This fall, “Literature: Taylor’s Version” — a nod to the artist’s re-recorded album titles — will be available to students, curated by assistant professor Elly McCausland.

McCausland — author of the blog “Swifterature,” which compares the pop star’s themes, imagery, and use of language to writers including Sylvia Plath, Charles Dickens, and William Shakespeare — will use Swift’s work to engage with literature “from the Medieval period to the Victorian,” including Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde,” Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and Charlotte Brontë’s “Villette,” as well as the work of contemporary authors including Margaret Atwood and Simon Armitage.

“Highly prolific and autobiographical in her songwriting, Swift makes frequent allusions to canonical literary texts in her music,” the class syllabus explains.

“Using Swift’s work as a springboard, we will explore, among other topics, literary feminism, ecocriticism, fan studies, and tropes such as the anti-hero. Swift’s enduring popularity stems, at least in part, from the heavily intertextual aspect of her work, and this course will dig deeper to explore its literary roots.”

Registration, “is open to all, including those who do not consider themselves fans of Taylor Swift (or may never have encountered her music),” the syllabus continues. “The purpose of the course is to think critically about Swift as an artist and writer, and to use the popularity of her music as a ‘way in’ to a corpus of literature that may have shaped her work.”

McCausland received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Oxford University, in English Literature and Medieval English Literature respectively, and also received a Ph.D. from the University of York in the United Kingdom. She previously taught at the University of Oslo in Norway. Swift’s songwriting had been on her mind as a subject worthy of scholarly analysis for “a while,” she told CNN, but “really crystallized” with the release of Swift’s latest album “Midnights” last fall.

“There’s a song on there called ‘The Great War,’ which uses the First World War as an analogy for heartbreak… That made me think of Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Daddy,’ in which she uses the Holocaust to discuss her troubled relationship with her father,” McCausland explained. “This appropriation of historical pain and war as a metaphor (for love and loss)— I started thinking about other literary parallels and that’s where the course came from.”

Enrolled students will, over the semester, be graded on a “reflection report” — which could even be presented as a song — and a 4,000-word essay assessing the significance of one of the class’s assigned texts in the literary canon. McCausland said she has no plans to offer extra credit for the best friendship bracelets produced, but added that “on a more personal level, they will get huge amounts of appreciation from me.”

“I’ll be delighted with everything that happens during this course,” she continued. “I’m really excited to see what the students come up with.”

While it is believed to be the first course of its kind in Europe, Swift’s poetic refrains are already being taught by several colleges across the United States. Stanford’s module called the 12-time-Grammy-Award-winner, “The Last Great American Songwriter,” while New York University, Arizona State University, Berklee College of Music, and Rice University in Houston all have dedicated classes to study Swift’s lyrical evolution, music composition and how her work relates to feminism, gender studies as well as American nationalism.

But Swift isn’t the first superstar whose work has attracted academic attention. In 2016, the University of Texas launched an English Literature course unpacking Beyoncé’s visual album “Lemonade” and its relationship to Black feminism. The following year, The University of Copenhagen began offering “Beyoncé, Gender and Race.”

“I imagined there would be some raised eyebrows, and there were. I still haven’t figured out if they were raised in condemnation or skepticism or approval,” McCausland said of the response from colleagues and, as the details of her class have since made headlines, the wider world.

“I’m really pleased that so many people are enthusiastic about it, and I’m genuinely quite surprised. There’s been only a couple of outright critical voices, and that only really reaffirms what I’m trying to do — even the hate mail I find quite wonderful, to be honest! I mean, don’t print that quote as in ‘send more hate mail’ please,” she quickly clarified.

“But if anyone can teach you a lesson in how to respond to trolls, it’s Taylor Swift,” she concluded. “I mean, she literally says ‘haters gonna hate,’ and that she’s gonna shake it off.”

Source: CNN

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The album also exceeded expectations in terms of streaming, accumulating over 1.02 billion on-demand streams in the USA alone.

This development further reaffirmed WizKid’s place as a global music icon and the growing influence of Nigerian rap music on the global space.

WizKid rode to stardom in the early 2010s with his hit single ‘Holla at Your Boy’.

Ever since the Afrobeats star has steadily delivered chart-topping hits, collaborating with renowned artists such as Drake, Beyoncé, Skepta, Justin Bieber, and Chris Brown among others.

His unique fusion of Afrobeats, reggae, and hip-hop has captivated audiences worldwide, making him a trailblazer for Afrobeats music.

