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Title: A Sense of Savannah: Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana Author: Kofi Akpabli Publishers: TREC Genre: Travelogue Year of Publication: 2011 Pages: 150 Country: Ghana At a time when local tourism has been reduced to annual school excursions to manufacturing plants in Accra and Tema, Kofi Akpabli has opened to the general Ghanaian public and the world at large the beauty locked within a place that's hardly ever travelled to by most Ghanaians, the northern regions comprising Northern Region, Upper East Region and Upper West Region. In this tour-guide cum travelogue, Kofi Akpabli documents his personal experience of travelling to these seemingly remote places in Ghana, mixing his experience with facts. The results of which is a well-crafted book that points to beautiful tourist destinations and the excellent human relations exuded by the people he met. In  A Sense of Savannah  Kofi tried to present to us a different narrative, one tha...

Finally, I get to Accra and back at the office. The latter days of the research was fun and tiring. We planned on visiting a town called Soccerkrom; there it was my intention to ask the chief how they came by the name. Unfortunately, we had to leave out this town on very technical reasons. Two days before the final day, I had a ride on a motorbike through several cocoa farms; climbing steep slopes and passing on thin wooden planks acting as bridges on small muddy streams. On more than one occasion I had to get down and push the motorbike, whilst the rider tries to climb the slope. Then there was another time that I had to lift the back of the motorbike from a muddy stream. The back tire slipped off the think plank-bridge after the front tire had virtually crossed it. This particular ride was fun since it was my third or fourth time sitting at the back of a motorbike and the first time riding through a farm and a closely planted cocoa at that. The Dugout As we got to our destination...

Mazaan River  I have been absent from the blogging scene for some days now; though, I do check my twitter accounts once in a while. I am still at Kwamebikrom but have been moving around a lot. I have visited three border towns: Oseikojokrom, Pillar 34 and Ahimakrom. Oseikojokrom is the largest of the border towns, though not as active as Elubo, another of the border towns in the Western Region. We walked across the customs checkpoint. We got as far as Mazaan River. And that's about 100m away from the checkpoint. The major mode of transporting people across the border is the motorbike. And they can speed! Our visit occurred a day after a heavy rainstorm and so we saw collapsed school buildings and uprooted trees. We walked deep into the unofficial routes to Cote d'Ivoire. We also met several of them. There was a guy who was riding his motorbike across the border several times. He carried no passenger for all the four times I saw him move in and out. I discussed it with my col...

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...

Title: The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda Author: Veronique Tadjo Translator: Veronique Wakerley Genre: Non-Fiction/Travelogue Publishers: Heinemann (Africa Writers Series) Pages: 118 Year of Publication: 2000 (In French); 2002 (In English) Country: Cote d'Ivoire For the Africa Reading Challenge When I embarked on the Africa Reading Challenge I never thought the genre of books I would be selecting would be so varied. But that is exactly what it turned out to be. Veronique's book The Shadow of Imana  chronicles a traveller's views, response and reports on the Rwandan genocide and it is the first non-fiction travelogue I have read. In 1998, Veronique travelled to Rwanda to find out what might actually have motivated the genocide and this book is the product of such an investigation. However, more importantly, the book is more than just a recording of interviews, views and facts. Its prose boasts of poetic tendencies so that the w...