“A PLEA FOR MERCY” by Kwesi Brew (Poet)

Kwesi Brew 1928 -2009

A PLEA FOR MERCY


We have come to your shrine to worship

We the sons of the land

The naked cowherd has brought

The cows safely home,

And stands silent with his bamboo flute

Wiping the rain from his brow;

As the birds brood in their nests

Awaiting the dawn with unsung melodies

The shadows crowd on the shore

Pressing their lips against the bosom of the sea;

The peasants home from their labours

Sit by their log-fires

Telling tales of long-ago.

Why should we the sons of the land

Plead unheeded before your shrine?

When our hearts are full of song

And our lips tremble with sadness?

The little firefly vies with the star,

The log-fire with the sun

The water in the calabash

With the mighty Volta,

But we have come in tattered penury

Begging at the door of a Master.



Source: http://afrilingual.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/a-plea-for-mercy-kwesi-brew-for-ghana-lit-week/

The Origins of the Brew surname in Ghana ….(Descendant of Richard Brew, described as, ‘the infamous slave trader of the Gold Coast, now Ghana‘)…

"He's winking for Ghana......and is one of the most well-known and favourite black diplomats in Europe, the Ghanaian Ambassador in Bonn, O. H. Brew. He not only entertains his partners during diplomatic discussions through his humour; he is also known as a skilled an exceptionally well educated diplomat."

Paulina Opoku-Gyimah says: Ever wondered where some of our European surnames in Ghana come from??? The following extracts come from: http://brew.clients.ch/BrewAfrica.htm and traces the surname Brew found mainly in the Fanti region to one Richard Brew, who is believed to have originated from Ireland -and is described as, ‘the infamous slave trader of the Gold Coast, now Ghana”… He is had many native Ghanaian wives and numerous children. You might be surprised by some of his descendants!!!!  I’m thinking….....wouldn’t it be lovely if brothers Peter Casely-Hayford (TV Producer) and Augustus Casely-Hayford (professor) -got together and did a televised piece about Richard Brew, their infamous ancestor??



*****Kind permission was obtained from Mr. James A. Brew (†), to publish the following information. It is a part of his own research into the history and origins of the Brew surname on the Isle of Man, and the movements of various families around the United Kingdom, and subsequently around the world. This database has been kindly transcribed by Marilyn Robinson.

Richard Brew, circa 1725-1776, arrived in Africa 1745 and was Registrar at the British H.Q. in Gold Coast [today Ghana] in 1750 at £63 per annum. He was Governor of Animabu 1750-60 and 1761-64 at £200 per annum plus £150 table allowance per annum. He provided a bond of £5000 and two sureties of £2,500. He returned to Dublin in 1760 after 15 years in West Africa to raise a new bond of £10,000 and returned to Africa. He was reprimanded in 1763 for selling slaves to the Dutch. His slaves were shipped to Jamaica while he was in private trade from 1763-76. He built large and impressive "Castle Brew" in 1763-64. It sheltered 300 souls, but is now a ruin. It has been partly restored by the Ghanaian Government as a museum and renamed "Blankson House". Richard Brew had financial problems in 1768, and was bankrupt by 1774. That same year Castle Brew was seized. Brew was very emaciated and ill before his death and his accounts were in confusion. He left an estate of £8,739 of which £4,145 was derived from the sale of the castle’s effects. The castle was richly furnished: There were two settees, 23 Windsor chairs, 4 mahogany tables, two bureaus, a bookcase and sideboard, four bedsteads, a glass chandelier in the hall, four looking glasses and 66 pictures, an organ, quantities of silverware, china, linen, etc., 15 waistcoats, 9 laced coats, 16 shirts, 9 collars and cravats, silk breeches, books: 100 volumes listed by title "Spectator", "Rambler", "Tom Jones", "Charles Grandson", 20 volumes of Pope, 11 of Swift, Addison, Dr. Johnson’s "Dictionary", Rollin's "Roman History", 6 volumes of "History of London", 9 volumes of Smollett’s "History of England", and Shakespeare and "Don Quixote". (Brew is mentioned in Smollett.). Richard Brew's children:

Richard Broow, who died in 1782, was educated in England. He was disowned by his father because of his wild behaviour. Later he was an accountant to the Council of Cape Coast Castle. He died in poverty and was not mentioned in his father's will.

