CANCELLED: Yepoka Yeebo | Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World

In conversation with Dr. Tukufu Zuberi 

Anansi’s Gold, Yepoka Yeebo’s “utterly absorbing” (Kirkus Reviews) debut book, tells the almost-too-wild-to-be-true story of former Philadelphian and brazen conman John Ackah Blay-Miezah’s spectacularly lucrative and long-running international fraud scheme. With accomplices that included Ghanaian officials and Richard Nixon’s former attorney general, Blay-Miezah scammed hundreds of millions of dollars from Philadelphia lawyers and housewives, London financiers, Korean businessmen, and others who were determined to cash in on the aftermath of Ghana’s 1957 independence from Britain. A British-Ghanaian journalist, Yeebo has contributed work to The Guardian, Bloomberg Businessweek, and PRX's The World, among other media outlets.

Dr. Tukufu Zuberi is the Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, and Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Swing Low, Sweet Chariot: The Mortality Cost of Colonizing Liberia in the Nineteenth-Century; Thicker than Blood: How Racial Statistics Lie; and African Independence: How Africa Shapes the World. Also a curator of museum exhibits, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and PBS television host, he was the founding director of UPenn’s Center for Africana Studies.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Masks are welcome but are not required
Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night.
A book signing will follow the presentation.
Books provided by Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books