Fate of Our Mothers is the first in the series of the author's narrative of the assorted experiences that exemplify the first twenty years of his life. From rustic village life as a five year old boy, to the young adult person slated for the job of an untrained teacher in the city, the eclectic events in the author's life bring to life the untold stories of rural living, featuring the cultural conflicts endemic in a patriarchal system where while men may rule, the women are the active prime movers in the order of things. The story or compendium of stories take the reader through a life that epitomizes the paradoxical interface among joy, peace, as well as tragedies and pains; successes and gains, as well as failures and losses; protection and comfort, as well as dangerous exposure and vulnerability. The story does not follow the orthodoxy of systematic chronicling that often characterizes traditional memoirs. Rather, the author verbally addresses his own four children, who were born and raised in America, a sporadic reflection of his childhood upbringing in a far away village of Oke-Awo, Aba Iresi in southwestern Nigeria. He describes the rustic simplicity of Yoruba village life, the beauty of living under the roof and compound of a caring father, two relentlessly hardworking mothers, ten siblings, many relatives, and a countless number of extended family members and non-relatives. In all, Fate of Our Mothers whispers into our collective conscience that the survival of the Yoruba universe is anchored in the fate of its women.

Fate of Our Mothers: The Collected Memories of an African Village Boy

Michael Oladejo Afoláyan

Pan-African University Press

As our world battles on from a Darkened past and an equally Dark present, a steady beam of Light persists. It is eternal and within the core Spirit of humankind. It has long sought full release; opening wide the flood-gates of Actuation, Inclusion and Life Engagement. On Wings of Light declares this time has already arrived. Sharply accelerating transfigurative effects, it contends, are due to the advent of Cybernetics; the combined operation of Electronics and Communications in our modern world. Cybernetics not only brings Great Light to illuminate age-old Corridors of Darkness; it points mankind in the direction of a bright and promising Horizon Future. In the unfolding of this future, it maintains that Africa, with its vast lands, folk, resources, root Ethic of Light and increasing prominence, will play the determining role. Exploring relevant concepts, thoughts and perceptions; this work reflects on their meaning, significance and stimulus to practical research and activity.

On Wings of Light: Reflections on Cybernetics, Africa and the Wider World

History

Michael Vickers

Africa

A Matter of Sharing is a memoir of Ghana-born A.B. Assensoh, who has lived, studied, and worked in the United Kingdom, Nigeria, and Liberia, where he served in editorial capacities. From Sweden, where he studied at the University of Stockholm and also served as Editor of African Features Service in Scandinavia, he moved to the United States in the mid-1970s, first to serve as a Scholar-in-Residence at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania as well as University of Pennsylvania, and he has lived there ever since. His memoir serves as his recollections of events that bring happiness, mixed feelings and, sometimes, sorrow. Apart from sharing anecdotes of some of the events in West Africa of London, this is the first time that he has committed many of the details.

A Matter of Sharing: My Memoir

A.B. Assensoh

Africa: Development Challenges and Possibilities

Amadu Jacky Kaba

Why does the future of democracy seem uncertain on the continent? The achievement of this book is to provide answers to this question. First, the book reasons that the democratization processes on the continent are moving forward backwards, in that the preconditions for continued sustainability of democracy are absent and not plentiful in almost all African nations. In Europe, development preceded democracy, whereas in Africa, development and democracy are being implemented concurrently, in the face of austerity measures in order to induce economic growth. Thus, the book argues that development, by all counts, is a precondition for democracy and not the other way round. Second, the book suggests that the democratization processes defy the traditional principles of democracy where power evolves from "bottom up". In African nations, power evolves from "top to bottom", creating a deformed and an abnormal form of democracy known as "elite democracy", imposed on African people by African elites through external influences of Western European countries in the form of political conditionality and adoption of the Bill of Rights by African nations, as preconditions for receiving not only development aid and loans, but also for diplomatic relations. Third, the book concludes that the democratization processes are just experiments of transplantation of Western European values to African nations, since Western European values disregard African traditional values and often dismiss them as irrational and primitive, instead of viewing them as complimentary.

The Democratization of Africa: Dynamics and Trends

Alexius Amtaika

This innovative anthology presents an interdisciplinary approach to Yorùbá culture and customs. Written by Yorùbá experts on all continents, the seventy-five chapters in the volume employ a variety of multi-faceted perspectives to provide a detailed study of the Yorùbá people with insights from anthropology, arts, language and linguistics, literature, history, religion, sociology, philosophy, psychology, criminology, law, technology, medicine, pharmacy, engineering, economics, education, political science, music, theater, popular culture, cultural studies, migration and diaspora studies, gender, etc. Each chapter addresses the changes that have taken place in traditional culture. This blend between traditional culture and modifications to such culture gives a balanced and authentic picture of what can be regarded as culture and customs in present-day Yorùbá society.

