The Things Fall Apart Series

• Things Fall Apart

  Things Fall Apart Beats Heart of Darkness

  1. School of Hard Knocks

     Reading a new headline for Africa

  2. Identity Theft

     "Wake Up One Day, They Say You're a Bomber"

  3. Africa, 1966

     Looking back at a pivotal year in African history

  4. Voices Inside (Things Fall Apart)

     Changing the perspective. An appreciation of Chinua Achebe's take on Things Fall Apart with a Donny Hathaway connection thrown in for good measure.

  5. Heart of Darkness

     "This Congo is a region of the mind."

     Burnt-out cases journey down the river: from Joseph Conrad through Graham Greene to Evelyn Waugh, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Francis Ford Coppola and more.

  6. Frisson de Folksonomie

     "I have a crush. There, I finally said it. I feel better already... I can no longer stand this conflicted life..."

     "Affairs" in social bookmarking, literature and music.

  7. Angola

     "When two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers" - Angolan proverb

     A B-movie featuring Jonas Savimbi, Ronald Reagan and other special guests.
  8. Huhudious (or Silly Season)

     An illustration of the B-movie Theory.

  9. Coup de Torchon

     Jim Thompson's hardboiled tropes are transplanted to Africa.

  10. Open House

      A full frontal stare

  11. The Bad Seed
  12. Ode to Betty Brown

      Tragedy distilled

  13. Internal Exile
  14. The Coup Drill

      Some personal history motivated by William Butler Yeats and proverbial elephants.

• Social Living

  Social Living is the thing.

1. The Books of Nima

   The full Ghanaian experience straight from the slums of Nima.

2. Dilemmas

   An examination question.

3. Ghana vrs USA

   The African Nation and The American Dream

4. The Busia Papers

   A legacy of conversational politics.

5. Bags and Stamps

   The mementos of exiled souls

6. Wist

   On indigo moods.

7. Poetry as Cultural Memory

   Notes on Ghana's philosophy of survival

8. The Mosquito Principle
9. A Ghana must go mission
10. Jo Bag - Ghana must go to South Africa
11. An Awoof Conception

    Trickle-down morality and the Children of Ananse

12. Social Living and Cultural Interpreters

    We are the modern travellers. Fiber for the soul, Elvis, Social Living

13. On Cultural Universals and Particulars
    

    Kwasi Wiredu, Peggy and Joe Appiah, Kwame Appiah Cosmopolitanism

14. On Blinkards, Tradition and Modernity

    Kobina Sekyi's mimicry, Kwame Gyekye' Tradition and Modernity, Kwesi Boachi's Hearts

15. Black Soul (or Pimp Shops That Ship To Ghana)
    A journey and a search.
16. The Volta River
    

    "One man struggle while another relaxes". The Hymn of the Big Wheel

17. On the Local Bus
18. The Cement of African Society
19. African Ceremonies
20. A Loyal Opposition

    Danquah's vision, Kofi Busia: The Sociologist as Politician, The United Nations of Kofi Annan

21. Historical Lyricism

    Adu-Boahen, Manu Herbstein's castles, Ayi Kwei Armah, Emmanuel Akyeampong

22. Highlife Griots
    

    Kofi Agawu, John Collins, ET Mensah, King Bruce

23. Immigrant
    

    Mid Atlantic selves, beasts of no nation, L'Afrance, Dirty Pretty Things

24. Markets as Conversations: Cloth, Artistry and Language
    

    Cloth as metaphor, Fashion, Adamarobe marketplace, Kwesi Brew

• The Boycott Day Trinity

  And the Lord said unto them: Boycott!

1. A Nine Dollar Vibe
2. Husbanding the Blogcritics Commons
3. Boycott and The Gospel of Toli

• The Rough Beast

  Who is writing the script?

1. Recent Non-Specific General Threats
   Homelands and security
2. The Game of The Rough Beast
   The strange architecture of misdirection
3. The Great Game
   Cultural Interplay
4. By Way of Ionesco

   On words intended to obscure.