Recall that the ‘Made In Lagos’ album was released in October 2020.

The album gained critical acclaim for its infectious melodies, captivating lyrics, and diverse range of collaborations.

The album featured the likes of Burna Boy, Damian Marley, and H.E.R., further elevating its appeal to a global audience.

‘Made In Lagos’ was considered a huge success because WizKid featured another Nigerian act ‘Tems’ on the song ‘Essence.’

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Team Ghana arrived on Wednesday evening after completing their training in France ahead of the championships.

Joseph Paul Amoah, James Dadzie, Isaac Botsio, Edwin Gadayi, and Deborah Acquah are currently with the team in Budapest while Sarfo Ansah and Rose Yeboah, who were expected to be with the team, have been denied visas to Hungary.

Yeboah is the African Champion in the women’s high jump and just won gold at the World University Games in China with a new national record of 1.94m.

Ansah is a late replacement for the injured Benjamin Azamati and was expected to join Ghana’s 4x100m relay team.

Both athletes’ applications were submitted two weeks ago, following the late confirmation of their participation.

With accreditation from competition organizers, World Athletics, the visa issuance was expected to be a routine process, but on Monday, the Hungarian Embassy in Accra communicated to the team that visas for the two athletes had been refused.

Ghana will compete in the women’s long jump, men’s 200m, and men’s 4x100m.

The rest of the team, however, is in Budapest.

Ghana’s contingent for the 2023 World Athletics Championships has arrived in Budapest.

GH will compete in the women’s long jump, men’s 200m, and men’s 4x100m.

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Thirty-eight people were rescued, including children aged 12 to 16, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

An estimated 100 people, mostly from Senegal and Sierra Leone, were said to have been on board the boat and had been at sea for a month.

It is not immediately clear when the incident occurred.

The vessel was first spotted on Monday, police told the AFP news agency. Initial reports suggested the boat sank, but it was later clarified that the boat was found drifting.

The wooden pirogue-style boat was seen almost 320km (200 miles) off the island of Sal by a Spanish fishing boat, which alerted authorities, police said.

Senegal’s foreign ministry said in a statement issued late on Tuesday that the boat had left Senegal on 10 July with 101 passengers on board.

The ministry said it was liaising with authorities in Cape Verde for the repatriation of survivors, one of whom was from Guinea-Bissau.

Cape Verde is around 600km off the coast of West Africa on a maritime migration route to the Spanish Canary Islands, often used as a gateway to the European Union.

IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli said: “Safe and regular pathways to migration are sorely lacking, which is what gives room to smugglers and traffickers to put people on these deadly journeys.”

At least 559 people died trying to reach the Canary Islands in 2022, according to figures from the IOM, while 126 people died or went missing on the same route in the first six months of this year with 15 shipwrecks recorded.

At least 15 people drowned when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of the Senegalese capital Dakar in late July.

Source: BBC

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However, the Bank indicated that the poverty effect of energy price increases was higher than food prices.

This was because the energy impact was fully passed through household income, while the negative impact of high food prices was partially offset by increases in household income from net sellers.

“In Africa, the additional number of people falling into extreme poverty due to energy price inflation is estimated at 10.2 million, bringing the combined poverty effect of soaring food and energy prices to about 15 million people,” the bank noted.

This was contained in the Bank’s 2023 West Africa Economic Outlook report, which noted that the region’s average poverty rate increased by 10 percent between 2019 and 2022.

It was also observed that relative to the counterfactual scenario, the international poverty rate based on the US$ 2.15-a-day poverty line increased in nine countries in West Africa.

The average household welfare decreased in 12 of 14 countries, accounting for an average real income loss of 0.82 percent in the region, “with poorer households suffering systematically larger welfare losses.” AfDB stated.

“The fall in real household per capita income due to high global food and energy prices has impacted household welfare and exacerbated poverty and inequality in African countries,” AfDB reported.

It cautioned that protracted increases in prices of food and energy would have long-term consequences for prosperity in many African countries, exacerbating issues of poverty and inequality.

The Bank encouraged African governments to have assertive monetary, fiscal, and structural policy action to address the effects of rising inflation and subdued growth.

The AfDB called for increased support for a pro-growth structural transformation to sustain rapid, sustainable, and inclusive growth.

