Ghana

Books, Maps & Atlases

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Country Guides & Maps  |  History & Politics  |  People & Culture  |  Other Books & Novels


Country Guides & Maps

Lonely Planet West Africa      (amazon.com) - USA     (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
From cosmopolitan Dakar to remote Timbuktu, this thoroughly revised guide to West Africa covers destinations on and off the tourist trail, accommodation, restaurant, and transporation options for every range of budget, cultural information, and more. Includes a useful language section with glossaries of frequently-used terms and a 32-page color section. 160 maps

Ghana Travel Map  (Maps Worldwide)
Published by ITMB Publishing Ltd - Series Africa
ITMB Publishing specialise in areas that are interesting, exotic and off the beaten track - wealth of detail - many of the maps are strong on the physical features of the various countries - there is usually informative text included with the map, dealing with the history, culture, etc. The maps are light, practical and should be invaluable for the backpacker, traveller or tourist

Guide to Ghana  (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe    (Maps Worldwide)
by Philip Briggs
Most Travel Guides just focus on the southern areas of Ghana, near Accra, Takoradi, Cape Coast and along the coastline. This book covers the entire country and every possible way of getting around. This book is well written and the best on the market. There is an incredibly helpful guide to the animals one will see in Mole national Park and a great general guide about how to get around and what to are "cultural taboos." The author's writing style makes the book easy to read and allows you to know him well after only reading one section. (Reviewer: Patrick Nolen from Massachusetts )

The Rough Guide to West Africa 5 - 2008- (Paperback) Author Richard Trillo
(amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
covering the 15 visitable countries from Mauritania to Cameroon in fifty percent more detail than its only competitor. Each chapter of the Rough Guide includes thoroughly researched hotel and restaurant listings, sections on everything from food and language to media and sport, and thoughtful background on the environment, culture, history, politics and music

Let's Go Ghana     (amazon.com) - USA
A Visitors Guide to Business Opportunities, Networking and Tourism in Ghana by Kwasi Bosompem

Ghana (Major World Nations)     (amazon.com) - USA
by Jeanie M. Barnett S
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Surveys the history, topography, people, and culture of Ghana, with emphasis on its current economy, industry, and place in the political world. --

Ghana Country Study Guide     (amazon.com) - USA
by USA International Business Publications
This study guide contains basic information on economy, government, business, history and geography, climate, traditions, people, places to visit. Provides information on government, political organizations, and more... Includes basic statistics, information on the most important business contacts and business travel. Updated annually.

Ghana (Enchantment of the World)    (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Martin Hintz
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Presents an overview of Ghana, including its geography, history, industry, economy, and customs

Ghana (Economically Developing Countries)    (amazon.com) - USA
by Steve Brace
Profusely illustrated with color photographs, charts, and maps, the text briefly describes landscape, vegetation, and urban and rural life before discussing the economic development of this sub-Saharan African nation. The narrative, which contains interesting accounts of a variety of families living in different parts of Ghana, is informative, but the layout is somewhat distracting.  (Copyright © 1995 The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ghana in Pictures (Visual Geography Series)     (amazon.com) - USA
by Lydia Verona Ghana in Pictures Zemba (Editor), Lerner Editors, Lerner p, Thomas Otoole,
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Describes the history, geography, government, economy, culture, and people of the African country once known as the Gold Coast.

History & Politics

Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Manu Herbstein
1775. The kingdom of Asante has conquered its northern neighbor, Dagbon, and exacted an annual tribute of 500 slaves. Ama is a story of the eponymous heroine who is caught up in the aftermath of these events.

The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo : Polylectics and Reading Against Neocolonialism  (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Vincent O. Odamtten

The Fall of the Asante Empire The Hundred-Year War for Africa's Gold Coast   (amazon.com) - USA
by Robert B. Edgerton
An anthropologist documents and details the century-long conflict between the British and the Asante of Ghana. Between 1807 and 1900, the Asante army waged a host of large-scale battles and small skirmishes against the British occupiers in a fierce struggle to resist conquest and colonization  (From Booklist)

Murder and Politics in Colonial Ghana  (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Richard Rathbone
In 1943, a murder was committed in a large African kingdom in the south of Ghana, then a colony of Great Britain. Palace officials and close kin of a recently deceased king had reputedly killed one of his chiefs in order to smooth the king's passage into the afterlife. This riveting study tells the story of the murder, the trials and appeals of those accused of the crime, and the impact of the case on politics in Ghana and Great Britain.

