The Akroma File
Publication Year: 2009
Published by: African Books Collective
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Part One
Chapter One
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pp. 3-9
The visitors had chosen the most appropriate hour to visit Reverend Mot Tomlinson. As a habit, two o’clock on Saturday afternoons was thirty minutes after lunch, and an hour to siesta time. That was when he read his weekend magazines and newspapers. He had just...
Chapter Two
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pp. 11-14
Reverend Mot Tomlinson was not only the Moderator of LICE International in the Greater Accra Region, he was also the current chairman of LICE in West and Central Africa. Since receiving the odious request from the Akromas, he spent many of the...
Chapter Three
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pp. 15-21
Because of the dubious circumstances surrounding his travel plans, Essuman Patrickson Akroma’s departure from Ghana remained a closely guarded secret known only to Reverend Mot Tomlinson, his father and a few relatives. He left Kotoka International Airport...
Chapter Four
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pp. 22-29
When Akroma obtained permission to go to the toilet, the Customs Officer did not object, in spite of the expensive joke that he cracked. “Feel free,” he said, pointing to the corridor that led to the place. The visitor picked up his large green 1984 diary...
Chapter Five
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pp. 31-33
It must have been one full hour after Akroma left the Commissaire’s office when he saw a man through the naked window louvers of the Arrivals Passengers’ lounge. He was coming up the steps into the airport and inquiring something from the little groups of people on the...
Chapter Six
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pp. 35-43
Around the month of May the weather in Douala could be very inconstant. When J-P left the house there was abundant sunshine. By the time he arrived the airport it started drizzling. When they got into the car to drive away it actually began to pour, and it got...
Chapter Seven
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pp. 45-48
Akroma was generally not a very forgetful individual. But because of the crucial importance of the letter he had reminded himself several times about the instructions. When, therefore, he was sure that Reverend Dieudonne Akwa had finished talking he said...
Chapter Eight
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pp. 49-56
Reverend Dieudonne Akwa decided that Akroma would have to go back to Ghana, as soon as the opportunity presented itself. The reputation of his church was at stake, he resolved. He was convinced that Akroma was merely faking the story of the letter. The...
Chapter Nine
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pp. 57-63
Essuman Akroma Patrickston was the product of a harsh upbringing which he turned into advantage as he grew up. At the age of seven he had been sent to live with a rather brutal maternal uncle, Boache Danqua, a former head master and a former soldier...
Chapter Ten
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pp. 65-72
The weather was typical of late April. The sky was clear and cloudless, the sun hot but tempered by a cold breeze that blew gently, so gently that it was only noticeable by the swaying of the branches and leaves of the mango trees...
Chapter Eleven
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pp. 73-76
Although J-P seemed disappointed at the fact that Akroma had not exploited the acquaintance he had gone so far to create, Akroma went to bed that night having learned something very important: that it was possible for a Ghanaian to obtain a...
Chapter Twelve
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pp. 77-79
“We Ghanaians, we don’t trust each other. Those my Ghanaian brothers you brought may betray me,” he told JP. If they could declare in his presence that they were not Ghanaians, he thought, then they would not hesitate to betray anybody whom they did not trust...
Chapter Thirteen
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pp. 81-86
On Tuesday night Akroma moved to Hotel de Quartre Boutons in the Logbaba area called Swine Quarter, right in the heart of Ndokoti. It was not a hotel that could be described by its stars partly because of its location and partly because of its size and...
Chapter Fourteen
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pp. 87-90
On Wednesday the following week, eleven days after Akroma as supposed to have left Cameroon Reverend Dieudonne Akwa was invited for questioning by the Commissaire at the Airport...
Chapter Fifteen
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pp. 91-93
The following day Dangobert went up to Commissaire Blanche Diamant, the Commissaire for Tightened Security. This was the branch of the security system specially designed to protect the Head of State. It was this department that uncovered plots against...
Chapter Sixteen
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pp. 95-100
He did well to hide. But he was not to hide forever. On Wednesday, two days before he was to pack out of the hotel Akroma left to go for a stroll. He went out occasionally to continue to understand the town and study various means of making...
Chapter Seventeen
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pp. 101-104
Akroma had visited almost all the corners of Deido. When he suggested New City Hotel in Old Town, he knew why. They crossed the Commercial Avenue, passed through Waterside bar and climbed into New City. There they sat in the Off License...
Chapter Eighteen
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pp. 105-107
On Monday Dangobert invited Felicitas (who claimed that the burnt Akroma was her sister’s lover) to his office. Her sister had not turned up, she told him, and there was still no sign of her anywhere. “I have two guesses,” Dangobert told...
