obolobo

Main menu

Skip to content
  • About Me
  • Cooking from ATK
  • Ghana Background & Resources
  • Lessons Learned
  • One Minute Twi
  • Read
  • Reading
  • Songs of the Moment
  • Taiwan and China Resources

Category Archives: Book review

Show Grid Show List

Post navigation

Not All Peace and Love Before the British Arrived – Robert Edgerton’s Fall of the Asante Empire

March 25, 2014 by Obolobo

In the West, pre-colonial societies are often portrayed as both simple and peaceful.  For instance, prior to the arrival of the Columbus, it seems that all those “Indian” tribes simply hunted buffalo and peacefully coexisted.  As Charles Mann describes in his book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, this myth is due to mistaken conclusions made in 1950 by anthropologist, Allan Holmberg. For two years, Holmberg lived with 150 people of the Siriono  tribe – located in modern […]

Categories: Book review, Ghanaian Culture, Ghanaian History • Tags: 1491, Asantehene, British Empire, British West Africa, Holmberg's Mistake, Pre-Colonial Ghana, Robert Edgerton

Leave a comment

McMafia – What I Learned About Bulgaria and Albania

November 25, 2013 by Obolobo

I grew up at the tail end of the Cold War.  I hardly knew anything about politics and economics.  Communist countries had planned economies where a central government decided how much each citizen earned and produced.  Moreover, I was told that the people lived in fear of the KGB, both foreign and domestic security services, that monitored the citizens daily movements.  As a child, my classmates teased that Russian women were fat, old, and ugly. Fast forward nearly 25 years, […]

Categories: Book review

Leave a comment

Trapped in the box

October 29, 2013 by Obolobo

“No matter what we’re doing on the outside, people respond primarily to how we’re feeling about them on the inside…” My friend Raymond came to visit last month.  He heard me complaining about the challenges of working with Ghanaians and adapting to life in Ghana.  I was making the usual remarks regarding timeliness, meaningless phrases, e.g. “I’m coming”, and an overall sense that expats are to be “chopped.”  I know he thought it sounded very me vs. them. Maybe you’re […]

Categories: Book review, Book Reviews, Personal

Leave a comment
An Unwelcome Visitor

Stay Away From Cops – Part II

October 14, 2013 by Obolobo

Ever since I saw my friend post that he was arrested on Facebook for riding his bike in a public park, I have been reading up on how I should behave in front of police.  Because, frankly, I don’t know any police officers.  I don’t know how they think, how criminal law works, nor do I know the appropriate way of extracting myself from situations with them. I do know that getting arrested can seriously mess up your life because […]

Categories: Book review • Tags: Police, United States

1

Post navigation

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 966 other followers

Obolobo

RSS Feed

Obolobo

Obolobo

Categories

Archives

  • July 2018 (3)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • May 2017 (2)
  • October 2016 (1)
  • September 2016 (2)
  • August 2016 (4)
  • July 2016 (11)
  • May 2016 (1)
  • April 2016 (1)
  • February 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (6)
  • December 2015 (2)
  • November 2015 (6)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (5)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (4)
  • March 2015 (8)
  • February 2015 (5)
  • January 2015 (4)
  • December 2014 (6)
  • November 2014 (20)
  • October 2014 (3)
  • September 2014 (11)
  • August 2014 (13)
  • July 2014 (12)
  • June 2014 (9)
  • May 2014 (5)
  • April 2014 (11)
  • March 2014 (14)
  • February 2014 (15)
  • January 2014 (17)
  • December 2013 (12)
  • November 2013 (24)
  • October 2013 (33)
  • September 2013 (46)
  • August 2013 (6)
Blog at WordPress.com.
Cancel