Summary of Anansi's Gold by Yepoka Yeebo E-Book

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• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

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Summary of Anansi's Gold by Yepoka Yeebo: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World

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Anansi's Gold is a non-fiction masterpiece that tells the story of Ghanaian con artist John Ackah Blay-Miezah, who swindled millions of dollars from thousands of believers. After Ghana gained independence in 1957, a CIA-funded military junta falsely accused Nkrumah of hiding Ghana's gold overseas. Blay-Miezah and his accomplices deceived Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen, earning him the title of one of the most fascinating and lucrative scams in modern history. Yepoka Yeebo follows Blay-Miezah's trail and uncovers the truth about Ghana's missing wealth, revealing how history writes itself into being through one lie at a time.

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Summary of Anansi's Gold by Yepoka Yeebo

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

Anansi's Gold is a non-fiction story about Ghanaian con artist John Ackah Blay-Miezah, who swindled millions of dollars from thousands of believers. After Ghana gained independence in 1957, a CIA-funded military junta falsely accused Blay-Miezah of hiding Ghana's gold overseas. Yepoka Yeebo follows Blay-Miezah's trail to uncover the truth about Ghana's missing wealth.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

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Summary of Anansi's Gold

A

Summary of

Yepoka Yeebo’s book

The Man Who Looted the West,

Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World

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Summary of Anansi's Gold by Yepoka Yeebo: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World

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Our Man

1974

In a castle by the sea in Accra, Dr. John Ackah Blay-Miezah recounts the history of Ghana, revealing that the country's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, had hidden millions of dollars in cash and gold. Nkrumah had a plan to ensure that Ghana's enemies could not steal the nation's wealth, moving some of Ghana's gold reserves abroad and placing it under the control of a trust called the Oman Ghana Trust Fund. Two years after Nkrumah's death, Dr. Blay-Miezah was ready to fulfill the president's dying wish, bringing eighty-six million dollars of the gold home to Ghana immediately. As soon as he satisfied the conditions of Nkrumah's trust, Blay-Miezah, with the help of his foreign associates, could bring the rest of the money home, and Ghana's future would be golden.

Blay-Miezah's story sounded absurd, but Ghana was broke. A couple of years earlier, Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong had quietly staged a coup d'état, and he announced that the country would not pay off many of its debts. The approach worked for a couple of years, but by 1974, the economy had slowed again. Colonel Acheampong told Blay-Miezah that if the money existed, he should bring it home. He needed a diplomatic passport and a diplomatic passport from Blay-Miezah.

Blay-Miezah was a resident at Ussher Fort, the most notorious prison in Accra. He had been charged with fraud, escaped police custody, and was locked up again. Outside Acheampong's office, guards were waiting to escort him back to jail.

Within days, stories about the mysterious fortune were all over the newspapers, and everyone was trying to work out where the money had come from, whether it actually existed, and when they would get their cut. The story of John Ackah Blay-Miezah, Ghana's richest man, is a tale of how lies change history. The story of Nkrumah's secret fortune, which rewrote Ghana's history and made him wealthy, was met with skepticism from foreign diplomats, particularly the Americans. Shirley Temple Black, the American ambassador to Ghana, was particularly intrigued by Blay-Miezah, who was known for his ability to deceive and cheat.

Ghanaians love their con men, who are known for their wit and ability to manipulate the world. Anansi, a trickster and trickster, used stories to deceive, cheat, or steal from someone bigger or stronger than him. His stories made people feel special and made them feel like they knew a great secret or were part of an amazing adventure.

Blay-Miezah, a precocious child, learned that if he told people what they wanted to hear, they would give anything. He grew into a charming young man who scammed his way around West Africa and the United States, leaving a trail of angry diplomats, hotel managers, and investigators in his wake. Each time he got caught, Blay-Miezah found a bigger story, a better con, and ever-more-powerful associates to bail him out.

By the mid-1980s, the Oman Ghana Trust Fund had become one of the largest frauds of the twentieth century. Blay-Miezah sacrificed ally after ally, losing homes, businesses, and families. Law enforcement agencies on three continents began investigating him, and Blay-Miezah realized that his story had trapped him too.

The story of Blay-Miezah's con was a story of a country ripped apart by colonialism, then given no time to heal. Before Ghana could mourn its losses or rebuild, it was set upon by vultures from around the world and destroyed from within by opportunistic crooks. The Oman Ghana Trust Fund never existed, but the story of President Nkrumah's secret fortune shaped the modern history of Ghana.

Kerosene Boy

1941–1962

In 1941, Blay Cudjoe was born in Alengenzure, a village in Ghana, known as the Gold Coast. The village was named after its river, which once was home to Nile crocodiles. The village was rich in natural resources, with forests, coconut groves, and a white sand beach. The British wanted the gold and land of King Kaku Aka, who had a powerful kingdom. In 1848, an official named Francis Swanzy sent messengers to King Kaku Aka's realm, demanding his submission. Swanzy accused him of enslaving and exploiting his people, but his real aim was to increase his profits.

Swanzy led six thousand troops down the coast, into the Nzema kingdom. King Kaku Aka was betrayed by one of his advisers and died a British hostage. The British decimated Nzemaland and killed countless people. Swanzy's attempt to make a name for himself was an abject failure. The British turned the kingdom of Awulae Kaku Aka into a big mine, turning it into a counterfeit society. The people of the kingdom dedicated themselves to getting the British out.

The dream of the lost kingdom of Awulae Kaku Aka would haunt Blay for his entire life. If that lost wealth could be restored, his people could take a quantum jump forward, from dirt roads to monorails and kerosene lamps to a fully electrified city. Blay would even name himself after the great king, later calling himself John Ackah BlayMiezah. He would swear that all the things he did—the lies he told, the people he hurt—were in pursuit of turning his home back into a kingdom of gold, a modern wonder of the world. Blay, a young boy with a round, open face and deep dimples in each cheek, developed the ability to look either wide-eyed and innocent or startlingly distinguished.

