Photo Collage from Original Book Covers by Peace Onafuye / THE REPUBLIC.
the REPUBLIC INTERVIEWS / FIRST DRAFT
The Books 10 Writers Would Pass on to Someone Younger
Photo Collage from Original Book Covers by Peace Onafuye / THE REPUBLIC
the REPUBLIC INTERVIEWS / FIRST DRAFT
The Books 10 Writers Would Pass on to Someone Younger
I grew up reading all kinds of books: roadside storybooks that sold for ₦100 and were passed on to friends after reading; African literary classics written by Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and Ola Rotimi; and the recommended literature texts in secondary school written by William Shakespeare, Asare Konadu, and Femi Osofisan. These books helped cultivate my love for reading. Interestingly, in recent times, I have been revisiting some of these books. In 2022, after reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for the first time in a long while, I was reminded of why I love African literature. The story felt so authentic, and Achebe’s vivid portrayal of a pre-colonial Nigerian community, and how communities like that grappled with the coming of the British colonial powers, was striking. If there’s one book from my childhood I would pass on to someone younger, it has to be Things Fall Apart. In my opinion, it feels like a book that would spark curiosity about the history of Nigeria, which is not a popular topic among young readers at the moment.
In our First Draft interview column at The Republic, one question we ask authors, academics, publishers, editors, and creatives centres around the book(s) from their childhood they would pass on to someone younger. Interestingly, Nigerian writer and author of On Black Sisters’ Street, Chika Unigwe, agreed with my sentiment that Things Fall Apart is a great book to pass on to someone younger. Unigwe’s selection of Achebe’s novel is because the book ‘shatters what is taught in our social studies and history classes that our history starts with colonization, and it also presents colonization as an intervention that upended a civilization.’ On the other hand, Ghanaian writer, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, does not know if she would pass on any of the books she read as a child. This is because the books she read from her childhood ‘were overwhelmingly about white children living lives that subliminally made me feel my life was insignificant or deficient.’
Today, ten African writers, including Leila Aboulela and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, reflect on the books they would pass on to someone younger. Here are the writers and their book recommendations.
AYỌ̀BÁMI ADÉBÁYỌ̀
Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows was the book I returned to repeatedly as a kid. Reading it was such an unmetered pleasure. Read Adébáyọ̀’s full interview here.
LEILA ABOULELA
Every generation seems to have its own favourites and passing on books can sometimes result in disappointment. But I would recommend A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. And for older readers, I would recommend The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X. Read Aboulela’s full interview here.
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₦70,000.00 – ₦75,000.00Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
₦70,000.00 – ₦75,000.00Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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BOLUWATIFE AKINRO
My memory is fuzzy on this, but I recall that I loved Zaynab Alkali’s The Virtuous Woman as a child, but least of all for the idea of femininity it propagates. Besides it being a channel to view the North of Nigeria, a region that is still greatly mystified in the southern imaginary, I was captivated by Alkali’s depiction of the familial love and tenderness the heroine, Nana Ai, shared with her grandfather and friends. Stories of fellowship and camaraderie, especially with older Nigerians, and in a way not filtered through their sternness and sacrifice, are rare in our literature, unfortunately.
The Virtuous Woman was also a story about disability, about growing up in an inaccessible society where the disabled are perpetually othered. Perhaps most of all, I enjoyed the book’s presentation of girlhood and playfulness before the transition to womanhood. One sees the way the former, girlhood, is quenched in our society’s project to transform it into womanhood, through the performance of culturally constructed and socially acceptable interpretations of virtue. Read Akinro’s full interview here.
NANA EKUA BREW-HAMMOND
I don’t know that I would pass on any of the books I read as a child—and not only because many of my reads weren’t age appropriate. The children’s books I did read were overwhelmingly about white children living lives that subliminally made me feel my life was insignificant or deficient. Today, even though there is still an urgent need for diversity in kids’ books, I see more books addressing a wider breadth of experiences and more channels for children and adults in their lives to access these books. Read Brew-Hammond’s full interview here.
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SA’EED HUSAINI
Not an exceedingly original answer maybe, but I’d pass on the J. R. R. Tolkien fantasy books, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, to someone younger. They certainly helped a younger me cultivate a sense of wonder about nature and humanity, and a conviction in the ultimate triumph of goodness. I’d like to share that. Read Husaini’s full interview here.
EMMANUEL IDUMA
Not my childhood but adolescence: I remember my feverish encounters with stories in Ben Okri’s Stars of the New Curfew. It made me begin to take fiction seriously, I’ll admit, and I hope it can serve as such a primer for someone in their middle teenage years. Read Iduma’s full interview here.
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NANJALA NYABOLA
I think every African child should read the Moses series from Barbara Kimenye, not because they are some universal, single story of what it means to be an African child, but because they are so local and specific that they paradoxically become general. They are the kind of stories where you will find something that resonates because the characters are so fully fleshed out and complete. I never went to boarding school, I am not a teenage boy, but I truly enjoyed the adventures of Moses, King Kong and Itchy Fingers at the Mukibi’s Educational Institute for the Sons of African Gentlemen. They are good, funny stories that deserve better than the lazy publishing that they are getting now, and I think they can teach the next generation a lot about good, funny, local storytelling. I still have my copies from when I was a kid, and I look forward to handing them down to someone one day. Read Nyabola’s full interview here.
CHIKA UNIGWE
I loved The Borrowers by Mary Norton, which I got as a gift from one of my big sisters and re-read several times. I remember the incredible power the writing had over me. I was very excited to discover a movie based on it several years later. Also, Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And I always, always recommend Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart to younger Nigerians because it shatters what is taught in our social studies and history classes that our history starts with colonization, and it also presents colonization as an intervention that upended a civilization. Read Unigwe’s full interview here.
OYINKANSOLA WUMKES
Probably Yoruba folktale books like Ajapa the Tortoise. My first encounter with Ajapa books was in my teenage years but I wish I had delved into African and more specifically, Nigerian literature sooner. I’d like to pass these books on to someone younger, so they can get acquainted with the beauty of African storytelling. Read Wumkes’ full interview here⎈
