September 3, 2025 • 15 mins
Get ready for a journey through the enchanting storytelling of Comfort Asamoah, author of Kokroko the Elephant. Discover the fascinating story inspired by Comfort's childhood in Ghana, where she learned the delicate balance of living alongside wildlife. Learn about her inspiration, the challenges she faced, and the valuable lessons of respect and coexistence her book imparts. Don't miss this heartwarming and educational discussion!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The talk gives you an in depth.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
View of some of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful
people on the planet. Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises
dot com for more info.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Email me through Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You'd like to get involved with what we have going,
and as always, please continue to like and follow our broadcasts.
People of Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the
love and support that you all continue to give. We're
available across all major distributors, and as long as you
keep following, we're going to continue to put out the content. Now,
sit back and strap in because on the line with
(00:49):
us today we have the impressive comfort Assa Malah and
we're going to be discussing her incredible children's book, Cookroko,
the Elephant, His Leadership Be a four and The Life
of One Big Elephant. It's Amazon, It's Barnes and Noble Man,
It's a lot of other places.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm telling you it. Type it into a search bar
and be greeted with all of them. You're gonna want
to add this to your shelf, and the moment we
begin discussing it, you're gonna understand why I say that,
And people, it is an absolute pleasure to have comfort
here on the line. Man, set back, strapid, and get
(01:27):
ready for a roller coaster of a ride. One your
children are gonna love, but you are going to enjoy
it just as much. Comfort weaves a lush, lyrical tale
that's equal parts adventure, cultural wisdom, and heartwarming family bond,
(01:48):
all through the eyes of a child navigating the unspoken
rules of nature. Today we're diving into the magic behind
this story, exploring how it captures the delicate between humans
and wildlife and why it's message of coexistence feels more
urgent than ever. Like I mentioned, man, sit back and
(02:10):
strap in. Here we go Comfort first and foremost. Welcome
to people of distinction, and thank you very much for
being a guest. How are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Doing all care? And thank you for having.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Me absolutely comfort Listen, it is a pleasure to have
you here. What you've done with comprising this book is fun,
it's entertaining, but it carries a great message that so
many people are going to be able to take to
the bank. So listen, it's our pleasure to have you here,
and it really is an honor. Let's start off at
the foundation first and foremost comfort. Tell us a little
(02:44):
bit more about yourself and your background.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Thank you. I was going in Galla in Africa. It
used to be the gold course. It was the British
way of system. And then my father used to free soca.
But the concept starting on a Wednesday and then it
ends on Sunday. It is not like it is now
where we have years, so nobody gets for some few weeks,
(03:09):
I mean from few days. And then he was able
to buy this in a part of this forest, and
then we decided to start co CoA farming. This coco
is probably useful drinking chocolate, chocolate, calbary and alimented. All
these people love coco. It was one of the major
this thing in Africa and the whole world. Now we
(03:31):
have the cocoa, butter and all those things, and most
of them come from that area. So he started at
it and that's when we got to see this animals.
The elephants were there before we got there, the wild
any mouth, so many of them, but mostly the elephants.
(03:53):
And imagine a little girl and I think I was
about fall run for six years when I saw Cocroco
was so huge and I just stood there and look
at it, and then I'm like, what didn't believe it?
So that's how life started. And then we started hearing
(04:13):
about the stories and then the respect that we have
to get up early in the morning. My father and
I go early in the morning today to know to
his farm. Then later or my mother will get it
ready and then we will go and then we'll help out.
I don't help out, my mother will going to help out.
He had to take it, and it was very strange.
(04:34):
Sometimes you get there and you see the farm, part
of the family destroyed because these animals didn't want it dead.
So it was respect to help to share with them.
My father and most of the farmers learned how to
live with them. They get up in the morning, go
(04:54):
and doing their farming, and then by three pm in
the afternoon right back because the elephants and the other
wild animals they be sleeping the day time. It was
where and lend that animals can only see in the nights,
that's what it told it. But in the daytime, the
(05:16):
sands bread their eyes and they can't see so they
prefer to sleep in the night. So that was something
that the rules and regulations that their families have to
abdoy with it.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
All right, comfort listen, But I want to tackle inspiration next.