Part Two
Chapter Nineteen
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pp. 111-116
The journey to Nijombari was disturbing to both Akroma and J-P in several respects. For J-P, he was unsure of what to tell his uncle in whose hands he grew, and whom he had abandoned for some six years, without sending a word of greetings back...
Chapter Twenty
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pp. 117-120
It took Akroma and J-P twenty minutes to find a taxi that would take them right to Nobem where J-P’s uncle lived. The taxi branched off the main road and then drove up a slippery but apparently much-used track that led to a half-broken...
Chapter Twenty-One
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pp. 121-125
The three men returned to the veranda. There, J-P introduced his companion as “Kojo Hanson, a Liberian businessman in quest of investment opportunities.” As he noticed the excitement with which Pa Sabbas received the news, he...
Chapter Twenty-Two
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pp. 127-131
Pa Sabbas did not inquire to know any further what exactly Kojo and Sons intended to set up. He was too excited to ask any questions. He had suffered so much that news of resurrection such as this was bound to put reason and caution behind...
Chapter Twenty-Three
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pp. 133-136
The acquisition of a car was not all that Akroma did. His taxi work ended at 6p.m each day. He had already applied to teach English in some evening schools that were preparing students for the Baccalaureate and other...
Chapter Twenty-Four
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pp. 137-142
Akroma regarded Anguissa-Anguissa as a sacred book that needed to be studied thoroughly. And study it he did! When he had convinced himself that he had read and understood the book he decided to submit himself to the test. On...
Chapter Twenty-Five
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pp. 143-147
Pa Sabbas Ngangpior had three children, a boy and two girls. The first two were studying in America, a decision he taken had in his heyday, when money was the least of his problems. The thought of it now haunted him because soon afterwards it became...
Part Three
Chapter Twenty-Six
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pp. 151-153
It was Akroma’s excesses that undid him. By June 1985, Akroma had already made enough money to solve all his problems in Ghana. He made at least 3 million francs from the KOJO AND SONS ENTERPRISE speculation, including the...
Chapter Twenty-Seven
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pp. 155-157
On Wednesday the 18th of February 1986, the Director of Private Education visited Lycee Classique Polyvalent No.1 de Nijombari on a routine tour. Just as he had done in the other colleges, he discussed problems between private...
Chapter Twenty-Eight
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pp. 159-162
The Director of Private Education had accepted the bribe without protest. Here and there he discovered a bursar or a principal who played pranks on their proprietors. But nowhere else did he find anybody or persons exploiting the...
Chapter Twenty-Nine
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pp. 163-167
On Thursday March 20st at 9am a black Peugeot 504 drove into the college compound. It halted very briefly in front of the Administrative block, asked for the way to the Proprietor’s office and then drove off. As the car drove towards the...
Chapter Thirty
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pp. 169-170
Reverend Dieudonne Akwa drove straight back to his hotel, Etoile Philante. As soon as he got to his room he telephoned the 19ème Arrondissement in Douala and asked to talk to Commissaire Kum Dangobert. When the man got on the phone...
Chapter Thirty-One
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pp. 171-176
Commissaire Dangobert spent Thursday afternoon working out a plan to surprise Akroma and his friend in their lair. He would inform Akwa to secretly get more information on Akroma, where he lived and places he frequented and at what...
Chapter Thirty-Two
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pp. 177-178
No single incident had shocked as many people as the murder of the pastor. Such a thing had never happened before in Nijombari. Not that there had never been murders! But each time a man was killed the motive was...
Chapter Thirty-Three
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pp. 179-185
Once he was sure that he had by the fake CAMEROON TRIBUNE and radio announcement, convinced his pursuers that he was dead, Akroma set out to consolidate his financial strength – his main reason for...
Chapter Thirty-Four
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pp. 187-191
On Saturday morning, the day after Dangobert received the news of Reverend Akwa’s death, Akroma paid an early visit to the Commissaire for Pubic Security, Mr. Mouralais Essomba. He found Essomba in uniform, drinking...
Chapter Thirty-Five
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pp. 193-197
When the Commissaire returned to the Reception in his house where Akroma was sitting, he looked tired and confused. Akroma was his very good friend and one to whom he owed numerous favours...
Chapter Thirty-Six
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pp. 199-211
At precisely 7 o’clock Essomba’s radio signalled there was a message. Commissaire Dangobert was as good as his word. He was 20 Kilometres away and would be in Nijombari itself in under thirty minutes. In anticipation of the impending...
Back Cover
E-ISBN-13: 9789956716098
Print-ISBN-13: 9789956558827
Page Count: 224
Publication Year: 2009
