Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Wa… (2024)

A remarkable account of a conman who leveraged Ghana's national mythology, political chaos, and western greed to enrich and empower himself for nearly two decades. It was hard not to see the similarities with the actions and rise of our own tangerine conman.

In this book John Ablakah had a scam that affected everyone from the president of Ghana to Ghana‘s ambassador Shirley Temple black and everyone in between I do believe we have found the person we can blame for the Nigerian prince who cannot get his trust fun scam and it is this man. He took a rumor and expound on borrowed against it had others invest in it and became rich because of it this is a very interesting book and I do believe the author Yapoka Yebo did a phenomenal job writing a nonfiction book that is not only interesting but astounding. I was amazed at how many names I knew in this book about a story I had never heard of before. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review I want to thank net galley and the publisher for my free arc copy.

An interesting character, and it was interesting to learn about the history of Nigeria which I was almost entirely ignorant to you. Unfortunately, this book is terribly written. Repetitive, flat, and with a bizarre insistence on referring to the protagonist as 'our man' which is cute for about ten pages and annoying thereafter.

I've finally finished my first nonfiction book of the year!!! I misled many family members because I didn't realize there were notes/references in the back, but I still kind of wish they were footnotes so I could specifically see where the author got her facts from.

Overall this was a very well written book - the author has an engaging style that isn't dry the way many nonfiction books are and the story is compelling. I did sort of feel like I got lost at the end (although that could be because it took me months to finish). I sort of lost the plot and how or why the scams were working and what the moral story the author was trying to tell was. I feel like there were some big leaps in the final chapter that didn't naturally flow from the rest of the book.

The earlier chapters detailing colonial and post-colonial exploitation of Ghana were the most interesting to me, I was less interested in the scam and the scammer than in the discovery in concrete detail of all the horrible sh*t the US and UK did in Ghana. Overall a worthy read.

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

The story of a very good con man from Ghana, who used a rumor of a massive store of gold to con pretty much everybody.

Very interesting. WC Fields quote, "you can't cheat an honest man" was never so true.

There's a lot of talk about scam and the infamous Nigerian scammer is a sort of archetype. This is an excellent book about real life and these persons.
Well researched and well written.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Did not finish. I wanted to like this. I'm fascinated by the history of grifters, and the political intrigue also interested me. But the prose fell flat for me, and eventually I found myself skimming.

Dr John Ackah Blay-Miezah - politician, investor, philanthropist, football club owner, royal, patriot, conman. A man who came from abject poverty in Ghana to run a con so successful that he not only extracted tens of millions of dollars from investors in Ghana, the US, the UK, and South Korea, but 3 decades after his death there are still people who swear he told the truth.

Most cons are structured as Ponzi schemes, but Blay-Miezah’s frightening ability to defraud sophisticated Western and Ghanaian business owners, politicians, and even activists of their money from the early 1970s to early 1990s and never pay a cent back is quite rare.

Yepoka takes no shortcuts in explaining why Blay-Miezah was so successful. She takes great pains to explain how Ghana’s history of being exploited by several European countries created the perception that it was exceptionally rich - a mine inhabited by people who did not have any use for the wealth around them. Combined with the West’s own slander of the nation’s first president as corrupt, Blay-Miezah created an unoriginal tale of the nation’s wealth being kept in Swiss banks, but with the twist that he was the only one who could access and repatriate that wealth.

Through changing military and civilian regimes, Blay-Miezah spun his tales as craftily as the fabled Ghanaian trickster, Anansi the spider. He thrived in the turbulence of the times, worming his way into the audience of almost every Ghanaian head of state from the 70s to the 90s, and surrounding himself with prominent statesmen, journalists, spy chiefs, and royalty that all vouched for the legitimacy of his Oman Ghana Trust Fund.

As a Ghanaian, I am most grateful that Yepoka’s book is as much a book on Ghanaian politics from the first republic to the dawn of the fourth republic as it is on Blay-Miezah’s life. The young nation was barely on its feet when the co*cktail of Cold War politics, African liberation struggles, domestic political violence, and corruption led it to over 20 years of instability. Blay-Miezah was in many ways a man of his time. A man with a simple, if fraudulent, explanation for Ghana’s failures and medicine for its malaise.

This is definitely a 5-star book and a brilliant debut from Yepoka Yeebo. If you’re a young Ghanaian interested in understanding the politics that led to our current system I daresay it’s a must read.

Interesting topic, unfortunately not well told. Did not get much story arc, and instead it often read as an extremely repetitious list of times Blay-Miezah committed the same fraud over and over. It did very little to give life to the character of the man, or to explore why this kind of thing can happen.

