A dazzling collection of stories, The Prophet of Zongo Street takes readers to a world that seamlessly blends African folklore and myths with modernity. Set primarily on Zongo Street, a fictitious community in West Africa, the stories -- which are reminiscent of the works of Ben Okri and Amos Tutuola -- introduce us to wonderfully quirky characters and the most uproarious, poignant, and rawest moments of life. There's Kumi, the enigmatic title character who teaches a young boy to finally ask questions of his traditions. And as Ali moves his characters to America we meet Felix, who struggles with America's love of the exotic in "Rachmaninov." The Prophet of Zongo Street heralds a new voice and showcases Mohammed Naseehu Ali's extraordinary ability to craft stories that are both allegorical and unforgettable.
Recorded on location in the Volta Region in Ghana in 2006-07, these stories are the result of collaboration between Anna Cottrell and Agbotadua Togbi Kumassah. Agbotadua Togbi Kumassah translated the Ewe stories into English and Anna Cottrell has retold them in contemporary English for the wider European market. This edition presents the 24 stories in their original form for the Ghanian market.
Provides an overview of the history and culture of Ghana, featuring discussion of the country's religion and thought, the arts, cuisine and traditional dress, gender roles, marriage and family, social customs, and lifestyle.
"A powerful coming-of-age story of self-discovery and overcoming fear.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review Ato hasn’t visited his grandmother’s house since he was seven. He’s heard the rumors that she’s a witch, and his mother has told him he must never sit on the old couch on her porch. Now here he is, on that exact couch, with a strange-looking drink his grandmother has given him, wondering if the rumors are true. What’s more, there’s a freshly dug hole in her yard that Ato suspects may be a grave meant for him. Meanwhile at school, Ato and his friends have entered a competition to win entry to Nnoma, the island bird sanctuary that Ato’s father helped created. But something is poisoning the community garden where their project is housed, and Ato sets out to track down the culprit. In doing so, he brings his estranged mother and grandmother back together, and begins healing the wounds left on the family by his father’s death years before. And that hole in the yard? It is a grave, but not for the purpose Ato feared, and its use brings a tender, celebratory ending to this deeply felt and universal story of healing and love from one of Ghana’s most admired children’s book authors.
A celebration of Ama Ata Aidoo's work presented as a festschrift with a broad spectrum of articles and personal memoirs from scholars and literary artists. It conveys the full extent of Aidoo's place as a literary innovator and an exponent of radical social and cultural thought in Africa and internationally on account of its self-consciousness and gender equality. Included are a study, by playwright Femi Osofisan, of the Nigerian film industry and its impact on live theatre and negative images in contemporary Ghanaian music.
Discover in this book more than ninety questions every Christian should ask about the prophet Nostradamus and his prophecies. And their answers that confirm he was a holy man and prophet of God. Christians will forget what pagan writers wrongly said about him! Many Christians do not know that the Messiah gave to M. Nostradamus hundreds of prophecies connected to the Bible prophecies. However, how are Christians going to read those predictions, if they wrongly think the holy man M. Nostradamus, was a vulgar seer, clairvoyant, magician, soothsayer, medium, sorcerer, or astrologer? You, in this book ("M. Nostradamus: Holy man and Prophet of God"), will find more than ninety questions and answers that demonstrate M. Nostradamus was a holy man and prophet of God. The clergy has not realized that the prophet Nostradamus had received his prophecies from the Lord Jesus Christ, an angel, the Holy Spirit, and visions of divine inspiration. Some Christians believe in the pagans' misinterpretations of the first two quatrains (q I 1 and I 2). They wrongly say the prophet Nostradamus used a pot full of water sat on a "tripod" to see in it the prophecies. They do not know that the word "tripod" does not appear in those two quatrains. Pagan people took the word "tripod" from chapter 5 of the letter to HENRY that says that Nostradamus received his prophecies through "the one part of the tri whose feet are like bronze." They did not realize that this last expression represents the Lord Jesus Christ. He calls Himself, the One whose feet are like burnished bronze (Rev. 2: 18). After mentioning those words, Nostradamus to confirm he was addressing the LORD, said that many people attributed to him the prophecies that only belong to the eternal God alone. Because of it, they should ask pardon to M. Nostradamus and God, who gave him the predictions. Some people wrongly condemned the prophet, Nostradamus, as being an astrologer because he worked with the Judaic Astrology or Hebrew Astrology. The man of God, M. Nostradamus, died in the year 1566 AD, and the science of Astronomy officially appeared after the year 1642 AD. The Jews in the past used the Judaic Astrology to fix the dates of their traditional festivals. They needed to know the position of the sun and the phases of the moon so that they could keep the month of Abib (Deut. 16: 1) and the commandment of the LORD (Exod. 12: 1-2). The Christian author (Daniel A Melendez) wishes to open Christian's eyes to the truth of God hidden for centuries about M. Nostradamus. Because of it, he decided to write this book of 212 pages. The title of that volume is M. Nostradamus: Holy man and prophet of God.