Take us back to that moment in the forest. What
was the very first spark that inspired you to create
this book.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, I want people to understand that we have to
like you said, of course, we will have to understand
and respect each other's boundary. It's not a false Then
if you feel you don't fit in, don't go there,
don't try, don't over do it. Understand that it's not
a way of life. There's there other ways that you
(06:04):
can make ain't meet or you can live, you see,
but to force yourself and start using other things, which
uh is scared your other group of something. I want
children to know that there are so many ways that
people can live and grow up. Imagine those days and
(06:25):
I was there with the elephants. I never dreamed that
I'll be coming to the US way anyway. I was
always dreaming of going on to school that kind of life.
I was so scared to even get up in the
morning because you don't know where Coco Coo and his
crews to be coming that kind of fear. I so
have that fear to be careful of ah have go
(06:49):
and where a step it's a respect comfort.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Oftentimes, whenever I talk to authors here on the network
and they're talking about that writing process, a common thing
that comes up is really the notion of write what
you know. And clearly, given your background and your upbringing,
I can see how the forest has played an influence.
I'm curious to know how much of a young comfort
(07:15):
do we see in the narrator of the story.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I would say, I'm six between four and six. By
six six years old, I remember my father. I was
crying and my father wanted to cool me down, so
he said, let's go and see something. So he put
me on his shoulders and then we'll walk about a male.
So when we got somewhere, he drops some leaves and
(07:40):
put it behind my ears, and then he said for
something I don't know, and I would go to this
big old dumitry and then gad away the elephant with
their babies, the mothers that they were streaming, and what
they would taking back with the mob. Bab he could
in my eyes and my father still don't talk and
(08:03):
don't say anyway. Just look at them. You could see
how wow. I was scared. I when I came back,
I couldn't even take my dinner. I just went in
the state to bed, and my father was having funny
he was laughing at He said, you are strong.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
The elephants scared you, you know, something like that. But
I think it was beautiful. I still remember. I think
it was beautiful. I couldn't believe I could go closer
to them, And I still remember, and once in a
while I think about anyone I had to about what
did do, what happened to them? And then I went
there one time, went back to my father's and I said, lo,
(08:44):
I will have to one day write about this elephant.
So I'm always thinking maybe Coco Coo wanted me to
bring it, you know, out the world, for they were
to know how time he worked with the villagers.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, we're here on the line with the impressive comfort
as more, they're gonna want to check out her amazing book,
co Crocle the Elephant, his leadership be a Forest in
the Life of One Big Elephant. It's Amazon, it's Barnes
and Nobles. Pick up your copies today and just get
lost in it comfort two part question here, but what
(09:19):
was the most challenging part of writing this book? And
then vice versa, what was maybe the most joyful?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
What in the book wasn't all that didn't take much
time because it was just memoried, like a video, watching
a video, my brain telling me what it was watching
a video inside my brain. And then I started writing,
and then I was wondering a big elephant like that
sometimes the craps black ants in African black and can
(09:52):
kill them or something. So I was just imagine this
was no matter how big you are, something small can
bring you it down. So I kept on writing. It
was just a memory because when we see that in
the village on the Moon, that we telling stories, and
then our fathers and friends and their families will be
talking about elephants and lions and all these things. And
(10:16):
what got the memory? Child? Your memories and I tried
to put them down, and then that's what it was.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Love it. Okay, listen, I know we've already covered this
in different aspects, but now let's get directly to it,
and let's listen. If there's things that we recount and
go back over, not a problem, because I think the
message is so important it's worth doubling down them. I've
mentioned it a number of times, the education things to
(10:43):
be found here. This book is so much more than
just an entertaining read. But I want to hear it
from you now comfort as we close out. What are
you hoping that children and parents alike take from the
book after they've completed it.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I'm well, that about nature, the beauty of nature, the
beauty of respect, and then that you don't belong there.
You don't belong there, but if you do, you have
to respect. They have to take kindly to whatever God
has given you, somebody up there, somebody somewhere who probably
(11:19):
wants what you have. Or it doesn't mean that you're
going to step over your boundaries. It's all a respect.
And then if governance the enimals were governing themselves and
we were doing the same thing, and then were we know,
coexistence in a nice way, and then the people were
able to do whatever they want to do. So I
(11:41):
want children to go there really see the elephants. It's
that beautiful to see the illustration of the elephants and
what was going They just memorize to a life what
it is in terms of these elephants and their cost.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
That's all comfort. What's next for you? What's up coming?
Do you plan on writing any other books? Tell us
about what's on the horizon.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, I'm trying to write about the village, the village itself,
so many things. We didn't have schools. We have schools,
those things you know we have schools. We have and
there was so many things that went through. There were schools,
we have to trey soccer, we have to do this,
my mother's and a little things that we were living
(12:26):
on the forest get our food and everything from the forest,
my rooms, budgies and all those foods. We didn't know how.
