When Ghana gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1957, people of African descent the world over celebrated the new nation as a beacon for their aspirations for freedom and self-determination. Over the next decade, hundreds of African Americans - including Martin Luther King Jr., George Padmore, W. E. B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Richard Wright, Pauli Murray, C. L. R. James, and Muhammad Ali - visited or settled in Ghana. Kevin K. Gaines explains what attracted these expatriates to Ghana and how their new community was shaped by the convergence of the Cold War, the rise of the U.S. civil rights movement, and the decolo-nization of Africa. Index, bib, notes, b/w photos, 342pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS.

Examines a complex African settlement on the coast of present-day Ghana from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Explores developments there in the light of European expansion and illustrates remarkable cultural continuity in the midst of technological change. BNS, 73 b/w illus, 14 maps, 5 tables, 288pp, USA. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUT, 1560989718

2001 hardback

A comprehensive analysis of Ashanti gold and mining set into its historical, social and economic context. Index, 200pp, UK. MARSHALL EDITIONS.

1997 1840281162 Hardback

A social interpretation of environmental process for the coastal lowlands S E Ghana. Focuses on the Anlo, sea fishermen, with a strong attachment to their land, and their religious and political responses to environmental disaster. Maps, figures, b/w photos, bib, index, xii, 244pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.

Explores changes and continuities in the ways people have made and exercised claims on land in Asante, Ghana, during the colonial and postcolonial periods. Convinced that customary rules and rulers provided a stable foundation for colonial rule, British officials decided early on that ownership of the land was vested in Asante chiefs. As land values rose, struggles intensified over land and land-based income, and also over the meaning of 'custom' and its relevance to the colonial order. Although postcolonial Ghanaian governments have legislated sweeping reductions in the scope of chiefly authority and customary law, most land in Asante remains subject to multiple, overlapping claims and continued debate. Maps, app, notes, bib, index, xxxix, 226pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.

History of the Danish contribution to the slave trade and its 'golden age' during the 1770s to the 1780s. This English translation provides explanations about inaccessible references. BNS, 288pp, GHANA. SUB-SAHARAN PUBLISHERS.

This book paints a picture of life in Ghana, through the stories of Ghanaians themselves. It includes a brief historical background - of the 16th century states trading in ivory, gold, and slaves, the effect of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and of British colonial rule - the book traces the growth of modern Ghana. Many b/w illus. index, 88pp. UK. OXFAM PUBLICATIONS, 0855984317

Covers history of the Gold Coast and Achimoto College in particular during the Second World War period, 1939 1945. Sources, v, 175pp, GHANA. SEDCO PUBLISHING LTD.

One of the first written histories of an African country and people. Begun in 1907, under the instructions of the exiled royal family, this important volume brings together detailed information about Asante lineages and early history from oral sources and modern essays by leading scholars of Asante history. Bib, notes, b/w illus, x, 224pp, UK. OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 0197262619

Provides an historical overview of Ghana from the emergence of precolonial states through increasing contact with Europeans that led to the establishment of formal colonial rule by Great Britain at the end of the Nineteenth Century to the present. A timeline, photographs, maps, and an appendix of biographies of notable figures are included. Index, bib, 331pp, USA. GREENWOOD PUBLISHING GROUP.

First published in 1889, this work has been used as an authority in the Law Courts of Ghana, where customs and their usages are relevant to interpretation of the law. The author (1834-1917) stated his purpose as the need for such a history by a Ghanaian, a distinguished medical practitioner. Twenty-nine chapters are arranged chronologically. Chapter 1 covers a short description of the Gold Coast; the Kingdom of Guinea; expeditions sent by Pharaoh Necho and the Carthiginians; F. Rombers reference to the Kingdom of Benin; traditional accounts of emigration to the coast; tribes assumed to have been the aboriginal races on the coast, and their conquest. The period covers BC600-750 and AD1400-1700. Chapter 29 covers 1851-1856: administration of justice according to English Law & its effects; imposition & collection methods of a poll tax, and conspiracy to refuse payment; bombardment of Christiansborg, Labadi and Teshi; peace and the rebuilding of Christiansborg. 363pp, GHANA. GHANA U P.

