About

The Blogger
I am Nana Fredua-Agyeman, from Accra, Ghana. I am an Agricultural Economist by profession and a Poet by passion. I keep three blogs: ImageNations, Haiku from Ghana, and Black Pathology (not related to my manuscript). Some of my Haiku poems have been published in magazines such as Frogpond, The Heron's Nest, Acorn etc and at e-zines such as simplyhaiku.com and Shamrock Haiku Journal. Currently, I have a manuscript of poems (not Haiku) titled BLACK PATHOLOGY. 

The Blog ImageNations
I started this blog in 2008 because I needed a place to post my poems for others to critique or to enjoy.  However, with time, the blog has morphed into a place where I share reviews of African Literary books I have read. Currently, I promote African Literature; hence, in addition to the reviews, I conduct interviews, post events, profile authors and their books, and many other literary issues.

Books I Review
The vision of this blog is to see the growth of African Literature. It is my hope that Africa would not be misrepresented by a few prejudiced minds; that Africans would begin to tell their stories. Consequently, presently it is my goal to review only African Literary works. However, I may, once in a while, throw in some non-African Literary works, depending on certain reasons that would be made at the time.

Note I:  For the avoidance of doubt ImageNations defines African Literature as any literary work - essays, novels, short stories, creative non-fiction, poetry, thesis, etc. - written by an African either on the continent or in the diaspora. In this way, an African is defined in geopolitical terms. Geographically, it encompasses all citizens from all the countries on the continent, politically it includes immigrants and first and second generation diasporan Africans. Citizenship is by birth - both parents or either one of them from the continent - or by naturalisation.

Note II: Because my reading has expanded beyond African books, reviews on this blog have expanded to include other non-African books; that is every book I read and gets reviewed will be on this blog. However, I do make the extra effort to give prominence to African books.
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Caveat: My reviews are mine only. They reflect my feelings and understanding during and after reading the books. I don't pretend to present an in-depth study of the books I read. 

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10. Unexpected Joy at Dawn: My Reading

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69. The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye, A Review

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Title: The Clothes of Nakedness Author: Benjamin Kwakye Publishers: Heinemann African Writers Series Genre: Fiction/Novel/Class Pages: 212 Year of First Publication: 1998 Country: Ghana For the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Winners Reading Challenge Benjamin Kwakye 's novel The Clothes of Nakedness  is a compelling narrative directed at a Ghanaian audience, in particular. It reveals the economic hardships existing in our society; it also reveals the intricately woven relationships between the rich and the poor and how the 'seemingly' rich manipulate the poor to further that wealth-dom in this dual economic society where absolute riches exist side by side with abject poverty. The latter scenario is even more stark and pathetic if one knows that Nima and Kanda Estates, two neighbourhoods presented in the story, are real and not just fictional representation made concrete by Kwakye's brilliant mind. The story revolves around thr...
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42. The Blinkards by Kobina Sekyi

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Title: The Blinkards, A Comedy and The Anglo-Fanti - A Short Story Author: Kobina Sekyi Genre: Play/Short Story Pages: 256 Publishers: Heinemann/Readwide ISBN: 978-0-435-92784-4 Year of Publication: 1974 (this edition, 1997) Country: Gold Coast (Now Ghana) Setting:  This book contains two stories: The Blinkards - a play and The Anglo-Fanti - a short story . Though the stories are from two different genres, one theme threads through them: the effect of absolute cultural osmosis or better still the consequences of swallowing an alien culture without much scrutiny, as happened in occupied countries popularly referred to by the occupiers as colonies (colonies of what? Ants? Bees?) Both stories took place in Cape Coast and the setting is very significant to the story. Apart from the author being a Fanti from Cape Coast, Cape Coast was the first point of introduction to colonial rule. As a seaport city, it was the first town that was brought under colonial rule; hence ...
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