We didn't help to go and buy food. So it
was all wide in the forest that you can get
good there and a season. Now it came to the seasoney,
it can get mangos, you can get the oranges. Everything.
(12:46):
But then there was some other things that we didn't have.
And will you believe what we didn't have really out
in the village, you can't because you have to go
and buy so them. You have to walk so many
miles to go and get it sold and bring them.
So there are things that were easy for but then
(13:06):
there was just little salt and sugar that been doing behind. Right.
It's not easy like you think. So that's what I'm
trying to write about now, like opening people to know
the kind of life we were having in Africa. It
was beautiful, we had everything, but there are little things
that were lack of people should appreciate. A lot of
(13:30):
people don't know about the Africans and their life and
the forests and all those things. And sometimes they read
whatever do you want to read? But yeah, I am
trying to let them know that within what you know itself,
that's another story behind the story. That's what I'm trying
to do.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Listen, that's what she's trying to do. According to her,
I think that's what she's successfully done. I'm going to
say for you again, man, it's Arizona's Barns and no,
but you got to pick up copies of this amazing book.
This is so much larger. Like I mentioned before, it's
so much larger than a literary creation. Okay, this is
an invitation, that's the perception that I'm taking. It's an
(14:09):
invitation to walk gently, to listen deeply, and to remember
that we're all part of the same tapestry, villagers and elephants,
trees and children bound bound by unspoken rhythms of respect.
There is so much to be learned here in so
much that like, I look at it and I'm like,
(14:31):
how have we forgotten this? Growing up? It was almost
like it was something that was preached constantly, of treat
others how you want to be treated. I tell you, man,
I look around and I'm like, I don't see a
whole lot of that happening right now for so many
Christian and Catholic followers out there, for so many believers
(14:54):
in God out there, I don't see a whole lot
of loving thy neighbors. I guess is what I'm trying
to say. We need to slow down, focus on uniting
rather than dividing. Head on over there and pick up
your copies today. Comfort. This has been an absolute pleasure,
such an honor. Thank you once again for being a guest,
(15:16):
the people of Distinction.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Thank you so much. A thought I was fan toxic.
It made me too comfortable, relaxed name I.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Brought some comfort to comfort. I think that's a saying
a lot
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The talk gives you an in depth.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
View of some of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful
people on the planet. Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises
dot com for more info.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Email me through Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You'd like to get involved with what we have going,
and as always, please continue to like and follow our broadcasts.
People of Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the
love and support that you all continue to give. We're
available across all major distributors, and as long as you
keep following, we're going to continue to put out the content. Now,
sit back and strap in because on the line with
(00:49):
us today we have the impressive comfort Assa Malah and
we're going to be discussing her incredible children's book, Cookroko,
the Elephant, His Leadership Be a four and The Life
of One Big Elephant. It's Amazon, It's Barnes and Noble Man,
It's a lot of other places.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm telling you it. Type it into a search bar
and be greeted with all of them. You're gonna want
to add this to your shelf, and the moment we
begin discussing it, you're gonna understand why I say that,
And people, it is an absolute pleasure to have comfort
here on the line. Man, set back, strapid, and get
(01:27):
ready for a roller coaster of a ride. One your
children are gonna love, but you are going to enjoy
it just as much. Comfort weaves a lush, lyrical tale
that's equal parts adventure, cultural wisdom, and heartwarming family bond,
(01:48):
all through the eyes of a child navigating the unspoken
rules of nature. Today we're diving into the magic behind
this story, exploring how it captures the delicate between humans
and wildlife and why it's message of coexistence feels more
urgent than ever. Like I mentioned, man, sit back and
(02:10):
strap in. Here we go Comfort first and foremost. Welcome
to people of distinction, and thank you very much for
being a guest. How are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Doing all care? And thank you for having.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Me absolutely comfort Listen, it is a pleasure to have
you here. What you've done with comprising this book is fun,
it's entertaining, but it carries a great message that so
many people are going to be able to take to
the bank. So listen, it's our pleasure to have you here,
and it really is an honor. Let's start off at
the foundation first and foremost comfort. Tell us a little
(02:44):
bit more about yourself and your background.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Thank you. I was going in Galla in Africa. It
used to be the gold course. It was the British
way of system. And then my father used to free soca.