At the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February to March 2022, crude oil prices increased by about 20 percent, from $93.5 barrels per day (bpd) to $112.4 bpd and averaged $102.8 bpd between March and October 2022 in Africa.

Wheat price rose by about 28 percent, from $364.9 per metric ton (mt) in February 2022 to $446.5 per mt in March 2022, and has averaged $427.2 per mt between March and October 2022.

Similarly, fertilizer prices also surged by about 22 percent, from $ 547.1 per mt in February 2022 to $ 668.9 per mt in March 2022 and $624.9 per mt on average between March and October 2022.

Source: GNA

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The duo in an interview with Nana Qwame Larbi on Daybreak Hitz said they intend to bring Ghanaians up to speed with the current music trends that are widely recognised in the world.

According to them, Ghana is behind and has struggled to catch up.

“Ghanapiano is a new genre we are trying to introduce. Its Ghanaian sounds fixed on the Piano. We are trying to introduce it now because we want people to be woke about what is new. We want people to know what is going on in the world. We are trying to preach the forms of fusions we can do.”

The duo said that they are going to introduce Ghana and the world to ‘Ghanapiano’ through their new EP, and their reason for doing this is to let the global market know the sounds originating from Ghana.

DopeNation says they believe the introduction of ‘Ghanapiano’ allows Ghana to sell Ghanaian music.

“We are trying to let you know that Piano is going. It’s either you take it or be left behind.”

They also revealed that songs like Clap, Gboza, and their latest release Check My Zingo are all songs under the ‘Ghanapiano’ genre.

DopeNation is set to release the Ghanapiano EP this Friday to kick start its journey to possibly introduce a genre that can change the perspective of Ghanaian music on the international market.

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She is a young woman who hails from Kumbungu in the Northern Region of Ghana and currently resides in Tamale.

Juwairiah had her basic education in Accra and Tamale and holds a Diploma in Database from IPMC, Accra where she won the Personality of the Year award.

Her passion and zeal to solve wellness problems led her to start Fruit Fusion, a healthy food business that provides healthy drinks, snacks, and meals to help others achieve their healthy active lifestyle and goal.

She has been in this business for almost five years.

They produce guilt-free healthy snacks by using raw fruits and vegetables.

Some of their products include Greek yogurt, Granola, date syrup, cold-pressed juices, coconut flakes, detox packages, etc.

In an exclusive interview with the Ghanaian American Journal, Osman Juwairiah shared details on how she started her business of selling nutritious snacks in Tamale, in Ghana’s northern region.

“Fruit Fusion was born out of my own lifestyle. Personally, I was obese and was about size 20 and 22 and I had health challenges. So I started doing my own research to see how best I could lose weight naturally without any pills or any medication.”

“I started my weight loss journey by hitting the gym. And at the time, when I came to Tamale, I was living in Accra. When I came to Tamale, there was no one doing any healthy stuff here for me to purchase. I usually get those things from Accra and it was stressful.”

“I started doing my own research, learning about healthy stuff, and doing that at home to support my weight loss journey.

Within a short period, Juwairiah was able to shed a lot of weight by creating various healthy recipes she researched.

“I didn’t take it to be a business. It was just a lifestyle for me. I enjoyed doing it. I loved creating recipes in the kitchen” she said.

During the outbreak of COVID-19 Juwairiah saw it necessary to help other people maintain a healthy lifestyle so they could protect themselves from contracting the illness.

“I decided to take advantage of what I know how to do best to help people because you have to boost your immune system to prevent yourself from getting COVID-19. I didn’t have access to machinery to produce. I was doing it manually to be able to keep up. I was able to make some profits and whenever I generate profits, I use it to buy something I need.”

“I also used the phone as a medium to connect people from all the regions, Kumasi, Takoradi, etc. I do virtual workout sessions and they join and pay me” she added.

Juwairiah’s business has impacted a lot of women in the Northern Region and across the country. Women who go through postpartum and those who want to get back into shape and regain their self-confidence.

To learn more about how Fruit Fusion is impacting individuals, we spoke to one of her customers, Blessilla Na-afoe Kandoh.

Blessilla is a Health Interest Lead at Norsaac and a mother. She shared her experience of how the products have aided her in keeping a healthy lifestyle.

“Her products helped me to be able to maintain my weight because it’s something that I have been struggling with for some time, especially after having my kids. Most often I struggle with constipation, but now I hardly struggle with such things anymore. Undoubtedly she also has quality products as well. Any time that I purchase her products and I store them, I don’t have them going bad. She has been innovative because over time she has evolved with different kinds of products.”

