Bøger af Kobina Amissah-Fynn

The Black Man's Burden - in Black and WhiteAs the title suggests this book is about the black man, those in sub-Saharan Africa or else in the African diaspora. By extension, however, it is also all about the marginalized, disadvantaged, oppressed, traumatized, downtrodden, dehumanized and aggrieved segments of the world's population. Not only does this include the dark-skinned inhabitants in different continents of the globe, it also counts with the diverse remote aboriginal and indigenous groups, many nomadic tribes, low-caste untouchables, the displaced and dispossessed, and even women (who have traditionally been victims of harassment, sexual misconduct and gender-based violence in almost all cultures). The plight of all these disparaged categories of hapless people is exemplified in the book, to one extent or the other, by the burden and experiences of the black man (not just in tropical Africa but Afro-descendants in the Americas, the Caribbean or elsewhere in the world). In that sense, the book is not really about race, but the painful experiences of diverse peoples, epitomized in this book by the people of African descent. Theirs is a story that, sad as it is, has remained untold to the full, a story that continues to unfold in daily news items highlighting their sufferings and victimization from unlawful killings, police brutalities, mass incarcerations, unfair judicial systems, institutional racism, racial profiling, discrimination, and all forms of inequities and mistreatments, a story for which the "Black Lives Matter" mantra has lately become a rallying cry of all the abused ones of the earth. While the historical, legal, social and political perspectives of the black man's misfortune are generally well understood, even if at a superficial level, the religious dimensions do not seem so obvious to most. Yet the deeper causes of the black man's travail are religious - the reader might be a surprise to learn. To religion then this book turns, not only to explore the causes and circumstances of the black man's travail but also in search of the ultimate solution. In summary, the book is both about the travail of this branch of the human family, the black man, but also about the triumph of the human spirit and of the human race as a whole. So in that sense it is a book about the entire human family and its forward march towards an inclusive world community, a community characterized by love, mutual understanding, reconciliation and wellbeing for all. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: The author does not write about black and African people as an "outsider". He is a full-blooded black African himself and hails from Cape Coast in the south-central coastal region of Ghana in West Africa. Cape Coast is where one of most prominent slave castles of Africa is situated. Known as the Cape Coast Castle, it is even on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. Thus Cape Coast played a crucial role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.He is familiar with issues blacks are generally confronted with, having travelled widely across Africa, met blacks in Brazil and Colombia, and experienced what blackness means while visiting or sojourning in other continents.

"And yet over there in Bibiriba, against the backdrop of the overcast world situation, there was intense excitement in the air, a strange but tangible expectation that "something" was about to happen soon-perhaps, an announcement that would change the world forever or an occurrence somewhere on the planet that would shake the limbs of people everywhere and arouse them from their slumber."An interfaith quest to unravel an age-old riddle-the advent of the World Redeemer of the end-times-by an international team of "Gatekeepers", from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania (of Agnostic, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Zoroastrian backgrounds), reaches a fascinating, world-embracing climax and attains an unexpected outcome.

My very profound near-death experience (and the lessons I learnt in the heavenly realm in a brief span hovering between life and death) it is that constitutes my reawakening. That supernatural experience gave me insights into the meaning and deeper lessons of life; it kindled in me sentiments of loving-kindness towards all men. But most importantly, it set me on a quest for that enigmatic "Universal Cause" which, I could vaguely recall from my otherworldly adventure, would be the ultimate panacea for the ills afflicting the human race and which was destined to gradually lead men, through an unprecedented period of turmoil and worldwide commotion, into a glorious new Age of World Unity, Sublime Peace and the Brotherhood of Man. What was this Universal Cause? Was it an idea, a concept, an agenda, a plan, a movement, a Christian sect, or even a new religion? I could not remember...A stimulating story of some 140 pages long.

He stunned me with the announcement: "Now I wish to unveil to your very eyes the heart of the Gospel, the most ignored and hidden mystery of the Return, the Evangel's best kept secret. Anyone who has access to this knowledge already has one foot in the sacred threshold of paradise, his heart ready for that one spark to set it ablaze with the sublime vision of the Rapture."Following the disappointment experienced during much of the twentieth century by over-zealous believers in their expectation of the return of their Lord, Jesus Christ, the gaze of many a worshipper shifts to the approaching millennium as the most likely occasion for the Second Coming.Amongst them is our pilgrim, who sets out, in the company of a large congregation of worshippers, fellow members of a doomsday cult, on an intriguing journey of discovery-from the shores of his homeland Ghana, past conservative Muslim communities in western Africa, across the shimmering desert sands of the Sahara, to the edge of the Holy Land-to experience "the Rapture" of the saints, at the very start of the millennium.Written with humour, The Night of Transition is a thought-provoking narrative of some 180 pages.