But the concept starting on a Wednesday and then it
ends on Sunday. It is not like it is now
where we have years, so nobody gets for some few weeks,
(03:09):
I mean from few days. And then he was able
to buy this in a part of this forest, and
then we decided to start co CoA farming. This coco
is probably useful drinking chocolate, chocolate, calbary and alimented. All
these people love coco. It was one of the major
this thing in Africa and the whole world. Now we
(03:31):
have the cocoa, butter and all those things, and most
of them come from that area. So he started at
it and that's when we got to see this animals.
The elephants were there before we got there, the wild
any mouth, so many of them, but mostly the elephants.
(03:53):
And imagine a little girl and I think I was
about fall run for six years when I saw Cocroco
was so huge and I just stood there and look
at it, and then I'm like, what didn't believe it?
So that's how life started. And then we started hearing
(04:13):
about the stories and then the respect that we have
to get up early in the morning. My father and
I go early in the morning today to know to
his farm. Then later or my mother will get it
ready and then we will go and then we'll help out.
I don't help out, my mother will going to help out.
He had to take it, and it was very strange.
(04:34):
Sometimes you get there and you see the farm, part
of the family destroyed because these animals didn't want it dead.
So it was respect to help to share with them.
My father and most of the farmers learned how to
live with them. They get up in the morning, go
(04:54):
and doing their farming, and then by three pm in
the afternoon right back because the elephants and the other
wild animals they be sleeping the day time. It was
where and lend that animals can only see in the nights,
that's what it told it. But in the daytime, the
(05:16):
sands bread their eyes and they can't see so they
prefer to sleep in the night. So that was something
that the rules and regulations that their families have to
abdoy with it.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
All right, comfort listen, But I want to tackle inspiration next.
Take us back to that moment in the forest. What
was the very first spark that inspired you to create
this book.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, I want people to understand that we have to
like you said, of course, we will have to understand
and respect each other's boundary. It's not a false Then
if you feel you don't fit in, don't go there,
don't try, don't over do it. Understand that it's not
a way of life. There's there other ways that you
(06:04):
can make ain't meet or you can live, you see,
but to force yourself and start using other things, which
uh is scared your other group of something. I want
children to know that there are so many ways that
people can live and grow up. Imagine those days and
(06:25):
I was there with the elephants. I never dreamed that
I'll be coming to the US way anyway. I was
always dreaming of going on to school that kind of life.
I was so scared to even get up in the
morning because you don't know where Coco Coo and his
crews to be coming that kind of fear. I so
have that fear to be careful of ah have go
(06:49):
and where a step it's a respect comfort.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Oftentimes, whenever I talk to authors here on the network
and they're talking about that writing process, a common thing
that comes up is really the notion of write what
you know. And clearly, given your background and your upbringing,
I can see how the forest has played an influence.
I'm curious to know how much of a young comfort
(07:15):
do we see in the narrator of the story.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I would say, I'm six between four and six. By
six six years old, I remember my father. I was
crying and my father wanted to cool me down, so
he said, let's go and see something. So he put
me on his shoulders and then we'll walk about a male.
So when we got somewhere, he drops some leaves and
(07:40):
put it behind my ears, and then he said for
something I don't know, and I would go to this
big old dumitry and then gad away the elephant with
their babies, the mothers that they were streaming, and what
they would taking back with the mob. Bab he could
in my eyes and my father still don't talk and
(08:03):
don't say anyway. Just look at them. You could see
how wow. I was scared. I when I came back,
I couldn't even take my dinner. I just went in
the state to bed, and my father was having funny
he was laughing at He said, you are strong.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
The elephants scared you, you know, something like that. But
I think it was beautiful. I still remember. I think
it was beautiful. I couldn't believe I could go closer
to them, And I still remember, and once in a
while I think about anyone I had to about what
did do, what happened to them? And then I went
there one time, went back to my father's and I said, lo,
(08:44):
I will have to one day write about this elephant.
