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In May 25, 1997, Sierra Leone experienced one of the most devastating coups in history. In the months that followed, in a series of articles, writer and journalist Gbanabom Hallowell did not just describe the coup and its aftermath, he mapped out the intersections of complex forces pushing and pulling at his tiny nation: tribalism, colonialism, capitalism, generational disconnect, democracy, a badly managed military and personal ambition. These insightful and eminently hopeful articles are collected in Tears of the Sweet Peninsula. In this book, what had been newspaper pieces read by a small country have become one man's message to the world; a call to all mankind to make peace with its past and with itself." - Tom Wallace ... Read more

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This book seeks to tell the story of the parts played by the key institution of Achimota College, in the Gold Coast, now Ghana, during the Second World War. Achimota College was the headquarters of the West Africa command, from where the Royal West African frontier force was organised. Secondly, British resident ministers, sent to the Gold Coast by Churchill's government to coordinate the war effort in West Africa, had their offices at Achimota. Achimota was also a key educational institution in West Africa, and led to the establishment of the University College of the Gold Coast at Achimota in 1948. ... Read more

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This is the first complete English translation of Ludewig Ferdinand Romer's sensitive account of Gold Coast (modern Ghana) in the mid 1700s. A vital resource on the history of West Africa, Romer's work offers rich descriptions of African societies, trading practices with Europe, and religion. ... Read more

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Kola is a 'food-drug', a substance considered neither food nor medicine, but - like coffee, tea, coca and tobacco - is used to induce 'flights of fancy'. It is incorporated into rites of passage, and ceremonies to cement treaties and contracts; its medicinal properties were first recognised outside Africa in the twelfth century; and it is a legal and popular stimulant among West African Muslims.BR> North America: Ohio U Press; Ghana: Woeli Publishing Services ... Read more

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A multi-disciplinary analysis of a powerful African kingdom thatoccupied a major region of Ghana, rich in cocoa, timber and gold, during the19th century. ... Read more

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Telling the Asantes' story of their hundred-year war with the British Empire--from 1807 to 1900--a saga of massive resistance against overwhelming odds reveals a wealthy, sophisticated culture and balances our view of native African societies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Gripping portrait of a overlooked civilization and conflict
_The Fall of the Asante Empire_ by Robert B. Edgerton is a rather engaging book that can be read on several levels. It is an account of one of the last existing preliterate sub-Saharan African civilizations, the author providing speculation and first-hand contemporary accounts of one of the most noteworthy and powerful non-European civilizations of West Africa. As one might imagine it is also a vivid, detailed, and exhaustive (though certainly not tedious) tale of the various cold and hot wars that broke out between an ambitious, imperialistic British Empire and a sometimes bellicose but often surprisingly peace-loving native civilization, a tale filled with bravery, treachery, humor, and tragedy, of an African state that though locally quite powerful was increasingly aware of the growing disparity in military might between the two civilizations. It is also an interesting study in international affairs; one filled with failed peace attempts, misread intentions, and missed opportunities for peace.

The Zulus are with good reason both during the 19th century and today a highly respected example of the military power, success, and bravery of native African armed forces, one that for a time prevailed against a much more powerful British Empire, its flamboyantly dressed and clearly very brave warriors capturing the imaginations of many Westerners. The author though laments that for many Americans and Europeans recognition of the valor and success of the African fighting men begins and ends with the Zulus. Largely unrecognized is the longest and most successful military resistance to European colonization, that of the Asante of Ghana, which fought against the British from 1807 to 1900, a century long conflict of numerous small and many large battles, several of which the Asante were the clear victors, the only West African army to defeat the Europeans in more than one major engagement.

At the start of the 19th century the Asante Empire was at its height, easily the most powerful state in West Africa, an empire of over three million people in what is now Ghana and then referred to as the Gold Coast. This was more than half as many people as there were in the U.S. at the time and more than one quarter of the population of Britain (eleven million people in 1801). In land area the empire was larger than England, Wales and Scotland (or the state of Wyoming), stretching four hundred miles north from the coast, dominating nearly five hundred miles of coastline. The heartland of the Asante people was the tropical forest zone of the Gold Coast, a hot, humid, wet, and luxuriant forest that was not well-liked by Europeans.