Henry, who died in 1827, was also educated in England. He was a Linguist at Cape Coast Castle in 1792. He, too, was not mentioned in his father's will.

Eleanor, baptised in 1767
Amba, baptised in 1768

Eleanor and Amba’s mother was Effnah Anson, daughter of Eno Baisie Kurentsi, also known as "John Currantee", who died in 1764, by Ekua, daughter of Ansa Sasraku, King of Akramu, who died circa 1689. Their brother Prince William Ansa, moved in fashionable circles in London in the personal charge of Lord Halifax, and was introduced to King George III. He returned to West Africa in a British Warship in 1750. For the genealogical history of Akramu, see Burke's "Royal families of the World", volume ii, pages 73-75.

Henry Brew married Abba Kagbah of Quaque’s family. (Quque was ordained in England 1765, of a matrilineal family). Their children were:

Richard Brew, 1778-1849, who died a very rich man. A "half scholar" (i.e. he could read), Court interpreter of Cape Coast and a magistrate.

Samuel Kante Brew, who died 1823, a "scholar" (i.e. he could read and write)

Eyaapah Brew

Samuel Kante Brew was a great slave trader who occupied Fort Nassau under the Spanish flag. "He combined European dress with the grossest superstition, idolatry and fetish", wrote Sir Charles McCarthy to Lord Bathurst in 1823. (Sir Charles was killed in a battle with the Ashanti in 1824 and his skull used as a drinking cup by the King of Ashanti’s successors). Samuel's children were:

Henry (Harry) Brew, who died in 1890, partner of his brother Samuel Collins Brew. He had sons:

Hagar Brew

Richard Henry Brew, a Methodist who married a niece of the important Anamabu merchant Samuel Ferguson

Samuel Henry Brew, educated at a Wesleyan High School at Cape Coast. He had a notable career in government service. Samuel had children:

Henrietta Brew, 1856-1950

Harry Brew, 1860-1915
Samuel Henry Brew, 1865-1922, who married .....?..... Ferguson

Maria Brew, 1868-1898, remained unmarried

Richard Henry Brew, 1871-1899

Garnet Brew, 1874-?

Ebenezer Annan Brew, 1878-1932, civil servant, Freemason

Samuel Collins Brew, circa 1810-1881

Maria Brew

Hannah (Effua Abraba) Brew, a descendant of whom was Mrs. Maude Thompson

Samuel Collins Brew, JP and stipendiary magistrate from 1854-79, and a merchant who was insolvent in 1867, initially married Amba Opamwa, who was the daughter of the Chief of Abua Dunkwa, and later married Adjwe Esson, by whom he had ten children:

Samuel Collins Brew

James Hutton Brew, 1844-1915, educated in England. Attorney-at-law, lived in Brew House, built by his father in 1853 and valued at £1,500. Governor Pope-Hennessy commended him in 1872. Placed on the stool as Prince Brew of Dunkwah and Abercrampa in 1878, he also used this title in England, and founded a succession of newspapers after 1885. His wife’s brother, J. H. Mills, married a granddaughter of King Osei Yaw of Ashanti, who ruled 1800-1824, "A wicked man who killed several people". James Hutton had sons:

Edgar Brew

Effua Brew

Albert Cruikshank Brew, who had sons:

James Hutton Brew, 1875-?, a local preacher

William Ward Brew, 1878-1943, a local preacher and barrister in England

Frederick William Augustus Brew

Richard Collins Brew, who died circa 1880, and was a trader on the Ivory Coast, circa 1857-1879

