Anansi's Gold

The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World

By: Yepoka Yeebo

Narrated by: Jude Owusu

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century’s longest-running and most spectacular frauds.

When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn’t already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation’s inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country’s gold overseas.

Into this big lie stepped one of history’s most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece--if only you would “invest” in Blay-Miezah’s fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and ‘80s, he and his accomplices—including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon’s former attorney general--scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam “one of the most fascinating--and lucrative--in modern history.”

In Anansi’s Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah’s ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana’s missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call “history” writes itself into being, one lie at a time.

©2023 Yepoka Yeebo (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"A fascinating story brilliantly told.”—The Boston Globe

"A non-fiction masterpiece."—Philadelphia Inquirer

Great story on how the world works

The message in the epilogue deserves a few books. John Akah Bay-Miezah was not half as shady as Charles Ponzi or Bernard Madoff yet because of Africanslike him, Africa continues to be seen as more corrupt and too risky for investments. It's irrational to say the least.

Great story nonetheless.

Fantastic story telling

I’d never heard of this man and story and I’m a 45 year of Ghanaian. This was a very engaging listen. Very well written.

It’s a page turner!

Fast paced with interesting historical context . For someone who keenly followed politics in the 70’s and 80’s, I found in this book a lot of background information that clarifies and puts in perspective certain aspects of the long running Blay Miezah saga, Ghana’s political history and the looting by the colonial powers.

Gripping, thriller

A gripping thriller for which, if it had been possible for me to stay up for 13 continuous hours to listen to this audiobook nonstop, I would have. Excellently written and narrated, a must-read for all aspiring conmen (and women) as well as the general society at large (to put you on guard and alert you to telltale signs of cons). Also, because Dr. Blay-Miezah contested for the presidency, some aspiring politicians would probably find details of his modus operandi helpful, inspiring, and worthy of emulating (brag about your control or access to immense wealth, make strategic use of media coverage, do your con out in the open by living large and buying/renting choice office space etc.). I will be first in line to watch the movie adaptation. Kudos to the author, Yepoka Yeebo

Very well written and an easy read

I wish the reader would take the time to learn how to pronounce names of places. He was off on almost all and it’s not that difficult to ask for help enunciating words.

Stranger than fiction

Amazing story that tells the history of Ghana through one of the biggest fraud cases in modern times.

Ghana’s limiting corruption chuckles.

Insightful geopolitical perspective on Ghana’s growing struggle with limiting corruption that is still dragging many nations globally.

Riveting

A must read for all, especially Ghanaians. A well-researched book by a great story-teller that keeps your earbuds in, and continue while you drive until you finish at bedtime. An uncanny history of Ghana in the 20th century. Dr. Acka Blay Mieza is as mythical as Anansi except that unlike the folk-tale Anansi he was real and dangerous. In a way he’s an allegory of the human propensity for greed and totally embodied the Reagan-Thatcher decade of “Greed is Good.”

A good historical account of Ghana post Nkrumah

This is a "hard truth" story that touches on some of the laundered reputations of politicians, diplomats, criminals and civil right abusers connected to Ghana. The story of the con itself may be interesting but the real takeaway is the horrible economic shenanigans and graft enabled by greedy colonial powers and thieves from the liberated colonies. If you want to understand how poor colonized countries started and remain so, this just the tip of the iceberg, albeit a good one. Well written, but as a native, i know anansi stories are also fiction.