More than just the physical and population size of the Asante were impressive. Unusual among the native African states, the Asante, particularly at the beginning, had a remarkably successful governmental structure. It was able to balance the needs and desires of the king with a ruling oligarchy, a system of checks and balances in which sometimes the king was supreme on a given issue, at other times a near-parliamentarian body had the last say. It had a fairly large and successful government bureaucracy that oversaw many aspects of daily life. Though the empire included many subject kingdoms, conquered peoples, and a sometimes restive slave population, it had a surprisingly cohesive national identity, a "deep patriotism" that survived the worst military setbacks in a century of conflict, that despite internal divisions among a "hodgepodge" of people there was a surprisingly large core that was "always willing to fight and die for the Asante union."

Most remarkable of all perhaps was the Asante fighting man himself. Despite the fact that most of its common soldiers were slaves, often recently captured, they often fought superbly and obeyed their orders with bravery and enthusiasm, amazing the British as they stood their ground against clearly superior firepower (which would later include artillery and machine guns). Also, most were only part-time soldiers, not living and serving in units like their British opponents, required to own and maintain their own flintlock musket (this long musket, called the "long Danes," gave the Asante an enormous advantage over their native neighbors as the Asante possessed a near monopoly on guns along the Gold Coast, though as the century progressed these guns became vastly inferior to later British weaponry).

The heart of the book is an account of the military campaigns that took place between the two great powers, the author detailing the causes, course, and consequences of each battle, discussing the tactics of each encounter, the role various weapons played, the bravery (or cowardice) of individuals of note in each battle, whether the conflicts were small-scale conflicts that occurred basically by mistake or massive mobilizations of men, planned well in advance and involving tens of thousands of individuals. This made for gripping reading and the author, though primarily working with writings from those of the British side, nevertheless worked hard to provide a balanced portrayal of both sides of these various conflicts.

Regrettably misunderstanding was as often at the root of Asante-British fighting as was British imperial ambitions, as each side "struggled with their colossal incomprehension of one another's values, religious beliefs, diplomacy, sense of honor, and national purpose."Both sides could be self-righteous, insistent upon their cultural and in the case of the British oftentimes racial supremacy. In many ways economics was at the heart of the conflict, but even there misunderstanding prevailed, as each side was oftentimes ignorant of the others needs and goals in that arena. Even attitudes towards the other's culture, even ones that did not directly affect the other, would color policy towards the other (such as the British distaste for Asante human sacrifice, well-detailed in this book, as well as the views of their source forporters and interpreters, the native Fante, who hated their Asante overlords and never missed an opportunity to paint vivid pictures of Asante "cruelty, rapacity, untrustworthiness, and lust for war," hardly providing a balanced portrait to the British).

Little Known Subject of British Colonial Wars
Many students or afficianados of 19th century British colonial wars in Africa are only familiar with the more well-known episodes of same, such as the Anglo-Zulu War, the Boer Wars or the travails of Gordon and Kitchener in the Sudan.This book is fascinating for its very readable study of the Asante (formerly Ashanti) tribe of modern day Ghana, which actually had a standing army armed with muskets and organized along neo-European tactics, who dominated their tribal neighbors and gave the British army and its African conscripts a real run for their money over an approximate 100 year period.The author treats both sides of the conflict fairly, and it is apparent that the Asante wanted peace with the British in order to enhance their own prestige and trading opportunities in the area, but the British, under the guise of stamping out oppression to their coastal tribe allies and to stop human sacrifice, took it upon themselves to march inland and crush Asante dominance on several occasions, although not without being bloodied in the process.This is one of those works of history that opens the door to a little known chapter of British military history, and which reads like a novel. Highly recommended, and contains some interesting illustrations and photographs as well.

The hundred year war for Africa's gold coast.
A good book about the end of the Asante Empire.Edgerton tells the end of this empire from both the British and Asante perspectives.The Asantes were a militaristic society who preyed on the weaker societies around them, notably the Fante.The British desired trade and gold, and the conflict was inevitable when the Asante sent armies to conquer the Fante.This brought the British into conflict.
The author takes too much of a nativist perspective in his depiction of the Asante Empire.This empire gloried in slaves and human sacrifices.It had a great military tradition, but why would a author try to paint a positive view of a society that sought entertainment value in the putting to death of slaves.The British may have been interested in conquest and colonization of this land for trade and gold reasons.They may have been rascist, but the Asante were a brutal society.The expiration of this empire was perhaps not such a tragedy after all.The British brought Ghana and the Asante into the modern world.

