[T]his little-known story unfolds like Catch Me if You Can.” —The Washington Post
“Reading Anansi's Gold is like watching a heist movie … all about improvisation, unforced error, unlikely escape.” —Dan Piepenbring, Harper's
“Yepoka Yeebo's riveting Anansi's Gold traces the outlines of Blay-Miezah's life, shedding light on how he perpetrated his deceptions for years while living in incredible opulence. The author delves into archives across the Atlantic, digs up criminal proceedings and conducts interviews with victims and associates alike, in the process telling us not just about Blay-Miezah, but about the world that enabled him to thrive.” —New York Times Book Review
“Skillfully interweaves archival material, F.B.I. records, and interviews to recount the saga of [a] con man's career, and to reflect on how lies can be leveraged in the creation of national histories.” —The New Yorker
“The sprawling story of Blay-Miezah's outsize life and wayward career is told with mordant aplomb by first-time author Yepoka Yeebo … While [the book] reflects a daunting amount of research, it reads like a picaresque novel … Compelling.” —The Wall Street Journal
“An enthralling rags-to-stolen-riches story, a thrilling true-crime caper, and a sharp indictment of a world that allows scammers like Blay-Miezah to thrive.” —TIME
“A wild tale . . . Yeebo's substantial research - based on interviews, archives, government reports, and the like - is nothing less than awe inspiring, and her prose is careful and self-assured, often outraged, sometimes dryly amused . . . Anansi's Gold is a fascinating story brilliantly told.” —The Boston Globe
“Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time.” —NPR
“In her thrilling new book, Yepoka Yeebo tells the jaw-dropping story of a man behind a scam called 'one of the most fascinating – and lucrative – in modern history' … the ever-proliferating grifter-lit bookshelf is on the verge of collapsing under its own weight, but Yeebo's contribution to the category stands out … meticulously researched.” —The Guardian
“A wild, juicy ride.” —Los Angeles Times
“Stylish and substantive, Yepoka Yeebo's Anansi's Gold is a non-fiction masterpiece, artfully weaving Blay-Miezah's remarkable exploits into the fabric of history. Highly recommended.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Rigorously researched and beautifully written.” —CrimeReads
“In this absorbing true crime narrative, Yeebo details the fascinating story of this audacious con artist.” —Town & Country
“Absorbing . . . A colorful, eye-opening account.” —Newsweek, Favorite Books of 2023
“Yeebo pulls off something near-magical here. She excavates an overlooked historical narrative as juicy as any true-crime blockbuster, where every detail is both fastidiously researched and completely over-the-top-one of Blay-Miezah's major adversaries in his quest to scam? Former child star Shirley Temple Black, of course!-while also conveying how the colonial system nurtured and turbo-charged this dysfunction.” —Wired, Best Books of the Year
“Yeebo seamlessly moves from the fun of a classic con-man yarn . . . to an equally engrossing history of the West African state and its rocky path to postcolonial independence. Her sharpest point: that Blay-Miezah succeeded so handsomely by exploiting the stereotype of Africa as a source of ill-gotten wealth, ripe for the picking.” —Slate, 25 Best True Crime Books, Podcasts, and Documentaries of All Time
“Even as [Yeebo] catches readers up in what often reads like a breathless caper, the author takes care to ground them in what matters most: Ghana and its sadly 'fragile' history … Utterly absorbing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[A] thrilling true-crime debut that reverberates on the world stage . . . a story that any writer of heist flicks would envy . . . Readers will devour the gripping story of a lie that became a country's founding myth.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“Brilliantly illuminates the stranger-than-fiction career of Ghanaian fraudster John Ackah Blay-Miezah in this thrilling true-crime account.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An illuminating story about greed and post-independence Ghana . . . Remarkable.” —Financial Times
“Yeebo weaves the far-fetched tale of John Ackah Blay-Miezah, a Ghanaian grifter responsible for a truly massive con . . . Yeebo uses this outlandish yarn to paint a vivid picture of the early years of post-independence Ghanaian society and government.” —Foreign Affairs
“A wild, you-can't-believe-it's-true story that offers a portrait of not just a conniving huckster but also a portrait of Ghana in transition. While all of this happened in the 1970s and 1980s, the Ponzi scheme and the nefarious backdoor dealings feel disquietingly topical, making it an even more powerful read.” —Amazon Book Review
“Riveting . . . a welcome addition to the canon on great swindlers.” —The Economist
“Five stars. Fabulously entertaining.” —Telegraph
“Richly entertaining … [Yeebo] has a sharp eye for droll detail [and] … deftly marshals a florid cast of characters.” —Times Literary Supplement
“Yeebo [writes] in elegant prose, bringing complex detail, vivid background color, and an extensive cast into her compelling narrative … Pulls no punches.” —Literary Review
“How long until this book becomes an HBO miniseries starring Isiah Whitlock Jr.? Only time will tell.” —The Millions
“Incorporates Cold War politics, the U.S. civil rights movement and much more into a wholly engaging narrative - and one with consequences that are hard to shake when you've reached the final page.” —InsideHook
“A thrilling dive into the fact and fiction of a legendary scammer . . . exquisite, well-researched.” —OkayAfrica
