Aké: The Years of Childhood – Wole Soyinka

Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981) is Wole Soyinka’s mesmerizing memoir of growing up in the Yoruba town of Aké in the 1930s and ’40s. Narrated with a child’s curiosity and wit, it traces his boyhood within a Christian parsonage—where his father (nicknamed “Essay”) taught school and his mother (“Wild Christian”) blended strict faith with warmth—and the everyday magic and mystery of traditional Yoruba life. From floating ghommids and forest rituals to childhood mischief, sibling bonds and the grief of a baby sister’s death, the book also foreshadows Nigeria’s stirrings of independence, notably in the women’s anti‑tax protests of his neighborhood. Tender, evocative and full of life.