Rediscovering Africa, One Book At A Time
Put aside logic, reasoning and science, do you believe in fairy godmothers or godfathers? I will narrate a tale of my meeting with a fairy godmother whose action will continue to shape my life. I had the privilege of attending the 2016 Ake Book and Arts Festival at Abeokuta. My first book festival.
A brief introduction into the mind of the girl behind the screen.
The Wrestling Match by Buchi Emecheta Published by: Masquerade Books Date of Publication: 1980 Genre: Fiction Pages: 74 Source: Bought My Thoughts “The men in the compound helped Okei to dress up. He only wore a plain pair of shorts and a pair of colourful plimsolls to match. But on top of this, he had several charms slung around his neck. One of them was made with crocodile teeth, to prevent him from becoming breathless. Another was from nut kernels, to harden him like nuts which are hard to crack. His face had to be washed with waters mixed with many herbs […]
Around January last year, I picked up this book (the first Nnedi Okorafor piece I read) after having heard good things about her book, Lagoon.
“As murungudunhu, I am a black woman who is imbued not with the whiteness of murungu, of privilege, but of dunhu, of ridicule and fakery, a ghastly whiteness” I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, not only for the funny bits but for the issues it addressed.
My Lagos Traffic Story: Growing up with my mother, she taught me one mandatory rule and failure to abide by this rule earned me excruciating punishments. ‘Do not concern yourself with matters that do not involve you’. I shudder at the memories of the admonishment I received each time I broke her rule. The most traumatising being the day she hit me across the face in our area, ruining my well-built rep. One Monday morning, we both stepped out of the house on our way to Oshodi. We boarded a bus going to Oshodi and I busied myself with reading from […]
Growing up in a country which, despite its crippling economy, is still a relatively easy place for a woman to inhabit; It was a bit difficult, at first, to understand the feelings of the women in this book.
How did I go from reading 4 books a year to 70 books in an 8 month period?! I share tricks that helped me fall back in love with reading, and will be helpful to anyone who has made reading more books a resolution this year.
