Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, the oldest of Mr B. Yeboah-Afari’s children, is a former President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA). She is currently Chairperson of the Editors Forum, Ghana and a columnist of The Mirror.
An award-winning journalist, she was born at Dormaa-Ahenkro and describes herself as a “proud daughter of Brong-Ahafo”.
In 1985, she received two prestigious journalism awards: she was voted joint winner of the ‘African Columnist of the Year’ by listeners of the BBC programme, Network Africa; and the GJA honoured her with the first and only John Kugblenu Prize for Valour – to date nobody else has been given that award.
She is one of only two journalists given “special mention” in the 2004 Report of the National Reconciliation Commission for their “bold stand”, in condemning the 1979 executions in Ghana and the other human rights abuses.
From 1997 to 2002, she worked at the Commonwealth Secretariat, in London, UK, as the Secretariat’s first Public Affairs Officer and Editor of its flagship magazine, Commonwealth Currents. From 2004-2008, she was the Editor of the national daily, The Ghanaian Times.
In 2006, she was the recipient of a State Award, Companion of the Order of the Volta for Journalism and Public Service.
Ms Yeboah-Afari is also a creative writer and published author and this is her fourth book. The others (all out of print) are: The Best of Yaa Yaa, a collection of articles from an earlier Mirror column; The Sounds of Pestles, a collection of short stories; and A Decade of Thoughts of a Native Daughter, Volume 1, a collection of articles from her column.
In 2013, she resumed writing her ‘Thoughts of a Native Daughter’ column in The Mirror after a break of nearly three decades.
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New Currency: A Historical Novella
New Currency: A Historical Novella celebrates Akan social norms and values, particularly the “wonderful feeling of togetherness” and communal living, uniquely associated with the extended family system and invites the reader to be culturally sensitive and to worry about the Ghanaian culture degradation.
Apart from capturing the chilling, historical realities of the 1979 demonetisation, it successfully regains and celebrates the otherwise fading, but precious extended family values.
In the book, the seasoned author chronicles some aspects of the harrowing military rule of 1979, and narrates the ordeal of a woman about to lose an entire lifetime savings. Specifically, it recounts the widespread commotion and hardships associated with the introduction of a new monetary currency in Ghana from March 13–26, 1979.
The historical novella, set in Sunyani, the Brong-Ahafo regional capital in the same year, captures the widespread public despondency and turbulence associated with the exercise.
The book provides some insight into the period of the country’s history for adults who lived through the turbulence of 1979 as a necessary reminder; and to the present-day youth some awareness of the happenings then.
The thrilling lime green-looking book with yellow and white title inscription on the cover, and thinly opaque adinkra symbols – Mpatapo (knot of reconciliation) and Sesa wo suban (change or transform your life), reflects the theme of the book published by Smartline Publishers.
₵35.00