Benjamin Kwakye

"Legacy of Phantoms" reorders the ideological exposition of crass materialism, from the perspective of a detached participant in a contemporary Ghanaian setting.

The themes of corruption, lack of compassion, nepotism, and especially opportunism are relevant issues in African polity. These are all present in "Legacy of Phantoms." Readers everywhere in the post-colonial world will identify with the issues as raised in the novel. The novel is however ideologically richer than other novels of its kind because of its use of metaphors to identify colonialism, exploitation, capitalism and Christianity.

"Legacy of Phantoms" has a lot to offer in fashioning a new direction for African literature. The style is engaging and the use of idioms and metaphor rich. Perhaps the greatest contribution this novel will make to the corpus of African literature is its psychoanalytical appraisal of the past through the smoky lens of the present, with the future in sight. Students of African politics will find the novel helpful in understanding the psychoanalytical considerations that inform some of the present colonial discourses. The universal truth that the novel tries to advance, that the mastery of logic, truth, communalism, is always present but that it is also displaced and is never completely absorbed by the generality of the people. Scholars will find the position of the novel and its writer engaging."

Dr. Sola Adeyemi, Leeds University