ImageNations

ImageNations - the blog and the blogger - has been nominated in two categories at the Ghana Blogging and Social Media Awards alongside some amazing bloggers and blogs. The categories are: Best Blog - freduagyeman.blogspot.com Best Male Blogger - Nana Fredua Agyeman In addition, the organisation I work for,  Writers Project of Ghana , has also been nominated in two categories: Best Twitter Profile -  @writerspg Organisation with Best Social Media Presence - Writers Project Ghana We will be glad if you could vote for us (WPG and this blog) in these four categories listed above. When you enter your email address and you will be served with a form listing all nominees. You will also need to confirm your email address by clicking on a link (addpoll.com) which will be sent into your inbox before your entry can be counted. Click here to vote Thanks for the nomination, for those who read this blog, and for your votes.

Source I have already reviewed my readings in 2011 . This post deals with my reading projections for 2012. Broadly, I don't expect anything to change from last year regarding the types of books I read: the challenges began last year and years before will continue. However, to help expand my reading and push myself, I will join one or two other challenges; one or two because challenges could be disincentive to reading when they become too taxing. Old Challenges To begin with, my Top 100 Books Reading Challenge , which is in its fourth*  third year this year and only about 30 percent complete, will continue. I will merge my Africa Reading Challenge with the new one Kinna  will be organising so that the rules that I will apply will come from Kinna. Thus, officially my ARC challenge has ended. There are only about two or three stories left on the Caine Prize Shortlist reading challenge. These short stories together with the new shortlist that will be coming out this y...

Currently I am in Kumasi and I can at least update my blog. May was a busy month for me in terms of my professional life. My reading was somewhat limited and my blogging was seriously affected. In all I read four books and reviewed two. However, I kept my Monday Proverbs going by scheduling all the post. I love this feature. Sometimes I find on my phone that a blog has just been published. The Secret Destiny of America by Manly P. Hall Searching by Nawal El Saadawi The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Every Man is a Race by Mia Couto I also brought you updates - the non-professional side - of my travels in the Bia District of the Western Region. First I told you about what I would be doing in this blog post . Then I introduced you to the village where I would be staying, Kwamebikrom (or for a direct transliteration: a certain Kwame's town), in another post . Just last week I updated you on the chills and thrills I have encountered on this field trip . I would  be br...

Bicycle Transport Motorbike transport Today I bring you a day's life of an inhabitant of Kwamebikrom, a community in the Bia District - 6 km from Essam/Debiso (the district capital) - of the Western Region. Transportation: The usual transport system between Kwamebikrom, where I am staying and Essam - where we go to eat - is taxi (though I went with a pick-up truck). However, most of the inhabitants have motorbikes and bicycles. These two are the most common form of transportation within the community and between towns. Phone-Charging Shop The road leading to the community from Essam is mostly made of laterite. It's fun to drive on with all the 'grrr' sound created when the truck's tires pass on the gravels. Small Scale Enterprise: There are innovative ways inhabitants of this community are employing to generate income. Electrical power went off on Thursday morning and after running-out my laptop's battery I went in search of a place to charge my ba...

Yesterday I travelled to Kwamebikrom to fine-tune my questionnaire and carry-out a research on agricultural intensification in the Bia District, a research that would take me three weeks - minimum - to complete the first phase. Consequently, I would be here - Bia and Juaboso districts - for at least three weeks. Internet connection is not fast but would blog and show pictures whenever possible. As most of you know I work as an Agricultural Economist and it is that which has brought me here. I am having all the fun, breathing in all the fresh air devoid of 'big-town' pollution. It's always enjoyable being close to nature. However, people in this community are eagerly and adopting 'town-life'. The sun is low, the feels like it's going to rain. Bia is home to two forest reserves: the Bia and Krokosue Forest Reserves. More information here . I won't report on easily accessible information, which I possibly might have not seen myself. All my information to you wo...

I started blogging in September 2008 with the objective of posting my poems for discussion. What I learnt from this is that people found it hard to objectively critique works, thinking that the author would be hurt. Well, what I did was to dedicate the  blog to Haiku . Thinking about it later, I realised that it is too self-serving to post only my poems on the blog. Then on May 11, 2009, I set myself a goal to read only African Writers (fiction and non-fiction) and to promote literary works by Africans. This stems from the fact that most of my readings had been of western, non-African authored books. And it was time to balance the scales. With this goal came my entry into the Ghanaian literary scene. I had been writing for ten years before making this decision, but it was more of working on the periphery, doing my own thing without learning from others or meeting other writers to share ideas and works. However, my first official post on this blog was a poem of mine titled F...