Anansi's Gold is about a scam artist who garnered inexplicable loyalty from people despite blatantly bilking them out of their money, who boasted of his University of Pennsylvania education while cheating repeatedly and unrepentantly on his wives, who moves in circles with Roy Cohn while living up to the '80s "Greed is Good" mantra and forever wriggling free of the consequences of his actions— oh, no, not Donald Trump!

This is about John Ackah Blay-Miezah, a Ghanaian con artist who fooled various kinds of greedy and gullible people out of millions in the 70s and 80s. To some Blay-Miezah promised a Pan-Africanist vision of post-colonial investment in Ghana, with the returns from the "investment fund" under his management used to build roads, schools, and health clinics; to others, he confirmed all their racist stereotypes about Africa and let them think of themselves as the ones suckering him. Shockingly, the only person who came out ahead was Blay-Miezah.

The marketing has kind of positioned this as a true crime story, but it's actually much more a sober historical account of post-independence Ghana, and how its people suffered from the consequences of colonialism and the brutality of first a military dictatorship and then the Rawlings regime. Yepoka Yeebo does a great job in pulling together so many disparate strands of a fraud scheme that ranged across continents, but I did think it could have been edited down about 50 pages or so without losing anything of the essential argument.

You can really feel the passion and work that went into telling this story, especially when so much of the history involved was intentionally covered up and obfuscated. I picked this up because I love messy history and stories of scandals and scams, but I learned a lot about the history of Ghana and how, through colonialism, it was twisted into a perfect breeding ground for a con artist like Blay-Miezah. would definitely like to learn more about Ghanaian history and would absolutely read more from this author!

I loved this book!!! The only hurdle for me was how many important people/names there were to keep track of but the key in the beginning book was helpful and they were all vital to the story (which is a testament to how intricate the web of the Oman Ghana Trust Fund became over the decades). Amazing that Yepoka did all of the research and resource-gathering to piece this story together. Highly recommend :)

I went back and forth on this one a lot! I thought it was extraordinarily successful when it linked the con man story to larger themes, like how it fit into the exploitation of Ghana by the British, systematic destruction of documents to obscure the truth, and Ghanaian folklore. I was also so impressed by the sheer volume of sources — the bibliography at the end was fascinated. In the middle, it got bogged down by the sheer magnitude of Blay-Miezah’s scams. High three overall!

3.5⭐️ rounded up because I have a hard time rounding down nonfiction. The prose here isn’t top notch for most of the book. There was a lot of repetition, especially in the first half, when every several pages were bookended with “so and so would come to regret the choices they had made” or “it would be so and so’s ruin.” Essentially a lot of build up without payoff. While I think it makes the book less magnetic, it also reflects the central scam rather well and I can appreciate that now that I’m done reading it.

There is a ton of interesting Ghanaian history here, most of which will be new and fascinating to the average American. So rather than a true 3.5, this is like a 3 for the writing/story treatment and a 4 for the history lesson and the impressive research.

3.75, really enjoyable well written non fiction about the incredible con man John Blay Meizah and the lie about stolen ghanian gold he kept going for decades. The writing was done in a really interesting way to pack in facts about the con but also you learn about Ghana and it's tumultuous history at the same time. Shined a light on how readily people will believe anything to make money and not care about exploiting a third world country. And the wild personalities of power.

Read around the world project - Ghana

Anansi's Gold is an example of a really interesting story that suffers from poor storytelling. A con man who dupes the world with a made-up trust fund, scamming politicians, businessmen and normal citizens alike from around the world? It sounded really interesting and as such, Anansi's Gold was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023.

Unfortunately, this is a very rote exploration of John Ackah Blay-Miezah’s life and actions. Each chapter felt like a regurgitation of the same situation over and over again, with our con man using the same approach on - very frequently - the same exact people. There’s no real emotion in this retelling, no exploration of psychology or motivation. It’s a shame because I feel like this could have been a really good read if it had leaned more into narrative nonfiction and less into a “he did this, and then this, and then this” kind of story. I would have DNFed if not for this global reading project, and I admit that I was thrilled when Blay-Miezah died, because I knew the book was almost over!

I did learn a little about Ghanaian politics, which I appreciated.

*a very well-written novel about John Ackah Blay - Miezah and Ghana's missing wealth
*easy to read
*well researched
*very interesting storyline from cover to cover and a part of history I was not aware of
*excellent first novel by Yepoka Yeebo
*highly recommend

Compelling story told extremely well

Every Ghanaain Must Read This Beautiful Book

Absolutely riveting and fascinating! I will be more than happy to be involved in a major movie production or series of this story.

A true page turner. Nothing like it.

Neither a particularly well told story nor well narrated one.

