Between Ghana and Benin sits the West African country of Togo, a country known for a rich culture and beautiful, coconut tree-filled beaches. It’s also the birthplace of Elom K. Akoto.
Akoto is a quiet man, thoughtful with his words, and polite in his actions as he sits at a cafe table. He’s been a quiet person his whole life, and that pensive aura enabled his schoolteachers to figure out his profession at an early age.
“It was in seventh grade that my French teacher back home in Togo, he pointed a finger at me and announced to the class that they are looking at a future writer among them,” Akoto said. “That was after he passed out our essay paper. And then two days later, I went to him, I said, ‘monsieur, why did you say that I was going to become a writer?’ And then he said, ‘the way you write your stories, the way you write your sentences.’”
Back home in his native Togo, Akoto spent much of his time reading and thinking. “Honestly, stories never left me,” he said. “It’s so easy for me to create a story out of nothing or out of anything I want to say, the simple conversation that we are having can create a story for me. You know, a picture on a wall, a story can pop up in my head.”
What he didn’t think he wanted was the life of a writer.
“I love reading so, but I thought about what he said…what I knew about authors then was that they were poor, they were melancholic, they were sad people, they were weird, awkward, geniuses,” Akoto said. “I'm like, I don't want to be that, I want a better life.”
Stories, however, have followed him from West Africa to America. In October, Akoto’s first novel, “Blindspot in America,” was published by Red Hen Press. It’s the story of the son of a prominent Ghanian academic and incumbent minister of health. The son, Kamao, is obsessed with America and American culture from a young age, and, when he is picked for a spot in The United States Diversity Visa Program, is elated. His elation is short-lived, however, as problems begin for him soon after coming to America.
The book is not autobiographical to Akoto, but there are some parallels to the author’s journey. Akoto came here via the The United States Diversity Visa Program, which offers up to 50,000 immigrant visas available annually, selected randomly among individuals who applied from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
“My first stop in the U.S. was Atlanta, Georgia. It was through the church that we attended—it is an international church,” Akoto said. Someone from the U.S. who was member of our church visited our country. And then he told my brother-in-law, if anybody wanted to come to the U.S. legally, he will help them.”
Akoto stayed in Atlanta for several years, attending Georgia State University for a bachelor's degree in education, continuing on at a different college to certify for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. He moved to Tennessee for about 18 months before arriving in Nebraska in 2014.
All the while, stories were being created in him, and coming out of him. Akoto began thinking of the story that became “Blindspot in America” around 2017, began writing it in 2018, and finished his first draft in 2020. He struggled to find a publishing house to look at the book, but took some advice that he might find an easier time getting published if he took an MFA course. He enrolled in an enrichment course, and that’s how he found Kate Gale, who helped him edit the book. A year later, Akoto began looking for an agent, and, when that route was unsuccessful, went back to Gale, publisher of Red Hen Press.
“From the first time I read Elom's book 'Blindspot in America,' I was taken by this story of a young immigrant,” Gale said. “We like to think coming to America is an adventure, but sometimes the promised land is dangerous, and in this story, our young immigrant must fight to keep his promise to himself, to overcome challenges and more dangers than he had expected. America isn't easy on immigrants; in 'Blindspot in America,' immigrants are the heroes."
Today, Akoto is studying for an MFA at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, while teaching his native French in high schools and ESL at the community college level.
His story may not be like that of Kamao’s, who moved to Washington, D.C., and became entangled with the daughter of a senator who supports anti-immigration policies, but Akoto hopes that immigrant reading the book can find something in it.
Akoto said, “I mentioned people from all over the world in the story, immigrants from Yemen, from Bosnia, from Nepal, from all over. My intention was to touch every part of the globe so every immigrant can find something that, ‘oh yeah, I can relate to this.’”
Visit elomakoto.com for more.
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