“An unparalleled account of the legendary John Ackah Blay-Miezah.” —Brittle Paper
“Well-researched and engaging, [Anansi's Gold] draws readers into the intricate web of lies about a trust-fund tall tale that spanned throughout the 1970s and '80s and across the globe. Readers who enjoy true crime and stories about cons will quickly be absorbed into Yeebo's first book.” —Library Journal
“With Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo has achieved something remarkable, brilliantly reframing the independence era under Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, while vividly illuminating the tawdriness of its aftermath with an unforgettable tale of corruption. This is African history and storytelling of the first order.” —Howard W. French, author of BORN IN BLACKNESS
“This captivating story of a gifted con artist and his abettors is not only a sheer pleasure to read, but also a profound inquiry into how a lie becomes a legend. Yepoka Yeebo contends with a history shrouded in forgetting and a protagonist who trailed falsehoods in his wake. Her tenacious reporting and relentless pursuit of truth are nothing short of heroic.” —Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of THE FEATHER THIEF
“An unflinching look at history that illuminates both the past and the present. Meticulously and impressively researched, Anansi's Gold is a sharply written and highly engaging account of Blay-Miezah's life, of politics and society in Ghana, and of the rapaciousness and cruelty of colonization and of external involvement in Africa. An essential work by a great writer.” —Peace Adzo Medie, author of HIS ONLY WIFE
“Anansi's Gold is as gripping as a heist movie, with a sparkling cast and a plot that is stranger than fiction. Yepoka Yeebo tells a tale from another time, but in an era of fake news and too-good-to-be-true cryptocurrency scams, it feels thrillingly contemporary.” —Tom Standage, author of A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 6 GLASSES
“This hugely important and riveting book tells a true story of avarice and ambition that is centered on Ghana but reveals a web of lies and deceit on a vast international scale. At the heart of this utterly compelling narrative is a theme of real urgency today: the political and social dangers and the terrible harm caused by the deliberate falsification of the past.” —Susan Williams, author of WHITE MALICE
“This astonishing book reveals not just Ghana's history as you've never read it before, but some of the most important global events of the twentieth century. An impressive feat.” —Afua Hirsch, author of BRIT(ISH)
07/01/2023
British Ghanian journalist Yeebo tells the story of John Ackah Blay-Miezah, one of the world's most prolific con artists, who tricked many people worldwide into giving him their money. His scheme started in the 1970s after the death of Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, who was falsely accused of hiding all the country's gold overseas. The book shows that Blay-Miezah convinced people not only that Nkrumah had left a secret trust fund to help Ghanaian people but also that the Ghanaian president had entrusted him to disburse it. Blay-Miezah convinced investors to buy into the fake trust fund, worth an alleged $47 billion, by telling them that they too could have a portion of the funds but that giving money was the only way to access the money, stashed in the United Bank of Switzerland. VERDICT This book, well-researched and engaging, draws readers into the intricate web of lies about a trust-fund tall tale that spanned throughout the 1970s and '80s and across the globe. Readers who enjoy true crime and stories about cons will quickly be absorbed into Yeebo's first book.—Leah Fitzgerald
★ 2023-04-06
For two decades, a Ghanaian con man surfed a wave of lies and luck, living large on multiple continents while swindling “millions upon millions of dollars.”
“This is a story of how lies change history,” writes Ghanaian journalist Yeebo. The lies at the center of her story are those of Dr. John Ackah Blay-Miezah, whose name and title were both lies. He claimed to hold the key to the (nonexistent) Oman Ghana Trust Fund, billions of dollars supposedly spirited out of Ghana by its first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and held in Swiss banks, ensnaring investors in a classic fraud. Yeebo makes clear that Blay-Miezah’s lies were founded on other lies—first those of the British colonizers, who “siphoned off over 150 million pounds” that were to have been held in reserve pending independence, and then those of the U.S. and British governments, which helped engineer the 1966 coup that toppled Nkrumah. The racism that underlay these actions also propelled many of Blay-Miezah’s investors, who “saw [him] spinning a tale about darkest Africa, untold wealth, and a corrupt leader….[T]he story—and the man—fit their preconceptions like a dovetail joint.” The great tragedy, writes the author, is that Blay-Miezah’s lies have become one of Ghana’s foundational myths. It’s an incredible story, told with muscular acerbity and populated by secondary characters as compelling as the leading man. There’s the diplomat duo of Shirley Temple Black, U.S. ambassador to Ghana, and Ebenezer Moses Debrah, Ghana’s former ambassador to the U.S.; Gladys Blay-Miezah, Blay-Miezah’s second wife, whose ability to track down her philandering husband earned her the nickname Columbo; and Joe Appiah, who successfully prosecuted Blay-Miezah in Ghanaian court only to see him freed after a brutal coup. Even as she catches readers up in what often reads like a breathless caper, the author takes care to ground them in what matters most: Ghana and its sadly “fragile” history.
Utterly absorbing.
