PORTLAND — Richard Afuma, a naturalized citizen who was born in Cameroon, is set to release his first book in April titled “The Python Trail: An Immigrant’s Path from Cameroon to America.”

The book, published by Down East Books in paperback, will be released on April 15 and is now available by pre-order on Amazon.com. The list price is $16.95.

Afuma spent his childhood in Kom, one of the most primitive places in Africa, according to the book jacket, and is the oldest of 11 children. When he was 8 years old, Afuma started attending a school run by Baptist missionaries and “from there on a journey through a labyrinth of corruption, prejudice, and the capricious whims of ‘benefactors,’” before moving to southern Maine.

His book is about that journey, and about adjusting to life in the United States.

According to a press release, when Afuma “arrived in Maine as a college freshman, he’d never heard of a washing machine, a microwave oven, or a coffee maker; the bed sheets were so clean and white, he was afraid he’d dirty them; and he believed computer printers were run by ghosts.”

And, according to the release, he was “shocked to learn that poverty and homelessness existed in a place whose streets he’d thought were paved with gold,” and it had never occurred to him that he would face hardship in the United States.

A graduate of Westbrook College, which is now called the University of New England, and of the University of Maine’s School of Public Administration, “he would fail time and time again to find meaningful employment. Scam artists preyed on him. Racism, though subtle, followed him wherever he went,” according to the release.

Afuma told the Sun Journal, “I believe my life is a journey of growth and resurrection on both sides of the dream that I have lived, and anyone can relate to it.”

Afuma has a daughter and lives in Portland, where he teaches life skills to men and women with cognitive disabilities.