful and lasting conversation. And we both share similar opinions on the crowding around of topics and the seeming scatological preferences of publishers, if not of African writers. This is not what the post is about. Martin, the name of my friend, has gifted me with books I have been meaning  to read by such authors as Jose Saramago and Roberto Bolano. Besides, this I purchased Kofi Akpabli's new book Tickling the Ghanaian at the launch. And got it autographed. Below are the books: Tickling the Ghanaian: An Encounter with Contemporary Culture by Kofi Akpabli . Kofi's penchant for humour and insight pervades his second book. This book takes a second and third look at our culture. Is it archaic as some have come to call it? Through this book Kofi seeks to point out things which have been long overlook...

Source Once again, the year has come to an end and bookish individuals will be taking stock of what transpired within the 365 days we had. But before we can conclude on whether this year has been successful, we must, as a matter of importance, relate our goals at the beginning of the year to what actually happened: Projections vs Actuals, as most Monitoring and Evaluation Officers do. However, I will first review my readings the month of December. December in review I read three books and suspended one in December. The objective for November was to play catch-up by reading enough books on my Top 100 Books Reading Challenge. It started well with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird : a novel about race relations in America's south told from the point of view of the nine-year old Jean Louise Finch, daughter of a lawyer appointed to defend a black man - Tom Robinson - in an alleged rape case, which people know to be fault but are not prepared to pronounce one of their own ...

The second Picture Speaks in the past two yeas features a shot from the launch of Kofi Akpali 's humorous travelogue: Sense of Savannah, Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana . In the Middle is M. K. B. Asante, a renowned Diplomat and Statesman, followed by the author Kofi Akpabli (in spectacles). The Book was launched at the National Theatre on March 31, 2011 and copies are currently available at all Bookshops in Ghana: Silverbird, Legon Bookshop etc.

Non-Fiction Reviews: This include memoirs, personal essays, travelogues, (auto)biographies, treatise (or thesis), subject-matter texts, and others. A Month and a Day & Letters by Ken Saro-Wiwa The Art of War by Sun Tzu A Sense of Savannah: Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana  by Kofi Akpabli A Woman Alone  by Bessie Head Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder  by  Nassim Nicholas Taleb Birds of Our Land by Virginia W. Dike The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Event by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Dead Aid - Why Aid Makes things Worse and How there is another Way for Africa   by  Dambisa Moyo Dreams from my Father  by Barack Obama Excursions in My Mind by Nana Awere Damoah Fela, This Bitch of a Life by Carlos Moore Freedom Train: the Story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothy Sterling Gathering Seaweed: Africa Prison Writing by Jack Mapanje I Write What I Like by Bantu Steve Biko If I'm S...

This list excludes single stories. Single stories are uncollected short stories published in magazines, blogs, online newspapers, and other places. It is believed that such stories would be collected by author and later 'formally' published, hence their exclusion. -2000 to 2009- A Heart to Mend :  Myne Whitman African Agenda : Camynta Baezie Amazulu :  Walton Golightly As the Crow Flies :  Veronique Tadjo Atonement:  Ian McEwan Before I Forget:  Andre Brink The Best American Short Stories 2004 : Lorrie Moore (editor) Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters : Kojo Laing The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable :  Nassim Nicholas Taleb Bloodlines : Veronica Henry (Editor) The Book Thief : Markus Zusak The Book of Chameleons:   Jose Eduardo Agualusa The Book of Not:  Tsitsi Dangarembga Cloth Girl : Marilyn Heward Mills The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time:   Mark Haddon Cut off my Tongue : Sitawa Nawal...