This is third title in Thorkild Hansen's classic trilogy on the Atlantic slave trade, originally published in Danish in 1967, and the first major translation and publication of the work in English. In Europe and North America, few are aware that the beautiful and now wealthy Virgin Islands of St Thomas, St Croix and St Jan were once Danish settlements and outposts of the slave trade. Moreover that the question of the independence of the islands was never seriously considered by the Danes, who instead sold them to the US in 1917 for 25 million dollars, several decades after the official end of slavery. This was against the will of the majority of the islanders, who were opposed to rule by the Americans, wary of their iniquitous treatment of blacks. In Denmark meanwhile, the popular view of national history presides that Denmark was the first of the imperial powers to abolish the slave trade. Thorkild Hansen's work breaks with these mis-representations of Denmark's role in the Atlantic slave trade. The third and biggest volume in the trilogy covers the period from the introduction of African slaves to the Danish islands, their official emancipation in 1848, subsequent sale to the Americans in the twentieth century, and reactions and resistance to these processes. Maps, col illus, 462pp, GHANA. SUB-SAHARAN PUBLISHERS.

Kola is a 'food-drug' and a legal and popular stimulant among West African Muslims. This study brings together the legendary, social, religious, medicinal and economic importance of kola nuts. It delineates the place of kola in the political economy of Asante and the Gold Coast, and its contribution to the economic initiatives of the Hausa diaspora in the region. Index, bib, maps, tables, b/w illus, 173pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.

2005 0852554907 Paperback

Also available in hardback - email us for details.

New in paperback. An examination of the varied ways, outside and inside markets, in which Asante producers obtained labour, land and capital during the transformative era. 616pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER PRESS.

Paul E. Isert, a Dane, arrived in the Gold Coast in 1783, taking advantage of an opening in the slave trade between Guinea and the West Indies. He was appointed as chief surgeon to the Danish establishments on the Guinea Coast. In 1786 he sailed to the West Indies with a cargo of slaves, who revolted. His experiences in Ghana and the West Indies resolved him to end the trans-Atlantic slave abuse. This is the first English language edition of his original Danish letters. 358pp, GHANA. SUB-SAHARAN PUBLISHERS.

Drawing on evidence from several disciplines, Ann Brower Stahl reconstructs the daily lives of Banda villagers of west central Ghana, from the time that they were drawn into the Niger trade (around AD 1300) until British overrule was established early in the twentieth century. The case study aims to closely integrate perspectives drawn from archaeology, history and anthropology in African studies. 290pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Social history of a West African urban community, from the 1860s to the 1920s. The focus is town politics and the ways in which Ga political action shaped Accra's transition from pre colonial city state to colonial port city. 5 maps, 24 b/w photos, 1 table, notes, bib, index, xxxiii, 264pp, UK. JAMES CURREY.

A history of the 300 year old relationship between the Netherlands and Ghana and the economic, political and cultural ties that have since evolved. Prefaced by the Ambassador of Ghana to the Netherlands. Maps, b/w and colour ill, tables, 159pp, GHANA. SUB-SAHARAN PUBLISHERS.

A history of Ghana's oldest secondary school, set against a background of recent history. Bib, app, x, 541pp, GHANA. SANKOFA.

This book discusses the foreign policy of Ghana's first independent government and this momentous early period in the postcolonial history of Ghana, under Kwame Nkrumah. At this time, Nkrumah had a place on the world stage and Ghana was the driving force of Africa in global diplomacy. The book explores how Ghana was able to pursue an activist foreign policy with few resources and little strategic importance. The author elucidates several areas of foreign policy in which Ghana punched above its weight such as the formation of the OAU, the restructuring of the Commonwealth, disarmament and world peace and the imperative of China resuming its membership of the UN and seat on the Security Council. The author is was Ghana's High Commissioner to Britain and as Minister of Foreign Trade in Nkrumah's last government. The research draws on public and private archives, as well as the author's own archives from his time in public office. BNS, 217pp, GHANA. GHANA UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Over the past fifteen years, visitors from the African diaspora have flocked to Cape Coast and Elmina, two towns in Ghana whose chief tourist attractions are the castles and dungeons where slaves were imprisoned before embarking for the New World. This desire to commemorate the Middle Passage contrasts sharply with the silence that normally cloaks the subject within Ghana. Why do Ghanaians suppress the history of enslavement? And why is this history expressed so differently on the other side of the Atlantic? This book tackles these questions by analyzing the slave trade's absence from public versions of coastal Ghanaian family and community histories, its troubled presentation in the country's classrooms and nationalist narratives, and its elaboration by the trans-national tourism industry. Bayo Holsey discovers that in the past, African involvement in the slave trade was used by Europeans to denigrate local residents, and this stigma continues to shape the way Ghanaians imagine their historical past. Notes, bib, b/w illus, 280pp. CHICAGO U P.

