Anansi's Gold cover art

Anansi's Gold

The Man Who Swindled the World

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Anansi's Gold

By: Yepoka Yeebo
Narrated by: Jude Owusu
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents Anansi's Gold by Yepoka Yeebo, read by Jude Owusu.

Winner of the Jhalak Prize & Plutarch Award | A New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post, Newsweek, TIME Book of the Year 2023
‘Fabulously entertaining’ Daily Telegraph | ‘Perfect for fans of Frank Abignale Jr.’s Catch Me If You Can’ Publishers Weekly
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an ingenious Ghanaian con artist ran one of the 20th century’s longest and most audacious frauds.

When Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957, it immediately became a target for opportunists determined to lay hold of whatever assets colonialism hadn’t already stripped. The military ousted the new nation’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of stealing the country’s gold and hiding it overseas.

Into this story stepped one of history’s most charismatic scammers, John Ackah Blay-Miezah – a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty, Blay-Miezah declared himself the custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece, if only you would help him rescue it – with a small investment. Over the 1970s and ’80s, he grew his scam to epic proportions, amassing hundreds of millions of pounds from thousands of marks all over the world. He baffled Henry Kissinger, scandalised Shirley Temple-Black, and had Nixon’s former attorney-general at his beck and call. Many tried to stop him, but Blay-Miezah continued to live in luxury, protected by ex-SAS soldiers while he deceived lawyers, businessmen and investigators around the globe.

In Anansi’s Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases the ever-wilder trail of Blay-Miezah – and unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements and African dreams – revealing the untold story of the grifter who beat the West at its own thieving game.©2023 Yepoka Yeebo (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Africa Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions True Crime Exciting Cold War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 You May Never See Us Again cover art
Easy Money cover art
Wicked Beyond Belief cover art
Too Big to Jail cover art
Hollywood Double Agent cover art
Empire of Deception cover art
A Feast of Vultures cover art
Boundless cover art
The Compatriots cover art
Very Bad People cover art
Freezing Order cover art
Private Eye Secret Spy cover art
John Stonehouse, My Father cover art
The Sixth Family cover art
The Grey Men cover art
Money Men cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
It is very detailed but you question how sone of it can be - especially sources. It also has a hideous bias which is hard to overcome. The performance was very good and empathetic. Just wish I hadn't bothered I'm afraid

comprehensive baut suspiciously so

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well written and entertaining. Very well read. Although it may be about a con that lasted for decades, the British had been doing the same for longer

Excellent: how the British shamelessly set an example to follow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Ok but went on same same
Ok but went on same same
Ok but went on same same
Paper back

Ok but went on same same

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well written story, as a Ghanaian myself - I’ve always been interested in this story being told. I’m glad it finally has, and not only that, but masterfully done so!

Sublime!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The adage told to Saul Bellow that “I never conned an honest man” couldn’t be more true here as hun

Incredible history of a little known but decades long con

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The subject matter sounded interesting but so badly written I gave up. Difficult to follow.

Badly written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.