THE PEN AT RISK: Early Feedback

The following are excerpts from comments made on my new book, The Pen at Risk, by early connoisseurs. The book will be launched on Wednesday 30th August, at the Kwame Nkrumah auditorium of Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. Read on:

Kwesi Yankah is a respected voice and communicator in writing and oral presentation. He has a keen sense of observation and possesses an uncanny ability to see meaning in many things that we take for granted. Over the years, he has honed that ability into both a science and an artform that communicates to each of us. The taxi driver gets Yankah’s message and laughs at his humour in the same measure as the corporate executive. He carries all of us along in his writings.

[Dr Mensa Otabil

General Overseer, International Central Gospel Church]

Warning: If you are recently bereaved, this book is not for you: loud guffaws or pantomimic laughter will be unavoidable and folks might wonder what’s wrong with your head. But ‘The Pen at Risk’ is also a roller coaster experience: pages after pages of steep emotional inclines and descents contrasted with sudden ascents. It is a thrill ride in which emotions peak in celebration of heroes and drop at the unmasking of a tyrant here, a hypocrite there, in government and in academia. This is quintessential Kwesi Yankah (the Kwatriot himself, alias Abonsam Fireman), a word aficionado, Ghana’s only surviving written word linguist gifted with words and the art of crafty story telling.

This indeed, is a Yankah Classic. There are few like this book.

[Enimil Ashon

Columnist and Veteran Journalist]

When a citizen who has spent his whole life scrutinising society, turns the spotlight on himself, the risks include this epic engagement that spares no issue and no one, him included. In this bare-it-all memoir, the Yankah enigma is fully bared, warts and all. As it turns out, Yankah has more than his fair share of privileged roles, ultimately impacting the national narrative. The richness of ethnography here is as riveting as his urban savvy accounts on the intrigues of university and national politics. While we watch him weave his wizardry of words, we are also awed by the totality of his humanity. The Pen at Risk is a hilarious package of eruditions. The narratives are so sweet they hurt. If this isn’t the best book you have read in years, call me illiterate.

[Kofi Akpabli,

Scholar, Author, Journalist]

The Pen at Risk is a captivating account of the life of an accomplished academic and prolific columnist-turned-politician who has spent decades at the forefront of public discourse. With his eloquent turn of phrase and trademark wit, Yankah’s memoir takes readers on a journey that is both personal and public as he reflects on his experiences growing up, and the trajectory of his life in academia and flirtation with politics.

From the vantage point of a popular columnist during risky periods of dictatorial rule, and armed with intimate knowledge of the media, the author illuminates the challenges and triumphs of writing for a national audience and the responsibility that comes with shaping public opinion. The Pen at Risk is essential reading that offers up a slice of Ghanaian social history while reminding us of the enduring power of the written word.

[Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo, University of Ghana.]

The Pen at Risk is more than a memoir. It is an authentic ungarnished history by a writer and public intellectual who is too modest to accept the title of a historian, but who witnessed and chronicled the most intriguing epochs of Ghana’s national life. Laced with innate Fante humour, this book is a piece of deep but entertaining non-fiction that is told with demystified simplicity by one of Ghana’s greatest academics and writers. Kwesi Yankah is a gift to humanity, and his memoir a greater gift to an unfortunate generation like mine, that did not live in the era of the incise writings of the great Kwatriot.

[Manasseh Azure Awuni, Editor in Chief, the Fourth Estate]

Yankah’s book, The Pen at Risk, chronicles his long distinguished career in several fields of human endeavour in Ghana and beyond. But it is more than a memoir: a veritable social history of Ghana and an eye witness account of the evolution of certain social and academic paradigms. The ancient social demarcation between town and gown presupposes that the closed and opaque world of the gown will forever be a mystery to the other side of the fence. Yankah’s memoirs demonstrate that the division is imaginary. This insightful reader, which explores the inner workings of academia and public life, is accessible to the lay reader and the general public.

Kwesi Yankah has been an eyewitness to Ghana’s unfolding history in some of its dramatic moments. The word “unputdownable” has become blasé, but this is a rare moment it can be used in its most literal sense.

[Nana Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng,

Former Chairman, Media Commission of Ghana]

Intriguing, revealing, and brilliant. The Pen at Risk is unvarnished introspection beautifully strung together with anecdotes in a way that is vibrant and colorful. Kwesi Yankah’s work is a refreshingly modest invitation to see life through a different lens, even for a fleeting moment.

Very few people leave profound trails for a younger generation to find, and even fewer dare to make their legacy meaningful and brazenly impactful. Throughout his life and through his work, Kwesi Yankah has pushed himself to do just that. Over the years, I have been fortunate to be able to lean on his intellect, as a man who paints the world with words in a way that resonates with many beyond our African continent.

[Dr E. Obeng Amoako Edmonds

University of Southern California (USC), USA]

As a literary work, the book is beautifully written, putting on display Yankah’s storytelling skills. The blend of personal anecdotes and broader social commentary creates a captivating read that leaves a lasting impression. A must-read for all interested in understanding the transformative power of education and the fruits of dogged determination.

[Dr Sam Jonah, KBE

Executive Chairman

Jonah Capital]

In this memoir, Kwesi Yankah delivers a sparkling tableau of key aspects of his life, tabling his charmed childhood and amazing trajectory as an academic. He then rolls out his long stint as an audacious social commentator and columnist for leading newspapers, which may have put his pen at risk. With a penmanship characterized by a keen eye for detail, this autobiography is an entertaining and captivating book that should be read by all interested in media and social history, as well as autobiography as a literary genre.

[Prof Mansa Prah, University of Cape Coast]

Another magisterial work from one pre-eminent public intellectual and literary scholar of our time. Finally, in this memoir, we get a true measure of the man behind pseudonyms: Abonsam Fireman, Woes of a Kwatriot, and Speaking for the Chief, as we are treated to a ringside retelling of stories, influences, travels, and experiences, hacking back to his childhood. What else could have shaped a life of remarkable accomplishment and prodigious talent as a scholar and writer? Kwesi Yankah’s well-honed mastery in drawing out the colour and essence of trivia in everyday life, shines through every page of this enthralling memoir. A must-read.

[H Kwasi Prempeh, Executive Director, CDD-Ghana]

Well, those are not my words, but other voices. And tempting though it is to say, ‘encooooore,’ or in local parlance, ‘b) h) biem, b) h) biem,’ I shall not. I would rather in all honesty plagiarize Yvonne Nelson and say ‘Wrong funeral oration. This is not Kwesi Yankah, by Kwesi Yankah.’