Elizabeth Brew 1

Sarah Brew

Harriett Brew
Elizabeth Brew 2, who married Edward Bannerman

Mary Brew (Ewarapa), who died 1899

Mary (Ewarapa) Brew married Rev. Joseph de Graft Hayford, 1840-1919, descendant of Egyr Ansah, 6th King of Fanti (See below). Their son:

John Ephram Casely-Hayford, MBE, 1866-1930

John Ephram Casely-Hayford married Patience Johnson, his 9th and last wife. Their son:

Victor Casely-Hayford, 1925-1994

Victor Casely-Hayford, was a barrister and later accountant, Kwame N'Krumah's Attorney-General. Manx Resident at 6 Palm Court, Summerhill, Douglas, Isle of Man in the 1990s. He was fined £350 for not submitting his tax returns for 1986-1991 in respect of his company "Sangill Ltd.", which was an administrative company only and did not trade. He had four children:

Peter Casely-Hayford, TV Producer of "Panorama"

Augustus Casely-Hayford, MA (UCL), introduced to me by Professor Richard Rathbone of UCL.

Joseph (Joe) Casely-Hayford, Dress designer

Margaret Casely-Hayford
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Egyr Ansah, 6th King of Fanti

Egyr Ansah died 1801. He was succeeded by:

Burupu, 7th King of Fanti, 1801-1851. He was incited by Sir Charles McCarthy to rise against the Ashanti in 1824 and was defeated. His son Essien, also known as Joe Aggrey, became the 11th King of Fanti, but was deported 1866

Kofi Amisa, a nephew to Burupu, became 8th King of Fanti, but he was dethroned 1836. His sister Ansei Koa had three children:

Kweku, 1816-1858, who became 9th King of Fanti

Kweku Ena, also known as John Crentsil, became 10th King of Fanti, 1858-?

Rev. James Hayford Kwamina Afua, 1817-1857. He married Elizabeth, sister of the Rev. William De Graft, missionary. Their son:

Rev. Joseph De Graft Hayford, 1840-1919, married Mary Ewarapa Brew

For further information, see the book "West African Trade and Coast Society", West African Graphic Co. Ltd., Oxford University Press, 1969.


**************************************
Book to read: The Slave Trade. The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440 - 1870" by Hugh Thomas


It is not known for sure where Richard came from but records searched show Ireland. He was a very popular man in Africa and built a "Brew" Castle. One of my secretary's came from this area of Africa and has seen it. Richard had a few African wives of which were nobility or princesses of various tribes. About two years ago I heard of a Brew attending the University here in Windsor and made contact with her. She visited me at work and you should have seen the people take a double look when she introduced herself as a Brew, as she was from Africa and now was living in England. She told me that the Brew name was very well looked upon in Africa and that all Brew females after marriage kept their Brew surname and did not go by their husbands name at all." Tony Brew

West African family history is a much neglected subject, although in 1947 Professor Raymond Firth drew attention to its potentialities in an article in "Africa" and some years later Dr. Arthur Porter enlarged on the theme in his paper "Family Histories and West African Social Development". The present study aims at making a contribution to this field, focusing on the Brew family in the Fanti region of Ghana, and spanning more than one hundred and fifty years.

Many different personalities and facets of affairs are involved over this period of time, and it is hardly surprising that the data available should be somewhat uneven. Thus the life of the Irish trader, Richard Brew, can be depicted more fully than the lives of his African descendants, with the possible exception of James Hutton Brew and J. E. Casley Hayford. The lengthy research that was necessary to construct an account of the nineteenth-century Brews has precluded full concentration on these two active public figures. It must also be pointed out that the study seeks to relate the Brews to important themes in the history and development of Ghana; areas where current knowledge is inadequate, for example Fanti in the eighteenth century and the economic history of the coastal region in the nineteenth, are thereby thrown into prominence.

Credit: http://brew.clients.ch/BrewAfrica.htm

GOSHHHHHHHHHH...........

