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Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Book Review: Development in Unity Volume One

A 500-page book written by the Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional State titled “Development in Unity Volume One: Compendium of Works of Daasebre Prof. (Emeritus) Oti Boateng” has been unveiled. 

In a comprehensive review, Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, a Development Planner, one-time consultant to the National House of Chiefs, and the architect of the SMIDO project in Ghana, described the book as setting new parameters in global biographic presentation.

The book encapsulates the historic exploits of Daasebre as a high-standing international scholar recognized by the American Biographical Institute as one of the greatest minds of the 21st century.

In his perspective, the book is iconic in many respects: a break-away brand, a bridge of culture and scholarship and a masterpiece of art that conveys passion, intellectual astuteness and charisma driven by a vision for development. 

According to Azongo, the legendary-anchor of Daasebre’s scholarly piece which is set to change the global biographic landscape is how the author expertly weaves his personal experience, beliefs, philosophy and the culture of his people into a well-sequenced prolific presentation of popular development themes to feed into a particular thought evolution as an instrument of change, which is a complete departure from the usual biographic presentation of shared personal episode.

He has therefore described the book as LEGENDARY and a HISTORIC INTELLECTUAL MONUMENT.

In his review of this historic scholarly piece which he describes as a ‘Giant Task’, Nyaaba–Aweeba Azongo said, the book is a moment of intellectual genius which potentially could define Africa’s pride of place in global leadership and intellectual assertiveness. 

The book is said to convey the Author’s deep sense of history by reproducing with amazing clarity records of   events that involved him from as far back as the second world-war through Ghana’s independence era to the most recent times.

According to Azongo, the most iconic attribute of the publication is how the book has been expertly dovetailed into the Akwantukese Festival, a post-independence traditional Festival in Ghana pioneered by the author as the Omanhene to bring an important part of Asante history, the Great Migration, into contemporary significance. He presents the book blended with his exploits as part of an institution skillfully designed for national and global consumption – a historic threshold of New Juaben footprint in Ghana, Africa and global development.

In this context, the review concludes, the book attains an institutional legitimacy as a product of the institution of New Juaben and Asante history and not just as an individual scholarly piece of personal episode.

The review further points out that, per its philosophy and design; the book co-evolves with the festival of his people thus giving it a permanent presence in history and inter-generational essence.

The review describes the compendium as exuding a distinctive compass of lessons for posterity and a pillar of enduring legacy. 

It is further described as a treasure house of personal experience laced-through relevant themes of development in a single volume. In both history and literary substance, the compendium is said to be a memory bank of the writer’s exploits as a scholar and a cultural activist blending culture, modernism and scholarship in rare harmony: a fountain of inspiration which could constitute an African chapter in the quest to author a new development order.

The Root-Based model, a theory the author propounded and presented to the UN Secretary-General and at the World Forum of Academicians in Cambridge University, England, to influence a new global development order has been comprehensively treated as a resource-pool for national development planning in the book.

Azongo said, the depth of development planning discourse around the Root-Based model leaves one wondering where to position Daasebre in the professional scheme of things. He describes the compendium as symbolizing one of nature’s prolific and benign gifts to the world as the author acknowledges in the preface to the publication as being a “gift for posterity”.

On the Author’s concept of change, the book sets an interesting inspirational premise on the aegis of change and culture and builds on his own perspective of change from authoritative references to underline his beliefs, philosophy and projections.

The review concludes that the striking feature of Daasebre’s concept of change lies in bringing two worlds: modernism and culture into a common realm, a singular course in the pursuit of humanity which could be blended in harmony to underline total Development.


This is a development book built around a personality who symbolizes it all. It is a melting pot of lessons and a must-read book for present and future leaders and in particular for the younger generation.

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