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Ayi Kwei Armah
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The Healers Paperback – January 1, 2009

by Ayi Kwei Armah (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 53 ratings
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Seeing disunity as the disease at the root of Africa's destruction, The Healers, a group of companions, work to create the unity.
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  1. Publisher
    AFDJ
  2. Publication date
    January 1, 2009
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002ZJJ4GA
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ AFDJ (January 1, 2009)
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 53 ratings

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Ayi Kwei Armah

Ayi Kwei Armah

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
53 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A worth while read
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2021
Verified Purchase
I bought this book two years ago and put it on a shelf. I had heard about the author and figured I would get to it later. I wished I had started it sooner. The book is a blessing to anyone who wishes for a United Africa. It depicts African medicine and healers in a positive light. This is a perspective that is not often depicted. It explains colonization from an African perspective. The book is honest about the betrayal of African people by their leadership. This betrayal continues to this day. As a descendant of African slaves, I feel a sense of irreparable loss of what life might have been like if I had grew up in a traditional African community. This book gave me insight into what might have been. More importantly the novel provided hope for the future. No matter how broken life might be in the present we 'healers' can all work to make a better tomorrow.
10 people found this helpful
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Nice
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful novel
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2021
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This is an excellent book that I suggest to all to read at a time when Africans are seeking for solutions for their ills.
3 people found this helpful
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Patricia Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2021
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Still reading the book.
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Joanne E.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic read
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2015
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A great fan of the book. Not even half read and I have been able to glean many thought provoking life application tools for myself and those that I coach. Wonderful book for a book club or small study group as my writing group is using. The author is a wordsmith the way he details events and story. Great flow and development
10 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Someone should make this a movie
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2020
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Great story should be a movie
2 people found this helpful
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abhijeet dawle
5.0 out of 5 stars healing touch to African community
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2013
Verified Purchase
healers really provide healing touch to African community.The Healers (1979) mixed fact and fiction about the fall of the celebrated Ashanti Empire. The healers in question are traditional medicine practitioners who see fragmentation as the lethal disease of Africa.
16 people found this helpful
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Sa-Rah Bibbins
5.0 out of 5 stars I enjoy all of Mr
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2017
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Powerful book. I enjoy all of Mr. Armah's books.
4 people found this helpful
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R.wood
5.0 out of 5 stars Important message
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2006
Reading Armah's "two thousand seasons" was what prompted me to read any and all of his other books. "The Healers" is, I would say, a companion piece to "two thousand seasons" that should be read immediately afterwards.

Both books tell a story, a fictionalized parable of how we ended up in the prison we find ourselves in today. Both stories are set in a past time, but the actions of the characters, and the results of those actions, are relevant to what is happening even to this very day in the African continent and, indeed, even here in my adopted home of America.

The traitors among us open the gates to allow our enemies to enter the village, while our leaders betray us for fool's gold.

Armah does not pretend that the Path of our Escape will be an easy one, nor that it will involve a quick journey. We face powerful enemies who are well-armed and imminently skilled in the art of dividing and conquering their prey.

But, even so, in both books, we are taught, by way of illustration, two lessons:

1) Our enemies could not have conquerered us, in the first place, if we had worked together, as one unified people, to defend our village from the barbarians who sought to destroy us.

2) Even now, unity is the Path out of our prison.

These are not new lessons. We have heard them many times before from many sources. But, Armah, by way of his parables, opens our eyes so that we can see, and our ears so that we can hear.
48 people found this helpful
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