Ghana Rising Hearts: Joseph Agbeko

I had no idea…..plus I’m sooooooooooo not a boxing fan -thus I had no idea that boxer Joseph Agbeko existed or was sooooooo loved by the Ghanaian public and beyond or that his fight with Abner Mares -was the fight of all fights… A controversial fight many thought that Abner Mares played dirty by hitting our Joseph -very low and that Agbeko should have been the rightful winner -and many are still angry with the referee -who let Abner Mares administer one low blow, after another…..I wonder…was the referee paid?? Ghana Rising would like to thank Joseph Agbeko for reppin Ghana -hard and for putting us on the map…

Interiors: Lesley Lokko’s fabulous Accra Home….

I’m crazy about interiors…and I’m especially loving former architect, author Lesley Lokko’s fabulous Accra home (above)…. All the images are from her uber insightful website at: http://www.lesleylokko.com/ -and its got me thinking …I wonder if she would be up for designing and building another? You can read more about it via her website but I particularly love the following interview she gave to the Guardian newspaper some years back…enjoy…. ....

****************
In 2002, after nearly 10 years of teaching architecture in Britain and the US, I sold my first novel, resigned my teaching job and returned home to Ghana, west Africa, where I grew up. Almost as soon as I arrived, I wanted to build. The place had changed dramatically since my childhood, as had my own ideas about "home" and the kind of space in which I would like to live.


Like many expat Ghanaians, I'd spent almost as much time outside Ghana as within it, and when it came to thinking about the design of my house, I realised it would be neither European nor African - a little of both, if I was lucky.

It took me almost a month to work out the issues that mattered - privacy, sustainability, what the building would be made of, what sort of tradition it would refer to - and another month or so to work in models and sketches until I arrived at something that I felt comfortable with (and, possibly more importantly, that my partner felt he could live in).

Having grown up in a typically extended family, and having grown accustomed in the west to an almost exaggerated sense of privacy, I decided very early on that I would build not one, but two houses. One would be a guesthouse for friends and family, the other a main house for myself and my partner. The houses would look at each other across a pool; part of the same compound, but separated by a quite substantial strip of land. Both would be single-space houses, a throwback to the African tradition of living in one room, without western divisions of living-sleeping-cooking-eating, and so on.

I bought two plots in one of the last remaining "inner" city developments in Accra where it is still possible to build your own home. Airport Hills is an expansive development just behind the airport where, on an exceptionally clear day, it is possible to see the Atlantic as you drive down the road towards the main entrance.
I wanted to build the house out of mud; not only is it a fantastically sustainable material (the bricks were dug out of the land I'd bought, compressed to squeeze out air and water, and left to dry in the sun), but it provides a cool living environment and is, after all, what much traditional African architecture is made from.

Building a house in Ghana is a unique experience. For a London-trained architect, several things came as a shock. The terms "plan" and "detail", for example, are loose concepts at the best of times. Much of the instruction on site is verbal, not drawn. The upside is that the design process is much more fluid - you make decisions and compromises as you go along, designing in real time ... it's possible to stride around on site and position doors and windows as the walls go up. The downside is that the interpretation of instructions is equally fluid. It's possible to spend hours arguing over where you thought you asked for something to go and where it in fact is. "But you said ..." Working without drawings can be exhilarating. It can also be madness.

I was determined to put my planning skills to good use. I thought I had thought of everything. I sourced it all ahead of time, including bathroom fittings (from Aston Matthews in north London), kitchen (from Ikea in Wembley) and bathroom tiles (from a man who knew a man who had a shop in Peckham). I bought it all in one go, sending it to a freight forwarder for transport.

The container left Dover, bound for Tema in Ghana. En route, the ship docked in Abidjan where half of the things went missing. Including my kitchen. At the time, a civil war was raging in Ivory Coast, and in such circumstances (as my insurers helpfully pointed out), there is no cover. I only hope whoever has my kitchen managed to put it together.

A few weeks later, I flew back to London and bought another one, which landed safely, if minus the worktops (which I found inexplicably stacked against a wall in the customs shed at the harbour, three months after they had been due to arrive).