Traffic received by this blog in April was relatively low compared to the last three months, though I don't trust blogger's stats tab where number of times a page has been viewed keep decreasing. In terms of reading I read five novels with a total of 920 pages on a variety of genres: biography/autobiography, poetry and full-length novels. On the interview front, I interviewed no one. Or specifically I did not receive responses from some of the interview I sent out. The following are the books read and the links to them: Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams . I read this book for the Top 100 Reading Challenge . A very interesting novel that vividly projects the plight of native South Africans right before the official institution of apartheid. We observe the struggle of the natives and what they have to fight against daily to survive through the eyes of a rural-urban emigre, Xuma. Purple Violet of Oshaantu by Neshani Andreas . This was read for the Africa Reading Challenge . This no...

The last time I posted on books I have acquired was exactly a month ago, on March 29. Of the four books I acquired then, I have read only one: Accra! Accra! More Poems about Modern Afrikans . However, as all readers or particularly bibliophiles know, we acquire books faster than we read them. If not we would be in deficit. Over the past month, I have been lucky to have come into some number of books through a combination of gifts and purchase. When I read Pride and Prejudice , I showed my love for that book and for Jane Austen as a writer. I also made my intentions known that I would love to read her books. This week I received three packages of three books per package from Amy of Amy Reads and guess what? Four of them were Jane Austens. Yes! Thanks Amy of such a kind gesture. The following are the books I received from Amy: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen . This one of the books I received from Amy. Jane Austen is on my author to read. She makes me understand the past and how...

February has just passed us by and I am yet to dent the challenge list. All that I am currently doing is scraping the paint, yet I know that it is in scraping that a dent is created. I cannot say February was not a rewarding month, for though I would not judge it kindly regarding the volume of books read and reviewed, it was rewarding in other areas of my literary life. The month of February saw me receiving several e-mails from my readers. Whereas some wanted to host my blog on their platforms, others wanted me to write for payment; neither of these have I agreed to yet. Regarding literary activities, I have participated in those I believe I can and of which I blogged about here and there . I also interviewed two inspirational writers from Nigeria, Folake Taylor and Babalola Dolapo and one Ghanaian novelist, Farida Bedwei , whose book The Definition of Miracle  would be launched at the PAWA House on the 5th of March at 6 o'clock PM. I read a total of four books, two females a...

VIDA , a Women Literary Organisation which was founded in August 2009 "to address the need for female writers of literature to engage in conversations regarding the critical reception of women’s creative writing in our current culture" has conducted a fascinating research into the gender distribution of book reviews and articles. Their findings have generated a wave of discussion on the gender biasness in literary circles or the less emphasis placed on women writings. Available statistics from big publishing houses such as Atlantic, Boston Review, Granta, London Review of Books, Harper, New Republic, New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, New York Review of Books, according to VIDA, show skewness in representation against women, even though "women write and women read".        Source:  VIDA Some responses even suggests that since women form a larger percentage of the reading public there should be a greater representation of women in these studies. The...

One of my reading challenges is to read the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Winners (Best and First book winners) and on this list is Manu Herbstein's Ama, A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade . This story won the award in the first book category in 2002. Manu Herbstein was interviewed by Africa Book Club . Issues discussed ranges from his dual citizenship, how he came to write this novel and what the future holds for him as a writer. According to the structural engineer cum writer, it is best for the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to sponsor writers than their futile search of past presidents to award. Here is an excerpt of the interview.  Tell us a little about yourself, and your background. My grandparents arrived in what was then the Cape Colony in the last decade of the nineteenth century. They had fled religious persecution in Eastern Europe. (I was brought up as a Zionist but I now look forward, though with faint hope, to the day when Palestinians and Israeli Jews can a...

My reading in January was aimed at fulfilling the Africa Reading Challenge , which is aimed at reading books from other African countries other than Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. In all I read eight books (or nine, counting the last book I read in December 2010, which was reviewed in January 2011). The countries I have read from are: Mozambique (Mia Couto's Voices Made Night and Lilia Momple's Neighbours: The Story of a Murder ) Egypt (Alifa Rifaat's Distant View of a Minaret ) Angola (Pepetela's The Return of the Water Spirit ) Cote d'Ivoire (Veronique Tadjo's The Shadow of Imana ) Malawi (Jack Mapanje's The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison ) Zimbabwe (Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions ) South Africa/Botswana (Bessie Head's A Woman Alone - yet to be reviewed) Lesotho (Thomas Mofolo's Chaka , currently reading) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (not on any challenge) Map of Africa This trend would continue. However, I ...

