Aké: The Years of Childhood

There is a wonderful chapter in Wole Soyinka's "Ake: The Years of Childhood" which can be read as an extended metaphor for growing up or, more specifically, growing up in a small town in western Nigeria and becoming a world-recognized author and Nobel Prize winner. In that chapter Soyinka relates the story of how his older brother first hoisted the then four year old boy up on his shoulders so he could see over the wall,... Read Full Review

I don't often read memoirs and autobiographies because I don't usually find them compelling. This is an exception. Soyinka's paean to his early youth reads like literature. He recounts his life in a Nigerian village in the Forties in ways that point up the universality of childhood wonderment, the special circumstances of life in an African village, and the unique perspective of a child on such deep topics as colonialism,... Read Full Review

I've never been to Nigeria, nor even West Africa, and though I've known many Nigerians, including a number of Yoruba, I could never say, until I read AKÉ, THE YEARS OF CHILDHOOD, that I had any real idea about where they came from. You can read other Nigerian writers---Tutuola, Achebe, Ekwensi, Nzekwu, Amadi---or listen to Nigerian music from Fela, Ebenezer Obey, `King' Sunny Ade, or Olatunji---there's a vast world of... Read Full Review

I read Ake two months ago and loved it immensely. Not only did I learn more about the author, Wole Soyinka, but I also remembered what life is like back home. It took me back to my childhood. Even though I was raised in a totally different era (post-colonial Nigeria), I could somewhat relate to some events described in the book. I loved how Mr Soyinka described his hometown, some political events that took place at... Read Full Review

These are Soyinka's memoirs of his early childhood, growing up the youngest son of a headmaster in the Yoruba town of Ake. But this is more than a memoir. Ake succeeds on every level: first as a vivid, humourous, touching, evocation of an African culture. Having spent years in Africa, I know no other book which so succesfully conveys the warmth, the intimacy, the web of interconnections which characterises African life... Read Full Review