Ajoa Yeboah-Afari unveils ‘New Currency’

A seasoned journalist, Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, has launched her latest book, New Currency, which celebrates Akan social norms and values, and communal living through the extended family system.

The book, described by the author as a historical novella, also gives some interesting accounts of the hardship and commotion that characterised the introduction of a new monetary currency in Ghana in 1979.

The 63-page book with 12 chapters is the fifth from the stable of Ms Yeboah-Afari, a former President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), who was also Editor of the Ghanaian Times.

It brings to the fore, the public despondency and turbulence associated with the demonetisation exercise during that period.

These included the tragic death of innocent demonetisation victims, alleged corrupt complicity by bank officials and some security personnel detailed to ensure an incident-free exercise.

The author chronicled an aspect of the harrowing military rule of 1979 by narrating the ordeal of a woman — Auntie Ama Dufie — the lead character about to lose an entire lifetime savings due to the demonetisation exercise.

To achieve that, the historical novella, set in Sunyani in the Bono Region specifically, told a story of the romance between Auntie Ama Dufie and a married civil servant, John, to the chagrin of affable, gentle Ntow, who helped Dufie to navigate survival options.

The launch, which took place last Wednesday in Accra, attracted some seasoned and veteran journalists, as well as a host of dignitaries, including a former Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Kwadwo Afari Djan.

Miracle

An excited Ms Yeboah-Afari described the event as a “miracle”, explaining that the novella was nearly stillborn, as it was scripted four decades ago but had to be kept on the shelf until now.

Recounting how it all started, she said: “Ever since I can remember, I have tried to keep a daily diary. My diary entry for Saturday, May 24, 1979, states simply, ‘Got an idea for short story on currency’. The entry for the following day says ‘Managed to write a third of story, New Currency’.

“After I finished it some weeks later, I filed it away as I didn’t know what to do with it immediately. Then over the years, it was on and off glancing through and then eventually, I forgot all about it.

“However, some months ago, while searching for a document, I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I came across the forgotten New Currency manuscript which I hadn’t seen for years.

“After reading through, I felt that it had potential, but I needed a neutral opinion about it so I did some editing, made a few changes although the title, New Currency, has never changed.”

She thanked the publisher, Smartline Publishers, for the support that has brought the book to life.

Book message

The book reviewer, a former Editor of the Catholic Standard, Dr Anthony Bonnah Koomson, commended the author for capturing the chilling, historical realities of the 1979 demonetisation exercise, as well as successfully reigniting and celebrating the fading but precious extended family values by projecting the Akan social norms and values uniquely associated with the extended family system.

In his review read on his behalf by the Managing Editor of Ghana Business News, Emmanuel Dogbevi, he described Ms Yeboah-Afari as “passionate as a writer, and inquisitive as a journalist” of high esteem.

“The topics about which she elects to write on compel attention. She rightly deserves to be considered among any class of notable advocates of public causes and public-interest issues,” he said.

He said the book would “reawaken a sense of history and cultural renaissance” of policy makers, media educators, journalism students and every lover of books.

Unexpected consequences

Submitting a speech titled “Unexpected Consequences” read on his behalf by the General Manager of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Albert Kofi Owusu, a veteran journalist, Cameron Duodu, said New Currency was a work of fiction, drawing from past experiences of some works of fiction he read as a child, and, therefore, believed the author was paying her debts to writers of her time who equally wrote good fictional works such as the Kan Me Hwe series.

Mr Duodu wondered where all those interesting novels of old, which could still inspire the youth and mould great writers such as Ms Yeboah-Afari, were.

“Ajoa’s lovely story takes us into the hearts of the event that can happen inside people’s families, their neighbourhoods and within their individual relationships.

They are very complex and, indeed, almost unimaginable,” he said.

Governments, he said, should learn from such books and tread carefully whenever they contemplated taking actions, the consequences of which could affect a lot of people.

First copy

The first copy of the book was bought for GH¢10,000 by the Paramount Chief of the Nandom Traditional Area in the Upper West Region, Naa Professor Edmund Nminyem Delle Chiir VIII.

source: graphic.com