Ivor Hartmann, writer, editor, visual artist and publisher, is calling for submission for the "Remembering Marechera" Anthology. The full call is below: To celebrate Dambudzo Marechera’s posthumous 59th birthday this year I will be compiling an anthology entitled “Remembering Marechera”, consisting of essays, reviews, short stories, poems, etc. that follow this title/theme, to be published by StoryTime Publishing. To this end I invite your submissions until the 6th of April 2011. Theme: “Remembering Marechera” Word count: 1000-5000 words (less for poetry if needs be) Format: An attached Word doc/docx, times new roman, 12 point, single spaced. Submissions: By email only to: dambudzo.marechera@gmail.com Deadline: 6th of April 2011 The project will depend on the quantity and quality of submissions I receive, and if all goes well it will be distributed through Amazon’s Kindle platform in a variety of formats (and possibly print too depending). I look forward to reading your...

I am happy to tell you that four poems of mine have been published by Munyori Literary Journal at munyori.com. My poems are featured alongside R.S. Carlson (USA), Louie Crew (USA), Lian Yujing (China), Mike Mware (Zimbabwe). There are also fiction by Miriam Shumba, Kudazi Ndanga, and NoViolet Bulawayo (all from Zimbabwe), Joanne Hillhouse (Antigua), Patrick O. Ochieng (Kenya) and an interview of Bapsi Sidhwa (Pakistan) by Sunil Sharma (India), and a book review by Memory Chirere (Zimbabwe). And more! The poems featured are: Savages are We A Curve in the Tell (A Direct Response to Naipaul's The Masque of Africa ) Devolution Abracadabra Adabraka Click here to read.

Ever since Tricia Nwaubani's infamous article, In Africa, the Laureate's Curse , first published in The New York Times and then at the NEXT , a lot of comments and opinions have been shared. The majority of these have been against the theses posited by the writer. I personally wrote a response . The crux of Tricia's article are: An Ngugi Nobel would have resulted in the new generation of aspiring writers dreaming of nothing higher than being hailed as "the next Ngugi"; An Ngugi award could have them [new writers] back to the old tried and tired ways [which Tricia described as 'an earnest and sober style' of Ngugi, Achebe and Soyinka]; Instead of acclaimed Nigerian writers, we would have acclaimed Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa writers. We suffer enough from tribal differences already. This is not the kind of variety we need. [Here Nawaubani claims that writing in his native Gikuyu language or any other African language for that matter breeds tribalism]. ...

Last December, I had the privilege of being featured in the Dust Magazine. My poem Middle Sex  and a brief biography were published. You can read it here . You would have to scroll down to read. This same poetry was also published at the Writers Project of Ghana . The following poems have also been published in JENdA ! No. 17 (2010): African Women in Dimension: Part I: In the Line of Darkness Eyes in the Window The African Woman

Thank you all for making 2010 a successful reading and blogging year. Within the year, I met many readers: Kinna , Amy , Geosi , among the lot. My reading has been inspired by many and I hope to increase the energy for this year, life permitting. ImageNations has dubbed this year, The Year of Reading. I want all those who read not a literary book last year  to pick only three books for this year: pick those that you have heard of and interest you and read it slowly through the year. I hope by this you would activate or reactivate the reading passion in you. ImageNations would continue to review African-authored novels throughout this year. I would continue to talk about literary events on the continent, bringing you interviews from new and established authors. All I ask of you is to provide positive feedbacks to make this vision of Promoting African Literature a success. ImageNations would be participating in a few challenges. Already the Africa Reading Challenge is on with book...

December 18, 2010 was the date. I participated in my first ever Barcamp. I have realised that ever since I started this book review and active blogging, I have moved from the hermit I was to become a socially vibrant person who is no more scared to share his thoughts. And I know, I can sometimes be vitriolic. That's my nature. I cannot suffer sycophancy or pure hypocrisy. I love ratiocinative thinkers. For the first time, I met some of the faces behind blogs I have been following for a long time such as Ato of Mighty Africa , and Nina of Accra books and things . I also met twitter friends such as MacJordan , Nii Ayertey and more. Barcamp Ghana brought together young individuals who have passion, ideas, and the zeal to let their ideas walk. It was not your usual Talk Shops where one went to sit and be talked to. At Barcamp, participants set the agenda they would want to talk about. People elect themselves to facilitate and no one imposes his or her ideas on the other, ra...