My First Coup d'Etat: And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa

My First Coup D'Etat chronicles the coming-of-age of John Dramani Mahama in Ghana during the dismal post-independence "lost decades" of Africa. He was seven years old when rumors of a coup reached his boarding school in Accra. His father, a minister of state, was imprisoned for more than a year.

My First Coup D'Etat offers an intimate look at the country that has long been considered Africa's success story. This is a one-of-a-kind book: Mahama's is a rare literary voice from a political leader, and his personal stories work on many levels--as history, as cultural and political analysis, as fables, and, of course, as the memoir of a young man who, unbeknownst to him or anyone else, would grow up to be president of his nation. Though non-fiction, these are stories that rise above their specific settings and transport the reader into a world all their own, one which evokes a time lost and explores the universal human emotions of love, fear, faith, despair, loss, longing, and hope despite all else.