The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982-1991  (amazon.com) - USA
by Jeffrey Herbst, Smadar Lavie

The Quills of the Porcupine : Asante Nationalism in an Emergent Ghana   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Jean Marie Allman
A study of the Asante National Liberation Movement, which in the 1950s fought for self-determination for the Asante nation as Kwame Nkrumah and his party sought to establish a unitary government in newly decolonized Ghana. The movement has generally been considered a tribal and parochial ghost of the past, a passing aberration in western Africa, but in fact seriously threatened the stability of the government and scored some of the contours of the country's subsequent history.  (Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.)

State and Society in Pre-Colonial Asante (African Studies, No 79)   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by T. C. McCaskie
Scholarship on the West African kingdom of Asante is at the leading edge of Africanist research. In this book, T.C. McCaskie gives a detailed and richly nuanced historical portrait of precolonial Asante. His delineation of state and society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is centred on an extended analysis of the crucial ritual of the annual Kumase odwira festival. It is at once a profound historical reconstruction of an African polity, and a deeply informed meditation on key Asante concepts and ideas

Korle Meets the Sea : A Sociolinguistic History of Accra  (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by M. E. Kropp Dakubu, M. E. Kropp Dakubu

Kwame Nkrumah : A Case Study of Religion and Politics in Ghana  (amazon.com) - USA

People & Culture

Ghana (Cultures of the World)   (amazon.com) - USA  
by Patricia Levy


Drink, Power and Cultural Change : A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana C. 1800 to Recent Times (Social History of Africa Series)  (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong

African Rhythm : A Northern Ewe Perspective   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by V. Kofi Agawu, Kofi Agawu
This book is about rhythm in African music, but it differs from previous studies in the emphasis it places on language. Taking a small group, the Northern Ewe people of Ghana, the author shows how a particular rhythmic sensibility underlies their daily physical activities. He analyzes rhythm in speech, narration, rhymes, song, dancing and musical performance and an accompanying CD enables the reader to work closely with the sound of African speech and song he discusses.

African Spirituality : On Becoming Ancestors   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Anthony Ephirim-Donkor
Focusing on the Akan people in Ghana as a resource for examining the overall conception of human development, this study is the first of its kind to concentrate on specific developmental processes of an African people from the ancestral world to the mundane and back to the ancestral world.

Onions Are My Husband : Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Gracia Clark
Economic anthropologist Clark focuses on the women in the marketplace in the city of Kumasi, Ghana. She looks at such aspects of their lives and livelihood as getting into the market, the regional web, buying and selling, the control of resources, negotiations, and home and husband.  (Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.)

Asante (Heritage Library of African Peoples. West Africa)   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Faustine Ama Boateng

Authentic African Cuisine from Ghana   (amazon.com) - USA
by David Otoo, Tamminay Otto

The Cloth of Many Colored Silks : Papers on History and Society Ghanaina and Islamic in Honor of Ivor Wilks (Islam and Society in Africa)   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Ivor Wilks (Editor), John Hunwick (Editor), Nancy Lawler (Editor)

Strangers and Traders : Yoruba Migrants, Markets and the State in Northern Ghana  (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by J. S. Eades

Other Books & Novels

Going into Darkness : Fantastic Coffins from Africa  (amazon.com) - USA
by Thierry Secretan, Theirry Secretan
From a giant onion to a crayfish and a butterfly, these photos portray the craft and culture of a unique fishing community's perfection of the coffin into an art form. People are actually buried in these fantastic coffins, presented in an intriguing collection of excellent, varied images; from makers at work to burial.  (Midwest Book Review)

Master Weaver from Ghana  (amazon.com) - USA
by Gilbert Ahiagble, Louise Meyer, Nestor Hernandez (Photographer)
"Bobbo" is a traditional weaver from Ghana, where his ancestors have been weavers for generations. His young son, Kweku, learns from him, just as he learned from his father. Through Kweku's eyes, we see family and community life in the small fishing village of Denu. Kweku learns that in life, just as in weaving, "one thread is weak, while threads woven together are strong."

No Sweetness Here and Other Stories   (amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - Europe
by Ama Ata Aidoo
Eleven stories explore postcolonial life in Ghana for women and men, from African women returning home from the West to others confronting independence and all its ramifications. Varied characters and encounters mark an involving and unusual presentation of varied West African experiences.  (Midwest Book Review)

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