That the world is undergoing tremendous change there can be no doubt. Just take a look at the long list below: Aerospace industry, air conditioner, aircraft carrier, artificial intelligence (AI), astronaut, Big Bang theory, biometric details, bionic limbs, bullet train, carbon trading, CCTV, cinematography, cloning, crypto-currency, Darwin's Theory of Evolution, Digital Age, drones, DVD, DNA profiling, eBook, electronic microscope, email, eye surgery, face recognition technology, fax machine, fluorescent lamp, flying car prototype, FM radio, gender parity index, genetic engineering, helicopter, hologram video call, Human Genome Project, hypersonic missile, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), infrared photography, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, International Criminal Court, International Monetary Fund (IMF), internet search engine, Interpol, jet airliner, laser beam, lunar landing, Mars rover lander, messaging app, microchip, microwave oven, Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), nanotechnology, neon lights, night vision goggles, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Olympic Games, online shopping, orbiting space station, organ transplant, particle accelerator, plastic surgery, podcast, planned settlement of men on Mars, radio telescope, refrigerator, remote control, robotics, satellite communication, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), smartphone, social media, radar-evading stealth bomber, submarine, supercomputer, surrogacy, 3D printing, Taser, television, test tube babies, Theory of Relativity, thermal imaging camera, thermonuclear bomb, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, unmanned space explorer, video conference, video streaming service, vlogging, weapons of mass destruction, Wi-Fi, Women's World Cup, World Bank, World Health Organization, World Heritage sites, World Trade Organization, World War, World Wide Web, X-ray.What do the items have in common? One obvious commonality is that they have all come to exist since the mid-19th century. In spite of all the amazing prophecies to be found in the Bible concerning the Last Day, a question that needs asking, though, is how come these very extraordinary inventions, processes and developments (extraordinary by the standards of pre-modern times, no doubt) have no mention whatsoever in these prophecies, while mundane, every-day scourges like wars, earthquakes, famine, and diseases are prominently foreshadowed?Beyond that, what is the impulse behind these phenomenal technologies, events, and developments? What is the source of man's newfound energy, creativity, this unbridled burst of knowledge? Do these items presage the "end" of time (as long foreshadowed in scripture) or they rather signalize the "beginning" of a new day - an era of unprecedented change and renewal characterized by the explosion of knowledge, an ongoing technological revolution, and an ever-deepening globalizing process?Why is the contemporary world showing unmistakable signs of disintegration and decay while also engaged in a far-reaching integration of new concepts, designs, discoveries, inventions, technologies, organizations, institutions, and endeavours? What is behind man's ability to travel to and from the moon, to easily connect to his kind no matter in which part of the world he lives, while also equipped with the wherewithal to instantly obliterate all life on the planet if he so chooses? Are these and other developments leading us to heaven on earth, or we are rather being driven along a blind alley, on the dreaded Day of Judgment, into the fire of hell?Finally, the list speaks to a remarkable efflorescence, in the past century or two, in the realm of mind and thought; but does it offer the prospect of a revolution in the sphere of religion?It is questions such as these that "The Raging Signs of the Times" attempts to answer.

