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Some have described Ayi Kwei Armah as an alienated figure. Some have described some of his books as sick. Others say it is impregnable and woody. Yet, no one has questioned his intelligence. If there is any writer whose works are as important today as they were when they were published, if there be any writer whose words rang through in the fourteenth century and ring true in the twenty-first century; if there be such a writer then it definitely IS Ayi Kwei Armah. From The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born  to The Healers  - sticking to those I have read - the themes he speaks about still prevail. Yesterday, we were told that French Forces have arrested Laurent Gbagbo and most Africans went gay just as the West went gay. To most Africans, the Devil has been caught by the forces. Note that France and the UN has tried dissociating themselves from the arrest though most news channels, including the initial report from the BBC, reported that this infamous arrest was led by the Fr...

I am not a 'formal' student of Literature. In fact I cannot, in no other way, call myself a student of Literature, formal or informal for I read novels to enjoy them first, reflect on the second and connect the dots later. These latter two always occur way after the novels have been read. Sometimes months or even years. In fact I still think about novels I read as far back as 2005. Hence, I am the last person to make a critique, academically, a novel or even read research articles based on literary writings. I am scared. My training is in Agricultural Economics and I stay with it. However, I was browsing the net and accidentally found this article. Because I have not access to the main article I could only read the abstracts. From what I could glean from the abstract, Ayi Kwei Armah 's Novel The Beautyful Ones are Not yet Born , is a subtle or subliminal way of telling Africans to embrace same-sex desire and human rights for sexual minorities. The Abstract: Building on the...

Title: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born Author: Ayi Kwei Armah Genre: Novel Publishers: Heinemann Pages: 183 ISBN: 978-0-435-90540-8 Year of Publication: 1968 (this edition, 1988) Country: Ghana The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born is the fourth of Ayi Kwei Armah 's novels that I have read and reviewed and I must say I have not as yet been disappointed by this great writer of our times. There is something I have realised and it is that his books are gradually being republished, not only by his publishing press Per Ankh, but also by other publishing houses. The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born is set in the latter stages of Nkrumah's reign, in the country Ghana, and ended just after the first coup. It talks about 'the man' who, pure in heart and spirit, saw no reason to amass wealth through bribery, which, of course, has become the in-thing. It talks about the personal and emotional struggles 'the man' went through as he tried to convince ...

What would you do when you have searched for a book for so long and the time you found it, at a bookshop, you had only as much money as would take you back to the office? Do you buy it and walk, knowing that the distance between your current location, the bookshop, to your destination, the office, can in noway be covered by walking; or would you forgo it and risk spending another ten years or more searching for it? I chose the former and prayed for a miracle. And this is how come I have in my possession Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Yeah! But I did not walk after the purchase. Miraculously, I met a friend who also love Ayi Kwei Armah and he lent me some money for transport and also got himself a copy. In Other News Shachi Kaul The Commonwealth Short Story Competition 2010 winners have been announced. The overall winner was Shachi Kaul from India with Retirement . Shachi is a banker and former hotelier. She started writing during a sabbatical from...

Usually, I try to review novels and not to compare them. However, there comes a time when one cannot run away from a topic, a call, no matter how one tries. This topic had been in my head ever since I reviewed Chinua Achebe's No Longer at Ease  (on September 30, 2009). I dreamt about it, talked about, did everything but obey this call. The only way to prevent an incubus from attacking you is to remain un-asleep, no? Well, that might not even suffice but I know that the only way to obey a call is to respond to it. Finito! So today, in this very post, I respond to this call. No one can challenge the achievements of Ayi Kwei Armah and Chinua Achebe . Even though these two literary giants of African descent may disagree at the academic level, their literary works stated here tend to converge at several points, and diverge at some. This issue has bothered me for so long and I refrained from writing about it, mainly because as a untrained essayist and a first-ladder novice in acade...

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...

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....

I went to the University of Ghana, specifically to the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness,  to check on some issues. While leaving, and I must say it was also drizzling, and having got to the main entrance, something questioned me whether I have visited the bookshop. And immediately two books came to mind: Osiris Rising and The Healers, both by Ayi Kwei Armah . The latter book I even voiced it out. The last time I went there I purchased Two Thousand Seasons and Fragments (by the same author). So I undertook the long walk back to the bookshop and there it was 'The Healers', sitting quietly in its rack, calling to me, saying pick me up please  and as an obedient Bibliophile I picked it up and began looking for its brother/sister, 'Osiris Rising'. But the latter, I could not find and I know it would call out to me wherever it is. The price tag of this book was Ghana Cedis 20 or about US$ 14. The Healers, Ayi Kwei Armah's fifth novel after Two Thous...

One book I enjoyed reading most is Two Thousand Seasons by Ayi Kwei Armah . Whilst reading the book I penned down some phrases that could serve as quotes and today I am serving you with some of these. Thus, in the coming days I would be bringing you quotes from different books I have read. A people losing sight of origins are dead. A people deaf to purposes are lost. Under fertile rain, in scorching sunshine there is no difference: their bodies are mere corpses, awaiting final burial. Woe the race, too generous in the giving of itself, that finds a road not of regeneration but to its own extinction. Woe the race, woe the spring. Woe the headwaters, woe the seers, the hearers, woe the utterers. Woe the flowing water, people hustling to death. It is not easy to hide any kind of love and young love loathes disguise. Dishonest words are the food for the rotten spirits. Purpose lends wings to the traveller. To them that know their destination fatigue is a brief stranger merely passin...

Title: Fragments: Author: Ayi Kwei Armah Publishers: Per Ankh Genre: Novel Pages: 286 Year: 1969 (this edition 2006) Works of art are intended to inform, educate, elucidate, portray, uncover, and/or challenge a society's way of doing things. It can even go ahead to propose newer ways of doing things and stir a revolution. Any work of art could perform any of these functions. However, Ayi Kwei Armah's works have consistently challenged our collective actions and thoughts as a society. In Two Thousand Seasons , he clearly demonstrated his displeasure by showing clearly our complicity in the enslavement of ourselves coming from our greed and our diametrically opposed stance to 'the way'. In that novel he referred us as Ostentatious Cripples, and those who went into the service of the White Predators as Askaris or Zombies. In Fragments, Ayi Kwei Armah once again tackles the mindset of a society. A society that has lost its focus in life; one that consistentl...

Title: Two Thousand Seasons Author: Ayi Kwei Armah Genre: Novel Publisher: Per Ankh Pages: 317 ISBN: 2-911928-03-2 Year: 1973 (this edition 2000) Country: Ghana Two Thousand Seasons is Ayi Kwei Armah's bold attempt at recreating the 'lost' history of Africa. It starts from before the beginning where Africans were following The Way and ends at the point where Africans were or are fighting slavery, yet it does not end there at all. This is a story that shreds long-held belief systems into tatters. Institutions and what had always been referred to, wrongly though according Armah's Narrative, as Tradition - such as the Chieftaincy institution and the inequality against women - do not stand up to Armah's critical observation and construct. In Armah's novel women are held esteem and were the ones who planned and executed the fall of the Arab invasion and also fought side by side with men, and in some situations surpassed them, both in numbers and in...