“I would recommend her service. My reason is that I’m very particular whenever I’m engaging with a service provider. She has great Customer Service because sometimes people just focus on the product without focusing on the service that they provide” Blessilla added.

Blessilla has been a regular customer since the start of the business and is confident it will be helpful to others as well.

Osman Juwairiah’s goal is to become an expert in the field of Nutrition and push Fruit Fusion beyond Northern Ghana. She also hopes to own the first women’s gym in the North and for Fruit Fusion to become the best health shop in Ghana.

“I’m hoping to have a gym with a snack bar where people can come and work out and still get 100% healthy snacks, meal plan, advice on health and weight loss tips,” she said.

Osman Juwairiah is currently studying Software Engineering. She worked as a Marketing Assistant at Listening Bureau, a Real Estate Company in Accra, and is an actress for A19 Media in Tema.

She encouraged young people to never give up on their dreams no matter how hard situations get.

“Enterpreneurship is not smooth sailing because you will fall, and you rise. I have fallen many times but I am here today” she said.

Juwairiah loves to read, travel, and take up new adventures. She is a resilient young woman who is willing to take initiative, willing to learn, and easily adapts to new environments.

Contact Fruit Fusion on 0550476397 or reach out to them on social media Facebook/Ig:fruit.fusion

Written by Abigail Bodo. Email; abigailbodo80@gmail.com

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The ceremony recognised Hollard Ghana’s exceptional commitment to CSR and its impactful efforts in renovating the school for the benefit of the community.

The renovated school now boasts structural refurbishments of the roof, ceiling, floors, windows, and doors. Hollard Ghana also revamped the toilets and library, created a sick bay, and painted the block of four classrooms and the dining hall. The courtyard was beautified with AstroTurf, creating a conducive and safe environment for the children in preschool at a cost of over ¢250,000.

The staff, fondly called Hollardites, played an active role in the Al-Waleed CSR project. They volunteered to paint the school and raised funds to stock the library and sick bay. The result was a remarkable transformation, restoring the almost-dead facility to rival any modern Montessori school.

Commenting on the essence of the recognition, Cynthia Ofori-Dwumfuo, the Group Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Hollard Ghana, described the win as a testament to the insurance company’s aim to treat everyone with care and dignity.

“Our commitment to innovation extends beyond the insurance products we offer. We believe in fostering positive change by creating lasting impacts in the communities in which we operate. This win indicates the group’s unwavering dedication to empowering future generations. Our purpose of enabling better futures drives our CSR efforts to create a sustainable future for the communities.”

“Receiving this honour is evidence of the dedication of our team in bringing about positive change in the lives of the children at Al-Waleed Basic Comprehensive School. The school is among several CSR projects Hollard Ghana has embarked on to achieve exceptional, sustainable, and inclusive growth in Ghana.

Some of these projects are our flagship thought leadership initiative H.Insured, a Streetwise Finance Literacy series all about insurance, events, and a column in the BFT written by Hollardites. The H.Insured platform seeks to demystify insurance by taking insurance to the people in a jargon-free conversation and supporting public institutions like the Police Service and Ambulance Service, to mention a few”, she added.

The Al-Waleed Basic Comprehensive School was constructed in 2005 with support from Prince Al-Waleed of Saudi and Former President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kuffour, had experienced a significant decline over the years due to a lack of maintenance funding. The school’s kindergarten block was in disrepair and unsafe for preschool children between the ages of two to five years.

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The partnership is expected to scale up youth and women-led MSMEs, increase jobs, drive revenue, and contribute significantly towards the reduction of environmental footprint.

it will also help to access climate financing schemes and increase financial inflows from climate funding channels to support Ghana’s efforts to turn climate commitments into actions.

Through this partnership, UNDP and UBA Ghana will co-develop and implement a suite of innovative programmes and mechanisms to strengthen the institutional capacity of UBA Ghana to access climate financing schemes including the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The Managing Director of UBA Ghana and Regional Chief Executive Officer of UBA West Africa, Chris Ofikulu, highlighted the significance of the partnership and pointed out that the partnership is a welcome development as UBA Ghana specialises in providing innovative financing to businesses including SMEs.

He said, “Collaborating with UNDP demonstrates UBA Ghana’s commitment to supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a particular focus on providing custom financial solutions and growth opportunities for businesses of all sizes to facilitate inter–and-intra-African trade”.

