AKE WOLE SOYINKA PDF

The eldest son of a primary-school headmaster and a devout Christian mother, Wole Soyinka lived a comfortable life in the Aké parsonage in Abeokuta. Ake: The Years of Childhood is author Wole Soyinka’s autobiographical account about events in his childhood between about and in the town of Ake. Wole Soyinka was a bright, curious child and his account of his early childhood in the town of Abeokuta in Western Nigeria is enchanting.

More sojinka this book gives a good glimpse into a completely different world and you learn a lot from ame of it! His story originally focuses around his household and school, but becomes more emotionally intense as the story wolr his childhood progresses. Memoirs books Works by Wole Soyinka. Chapters 4 and 5. A good read to relatively understand the lives of Africans who grew up on the 40s and 60s as well Soyinke shares with the world memories of his childhood in Ake and later going to school.

May 27, Adrienne Wyker rated it really liked it. Soyinka’s delighted shock at watching his mother become a leader of the movement was wonderful to undergo with him. Want to Read Currently Reading Read.

Seen from a child’s perspective, none of this is the least bit didactic or laboured, but it makes for fascinating social history all the same. Surrounded by such a collage, he notes that “God had a habit of either not answering one’s prayers at all, soyinkx answering them in a way that was not straightforward.

Jun 25, Lisa rated it it was amazing Shelves: While the world war rages somewhere just beyond the horizon, Nigeria is somewhere in between the old ways and the new ones, stuck between old tribal kingdoms and soyikna new world, the old religion and Christianity, the old language and English, still ruled by the British but beginning to find a new identity of its own soyiinka which isn’t an easy process, as shown by the occasional sobering flash-forward to Nigeria in the early 80s.

I love how like these books about boyhood, thou doesn’t t tell me anything in particular, yet thou tells me everything.

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Wole Soyinka is fiercely curious, always questioning everything much to the exasperation of his parents. View all wooe comments. How do I love thee?

Central to the memoir is Soyinka’s father who happened to be a Headmaster with an eccentric behaviour, his mother, known soyinkq ‘Wild Christian’ and his siblings. Not that often, yes? His personal story includes imprisonment, a death sentence and a madcap escape on a motorbike.

Aké: The Years of Childhood – Wikipedia

The Biography of a Place. If that’s the case, I cannot think of a more perfect protagonist than little Wole. As if I’ve been cheated somehow, having missed out on a classic addition to African Literature, one that undoubtedly helped mold the form of creative nonfiction. Childhood is a welter of impressions, small events, accidents, misunderstandings, broken promises, smells, sounds, and feelings. It was a real pleasure meeting Mrs Bere Ransome-Kuti in a setting different from the picture painted by the media.

For most authors, an autobiography is probably not the best place to start; most of the time, I want a reason to care about what the author has done before getting into his life story. Explore the Home Gift Guide. Except Wole’s story is much more hopeful. Wole graduates qole Grammar School, which is led by his uncle, the fierce and larger-than-life Daodu.

Ake, is the Nigerian town where Wole grew up a boy. The part where his sister died on her first birthday was quite rough. Soyinka does not live through the war on paper till he is eleven, and there are memories from three to two to an unnamed farther back in his yearly life to first off contemplate and contend.

That latter audacious insight leads to rampant classifications, formation of definition for everything from the ‘without time’ guava tree to his own parents, the nickname of his father of especial note: Soyunka Dane Designer Men’s Fashion. Helpful asterisks appear to explain the unfamiliar words, you start to keep track of names and voila, you’re halfway through the story, before you know it.

Wole tries to make sense out of the actions he sees and discussions he hears as a child. Apr 13, John David rated eole really liked it Shelves: He is punished and rewarded. Strangely, their family too lives its life just like the others, with no ssoyinka inkling of the greatness to come. Jul 13, Aubrey rated it it was amazing Shelves: Nov 26, Lindsey rated it really liked it. See all 30 reviews.

Ake by Wole Soyinka | : Books

The second half of the book is a little clearer, written as a young man going through the rights of growing up, a disturbing night with the priest during which his ankles and hands are ceromoniously bled, and his time at school including his experiences of coporal punishment.

I kept starting this book, and then putting it down to read other things, but I’m really glad I picked it back up and finished it! The opening pages of Ake did not grip me. Individually, any experience is unique; it does not need to be dramatic, violent, broken or ecstatic to be special.