Jungle Dance, a novel by Petra Aba Asamoah launched in Accra

Petra Aba Asamoah, a Marketing Practitioner has released her second book in Accra.

The book titled, Jungle Dance is a novel she has described as a reflection of her corporate journey of almost fifteen years. It captures feelings of despondency, rejection and confusion interlaced with the triumphs, friendship and love that two women experienced in their corporate journeys.

Speaking at the launch of the book which was held that the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) Dr. Mensa Otabil explained that a nation’s level of civilization is reflected in its arts – “you can check the development of a nation by its artistic expression – in literature, music or the fine arts”.

“Looking at the African literature that started in the late fifties, sixties and sometime into the early seventies, you’ll get amazed by the volume of work that was done and especially the ages of the writers. To think that Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart at twenty-six and it’s still a classic all over the world shows how youthful ideas can be very powerful in expressing the sentiments of a people. It’s important to have young people do that. And for all of you who are young and or consider yourself young, and have a love for literature please don’t just read it write as well,” he said.

Mrs. Charlotte Osei, former Chair of Ghana’s Electoral Commission and NCCE who wrote the foreword to the book remarked “The magic of Jungle Dance for me is that the story is told from the heart and through the voices of women. Being raised in a society that does all it can to hush women, it is important to hear the voices of women”.

Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang reviewed the book and welcomed the emergence of contemporary African writers that positively projected the African story with images that veered away from the stereotypical mould of African. He described the writing style as graceful and intelligent.

Other dignitaries present at the book launch were Diplomat Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Executive Pastor of the ICGC Christ Temple, Rev Albert Ocran, Madam Eva Mends of the Ministry of Finance and Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Managing News Editor of the Insight News Paper amongst others.