A former Regional Page Editor of the Daily Graphic, Edmund Smith-Asante, has transformed his popular newspaper series chronicling his experiences in Germany into a 30-chapter book titled “Abrokyire Abrabo: My Wahala in Germany.”
The autobiographical travelogue recounts the humorous, stressful and eye-opening experiences of the veteran journalist during a three-week professional journalism training programme in Berlin in November 2009.
Originally serialised in the Saturday Daily Graphic, the stories explored his encounters with language and cultural barriers, unfamiliar food, public transport and other challenges of travelling abroad.
The book, which also contains photographs and reproductions from the newspaper series, is presented as a two-in-one publication, with both English and German versions, allowing German readers to encounter an African visitor’s perspective of their country.
The launch, held in Accra last Thursday, brought together journalists, media practitioners, friends, family and associates of the author to celebrate the publication of the book and reflect on the experiences that inspired it.
Preserving experiences
Mr Smith-Asante said he initially had no intention of turning his experiences into a book, but began documenting them because he believed writing offered a more enduring and accurate way of preserving experiences than oral narration.
He said after publishing snippets elsewhere, he later serialised the experiences in the Saturday Daily Graphic newspaper following discussions with his then editor.
Positive feedback from colleagues and readers encouraged him to continue the series and eventually compiled the stories into a book rather than leave them scattered across newspaper editions.
“I realised at a point that what I was experiencing was something that I couldn’t share if I didn’t document,” he said and explained that written accounts remained intact unlike stories passed from person to person.
Mr Smith-Asante said the travelogue was neither intended to encourage nor discourage people from travelling, but to expose prospective travellers to some realities they could encounter abroad.
He said travelling broadened people’s horizons, but adequate preparation was important to prevent travellers from becoming overwhelmed by unfamiliar environments, as he initially was in Germany.
He added that the book had taken years to publish, largely due to the high cost of publishing in Ghana, but he was determined to complete it to pave the way for other books he intended to publish.
Life abroad
The Guest Speaker, Brigadier General Daniel Frimpong (retd), commended Mr Smith-Asante for documenting his experiences, saying such written accounts were important for preserving history for future generations.
He observed that despite the attraction of travelling and living overseas, the reality of life abroad could be considerably more difficult than many people imagined.
Drawing on his own experiences of living in Germany at different periods, Brig. Gen. Frimpong said staying abroad independently exposed people to challenges ranging from accommodation, food and adjusting to unfamiliar environments.
He consequently encouraged Ghanaians to work towards making life better at home rather than assuming that travelling overseas to “hustle” offered an easy alternative.