He also had a phenomenal memory, picking up on the smallest details of people on the street and remembering them for years. His parents sent him to Takoradi, the nearest big city, where he lived with an uncle named Papa Blay Morkeh and attended a nearby Presbyterian primary school. Takoradi was home to the port where most of Ghana's gold and timber was shipped out of the country. The town was a boomtown, full of people newly arrived from the countryside to work in the mines, mills, and harbor.

In 1956, John Kolorah Blay enrolled at Bishop O'Rorke, an Anglican middle school in the city. Blay worked to help pay his fees, hawking kerosene in glass bottles. He was determined to stay in school, whatever it took, and worked to help pay his fees

Blay also served as an altar boy at the church, enjoying the rituals and services of High Anglican services. He won a scholarship to attend Fijai Secondary School, skipping the rest of middle school. At Fijai, Blay cultivated a reputation as a "gifted in more senses than five" and had dreams that let him glimpse the future. His headmaster at Fijai Secondary School suggested an arrangement, and Blay held court at the house of one of his teachers.

In 1959, after Ghana declared independence, Blay won a scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania. His old teacher, Quantson, would remember that day for decades. Blay embarked on the African Glade, a down-at-heel former Second World War freighter, and was surprised to find that the women in white were his "clients."

Blay moved to Philadelphia, where he moved into a redbrick row house with a number of Ghanaian students, including Rudolph von Ballmoos and Jacob Badu. As more African nations fought for and won their independence, the number of students from the continent in American colleges grew. In 1957, von Ballmoos unfurled the flag of Ghana, the world's newest nation, in front of the Liberty Bell. Philadelphia's population was declining, and the city faced financial struggles due to corrupt politicians and the Mafia. The city's population was also declining, with grand townhouses becoming empty or turned into cheap boardinghouses.

Factories closed, streets caved in, and the Phillies kept losing. The city was brutally racist, with many students dressing themselves in their Africanness like armor. African princes were so ubiquitous that the All-African Students' Union put on a play about the phenomenon.

Blay, an African American student at Lincoln University, was shocked by the prevalence of African princes on campus. He was a popular student who was well-liked on campus but had never enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania. He found a job at the Union League of Philadelphia, a private club in Center City. The Union League was one of the most exclusive places in the United States, a coven of old money and power brokers. Blay worked as a busboy, clearing tables and cleaning dishes, but was fired for unsatisfactory performance.

Blay looked like a regular teenager, learning to live in a new city for the first time. He studied what money and power looked like at dinner parties and at the Union League. Later, he put what he learned and the people he met to work in ways none of them could have dreamed of. Soon, he had more money and more power than any of the students at the rooming house and any of the old men at the Union League. Like Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah before him, Blay found what he had been missing in Philadelphia: opportunity.

Legends and Lies

1909 or 1912

Kwame Nkrumah, a Ghanaian leader, was born in a village called Nkroful in September 1912, around the time of the Kundum Festival. His mother, Elizabeth Nyaniba, remembered two major events: his grandmother's death and a shipwreck. Nkrumah's grandmother died in 1912, and a shipwreck happened when he was a toddler, and the ship sank in 1913.

Nkrumah left Ghana in 1935 and worked as a teacher to save for his tuition. He visited Philadelphia with a friend, but they had no money for lodgings. They worked at the Hershey Chocolate Company and the Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, but they were eventually sent out through the back door. Nkrumah contracted pneumonia and worked at the Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Chester, Pennsylvania.

During university vacations, Nkrumah lived with a friend in New York, where he worked at Fulton Fish Market and attended revivalist meetings. He also attended revivalist meetings, such as the International Peace Mission Movement of the Reverend Major Jealous Divine. Nkrumah learned how to hold people spellbound, give them hope, and inspire belief in a better world.

Nkrumah realized that America was built to keep certain people poor, and he endured segregation at his jobs, buses, restaurants, and in public. He saw the many ways in which people resisted, especially in Philadelphia, which was still reeling from the effects of the Depression.

In summary, Kwame Nkrumah's life was marked by poverty, hardship, and the belief in the power of the divine. He faced racial segregation and the challenges of the modern world, but his experiences in Ghana and Philadelphia helped him overcome these challenges and inspire hope for a better future. In 1945, Kwame Nkrumah left America to sail to Britain, where he spent two years in London. He was drawn into politics and spent time with friends like Joe Appiah, who was known for his antiestablishment sensibilities. Nkrumah met and became friends with American scholar and activist W. E. B. Du Bois, who wrote declarations asserting the determination of colonial peoples to be free and condemning the monopoly of capital and the use of private wealth and industry for personal profits.

Nkrumah was closely monitored by British authorities, who were aware of his plans to wrest his country back from the British. He joined the United Gold Coast Convention, a political party founded by wealthy Nzema merchants and politicians, and left Britain soon after. However, the authorities were concerned about his plans and questioned Nkrumah.

Nkrumah's life was shrouded in legends, and his legacy would be choked by lies. John Kolorah Blay, a distinguished barrister, was the first person to join the United Gold Coast Convention.

During the Second World War, millions of people from across the empire helped Britain fight for freedom. Around 65 thousand Gold Coast servicemen fought bravely and became highly decorated soldiers. However, they were underpaid, housed in inferior quarters, and treated arbitrarily. The Royal West African Frontier Force had a ban on African officers, but Asante refused to write a letter stating Africans did not have the qualities required of officers.