ImageNations

The elders say that the foreigner never carries the head of the casket. [16] [H]ome is where you go knowing that no matter what happens to you, no matter what others might think of you, you will be loved. Period. No ifs or buts. This is where he spirit feels most comfortable, most restful and most at ease. [17] Culture shock? That was to be asked at the end of my stay, for the shock, if any, of being exposed to a new culture isn't to be measured in days or weeks or even months, but by the depth of many years accumulated, tasted, tested, weighted, felt, loved, rejected, hated, accepted. [26] Here, there was a distance that I couldn't define, and perhaps it was, like air, not definable in its infinite qualities. [32] My imagined seduction stayed imaginary - mind proposes, reality disposes. [43] In our earlier days together, the passion was too hot to suffer these gestures, but in the ebbed heat, when lust plateaus, I became vulnerable. [92] There could be...

Title: The Other Crucifix Author: Benjamin Kwakye Genre: Fiction/Identity/Immigration Publishers: Ayebia-Clarke Pages: 218 Year of First Publication: 2010 Country: Ghana For  Kinna's Ghana Literature Week My first encounter with Benjamin Kwakye was through his first novel The Cloth of Nakedness .  In that novel Kwakye used a proverb and a character to metaphorise the humorous nature and hierarchical structure of our existence or specifically of our way of living. Using tools within the society, he told of how manipulative the rich could be.  Kwakye's third novel - I am yet to see a copy of his second book, The Sun by Night , on book stands - The Other Crucifix is a different kind of literary delight. It deals with identity, home, and freedom in an immigrant's life. He explores and expands every minutiae of life in an alien country. In doing so things that had always been taken for granted are held onto by such immigrants that letting go is tant...

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...

Today's quotes come from a book I would be reviewing next week The Clothes of Nakedness  by Benjamin Kwakye. If people would spend thinking half the time they spend talking the world would be a better place. If people filtered their thoughts before they spoke, they would not come out with the rubbish we hear these days. Kojo Ansah, Page 120 ...blaming others may blind a man's eyes to his own faults. Kofi Ntim, 123 ...a man is sometimes blind to the thorns on the path he walks. His friends must provide the light to illuminate the path. Kojo Ansah, 123 Our enemies are like eggs in our backyards. You see, they become powerful if we let them. You can allow an egg to hatch into a chick and watch it grow into an adult hen, strong and ready to peck your corn and defecate over your yard. Or you can prevent all that by dropping the egg on the floor. Mystique Mysterious, 124 Oh, everyone is a hypocrite to some extent in this world of mass make-believe. Mystique Mysterious, 132 Rumo...

Benjamin Kwakye was born in Accra, Ghana. He attended Dartmouth College and then the Harvard Law School. His first novel The Clothes of Nakedness  was published by Heinemann in 1998 and it won the 1999 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region). It was also adapted for radio as a BBC Play of the Week. His second novel, The Sun by Night  was published in 2005 by Africa World Press. It also won the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Africa Region). Kwakye's latest novel The Other Crucifix , published by Ayebia Clarke Publishing would be released on June 30, 2010. Synopsis The Other Crucifix is a unique epic novel and a welcome addition to the existing genre on the African immigrant experience in America. The novel chronicles the minutiae of the American college experience. It reveals how the most intimate details of the recollection of the protagonist's immersion in that culture leads to his alienation from home and as the year...