Nigerian author and editor, Chimeka Garricks, didn’t intend for the Niger-Delta crisis to be the main theme of his debut novel, Tomorrow Died Yesterday: ‘I tried to write the truth as I know it. To show that the issues are complex, hued with plenty of grey, and that all major players are complicit in varying ways to the dysfunction.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
I read everything as a child. Although my parents were civil servants who didn’t have much, we were rich in books. So, they gradually bought and built me a library. It had some Enid Blyton; and classics such as Chike and the River; The Passport of Mallam Ilia; children’s versions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo. As I grew older, my mother added books from the Pacesetters series (thank you and Rest in Peace, Victor Thorpe) and the African Writers Series. My favourites included Cyprian Ekwensi’s Burning Grass, Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine, Alex La Guma’s A Walk in the Night and other Stories, and Nkem Nwankwo’s Danda...
