ImageNations

Title: The Healers Author: Ayi Kwei Armah Genre: Novel Publisher: Per Ankh Pages: 351 ISBN: 2-911928-04-0 Year of Publication: 1978 (this edition 2000) Country: Ghana; Africa Authors write for different reasons. To some writing has a therapeutic effect. Some write to express a personal opinion, some write toward an idea whereas others write from an idea. Others also write to project the views, aspirations and culture of a tribe. But Ayi Kwei Armah uses his writing to achieve a wider, larger objective of African unification. PLOT: The period of the story is the nineteenth century when the colonialists are fighting the Asantes for control of the land and the Asantes are also fighting the Fantes to reclaim their land. The Healers tells of a young man, Densu, who was framed up for the murder of the heir apparent to Esuano's throne by his guardian Ababio, after the latter had unsuccessfully convinced the former to step up and claim the position...

At the mention of a book, the first thing we think of is the cover page, the feel of the book in our hands, the smell of the book, the colour of the cover, the font size and then the contents. I loved books for these things. Anytime I purchase a book, I stroke the spine like I would do for a pet, though I have none and had I not married I could easily say that the most important thing in my life is a book, any book for that matter. I love books for what they are and I do not care whether it falls within my study area or not. In my bookshelf, I have books on history, literature, economics, accounting, agriculture and many others. The best present anyone could ever give me is a book and when I celebrated my twenty-ninth birthday and a friend of mine gave me a copy of 'Half of a Yellow Sun', a book a reader of ImageNations had recommended for me, the feeling was different and it is a feeling I would never forget. However, these personal relationship one has with books are about t...

The Reading of Mr. Happy and the Hammer of God by the Author There is going to be a reading of Mr. Happy and the Hammer of God at the Niagara Plus Hotel, Osu behind Koala Shopping Centre on 28th July 2010 at 7pm. Mr. Happy and the Hammer of God is an eclectic collection of short stories written by the Ghanaian Writer and Physicist, Mr. Martin Egblewogbe , co-founder of the Writers Project of Ghana, the Eha-Lakasa Poetry TalkParty held at the Nubuke Foundation, and host of the new and exciting literary appreciation program on Citi Fm 97.3 (which I would talk about in the next item). As a Physicist, Martin as a strange way of penetrating into life and of coming out with essence of issues. Some of the titles in the book are Pharmaceutical Interventions, Small Changes in the Dynamic, Jjork, Three Conversations with Ayuba, Down Wind, and many others. These are just no collection of Short Stories. These are the best collection of short stories you would ever read. Martin once told me, dur...

News Item One: AmaZulu by Walton Golightly I have got myself a copy of Walton Golightly's first novel, AmaZulu. I have not read any review of this novel before. I bought it because a friend of mine, Obed Sarpong, has a copy.  Back of the novel: 1818 SOUTH AFRICA: The searing wind of change is sweeping across the African continent s the European powers clash over the lands they consider to be theirs by right of conquest and settlement. But in th homeland of the Zulu tribes, a new power, which will change the course of African history and soak its soil in blood, is preparing to fight back. The warrior king Shaka begins his ruthless and violent rise to power, a path that will lead to the birth of the Zulu Nation and the formation of its legendary Impis--units of the most disciplined, courageous and fearsome army the modern world has ever known. About the Author: Walton Golightly is a freelance writer from Durban, KwaZulu-Natal--on the doorstep of what used to be the Zulu Kingdom....

So I must say that this one went by without my notice and had it not been  The Bookaholic Blog I would not have heard it and talked about it. Thanks Bookaholic. I first blogged about the Prize here... Sierra Leone's Olufemi Terry has won the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing for ' Stickfighting Days ' from Chimurenga vol 12/13. This Prize has been described as Africa's leading literary award. The Chair of Judges, The Economist's Literary Editor Fiammetta Rocco, announced Olufemi as the winner of the 10,000 pound prize at a dinner held on Monday July 5 at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.  Fimmetta Rocco said "ambitious, brave and hugely imaginative, Olufemi Terry's 'Stickfighting Days' presents a heroid culture that is Homeric in its scale and conception. The execution of this story is so tight and the presentation so cinematic, it confirms Olufemi Terry as a talent with an enormous future" Olufemi was born in Sierra Leon of Af...

Title: Bloodlines, Tales from the African Diaspora, vol. 1 Genre: Anthology of Short Stories Pages: 143 (e-copy) Publishers: myafricandiaspora.com , US Year of Publication: 2010 Country: Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, U.S., Canada The internet is fast becoming a meeting place of literary minds. In addition to this, it is reducing the problems that one has to go through to get his works published or get to a wider audience. I have benefited from it and I know many authors too who have. However, the greatest literary achievement of the internet is the diversity that it brings. People from different parts of the world are able to come together to publish an anthology that is diverse in its readings and unique in its approach. One such anthology is Bloodlines. Bloodlines is a collection of fourteen short stories collected through a competition organised and edited by Veronica Henry. The authors are from varied backgrounds such as Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Canada and t...

IMAG:   You have been writing that long, as I read in your book. But what inspired you to start writing? Which books did you read as a child growing up? NAD:   My very first article, published in “Through the Gates of Thought”, was written in 1993, so I trace my writing life to that year. But my appreciation of the literary and my involvement in things literary actually started much earlier, in the Preparatory school in the early ‘80s when each class had to perform a play a day before the vacation day. Small beginnings, appreciation of the arts, learning the rudiments of prose and poetry. I remember being taught, in preparation for the Common Entrance in preparatory school, to answer the question: write a story ending with ‘…and the boy learnt a lesson for life, that obedience is better than sacrifice.’ Small beginnings of creative writing. Then in Form one, in 1986, I wrote what I consider my first creative work, in (you won’t believe this) my history class: “A day in Ca...

Title: Through the Gates of Thought Genre: Non-Fiction (Inspirational) Publishers: Athena Press, London Pages: 134 (e-copy) Year of Publication: 2010 Country: Ghana Through the Gates of Thought is a book of inspiration written by a Chemical Engineer whose passion for the arts has seen his works published in different media and collections. Nana Awere Damoah 's second book, took me by surprise. When I first got the e-copy for review, I read the first chapter, referred to in the book as Gate 1 and nearly gave up continuing. I thought it was full of reminiscences and I am not one to brood over past events. However, I opened it again yesterday and read the Gate 2 and after the first two paragraphs I was hooked and I completed reading it in less than two hours. Whilst reading it I was encouraged to take two bold steps and one has bore fruits this morning. I had wanted to tell my boss that I don't feel involved in the research process and I would want to learn more...