Obodom had a peculiar childhood. He was born by a teenager impregnated through an abuse. Barely able to bear a child she died immediately after his birth. He fell under the care of a loving foster mother. Obodom also mean ‘my nation’ and he was determined to redeem his nation and eradicate the ills that exposed his late mother to such a despicable fate. The powers that be however were not ready to let go but he would not succumb and was ready to stake everything including his life for the struggle that ensued.
This book argues that indigenous modes of communication - for example the oral tradition, drama, indigenous entertainment forms, cultural modes and local language radio - are essential to the societies within which they exist and which create them; and that coupled with newer, or modern forms of communication technology such as the internet and digitised information, endogenous modes of communication are paramount to the processes of human development in Africa.
Originally published in 1975, and reprinted with additional introductory material in 1989, this book provides an in-depth account of Asante history during the nineteenth century. The focus of the book is on the broad political development of Asante society, concentrating on the material factors which affected the decision making process during various administrations. This focus reflects the complex and sophisticated nature of the Asante social system, a system which had its basis in administrative unity and a core idea of nationhood. The text utilizes the abundant archival, printed and oral source materials available regarding the Asante, offering the reader a profound insight into the nature and structure of a remarkable society. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in African history.
The book covers African communication systems, discussing modes and forms of communication across West, East and Southern Africa and comparing them with traditional and new media. African Communication Systems and the Digital Age contextualizes communication by bringing to the table African contributions to the field, examining the importance of African indigenous forms of communication and the intersection of African communication systems and the digital age. The book covers various concepts, models, theories and classifications of African communication systems, including instrumental communication, types of African music and their communication properties, indigenous writing systems, non-verbal communication, and mythological communication. Through careful analysis of communication in Africa, this book provides insights into the various modes of communication in use prior to the advent of traditional and new media as well as their continued relevance in the digital age. African Communication Systems and the Digital Age will be of interest to students and scholars of African communication.
An in-depth look at how mortuary cultures and issues of death and the dead in Africa have developed over four centuries In My Time of Dying is the first detailed history of death and the dead in Africa south of the Sahara. Focusing on a region that is now present-day Ghana, John Parker explores mortuary cultures and the relationship between the living and the dead over a four-hundred-year period spanning the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. Parker considers many questions from the African historical perspective, including why people die and where they go after death, how the dead are buried and mourned to ensure they continue to work for the benefit of the living, and how perceptions and experiences of death and the ends of life have changed over time. From exuberant funeral celebrations encountered by seventeenth-century observers to the brilliantly conceived designer coffins of the late twentieth century, Parker shows that the peoples of Ghana have developed one of the world’s most vibrant cultures of death. He explores the unfolding background of that culture through a diverse range of issues, such as the symbolic power of mortal remains and the dominion of hallowed ancestors, as well as the problem of bad deaths, vile bodies, and vengeful ghosts. Parker reconstructs a vast timeline of death and the dead, from the era of the slave trade to the coming of Christianity and colonial rule to the rise of the modern postcolonial nation. With an array of written and oral sources, In My Time of Dying richly adds to an understanding of how the dead continue to weigh on the shoulders of the living.
This is the story of the life of a man who was a force to reckon with. He moved past frontiers seen at the time and embraced new horizons that has left a truly compelling legacy. Udo Akpabio was a man of many parts. A warrior, symbol of the indomitable spirit of the Annang people of Nigeria, charismatic leader and successful businessman yet finding time to carry out his duties as the patriarch of one of the largest and most influential family stock in South-South Nigeria. Set in the late nineteenth century and through the colonial era, this book tells the story of a man who dared where others dread. The dim circumstances of his early childhood did not deter his ambition to turn around his fortune. Rising above the temptous phase of his early adult life, he attained the highest traditional stool of the Annang people. He was a bridge between the British and the indigenous people, and acting on intriguing insight, Udo Akpabio, steered the affairs of his people and was able to strike a delicate balance between age-long traditions and westernization.
