Extract from Wake up and Smell the Fufu

Whilst I was over in Africa, it was only when I began writing about my experiences back to my friends in England, France, Canada and the United States that I realised how interested people genuinely were in African life. I was told that my adventures helped to inspire and educate many young black people living in the Diaspora to go and travel and to become more interested in their African culture. My emails were originally sent to forty recipients, but were eventually forwarded by friends to their friends all over the world, spreading the positive message of African life and culture through the eyes of a Black man not born and raised in Africa but instead born and raised in the Western world. Therefore I think this was a reason for its popularity, as it allowed my readers to look through my eyes and see Africa in its purest form through someone who could relate and compare with what they were familiar with in western life.

This massive interest inspired me to reproduce my emails into a book. There was an obvious demand from my emails; so naturally, I felt the need to tell my adventure on a global scale. I felt that a book would give me more scope to be more detailed and descriptive of my adventures and experiences. I chose the title ‘Wake Up and Smell the Fufu’ because it used a western proverb, which connotes a sense of realisation and enlightenment. This reflected one of my aims which was to educate and enlighten black people in the Diasporas who had negative perceptions of Africa from the media. I then replaced coffee with Fufu – a traditional Ghanaian food. This reinforced the meaning to the black community and quite literally reflected my experience living in a Ghanaian village. I wanted to write it in order for it to encompass all the culture and spirit of Africa from a Black Europeans perspective and to then present my experiences to black people living in the Diaspora who had or had not visited Africa.