My First Coup d'Etat

Written by the current Ghanaian President, My First Coup d'Etat is a far-reaching and interesting memoir of life in post-colonial Ghana. It follows Mahama from the day he learns his father, a Member of Parliament, has been ousted following the 1966 coup, which removed Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah, from government.

The book then follows a meandering, indirect path through Mahama's life and musings: we learn both of his political maturation, his family history in the north of the country, and the life and culture of a fast-developing, fast-Westernizing Ghana. Mahama's attitudes towards this change, and this tension between tradition and modernity, are somewhat nebulous: he implies a healthy skepticism regarding religion and its uses; he describes his affair with socialism in relatively muted terms; and, while describing the later coups in Ghana's history, he refrains from pointing fingers. This makes sense, given his current position. And, honestly, the book doesn't suffer much from this lack of big opinions, it's still a pretty good read.