The vast amount of repetition early in the book that xxx was this or that tested y patience. I wanted the story to begin not the teaser to go on and on and on. And, in case we forgot, the teaser was repeated regularly throughout the book.

The missed opportunity for Ghana is, unfortunately, not dissimilar to that of other countries trying to break free from colonialism. Someone, with power or persuasiveness, finds a way to squirrel away that countries fortune at the expense of its people. In this case, it wasn’t a dictator or autocrat but a persuasive con.

I just wish the story was better told. A strong editor could have condensed and tightened this into a good read.

I started reading the digital version but switch to an audio version due to the repetition. It didn’t help.

The pace of the audiobook was okay but the narration would benefit from the use of silence and pauses to emphasis points or delineate sections. Instead, the narration flows quickly through the book – perhaps a good thing as one finishes sooner than otherwise.

One and a half stars. Not the worst book but well below delightful.
 

This was okay! It's an interesting piece of investigative journalism, but the writing was awkward and didn't feel well-controlled. There was a lot of repetitive detail in some places and not enough explanation in others. Also, with such a huge cast, I think it would have benefitted from more organized storytelling to keep everything straight. It felt like a series of facts suddenly being share with no real purpose, rather than a well-crafted narrative.

OMG This was maddening! The lies would just grow and grow from this person who fooled a lot of people even after his death. Some who were still alive or on their own deathbeds still believed that the money from the fund would finally come through. This also was a good history lesson on the country of Ghana itself and the fact that it has been taken advantage of by its many rulers.

Really interesting story, but so poorly written.

Everyone is looking for a way to make easy money, and John Ackah Blay-Miezah was the man willing to sell you that dream. Blay-Miezah, a Ghanaian, was a swindler who managed for 20 years to defraud his investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. I found it amazing how easy people were duped by Blay-Miezah. He truly was a great con man. Yeebo’s documentation is extensive, and the book is easy to read.

Could’ve been more interesting, but I found it tedious and unrelatable. Couldn’t even find s way to feel sorry for anyone. Perhaps too factually presented. I think it’s the narration that fell short.

Pretty remarkable story. I think the format of books about crime that are secretly histories works really well. I wish it had had a little more history in fact - at some point, the story of Blay-Miezah gets a little repetitive as he pulls the same con on hundreds or thousands of marks. But overall I still enjoyed it and found the story exciting and frustrating, and a sad reflection of the history of post colonial Africa

Well researched book. Laudable, as Ghanaian history is poorly researched and recorded.
It is a laborious read however. Events are scattered and the narrative is poorly arranged. The prose is tired and non engaging. I managed to finish this due to my interest in the character and Ghanaian history.
The author’s barely veiled contempt for Jerry Rawlings is palpable. Where she could simply narrate facts so the reader draws their own conclusion, the author presents her own biased interpretation of the facts.

When I was in high school, I had a good friend - a tiny, chubby (although no more) Jewish kid with no rhythm or musical ability- who told people over and over that he was Prince's cousin. The lie was outrageous and outrageously funny given his complete lack of dance moves. However, he told the lie over and over, until when people mentioned his name, they said he was Prince's cousin.

Ms. Yeebo tells a story of a con man who told an even more outrageous lie, over and over for 20 years and was able to scam people on three continents out of untold millions. John Acah Blay-Miezah (and like any great con he had numerous other names) ran the Oman Ghana Trust Fund. He claimed that Ghana's first president after independence, Kwame Nkrumah, created the trust with billions he secreted out of the country and made Blay-Miezah the sole trustee and sole beneficiary of the trust. Blay-Miezah was supposed to repatriate the trust corpus to Ghana to use it to develop Ghana into a Western-style industrial country, free of want. The difficulties of moving billions of dollars required many government approvals and time. Blay-Mizeah promised investors that if they would fund his trips to various international financial hotspots, they would earn up to 100 to one on their investment in just a short period of time. Blay-Mizeah used the investor funds to live an outsized life in Ghana, Europe and America. He frequently took whole floors in the swankiest hotels; traveled with a large entourage including a security detail and a chef (and sometimes his favorite band). He told investors that they were just weeks away from unlocking the trust and they kept investing and investing, no matter how many times they were disappointed or whatever evidence that there was no trust confronted them.

The whole scam came tumbling down through the work of investigators in the US and the UK. The final shove came from a 60 Minutes piece in 1989 produced by Ed Bradley. However, the whole scam was propped up for years by Blay-Mizeah's ability to fabricate a story about Ghana and Africa that fit with people's preconceived notions - large natural wealth, corrupt, unstable leaders - a dark continent with a unknown past and an uncertain future. He played on both the notion of Whites somehow civilizing benighted Ghana and simple greed. Many of Mr. Blay-Mizeah's investors had a religious fervor towards their belief (Ms. Yeebo actually discusses research into cult members who still believed when the promised end of the world did not materialize.