Culture and Customs of the Yorùbá

Tóyìn (ed.)

Akíny?mí, Akíntúndé (ed.) Fál?lá

This book captures the full essence of Victor Ekpuk's work as an artist of global reputation, a master of mysterious scripts, ancient signs and symbols. His messages, encrypted in nsibidi and other symbols and signs, find expressions in paintings, illustrations, cartoons and murals. In this book, twelve talented authors reflect on the artist, his background, the foundation of his creativity, and the interpretations of his symbolic messages. Essays by: Amanda Carlson Ph.D, Sylvester Ogbechie Ph.D, Smooth Ugochukwu Ph.D, Dele Jegede (Professor Emeritus), Allyson Purpura Ph.D, Andrea Frohne Ph.D, Moyo Okediji Ph.D, Dr. Imo Nse Imeh, Kunle Filani Ph.D, Dr. Ukpong Onoyom, Toyin Falola Ph.D, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, Aderonke Adesanya Ph.D, and Dr. Christopher Adejumo. Victor Ekpuk is a Nigerian-American artist. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University, Ife, Nigeria in 1989. His work explores the human condition, drawing upon a wide spectrum of meaning that is rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses. Ekpuk's works have been exhibited at Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, The Tang museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, 12th Havana Biennial, Dakar Biennial, Hood Museum, Krannert Art Museum, Fowler Museum, Museum of Art and Design, Newark Museum, The World Bank, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the 1st Johannesburg Biennial. His artworks are in collections of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, Brooks Museum, The World Bank, Newark Museum, Hood Museum, Krannert Art Museum, United States Art in Embassies Art Collection. In 2016, Ekpuk designed trophies for The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art's first African Art Awards, one of which was awarded to Yinka Shonibare, MBE. In 2017 he completed a large-scale centerpiece mural at the North Carolina Museum of Art, as well as a mural at the Memphis Brooks Museum.

Victor Ekpuk: Connecting Lines Across Space and Time

VARIOUS

Arts & Photography

This volume is an attempt to consistently think through the reform of the public administration and public service dynamics that could serve as an institutional framework for reorienting Africa's postcolonial predicament. Africa has often been regarded, among other uncomplimentary epithets, as the most difficult administrative contexts in the world. The failure of the public service in Africa is essentially the failure of the democratic experiment in Africa. The ten lectures gathered in this significant volume derive from the author's practical and intellectual involvement with public administration thinking on the continent including the articulation of the African Public Service Charter under the auspices of the African Union Commission. The essays are all united by a firm conviction that once the public/civil service in Africa fails, then all else has failed in terms of an infrastructural transformation of Africa that will make democratic governance a meaningful experiment for Africans. The volume therefore delivers a serious trajectory of how the African public service and administrative dynamics can leverage on global best practices and existing reform ideas to undermine the African predicament and install good governance for Africans. "...there is no one better positioned to take up the urgent task of fashioning the philosophical and intellectual enterprise crucial to the re-alignment of public service in Africa, which he superbly demonstrates throughout the pages of this book..." Toyin Falola, Jacob &amp; Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, The University of Texas at Austin

Transforming The African Public Service

Tunji Olaopa

There, but for the grace of God is a gripping and detailed memoir of the handling by the Nigeria military government of the 1984/85 strike action by mostly the Nigerian Resident Doctors under the auspices of the Nigeria Medical Association. Professor Abiodun O K Johnson, the author, was then Professor of Pediatrics, the elected Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, and the ex-officio Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. As a consequence of the doctors' action, the striking doctors were dismissed from their jobs. Professor Johnson was removed and he was retired from the Public Service with immediate effect, a decision he has always contended was wrong. About 4 years later and following a change of government, the dismissed Resident doctors were allowed to return back. The author was also re-instated as Professor at the University of Ibadan. He, however, chose to go on voluntary retirement and has been domiciled in the United States of America since 1985. He believes that the regrettable state of Nigeria is a result of recurrent mismanagement by the country's governments. He also believes that, given the military culture and mentality, it has no business running a country.

There, but for the Grace of God

Abiodun Johnson

Looking Back from the Future: The View from Onitsha—Message to my Children

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