Books by Kwasi Konadu

A haunting triple biography of women whose lives were indelibly shaped by slavery, race and the Inquisition.

Kwasi Konadu centers the life of Ghanaian healer, spiritual leader, and farmer Kofi DOnkO (1913-1995) to tell the biography of his community and how they navigated the changes from the late nineteenth century through the end of the twentieth.

A View from The East represents a second edition built upon expanded archival research and a contextualizing of the organization within the African American civil rights and black power movements. At the heart of The East was Uhuru Sasa Shule, an independent African-centered school whose curriculum and pedagogy were rooted in Kawaida philosophy and concepts of education for self-reliance. In addition, The East became a center for the arts. On weekends, it served as a literary salon and hosted concerts by black musicians. Many of the great jazz artists and poets performed there, as it became a well-known and highly sought-after venue. With fresh insight and great detail, Kwasi Konadu excavates the history of The East, exploring the confluence of cultural nationalism, education, economic self-sufficiency, and the arts during the Black Power period. Drawing on extensive interviews and primary research, Konadu vividly brings to life the people and events that shaped this remarkable institution and outlines the rich lessons it provides for future community building organizations.

Using diverse and new sources (archaeological, biomedical, climatological, linguistic, ethno-musical, oral and documentary sources in various languages), this groundbreaking study tells the story of a West African people, the origins and character of their cultural forms and ideas, and how these Akan, or "pioneering peoples," shaped the politics and societies of their homeland as well as the European colonies that received their enslaved members. The book demonstrates how these peoples organized themselves into clans connected by shared sociocultural features, formed polities, fought wars yet engaged in extensive diplomacy, traded with yet competed against one another, and ultimately their members became a force in the Americas, despite their relatively small numbers. As enslaved, marooned, or legally emancipated peoples, they foregrounded and yet went beyond the diasporic themes of maroonage, resistance, and freedom. Locating the Akan variable in the African diasporic equation allows scholars and students of Africa and the Americas to better understand how African histories and diasporic experiences cohere and how both are still evolving.

25-million-strong Akan, a cultural-linguistic group found predominantly in present-day Ghana and to a lesser extent Togo and Ivory Coast, has established a legacy as widely known as its bright kente cloth. This first-of-its-kind collection features a new array of primary sources that provide fresh and nuanced perspectives on the histories of the Akan peoples.

A collection of key essays about the Akan people, their history, and their culture. The Akans are an ethnic group from West Africa, predominately Ghana and Togo, of roughly 25 million people. This volume features a new array of primary sources that provide fresh and nuanced perspectives.