Focusing on the Anlo-Ewe in Ghana the author asks to what extent did colonialism affect how colonized people understood the physical and spiritual landscapes in which they lived? And what history, memories, and meanings survived? B/w ill, maps, notes, bib, index, xix, 200pp, USA. INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 025321517X

The second book in a trilogy dealing with the story of the participation of the Danes and Norwegians in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Ship of Slaves narrates the shocking saga of the ships and the middle passage. Illustrated with b/w and colour images. Translated from Danish by Kari Dako. Notes, 204pp, GHANA. SUB SAHARAN PUBLISHERS, 9988550758

An account of the role of the Gold Coast during the Second World War. Sandwiched between the pro-German French colonies, the Gold Coast hosted the British armies and its spies and De Gaulle's Free French agents. Exposes the political and military tensions of the region until the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942ended the threat to British West Africa. Index, bib, notes, b/w photos, maps, xxiii, 286pp, USA. OHIO U P, 0821414305

Now in paperback. An examination of eighteenth and nineteenth century Ashanti culture centring around the crucial ritual of the annual Kumasa odwira festival. Also discusses key Asante concepts and ideas within the context of historiography and critical theory. Index, notes, gloss, xvii, 492pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0521894328

UESCO celebrated 2004 as the international year to commemorate the struggle against slavery and its abolition. The Ghanaian Governments National Slave Route Project Committee held an international conference on transatlantic slave as part of that initiative. These twenty-nine papers are largely the proceedings of that conference, with the inclusion of papers from the National Conference on the Slave Trade in 2003. The book is divided into opening statements, followed by papers on three main themes: landmarks, legacies and expectations. Bib, col photos, 400pp, GHANA. SUB-SAHARAN PUBLISHERS.

Identifies important shifts in the role of traditional rule under colonial rule, Nkru-mah's leadership, and the military, and how this has been reflected constitutionally and in reality today. Refs, index, x, 149pp, NIGERIA. SEDCO PUBLISHING 9964721730

2002 Paperback

Translated from the Danish by Selena Axelrod Winsnes, who has been engaged since 1982 in the translation and editing of Danish language sources to West African history, sources originally published from 1697 to 1822, when Denmark-Norway was an actor in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The series comprises five accounts which describe all aspects of life on the Gold Coast, the Middle Passage and the Danish Caribbean islands now the US Virgin Islands], as seen by five different men. Each had his own agenda and mind-set, and the books, both singly and combined, hold a wealth of information - of interest both to scholars and lay readers. They provide important insights into the cultural baggage the enslaved Africans carried with them to the Americas. B/w illus, maps, 234pp, GHANA. SUB-SAHARAN PUBLISHERS.

Translated from the Danish by Selena Axelrod Winsnes, who has been engaged since 1982 in the translation and editing of Danish language sources to West African history, sources originally published from 1697 to 1822, when Denmark-Norway was an actor in the Transatlan-tic Slave Trade. The series comprises five accounts which describe all aspects of life on the Gold Coast, the Middle Passage and the Danish Caribbean islands now the US Virgin Islands], as seen by five different men. Each had his own agenda and mind-set, and the books, both singly and combined, hold a wealth of information - of interest both to scholars and lay readers. They provide important insights into the cultural baggage the enslaved Africans carried with them to the Americas. B/w illus, maps, 296pp, GHANA. SUB-SAHARAN PUBLISHERS.

New in paperback. Challenges dominant ideas about Africa's relations with modernity by examining the writing of intellectuals from pre-independence Ghana from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. 364pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER PRESS.

Using oral and documentary sources, the author conducts a major study of Nana Yaa Asantewaa and her decisive role in the war of 1900-1, the Asante War of Independence. Illustrated with b/w photographs. Notes, 182pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.