There were many highs and lows in the six-month build. The worst day - ever - was the day I found the workers cleaning my mosaic bathroom tiles with acid. The glaze and beautiful greenish tint were burned right off. Despite the foreman's insistence that "That is how we do it, madam", I still don't get it. Acid?

I have now been in the guesthouse (in which we will live until the main house is finished, hopefully within the year) all of three nights. The polished concrete floor, the most horrendous trial-and-error job - mostly error - is gleaming. The kitchen looks nice but tells nothing of the struggle to get it here or put it together. Ikea always forgets to deliver one box, doesn't it?

I'm also surrounded by pieces of architectural art, bought from a friend, an anthropologist turned shopowner. Each one I have bought is unique - my favourite is the Dogon column, a 5ft piece of carved wood that traditionally holds up the thatched roof of the debating hall in a Dogon village. Its height is supposed to discourage those taking part in debate from jumping up in anger. Art such as this reminds me again and again that I am living in a place with a rich and complex architectural heritage, which, sadly, seems to have lost its place in the modern African urban environment.

Local reaction to the house is varied. My partner still isn't crazy about the whole "single space thing", but I'm hoping he'll come round. Despite being African, he worries about walking from the "bed bit" to the "bathroom bit" when the "living bit" is full of visitors. I keep trying to persuade him it doesn't matter.

A few days ago, just before it was completed, I pulled into the sea-shell driveway to find someone standing in the garden with a pencil and paper in hand. Completely unabashed, he assured me he was doing his best to copy it "properly" because he wanted to build one just like it a few streets away. That's Ghana for you. And this is a modern mud house.
Credit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/sep/24/property.homesandgardens

“Sam, the ugly duckling who grew into a swan. Now beautiful and wealthy, with a glittering career, no one can understand why she's still on her own. When she meets a handsome stranger on holiday, things finally seem to be falling into place... Meagan, a true survivor. The teenage runaway who worked her way off the streets, she was swept off her feet by Tom, a young army officer, to live on the other side of the world, finally escaping the family she loathed... Dani, the beautiful misfit, desperately looking for daddy in all the wrong places, and finding instead a man who will teach her everything that is wrong and corrupt about love. And Abby, the model wife, everything her husband and family could want and more, but never being herself. Until a dark secret threatens to pull her well-ordered life apart. A Private Affair is the new spellbinding tale of love and friendship, glamour and guilt from bestselling author Lesley Lokko.” Amazon

***Lesley Lokko’s latest book, a-must-read entitled ‘A Private Affair’ is priced £7.79 and available from Amazon at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Private-Affair-Lesley-Lokko/dp/140910172X/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1307624138&sr=8-10

Margherita Missoni & OrphanAid Africa ..helping vulnerable children in Ghana..

For her first solo project uber fashionista and socialite, Margherita Missoni has designed a yummy12-piece capsule collection, using Missoni’s iconic zigzag print -and 20% of all sold will go to OrphanAid Africa, a charity that looks orphans and vulnerable children in Ghana. As the president of OrphanAid Africa, Margherita wanted to, “reflect Ghana’s heritage and help the charity raise some much needed funds.” Prices start from £180 and are available from their Westfield store at: http://uk.westfield.com/thevillagelondon/directory/detail?retailer=38148

****Ghana Rising says a big, ‘Thank you and God bless’ to Margherita Missoni and OrphanAid Africa for all their hard work...

Politics: ‘Defeating Dictators: Fighting Tyranny in Africa and Around the World’ by George Ayittey….….

Fighting Tyranny in Africa and Around the World
Despite billions of dollars of aid and the best efforts of the international community to improve economies and bolster democracy across Africa, violent dictatorships persist. As a result, millions have died, economies are in shambles, and whole states are on the brink of collapse. Fed up, the people of North Africa—from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya—rose up in rebellion. So what does it take to spread the revolutionary fervor across Africa, the Arab world, and elsewhere?

