Anas Aremeyaw Anas is a Ghanaian undercover journalist and private eye who gathers hard evidence of crime and corruption, putting the perpetrators behind bars.
Why you should listen
Working in Ghana and across the African continent, Anas Aremeyaw Anas is an undercover journalist and private eye. In disguise, he finds his way into asylums, brothels and villages, where he methodically gathers evidence for hard-hitting stories -- then presents the evidence to authorities to see criminals prosecuted.
His work on human trafficking won him the US State Department Hero Award in 2008. In President Barack Obama's 2009 policy address in Ghana, he singled out Anas and commended him as "a courageous journalist who risked his life to report the truth.” His investigation in “Mad House” of a Ghanaian psychiatric ward led to a widespread awareness of mental health issues in Ghana and the passage of the 2012 Ghana Mental Health Act. His exposé of a trafficking ring in “Chinese Sex Mafia” led to three human traffickers receiving a 41-year jail sentence, while "Spell of the Albino," produced as part of Al-Jazeera's Africa Investigates series, led to widespread awareness of a sinister trade in body parts. “Enemies of the Nation,” which uncovered corruption at Ghana’s Tema Harbor, led to the recovery of $200 million in state funds.
Anas was honored as one of Foreign Policy's 2015 Global Thinkers.
What others say
People ... need to see stories like this which show African people who will not condone corruption and injustice.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ TED Talk
More news and ideas from Anas Aremeyaw Anas
In Brief
Curing cancer one nanoparticle at a time, and more news from TED speakers
June 29, 2018
As usual, the TED community is hard at work — here are some highlights: A new drug-delivering nanoparticle. Paula Hammond, the head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, is part of a research team that has developed a new nanoparticle designed to treat a kind of brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme. The nanoparticles […]
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4 must-read stories from Anas Aremeyaw Anas, the journalist exposing unthinkable crimes in Ghana
June 5, 2013
Anas Aremeyaw Anas is known for, as he calls it, the “naming, shaming and jailing” of criminals all over Ghana – yet few people would be able to pick him out of a crowd. The undercover journalist, who gave today’s talk, has brought smugglers, mob bosses and pimps to justice with an unshakeable determination to, […]
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How I named, shamed and jailed: Anas Aremeyaw Anas at TED2013
February 28, 2013
Anas Aremeyaw Anas can’t show you his face, but his name carries enough weight. Famous in Ghana for his investigative journalism, Anas’ stories like “Enemies of the nation,” about corruption at customs in the Port of Tema, have blown the cover on crime all over Africa. He started 14 years ago, when he had just […]
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