Great Book
This is a great book, epically for a novice in African history.While American are taught about the different European civilizations we are thoroughly ignorant about similar African civilizations.The Asante Empire was long established in Western Africa (present Ghana) and had an advanced civilization.They had a well organized army, with at the time of the first conflict with Britain, were armed with modern muskets.They had a well organized government and religion.

The conflict with the British was far from a cake walk for the British.The Asante fought bravely for their freedom and gave the British everything that they could handle.The British were not able to subdue the Asante until the progress in arms technology made the Asante armaments obsolete and gave the British a huge advantage.Eventually it was Britishhowitzers vs. Asantemuskets.

a fascinating story, well-told
For centuries the Ghana nee the Gold Coast nee the Ashanti kingdom has been a major producer of gold.The 16th century arrival of European powers on the West African coast opened up vast new trading opportunities. The Europeans tried to push inland to locate the source of the gold, while the Ashantis tried to subjugate the coastal dwelling Fantes who intermediated the trade between the seafaring Europeans and the Ashanti and other inland groups.

This book describes the 100 years on-again off-again war between the British (and their Fante allies) and the Ashanti (supported by the Dutch).The author is an anthropologist and his intepretation of events emphasizes the cross-cultural incomprehension of two societies (Victorian Britain, and late Ashanti Empire) which in some ways were remarkably similar:aristocratic, hierarchical, chauvinistic, imperialistic, militaristic.Some of the stories are fascinating as in the depressing case of the British kidnapping and torture of an Ashanti peace emissary which predictably leads to Ashanti mobilization and the seige of the British castle at Cape Coast. Or the fact that it takes 70 years for the British to figure out that desertions by the Fante were less motivated by cowardice than the fact that the British were forcing their Fante porters to do culturally innappropriate "women's work." Nevertheless, the author clearly likes both the British and the Ashanti, so he makes constant references to the "cowardly" "perfidious" etc. Fante.What the Ashanti could not do, malaria and dysentary did (they don't call West Africa "White Man's Grave" for nothing) and in the end, the British need howitzers and Yoruba troops brought in from Nigeria to capture the Ashanti capital of Kumasi.The final armed resistance to the British is led by an old woman named Yaa Asantewaa who after her capture died in exile in the Seychelles.

The Ashantis never really made their peace with the British and this history has relevance for contemporary Ghana as manifested by the underrepresentation of the Ashanti in the politically influential armed forces, relative to other ethnic groups. ... Read more

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Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah seized opportunities to lead the countries of sub-Saharan Africa away from colonialism. In 1957, he became the first Prime Minister of Ghana. By the time he was overthrown in a coup in 1966 most African countries, outside the settler-dominated South, had also achieved independence. ' As a visionary Nkrumah was ahead of his times, with an astute understanding of colonialism that made the twin goals of socialism at home (Ghana) and African unity the abiding principles of his work and life.... Nkrumah's monumental role and place in modern Ghana's history mystifies him as a national hero; Black Star humanizes Nkrumah in important ways, and the reader gains a new understanding of a great man, but still a man.' - From the new Foreword by Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Professor of History, Harvard University ... Read more

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Selena Axelrod Winsnes has been engaged, since 1982, in the translation into English, and editing of Danish language sources to West African history, sources published from 1697 to 1822, the period during which Denmark-Norway was an actor in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It comprises five major books written for the Scandinavian public. They describe all aspects of life on the Gold Coast [Ghana], the Middle Passage and the Danish Caribbean islands [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 America's. One of the books, L.F.Rømer's A Reliable Account of the Coast of Guinea was runner-up for the prestigious international texts prize awarded by the U.S. African Studies Association.Selena Winsnes lived in Ghana for five years and studied at the University of Ghana, Legon. Her mother tongue is English; and, working free-lance, she resides premanently in Norway with her husband, four children and eight grandchildren. In 2008, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters for distinguished scholarship by the University of Ghana, Legon ... Read more