African policy expert George Ayittey, named one the 100 Top Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, draws upon his experience in Ghana, where he helped lead a successful movement against the despot, Jerry Rawlings, to draw up a battle plan against other dictatorship aka “coconut republics”–from Teodoro Obiang’s of Equatorial Guinea, Yayah Jammeh’s Gambia, to Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus, and the tottering tyrannies of the Arab world.
Taking a hard look at the fight against dictatorships around the world—from Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004 to Iran's Green Revolution last year—George examines what drives the success or failure of those revolutions. Street protests alone are not enough to topple a dictator; it takes a coalition of opposition forces. Even when an opposition can unify into a solid protest movement, as in Egypt, it still needs the aid of an auxiliary institution—such as the military, the judiciary, the media, or some combination—to succeed. And toppling a dictator is only a first step in establishing a free democratic society. The dictatorship itself must be dissembled; else the revolution becomes reversed and another dictator emerges. As Africans are want of saying, “We struggle very hard to remove one cockroach from power and the next rat comes to do the same thing! Haba! (Darn!)”

In this compelling presentation, George lays down a blueprint of not only how to topple a dictator but also how to prevent a reversal of the revolution.

Taking Back Africa One Village at a Time – Through Entrepreneurship
George is focused on bottom-up economics through “Cheetah Enterprises” - projects starting at the grassroots level that enable Africans to improve their quality of life. George speaks passionately about ways to identify profitable enterprises, tap African “Cheetahs” to run them, and empower Africans to take back Africa. These “Meso Capital” enterprises, which go beyond the scope of micro-credit finance projects but do not require of millions of dollars in capital, are designed to affect change in African communities by Africans. George classifies African elites into two groups: The Cheetah and the Hippo generations. The Cheetahs are the new and angry generation of young African graduates and professionals, who look at African issues and problems from a totally unique perspective. They are dynamic, intellectually agile, and pragmatic. They may be the “restless generation” but they are Africa’s new hope. The Hippos are of old 1960s era and mentality—stodgy, pudgy, and wedded to the old “colonialism-imperialism” paradigm with an abiding faith in the potency of the state. Whereas the Hippos constantly see problems, the Cheetahs see business opportunities. The cheetah generation has no qualms about getting their hands “dirty.” They recognize that money can be made by solving the problems of the poor, and there is nothing immoral about that. In fact, that is how the rich in the rich countries made their money: By creating a product or service that addresses the needs or problems of the people.


SNAPSHOT BIO
George Ayittey is a Ghanaian economist and widely recognized authority on political and economic development in Africa. The president of the Free Africa Foundation and former distinguished economist in residence at American University, George has championed the idea that “Africa is poor because she is not free.” True freedom never came to much of Africa after independence from colonial rule, says his first book, Africa Betrayed, which won the H.L. Mencken Award for “Best Book in 1992.” In his most recent book, Defeating Dictators, George takes a hard look at the fight against dictatorships around the world, from Ukraine's orange revolution in 2004 to Iran's Green Revolution last year, and examines what strategies worked in the struggle to establish democracy through revolution.
In the analysis of Africa’s woes, George believes that a much greater emphasis should be placed on internal factors—bad leadership, corruption, military vandalism, and exploitation of the African people—rather than the external factors. George stresses "internal solutions" and initiatives that must come from Africa itself. He coined the expression: “African solutions for African problems.” Crying out against the “vampire states” and dysfunctional governments that, he believes, are the bedrock of problems of many troubled Africa states, George speaks passionately about the grassroots enterprises that will enable “Africans to take back Africa – one village at a time.”

His influential book Africa Unchained boldly proposes a program of development—a way forward—for Africa, investigating how Africa can modernize, build, and improve its indigenous institutions. George argues forcefully that Africa’s salvation lies in Africa itself – not inside the corridors of the U.S. Congress or the inner sanctum of the World Bank. Africa’s salvation lies in returning to and building upon its own indigenous institutions and traditions of free village markets and free trade—rather than continuing to use alien and exploitative economic structures. The critically acclaimed book has helped unleash a new wave of activism and optimism about Africa.