5. A Resource Action

   You've been surplussed / That was the word used

6. The Modern Traveller

   Reclaiming The Maxim Gun; A prescient Hillaire Belloc on God, Gold and Glory (or rather Blood and Sin)

7. Cowboy Boots in Darkest Africa

   A missionary/hunting expedition

8. Decline and Fall
   A brief cultural survey
9. No Boundaries
   Exiled souls traveling miles, migration Sissako/Azuma/Boyd/Gurnah Desertion/Haiti/John Henry Days
10. On Cultural Projection, Somalia and Iraq
11. Resisting Nostalgia
    Gil Scot-Heron, The Resistance, Army of Shadows, Vercors Le Silence de la mer, Solipsism, Satire

• Fallen Angels

1. Excellent Discussions
   The minutiae of collateral damagec.
2. On George W. Bush
   A meditation on knowledge and ignorance.
3. A plagiarism in plaid
   The Reporter and her ambition / Plaid bags and plagiarism
4. Of No Fixed Abode
   Enemy combattants / Collateral damage
5. Africa, 1999

   Get to know your local strongman.

6. Africa 1989

   Structural adjustsments.

7. He Of The Little Green Book

   A legacy of blood and sin.

8. The Corruption Tango
9. With a Grain of Salt
10. Shades of grey
11. Fallen Angels
    Principe and Sao Tome. Honduras
12. Pick up the pieces
    Truth and Reconcilation. After Mugabe.
13. Bad: A Playlist

• The Comfort Suite

1. Mind the Gap
2. Comfort Food and Rare Groove
3. Friends Today, Enemies Tomorrow
4. Articles of Faith
5. Double Trouble
   A musical interlude with The Roots: Things Fall Apart and Phrenology
6. Dancing in the Dark
   the heart of darkness playlist
7. Better Things
   music to change the perspective: Everybody loves the sunshine
8. Comfort Suites
9. Things come together

• Easter Passion Play

1. Off Kilter
2. Edinburgh Zoo
3. Walk Tall

• South Africa 1994

• Heidelberg Tavern Massacre
• Bound Together

• The Builsa Way

• Running Away
• Near the weeping trees

• Doctor Simbo

• Close Encounters
• To Make the Road Fearful
• Naming Conventions

• Soul Insurance

• No Problem - The Glue Series

1. No Problem: Nigeria
   Abacha Watches, Sozaboys, The Kuti Perspective, I Wan Bi President
2. Algeria
3. H.L.M.
4. Congo
5. The Master of Belleville
6. The Mosquito Principle (or Liberia)
7. Under Your Skin
8. Diamonds are Forever
9. On Small things and kindred subjects
10. On the Marionnette Theatre
11. The Chicken Bone Theory and Other Tales
12. Sensational Fruity Delights
13. Dislocation
14. On historical memory
15. On opacity and transparency
16. Character
17. My Lost Week
18. Giggling Springs
19. Jesus's Dilemma
20. Cranes in Deptford
21. Tropical Market
22. Medicine for my pain
23. Faith Healing
    Saro Wiwa, False Piety Mazrui
24. Central Square
25. Funeral minded
26. Revenge
27. On Rage
28. Gremlins and Parasites
29. Character
30. Normalcy
31. Mass Appeal
32. Deja Vu - Fire draws Nearer the Ivorian curse, Togo, Chad
33. Hunger Season, Reunion, The Chinese are coming
34. Tyrants Destroyed
35. Black Albums
36. Big Dig Mafias
37. This Fragile Browser
38. Tribes, Vibes and Scribes
39. Haiti Toussaint L'Ouverture
40. The Contortionist Farce of Tom Sharpe
41. Urban Griots: From Bukom to Texaco
42. A DJ's Duty - A Strange Breed
43. On Lethal Injections and Editorial Decisions
44. The Loud Minority (The Lobby)