The Kingdom of the South: The Long Journey Book

Hagiography of JJ Rawlings based on his role in the 1979 and 1982 coups in Ghana. Rawlings presented as a saint-like figure motivated by hatred of corruption and a desire to serve the ordinary people of his country.

The book was originally published in 1986 and includes no comment on the economic crisis that overwhelmed the country in 1983 - caused by Rawlings imposition of price controls which benefitted urban workers but caused hardship for the 70% of the country who farmed the countryside. The early attempts to run the country through mass mobilisation came to an end and Rawlings's faction - the Provisional National Defence Council - governed autocratically, bowing to accept loans from the IMF with the condition that structural adjustment programmes were undertaken.

It would be good to find a more rounded assessment of Ghana's history during the 1980s and after which doesn't reduce everything to naive stories of heroes and villains. Can anyone recommend something like that?