He explained that the businesses will also receive a tailored programme of service support and capacity development in areas including corporate governance, branding, marketing, financial support, and product design/development to enable easier access to markets for their products and services.

They will also be supported with energy efficiency audits and remedial actions to minimise their carbon footprints.

The UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana, Dr. Angela Lusigi, said, “The UNDP is working to influence the flow of resources towards development by encouraging investors and businesses of all sizes to embed the SDGs and Climate action into their analytics, decision making and business practices,” she added.

The UNDP boss explained that the MOU will promote Inclusive, Resilient, and Green Entrepreneurship, by leveraging UNDP’s expertise in working with MSMEs and innovators, and UBA Ghana’s expertise in supporting businesses.

UBA Group is the leading financial institution in Africa with its extensive network of 1000 branches in 20 countries in Africa and over 31 branch networks in Ghana.

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The award, according to the president of the association, Hannibal Egbe Uwaifo, was conferred on President Akufo-Addo because he is “a pan-Africanist, anti-corruption crusader, a rare democratic leader in the field of good governance, a true African statesman whose legacies present African leaders must emulate, and we are minded to say will stand the test of time.”

Thanking the African Bar Association for the award, Akufo-Addo said that the legal profession has a rarefied position in African societies, and lawyers are assured of special status.

“In all our countries, it must be a source of pride for us that lawyers were at the forefront of the fight for liberation from colonialism. Indeed, since independence, lawyers have moved seamlessly between politics and the legal profession,” he stated.

With Africa having been unable to translate all her abundant natural advantages into building successful states, the President told the gathering that the time is long overdue for Africa and Africans to define her own narrative.

“We must be defined by what we see in ourselves, and not what others choose to say about us. However, this cannot happen if we do not trade amongst ourselves. Africa accounts for only three percent (3%) of global trade, and intra-African trade is one of the lowest of any region globally,” he said.

“This is largely due to the “colonial” economic model characterised by small individual economies, fragmented and disconnected regional markets, over-reliance on the production and export of primary commodities, and the presence of low productive capacities, which have been in existence for the last century,” Akufo-Addo said.

AfCFTA

The emergence of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), in which trading began on 1st January 2021, and whose Secretariat Ghana is privileged to host, President Akufo-Addo noted, represents a historic opportunity for Africa to strengthen, immeasurably, intra-African trade as a powerful avenue for developing Africa’s vast economic and material potential

“As the adage goes, there is strength in unity, and, for all fifty-four (54) Member States of the African Union, our strength lies with our numbers. Cumulatively, we have a population of 1.3 billion, the majority of whom are young people, and we are in possession of a collective GDP of three trillion United States dollars (US$ 3 trillion), making us, collectively, the eight (8th) largest economy in the world,” he stressed.

This, he explained, positions Africa as, potentially, an attractive investment destination, adding that “with the relevant investment, we will be able to sustain economic growth, and create the job opportunities that the youth of our continent so desperately need.”

Describing the AfCFTA as a major gamechanger, the President indicated that “once fully realised, we can increase intra-Africa trade by thirty-five billion United States dollars (US$ 35 billion), and reduce external imports by ten billion United States dollars (US$ 10 billion) yearly.”

This, he explained, “will mean more opportunities for growth for our small businesses, and the potential to lift some thirty million (30 million) people out of extreme poverty. Additionally, a successful AfCFTA will mean that Africa’s industrial exports will be diversified, thus moving away from undue reliance on extractive commodities and foreign imports.”

These benefits to be sought from the AfCFTA, he said, can, however, not be reaped in an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity.

“We, in West Africa, are currently preoccupied with the need to free the Region from the terrorist insurgency that has engulfed Mali, Burkina Faso, parts of Niger and Nigeria, and is threatening the peace and stability of the coastal nations,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo continued, “It is incumbent that, in our generation, we all stand together to defeat this menace and guarantee the peace and stability, which are essential to the rapid economic development not only of West Africa, but also of the entire continent, the surest way to banish poverty in our time. In the same vein, we must reiterate our commitment to democratic governance, and reject all unconstitutional changes of government.”

He told the gathering that “the vision of our forebears who fought the liberation of our continent from colonialism and imperialism, the AfCFTA has set the stage for Africa’s industrialisation and transformation. What is required now is for our respective Governments and businesses to show bold leadership.”

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