Product Description
Selena Axelrod Winsnes has been engaged, since 1982, in the translation into English, and editing of Danish language sources to West African history, sources published from 1697 to 1822, the period during which Denmark-Norway was an actor in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It comprises five major books written for the Scandinavian public. They describe all aspects of life on the Gold Coast [Ghana], the Middle Passage and the Danish Caribbean islands [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 America's. One of the books, L.F.Rømer's A Reliable Account of the Coast of Guinea was runner-up for the prestigious international texts prize awarded by the U.S. African Studies Association.Selena Winsnes lived in Ghana for five years and studied at the University of Ghana, Legon. Her mother tongue is English; and, working free-lance, she resides premanently in Norway with her husband, four children and eight grandchildren. In 2008, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters for distinguished scholarship by the University of Ghana, Legon. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Methuen in 1901 in 403 pages; Subjects: Ashanti (Ghana); Ashanti War, 1900; British; Ghana; Kumasi (Ghana); Ashanti; History / Africa / General; History / Africa / West; History / Military / General; History / Military / World War II; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural; ... Read more

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First published in 1921, this is a record of a dynasty which arose in Ashanti in 1695, lasting until 1895, when it fell under the extension of British rule. ... Read more

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First published in 1898, this is an account of a journey from Gold Coast to Bontukmu by a medical officer. He describes the journey and the interior, makes observations on dress, the prevalance of malaria, and commerce in the area. ... Read more

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Scholarship on the West African kingdom of Asante is at the leading edge of Africanist research. T.C. McCaskie gives a detailed and nuanced historical portrait of precolonial Asante. The book is both a profound historical reconstruction of an African polity, and a deeply informed meditation on Asante concepts and ideas. Throughout the book, the Asante experience is consistently discussed in relation to a broad range of historiography and critical theory. ... Read more

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Gold mining occupies a central place in the economic evolution of Ghana. This text examines the period of transition from traditional mining systems to mechanized, capitalized mining companies in the Akan area of the Gold Coast. Looking at the role of African as well as European mining entrepreneurs, female as well as male mining labor, this study encompasses issues of gender, ethnicity, business organization, pressure groups and exploitation. The author seeks to reveal a new complexity in the economic and social history of mining in the late 19th century. In particular he concludes that it is in the individualization of land transfers to mining concessionaires, rather than in the mobilization of a permanent unskilled wage labor force, that the greatest impact on economic and social change can be measured. North America: Ohio U Press ... Read more

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Based on 25 years of research on and in Sabon Zongo, one of the oldest migrant communities in Accra, Ghana, this book explores the interconnections of community residents to one another both in terms of built space--the boundaries of community, community structures, and compounds--and social space--the social networks, institutions, activities, and routines through which Sabon Zongo residents reproduce meaning as constituted by and in their built environment. ... Read more

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This book aims to examine the impact of fiscal decentralizationon subnational resource mobilization capacity, and on macroeconomicstability, in four African countries. Field research conducted inBenin, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali, constituted the basis for arigorous and detailed examination of the decentralization process ineach country.One of the intriguing findings is that increased subnational taxautonomy significantly reduces the size of the central government andimproves the central government budget balance in the samplecountries. Recommendations are: (a) the design and implementation ofdecentralization mechanisms must be based on the principles ofstability, transparency, accountability, and equity; (b) frequentdialogue between the central and sub-national governments, and anactive association and cooperation of local and regional levels ofgovernment in the formulation of macroeconomic objectives will improvethe chances of successful decentralization programs; (c) authoritiesmust heighten their campaigns to educate local populations ondecentralization reforms. Full and educated participation of allcitizens at the grassroots level is critical to the success ofdecentralization programs.In all, the book focuses its analysis on the capacity of localcommunities in Africa for autonomous development and self-governance,and that, is a refreshing addition to the literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Critique of a Compelling and Extraordinary Book
The ways in which Dr. Boko analyzed the economical developments in many West African countries was outstanding.He was able to convey a detailed and well organized examination of the impact of the fiscal decentralization on subnational resource mobilization capacity and macroeconomic stability.

Usually economic books are extremely dense and quite frankly "hard reads" but Decentralization and Reform in Africa was not.Indeed it was thought-provoking and complex, but Boko seemed to relate ideas and recommendations in an understandably unique fashion.

In the end, it was quite simply a great read.I look forward to future works by this author. ... Read more

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Stephanie Newell's book reveals the undocumented writing, publishing and reading of pamphlets and paperbacks which exist outside of mainstream mass-production in Ghana. Gender relations are a dominant theme in the stories which explore and symbolically resolve commonly held pre-occupations about marriage, money and manhood. North America: Ohio U Press ... Read more