All of this took place before the internet. The ability to research the history of Ghana, much less current events, was far more difficult. People found it easier to rely on pre-conceived notions. We have all seen these scams come through email or fax - a Nigerian prince has a vast fortune that he just needs a few thousand dollars to unlock. These are called advanced funding schemes and Ms. Yeebo traces them all the way back to the supposed estate left by Sir Francis Drake and the centuries of hucksters who played that con. Nevertheless, even with the Internet, we still fall for these cons and we are fascinated by them. Tonight I could watch documentaries about Anna Delvy, Bernie Madoff, the Tender Swindler and countless others. (I have watched all those and more). We wonder how people could fall for it and yet people fall for it over and over.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Ms. Yeebo is a journalist and the book reads much like a magazine article rather than a history. Ironically, I was most intrigued, however, when Ms. Yeebo placed this story in the context of colonialism, the end of colonialism and Cold War politics. I knew nothing of the history of Ghana (or much history of Sub-Saharan Africa). I wanted more about the history of Ghana and how the British and Americans continued to ruthlessly exploit Ghana after independence. Unfortunately, that is a side discussion in the book. I read the Wikipedia entry for Ghana to learn more - but I would have preferred Ms. Yeebo to lead me further down that path. I also note that the hero of the story, Kwame Nkrumah, has a bit more of a complicated reputation then presented in Ms. Yeebo's account. How much of that is simple artifacts from Cold War propaganda? Hard to say. I would like to read further or to have had Ms. Yeebo present a more nuanced picture. Nevertheless, the book is both informative and entertaining and I look forward to Ms. Yeebo's next work.

As a side note, one lesson that was in the back of my mind as I read this book but never discussed or made explicit at all is of course our own experience with Trump. His ability to repeatedly lie and lie, sometimes not even consistently astounds me. All I can say, is my high school friend had lots of people talking about how he was Prince's cousin.

The Scam: John Ackah Blay-Miezah, a charismatic conman, weaved a fantastical tale of hidden Ghanaian wealth entrusted to him by the deceased President Kwame Nkrumah. He convinced international figures, including heads of state, to invest in retrieving this "Anansi's Gold" through various elaborate schemes.

The Man: Blay-Miezah, born in 1941, honed his skills in early jobs and during imprisonment, learning to charm and exploit people's vulnerabilities. He framed his scam as a Pan-African cause, adding a layer of legitimacy.

The Enablers: Blay-Miezah needed credibility. Diplomatic passports and connections to important figures, some of whom saw him as a useful stooge, helped him gain the trust of investors. Former US Attorney General John Mitchell, not a beacon of integrity himself, still charmed investors successfully. The resources of the Oman Ghana Trust Fund were said to be stored in the vaults of Swiss Banks. Additionally, Ghana's political turmoil, including coups and censored reports, created an atmosphere of confusion and desperation, making people more susceptible to his lies.

The Places: The Long Con was conceived in Philadelphia, about 50 miles from Lincoln University, where Kwame Nkrumah went to college, and in the 1970s, a city undergoing one of the worst urban declines of the century. Blay-Miezah found amidst the blight wealthy investors, who paid up and then celebrated as the “Prince” escorted them lavishly around town. London, Zurich and Accra also had important roles in the tale.

The Victims: Blay-Miezah's victims included at least 300 individuals from diverse backgrounds, some motivated by the chance of winning big on speculative investments, others by the alleged noble cause. Many remained silent even after realizing they were duped, fearing embarrassment. The victims forked over a total of $15 million. Some were offered returns 10 or 20 times their investment; others were duped into paying Blay-Miezah’s bills from fancy hotels or hospital bills when he faked heart attacks that seemed that they might threaten his ability to pay out the returns he promised.

The End Game: After years of living lavishly, Blay-Miezah's web of lies unraveled. A "60 Minutes" exposé revealed the truth, and legal actions were initiated. However, he died before facing full consequences, escaping yet again.

Legacy: Blay-Miezah, like the trickster spider Anansi, left behind a complex legacy. His story serves as a cautionary tale about greed, manipulation, and the lasting impact of political turmoil. Despite being exposed, some still believe his claims, highlighting the enduring power of a well-crafted story and the human desire for easy gains.

Role of Journalism: The author is a journalist, and TV news eventually revealed the truth, but why didn’t journalists unravel the scam for 18 years? This was before the digital revolution started marking the death throes of traditional media. Why did the investigative journalists of the day miss this story completely?