His recent efforts have focused on identifying profitable enterprises for “Cheetahs” —a new breed of Africans taking their futures into their own hands instead of waiting for politicians to empower them. His speech “Cheetahs vs. Hippos for Africa's Future" made a powerful impact at the TED Global Conference 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania.

George earned a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada; an M.A. University of Western Ontario, London, Canada and a B.Sc. Univ. of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. Source: http://www.monitortalent.com/talent/George-Ayittey-Profile.html

"Ask African leaders to develop their economies and they will develop their pockets. Ask them to seek foreign investment and they will seek a foreign country to invest their loot. Ask them to establish democracy and they empanel a fawning ...coterie of sycophants to write electoral rules, toss opposition leaders into jail and hold coconut elections to return themselves to power. Ask them to combat corruption and they will set up an anti-corruption commission with no teeth. And when the anti-corruption tsar sniffs too close to the fat cats, they shut down the commission. Ask them to shrink their bloated bureaucracies and cut government spending and they will set up a “Ministry of Less Government Spending.”  George Ayittey

****Honestly…. I don’t know what planet I’ve been living on -lately….but I’m only just finding out about the fantastic political and economic connoisseur, George Ayittey -and I’m stunned!! In his latest book, ‘Fighting Tyranny in Africa and Around the World’ he presents the argument that, “Africa is poor because she is not free” -and he’s right… and I can’t wait to dig deeper, you can too via: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Defeating-Dictators-Fighting-Tyranny-Africa/dp/0230108598

Sometimes I don’t recognise Ghana…....... Pieter Hugo’s photographs show how the people of ‘Agbogbloshie’ live with the consequences of technology waste from the ‘West’…..

Photographer Pieter Hugo. Aissah Salifu, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2010. From the series Permanent Error. (c) Pieter Hugo, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

Photographer: Pieter Hugo. Naasra Yeti, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error. (c) Pieter Hugo, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Photographer: Pieter Hugo. Yakubu Al Hasan, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error. (c) Pieter Hugo, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

Photographer Pieter Hugo. Yaw Francis, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009. From the series Permanent Error. (c) Pieter Hugo, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

Photos: http://www.imagesource.com/blog/preview-pieter-hugo/


“The most recent publication from the award-winning photographer Pieter Hugo reveals the devastating consequences of toxic waste on one community in Africa. In his previous well-received volumes of photographs, Hugo offers unflinching yet striking portraits of humans, animals, societies, and landscapes that shock and disturb, but also demand our attention. In Permanent Error, he documents a garbage dump in Ghana that has become the repository for discarded computers from around the world. These haunting images document the true cost of a misguided policy-the shipping of millions of tons of obsolete computers to developing countries. The computers are burned to extract valuable metals, effectively turning the site into a toxic wasteland that contaminates air, soil, and groundwater for miles around. These amazing portraits tell a story of a marginal community overwhelmed by poverty, but where human strength and resilience shine through the inhuman conditions Hugo lays bare.” Amazon


Paulina Opoku-Gyimah says: Winner of a World Press Photo Portrait award, South African photographer Pieter Hugo has bypassed the poverty stricken townships in his own country to photograph our shameful secret -Agbogbloshie Market or “Sodom and Gomorrah” as the locals call it, where children scrape a meagre living from the waste dumped in Ghana by the west… it’s a shame really…because from the little that I know …we [Ghana] are supposed to be upping our game with regards to tourism -and this…I’m guessing -doesn’t help. The above photograph are from the, ‘Permanent Error’ series and are on display at the Yossi Milo Gallery in New York …you can find out more via: http://www.yossimilo.com/ and buy a copy of ‘Permanent Error’ at: http://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Error-Pieter-Hugo/dp/3791345206.. I wonder…will any of the proceeds from this book be used to help the people in the photographs above???


P.s ..if we don’t clean up our act soon -Ghana will become that place where the west go to dump their waste…....