So I'm always thinking maybe Coco Coo wanted me to
bring it, you know, out the world, for they were
to know how time he worked with the villagers.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, we're here on the line with the impressive comfort
as more, they're gonna want to check out her amazing book,
co Crocle the Elephant, his leadership be a Forest in
the Life of One Big Elephant. It's Amazon, it's Barnes
and Nobles. Pick up your copies today and just get
lost in it comfort two part question here, but what
(09:19):
was the most challenging part of writing this book? And
then vice versa, what was maybe the most joyful?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
What in the book wasn't all that didn't take much
time because it was just memoried, like a video, watching
a video, my brain telling me what it was watching
a video inside my brain. And then I started writing,
and then I was wondering a big elephant like that
sometimes the craps black ants in African black and can
(09:52):
kill them or something. So I was just imagine this
was no matter how big you are, something small can
bring you it down. So I kept on writing. It
was just a memory because when we see that in
the village on the Moon, that we telling stories, and
then our fathers and friends and their families will be
talking about elephants and lions and all these things. And
(10:16):
what got the memory? Child? Your memories and I tried
to put them down, and then that's what it was.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Love it. Okay, listen, I know we've already covered this
in different aspects, but now let's get directly to it,
and let's listen. If there's things that we recount and
go back over, not a problem, because I think the
message is so important it's worth doubling down them. I've
mentioned it a number of times, the education things to
(10:43):
be found here. This book is so much more than
just an entertaining read. But I want to hear it
from you now comfort as we close out. What are
you hoping that children and parents alike take from the
book after they've completed it.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I'm well, that about nature, the beauty of nature, the
beauty of respect, and then that you don't belong there.
You don't belong there, but if you do, you have
to respect. They have to take kindly to whatever God
has given you, somebody up there, somebody somewhere who probably
(11:19):
wants what you have. Or it doesn't mean that you're
going to step over your boundaries. It's all a respect.
And then if governance the enimals were governing themselves and
we were doing the same thing, and then were we know,
coexistence in a nice way, and then the people were
able to do whatever they want to do. So I
(11:41):
want children to go there really see the elephants. It's
that beautiful to see the illustration of the elephants and
what was going They just memorize to a life what
it is in terms of these elephants and their cost.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
That's all comfort. What's next for you? What's up coming?
Do you plan on writing any other books? Tell us
about what's on the horizon.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, I'm trying to write about the village, the village itself,
so many things. We didn't have schools. We have schools,
those things you know we have schools. We have and
there was so many things that went through. There were schools,
we have to trey soccer, we have to do this,
my mother's and a little things that we were living
(12:26):
on the forest get our food and everything from the forest,
my rooms, budgies and all those foods. We didn't know how.
We didn't help to go and buy food. So it
was all wide in the forest that you can get
good there and a season. Now it came to the seasoney,
it can get mangos, you can get the oranges. Everything.
(12:46):
But then there was some other things that we didn't have.
And will you believe what we didn't have really out
in the village, you can't because you have to go
and buy so them. You have to walk so many
miles to go and get it sold and bring them.
So there are things that were easy for but then
(13:06):
there was just little salt and sugar that been doing behind. Right.
It's not easy like you think. So that's what I'm
trying to write about now, like opening people to know
the kind of life we were having in Africa. It
was beautiful, we had everything, but there are little things
that were lack of people should appreciate. A lot of
(13:30):
people don't know about the Africans and their life and
the forests and all those things. And sometimes they read
whatever do you want to read? But yeah, I am
trying to let them know that within what you know itself,
that's another story behind the story. That's what I'm trying
to do.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Listen, that's what she's trying to do. According to her,
I think that's what she's successfully done. I'm going to
say for you again, man, it's Arizona's Barns and no,
but you got to pick up copies of this amazing book.
This is so much larger. Like I mentioned before, it's
so much larger than a literary creation. Okay, this is
an invitation, that's the perception that I'm taking. It's an
(14:09):
invitation to walk gently, to listen deeply, and to remember
that we're all part of the same tapestry, villagers and elephants,
trees and children bound bound by unspoken rhythms of respect.
There is so much to be learned here in so
much that like, I look at it and I'm like,
(14:31):
how have we forgotten this? Growing up? It was almost
like it was something that was preached constantly, of treat
others how you want to be treated. I tell you, man,
I look around and I'm like, I don't see a
whole lot of that happening right now for so many
Christian and Catholic followers out there, for so many believers
(14:54):
in God out there, I don't see a whole lot
of loving thy neighbors. I guess is what I'm trying
to say. We need to slow down, focus on uniting
rather than dividing. Head on over there and pick up
your copies today. Comfort. This has been an absolute pleasure,
such an honor. Thank you once again for being a guest,
(15:16):
the people of Distinction.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Thank you so much. A thought I was fan toxic.
It made me too comfortable, relaxed name I.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Brought some comfort to comfort. I think that's a saying
a lot
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