Mainly for African primary schools - first level reading in English. The text is part of the "Ready...Go" series which features controlled language to give confidence, and illustrations to provide important visual clues to the young reader. The stories featured in the texts focus on experiences relevant to young children and are taken from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. The series is divided into two levels: "Ready" for new readers who have learned the present tenses; and "Go" for readers who are beginning to learn the past and future tenses. "Memuna's baby" is part of the "Ready" level of the series.
"Reading Worlds" is a comprehensive reading series for African primary school children. It contains seven levels of graded readers and covers modern and traditional imaginative stories; fact-based readers; and stories based on familiar situations and contexts.
Typologies of Humor in African Literatures is a study on the use of humor and comedy in African literary texts across the twentieth century. Despite humor being omnipresent in African societies and their literatures, discussions of contemporary African literature have largely dismissed it as being too lighthearted compared to the more serious issues of post-colonial history, class inequality, and politics. Adwoa A. Opoku-Agyemang, while acknowledging the seriousness of the subject matter, establishes humor as an essential component of African fiction. The book analyzes four comedic archetypes: the Trickster, who is unapologetically amoral and entertaining; the Mimic, whose everyday dealings exude ambiguity; the Interpreter, who demonstrates the comic potential of language differences while showing how a single message can mean contrasting things; and the Deviant, who throws norms into question all the while reinforcing them. These character types and the humor they produce present a constant pursuit of balance between contrasting worldviews and frames of reference within the imbrication of different languages, classes, political factions, genders, and (un)officialdoms. The product of these rowdy relations are people who take the weirdness and run with it to generate diegetic and intradiegetic laughs. By analyzing Francophone and Anglophone African writing and how it overlays local languages, Opoku-Agyemang contributes a uniquely African voice to the primarily Western-dominated field of humor studies.
Typologies of Humor in African Literatures is a study on the use of humor and comedy in African literary texts across the twentieth century. Despite humor being omnipresent in African societies and their literatures, discussions of contemporary African literature have largely dismissed it as being too lighthearted compared to the more serious issues of post-colonial history, class inequality, and politics. Adwoa A. Opoku-Agyemang, while acknowledging the seriousness of the subject matter, establishes humor as an essential component of African fiction. The book analyzes four comedic archetypes: the Trickster, who is unapologetically amoral and entertaining; the Mimic, whose everyday dealings exude ambiguity; the Interpreter, who demonstrates the comic potential of language differences while showing how a single message can mean contrasting things; and the Deviant, who throws norms into question all the while reinforcing them. These character types and the humor they produce present a constant pursuit of balance between contrasting worldviews and frames of reference within the imbrication of different languages, classes, political factions, genders, and (un)officialdoms. The product of these rowdy relations are people who take the weirdness and run with it to generate diegetic and intradiegetic laughs. By analyzing Francophone and Anglophone African writing and how it overlays local languages, Opoku-Agyemang contributes a uniquely African voice to the primarily Western-dominated field of humor studies.
Drawing on the rich vein of the African Ananse tradition, Ghanaian author Adwoa Badoe and Malian illustrator Baba Wague Diakite bring us a marvelously lively, witty and entertaining collection of ten tales about this spider trickster. These Ananse tales deal with the important issues that face us all -- justice, money, food, marriage, vanity and self-respect. Sometimes Ananse succeeds and things go his way; other times he makes a fool of himself and is ashamed -- but never for a long time. Many elements of these stories can be found in other trickster tales -- those of African origin, like the Uncle Remus stories, and those of aboriginal American groups, like the coyote tales of North American native cultures and the jaguar tales from Central and South America.
The future looks bleak indeed for 16-year-old Gloria. Living in a poor area of Accra, she dreams of becoming a dressmaker, but after failing 13 out of 15 subjects on her final exams it seems unlikely to happen. Then a distant relative, Christine, offers to move Gloria to Kumasi to look after her son. In exchange, Christine will pay for Gloria to go to dressmaking school. In Kumasi everything seems possible, and life is grander than anything Gloria has ever experienced. But Kumasi is also full of temptations, like the popular boutique where the owner takes a fancy to Gloria and encourages her to buy clothes on credit. There’s also the smooth-talking Dr. Kusi, who gives Gloria rides in his red Passat and invites her to bring food to his apartment. Eventually betrayed by those around her, Gloria must reconcile her future, her family, and her desires.
A poignant and frank novel set in Ghana, told from the point of view of a disarmingly forthright teenaged girl. When sixteen-year-old Gloria fails thirteen out of fifteen subjects on her final exams, her future looks bleak indeed. Her family's resources are meager so the entire family is thrilled when a distant relative, Christine, offers to move Gloria north to Kumasi to look after her toddler son. In exchange, after two years, Christine will pay for Gloria to go to school. Life in Kumasi is more grand than anything Gloria has ever experienced. She joins a youth band at church and Christine has even promised to teach her to read. But Kumasi is also full of temptations -- the owner of a popular clothing shop encourages her to buy on credit, and the smooth-talking Dr. Kusi offers Gloria rides in his sports car. Eventually Gloria is betrayed by the people around her and is disillusioned by her new life. But in the end she decides who she can trust, and draws on her own considerable inner resources to put the bad experiences behind her. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6 Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