"Plagues and Promise like No Other" is obviously not only about a promise like no other; it is also about plagues like no other, the type of plagues you would probably not immediately associate with the book's main theme.The plagues in question are not the usual suspects. They are not about infections of the body, not about the outbreaks of contagious diseases and pandemics like Covid-19 or the Spanish flu. SARS, Ebola, these are pestilences and epidemics which ravage societies and cause a lot of physical death and misery; although other plagues manifest themselves in infestations of vermin and pests which can also be sources of contagion or, as in the case of locusts, bring on other scourges like famine.Yet the plagues of this book are none of these. Rather are they associated with the big, fat elephant in the room of Christianity. Christians have long recognized that we are in the biblical Last Day, living in an era unlike any that has gone before. We are all witnesses to a world which, within a century and a half, has undergone vast, epochal changes as it successively transitioned through the Technological, Nuclear and Space Ages. Today, we find ourselves in the Digital Age and the Age of Globalization. And in these developments can be discerned the spirit of worldwide renewal in all fields of human endeavour.Moreover, within this same dizzying period and in rapid succession, we have experienced several earth-shattering events, some with calamitous repercussions, like the two devastating world wars (harbingers of what could well be the third and final global Armageddon) or the worldwide pandemics like the Spanish flu and the novel coronavirus. Other unprecedented events include the biblically-allusive and prophecy-fulfilling developments like the reassembling of the Jews in their ancestral, God-given homeland (as per the Old Testament biblical narratives) after almost two millennia in exile.So where then is the Christ of the Second Coming when Jesus had assured his followers that when they begin to take note of such momentous happenings they should know the Second Advent is "near, even at the doors"? After over a century of such breathtaking developments, where is the promised Messiah, the Christ of the latter days?This book contends that the reason for the messianic no-show is not necessarily because the promised appearance has not occurred; it is almost certainly because of the infectious biblical plagues of illogical expectations, strange delusions, lingering doubts, erroneous doctrines, profound illusions, irrational dogmas, unfounded fallacies, idle fancies, mere fantasies, vain imaginations, sheer falsehoods, misguided interpretations, ridiculous misconceptions, puerile misunderstandings, mental confusions, inexcusable prejudices, and untenable superstitions-plagues which have been and are still being actively diffused in society through the activities of the Pharisees of our time. These virulent plagues of the mind and spirit, the type that infects the soul and afflicts it for all eternity, are sure to leave flocks of unsuspecting believers in isolation and quarantined away from any emerging Kingdom of the end-time Christ.Paradoxically, the focus of the book is not directly about these plagues of the spirit. It is more about the big elephant in the room: the non-fulfilment of the promise of the Second Coming of Jesus the Christ, a promise like no other in all of human history. Getting to grips with the true nature of the promise, however, requires containing the plagues and completely eliminating them. This then is what the book attempts to do.For these plagues, like the promise, are truly like no other...

All over the world, devout Christians are waiting with bated breath for the arrival of their Lord, Jesus Christ, on His long-promised return to earth. Patience is beginning to wear thin for some though, and understandably so, given the ever-multiplying "signs of the times" that have long seemed to indicate that the Day is close, very, very close.Many believe the Advent will unfold on that glorious day in strict accord with the traditional and generally-accepted church teachings of the Event: One day of days, the narrative goes, a strange and unusual commotion in the heavens will herald the long-awaited Advent, and whoever is seen by "every eye" triumphantly descending from above "with power and great glory", riding on a palanquin of clouds, accompanied by a multitude of exalted angels, amidst the large blast of a trumpet, will be none other than the Son of man. According to one version, He will be joined in mid-air by a mass flight of the saintly "elect" into the sky.It cannot be so easily forgotten, however, that at the First Coming, the Jews had their own expectations of the coming of their Messiah, based largely on a literal, clergy-inspired interpretation of Scripture, and lost out miserably when Jesus appeared according to His own very different set of interpretations of the very same prophecies.Could the Christians not be making a similar misjudgement as did the Jews of 2,000 years ago? This is what this book sets out to explore, and it does so relying on a copious array of references from both the Old and New Testaments-to broadly survey the deeper meaning of the life, mission and teachings of Jesus the Christ, and review the Old Testament prophecies that presaged His appearance in the Holy Land as the Messiah of the Jews. This provides a valuable context and reliable framework for what follows.The remaining part of the book delves into the inner mysteries and hidden meanings behind the promise of the Return, to uncover the truth of the Second Coming that has until now remained largely untold. The outcome may surprise some, but should find ready acceptance by the vast majority of fair-minded believers everywhere.And so what follows here, and what the book offers, is a new, largely unexpected set of ideas about the coming Advent for the urgent attention of sincere seekers of truth the world over.

Alarm bells are ringing. The world is on a knife-edge, expecting a major catastrophe to occur at any time-perhaps as an outcome of widespread environmental disaster, of a cataclysmic natural disaster, an especially virulent pandemic, a ruinous third world war, or even a nuclear apocalypse.In West Africa, a young woman searches desperately for a way to keep safe from the impending danger and comes face to face with a different reality-that the threat, though physical in its outward manifestation, is spiritual in origin, one not unrelated to the tribulation of the end times foreshadowed in biblical prophecy.And then the focus of her search took on a different turn...

Imagine being given the opportunity to remodel society in a way to eliminate crime and bring wellbeing and peace of mind to the world's people. What would you have done and what would you have considered as the necessary ingredients for success in such an unusual enterprise?This was the challenge facing this young girl whose doll was stolen. From this seemingly minor incident, a project gradually takes shape in her mind to rid the world of all thieves. From her very modest but untiring efforts in pursuit of her goal, some surprising lessons are learned and an ambitious plan emerges for laying the foundations of a global divine civilization that will correspond to heaven on planet earth-an earthly paradise for all the world's people.But then a thief of a different kind appears on the horizon...A spiritually-inspiring novella.