Beyond the Polished Boots was inspired by a simple but striking online encounter.
According to the author, Dzifa Tetteh, the idea was born after she came across a Facebook post by a lady who had just married a senior police officer and proudly shared their wedding pictures online.
The flurry of comments under the post, many loaded with assumptions and misconceptions, motivated Dzifa to write this book, shedding light on the realities of being married to a security service officer, particularly in the police.
Dzifa Tetteh, popularly known as Daavi Dzifa, is a prolific journalist and former staff writer of the Ghanaian Times.
Her credentials are impressive: she is a multiple award-winning journalist, with three awards from the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), one from SSNIT, another from the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) and four prestigious recognitions from the Merck Foundation — the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA, Germany.
She has also received recognition from the Media Capacity Building Initiative for Reporting on Disability, an initiative supported by the Young Africa Centre, the US Embassy in Ghana, Arizona State University and the GJA.
A trained teacher and passionate writer, Dzifa has often used social media to chronicle her reflections on childhood, teaching and journalism.
Beyond the Polished Boots, her debut book, marks a significant milestone, commemorating her 40th birthday in a most meaningful way.
Writing from the unique perspective as a spouse of a senior police officer, Dzifa uses her personal experiences to explore the often-unseen side of life in and around the security services.
She examines how the demanding duties of officers affect their families, especially their spouses, whose sacrifices, she notes, are rarely acknowledged.
“Usually, little or nothing is said of their roles,” she writes, “and how the lives of these personnel affect their spouses, who have been ignored by society over the years.”
The book, she adds, “takes a peep into some aspects of the lives of security service officers and their spouses.”
Married for five years to a senior police officer, Dzifa initially hesitated to share her story, feeling her marriage was too young.
But she later realised that even the first five years of marriage offered rich lessons worth sharing; lessons about patience, trust and adaptation to a life often shaped by duty calls and unpredictable schedules.
“One of the qualities I think a potential spouse of a security service officer should have,” she advises, “is the readiness to share their spouse with the world.
You should accept and understand that your spouse may have to go out at ungodly hours to save others, or attend to emergencies, even on anniversaries or festive occasions like Christmas, New Year or Easter.”
Chapters
The book, spanning 18 engaging chapters, touches on a range of themes, such as, My Father’s ‘Army Life’ Stories, Marriage on Call, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Caught in the Middle: Security Service Spouses and Public Demands, to Firearms Bearing and Fear of Misuse and The Recruitment Burden, among others.
Dzifa also recounts a fascinating encounter in Somalia, a rare rendezvous where her professional and personal worlds collided.
As a journalist on assignment, she met her husband, who was there on a security mission with other officers from Ghana and across Africa. It’s a delightful and unexpected twist that she narrates vividly in the book.
Written in clear, conversational prose, Beyond the Polished Boots is accessible to all readers.
It is not an academic text, but a deeply human one, part memoir, part social commentary and wholly relatable.
Foreword
In his Foreword, veteran journalist Baffour Ankomah, Editor of The Third Eye Magazine in Zimbabwe, describes the book as “Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how Ghana’s national security is handled by its policemen and women.”
“It’s a tough job,” he writes, “and the police officers deserve the respect and protection of all of us. It is not what we civilians think it is.
I challenge all of us to read this book to the last page and see if our estimation of the police does not change. Mine changed.”
Indeed, Beyond the Polished Boots is not just a book.
It is a mirror reflecting the resilience, love and often invisible struggles of those who stand behind the men and women in uniform.
It is recommended reading for police officers, their families and every citizen who wishes to better understand the humanity behind the badge.
Every Police Academy in Ghana, especially, should have a copy in its library, and every Ghanaian reader should have one on their shelf. Cheers!
E-mail: niiaddokwei@yahoo.com
