Otto's Random Thoughts

During the 20th century a large number of very influential cultural figures in the US were outright Stalinists who at one time supported e...

This blog hasn't been updated in a while because I haven't had any blog length thoughts recently. It is strange how various media ...

This week I have been in Ho, the capital of the Volta region of Ghana. It is the area of Ghana that used to be under German rule from 1884...

Africa is a big place as you can see by the map to the right. I happen to live in one very small corner of it. The University of Ghana is ...

A musical interlude for everybody who likes zombies by the late great Fela Kuti.

I have finally finished grading final exams for main campus. Nobody failed it. That means that probably everybody passed the class. This w...

Yesterday, I got the pile of final exams for main campus whittled down to six. I also have 16 for city campus to grade. So there are only ...

Forced Labour in a Socialist State: Ethnic Germans from Kazakhstan and Central Asia in the Labour Army: 1941-1957 Pathways into Coloni...

Here is a traditional style country band from Swaziland. US country music is very popular in Ghana and I have been baffled by the lack of ...

The last two days have been more productive than usual for vacation days. Yesterday I had what they call here "root canal treatment....

I have decided that I need to read more African literature. Especially since my local bookstore has gotten a huge shipment of Heinemann Af...

This is a great documentary on the Zamrock scene from the 1970s. The extreme parochialism of radio and other music media in the US meant t...

Today is the 72nd anniversary of GKO Order 1123ss ordering the mobilization of Russian-German men deported to Kazakhstan, Krasnoiarsk Kra...

My good friend Eric J. Schmaltz has an article, "Carrots and Sticks...and Demonstrations: Yuri Andropov's Failed Autonomy Plan fo...

This morning, Jonathan, one of the two non-faculty staff working permanently in the History Department of the University of Ghana died.

My good friend Walt Richmond has asked me to write more on the continuing structural economic problems faced by Africa as a result of trad...

Another great African rocker from the 1970s with a jamming tune.

С Рождеством Христовым! For those that observe Christmas according to the Julian Calender, Merry Christmas. In Africa that would include...

The two main development strategies promoted for former colonial countries have been import substitution and the export of manufactured good...

The unthinkable has happened. I have temporarily run out of African map icons to post. I thought I had an unlimited supply, but when you use...