Haunting, varied, and superbly written, Dog Boy and Other Harrowing Tales is a collection of stories immersed in the Gothic tradition yet told in a modern and inventive way. At the end of the First World War, a group of friends gather at a former Robber Baron estate on Eastern Long Island, only to learn the house holds a monstrous secret. In a Montana prison in 1988, a new dog training program goes awry with horrifying results. A Parisian cemetery in the mid-20th century is home to the ghosts of two centuries of poets, artists, and composers, the specters of a homeless woman's past, and the jolting reality of the modern world. Knitting together the ordinary, the extraordinary, and the supernatural, Dog Boy and Other Harrowing Tales is a boldly imagined literary work by a masterful new storyteller. At a time when most authors of contemporary literature seem obsessed with humor and shying away from documenting the painful aspects of our existence, Erica-Lynn Huberty [has written] a book of stories whose immediate goal is not to entertain or humor us, but to liberate us from this desire Mohammed Naseehu Ali, author of The Prophet of Zongo Street a distinctly American investigation of the emotional corners into which people retreat to pass their lives Hilary Thayer Hamann, author of Anthropology of an American Girl "In Dog Boy and Other Harrowing Tales, Erica-Lynn Huberty reminds us what fiction is all about: beautiful writing, vivid characters, and an imagination that truly soars. A remarkable debut. Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle and Comfort
"Kauffman has done something remarkable with The Gunners . . . She's made spending time with [her characters] not just tolerable but delightful. And she's achieved this not by manufacturing likability, but by so convincingly rendering the affection between them that you accept each character's foibles as readily as they do one another's . . . There's so much generosity and spirit and humor shared by whatever characters are on the page at any given time that I was always happy to accompany them." —The New York Times Book Review Following her wonderfully received first novel, Another Place You’ve Never Been, called “mesmerizing,” “powerful,” and “gorgeous,” by critics all over the country, Rebecca Kauffman returns with Mikey Callahan, a thirty–year–old who is suffering from the clouded vision of macular degeneration. He struggles to establish human connections—even his emotional life is a blur. As the novel begins, he is reconnecting with “The Gunners,” his group of childhood friends, after one of their members has committed suicide. Sally had distanced herself from all of them before ending her life, and she died harboring secrets about the group and its individuals. Mikey especially needs to confront dark secrets about his own past and his father. How much of this darkness accounts for the emotional stupor Mikey is suffering from as he reaches his maturity? And can The Gunners, prompted by Sally’s death, find their way to a new day? The core of this adventure, made by Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy, and Sam, becomes a search for the core of truth, friendship, and forgiveness. A quietly startling, beautiful book, The Gunners engages us with vividly unforgettable characters, and advances Rebecca Kauffman’s place as one of the most important young writers of her generation. "A moving novel . . . Each character comes to terms with their dark past, and uncertain futures—like an intimate hangout session, dashed with suspense and few extra layers of emotional beauty. You'll find yourself thinking of Freaks and Geeks, The Big Chill, and maybe all those friends you've been meaning to text." —Entertainment Weekly, The Must List
Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 192 countries and a group of select territories are used by policy makers, the media, international corporations, and civic activists and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. Press accounts of the survey findings appear in hundreds of influential newspapers in the United States and abroad and form the basis of numerous radio and television reports. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.
