J’étais curieuse de découvrir ce livre et cet auteur que je ne connaissais pas. La lecture s’est révélée pour moi un peu lente et laborieuse, mais je ne saurais pas dire exactement pourquoi. La mise en scène de son enfance par Wole Soyinka ne manque pas de piquant. A l’en croire, il fut un petit garçon très perspicace et plein d’espièglerie.
On sent bien comment Wole Soyinka reconstruit son enfance pour expliquer l’homme qu’il est devenu, tout en laissant une grande place aux lieux et à l’époque. Sachant qu’il est devenu avant tout un homme de théâtre, je trouve cette mise en scène qui ne se cache pas intéressante et savoureuse à la fois.
Une intéressante et étrange lecture, donc. Je ne suis pas certaine cependant de lire les autres tomes des mémoires de Wole Soyinka, mais je ne serais pas contre voir une de ses pièces et, en attendant le bon vouloir d’un metteur en scène, je me laisserais bien tenter par le roman qu’il a publié il y a peu et dont la traduction vient de paraître en France sous le long et un peu énigmatique titre [Chroniques du pays des gens les plus heureux du monde].

Nigerian Nobelist Wole Soyinka (b. 1934) gifts readers with a glimpse of his African childhood from his earliest memories until he’s on the brink of leaving for boarding school. Soyinka writes from his younger self’s perspective, so his interpretation of people, places, and events is a bit distorted by his childhood innocence and inexperience. He was a precocious child whose thirst for knowledge had him following his older sibling to school at just two years old. Thankfully, the adults and older children in his life didn’t squelch his curiosity, and the literary world is all the better for it. ( )

Nobelisti Wole Soyinka oli minulle aivan uusi tuttavuus. Soyinkan monipuolinen tuotanto käsittää mm. näytelmiä, mikä mielestäni heijastuu tässäkin omaelämäkerrallisessa -- joskin afrikkalaisittain väritetyssä -- lapsuuskuvauksessa. Kertomus etenee episodimaisesti yhdestä lapsuusmuistosta toiseen ja pitää lukijan otteessaan, vaikkei kirjailija rakennakaan klassisen romaanin laista suurta tarinan kaarta. Kiehtovinta kirjassa on vanhan heimouskonnon ja animismin värittämän mielenmaiseman kuvaus, samoin kuin paikallisten tarinankertojien hulvattomat taidonnäytteet. Onko kenties niin, että länsimaissa tunnetuiksi tulleet nigerialaishuijaukset juontavat juurensa samasta tarinaniskennän perinteestä?

A child's life in colonial Nigeria, 5 September 2015

This review is from: Ake: The Years of Childhood (Vintage International) (Paperback)
Nobel prize winning author Wole Soyinka recalls his early years in 30s/40s Nigeria. Son of a middle class Christian family (his father is a headmaster), the flavour of Yoruba society is nonetheless vividly evoked throughout, whether it's his pagan grandfather cutting his ankles in a coming of age ritual, his father's ideas on bringing up his family ("to him, shoes on the feet of children was the ultimate gesture in the spoiling of the young"), the food ,the animals and the largely communal lifestyle of the people.

Soyinka's early chapters show him as a very small child, just becoming aware of the world outside his home. I was reminded of the similar 'feel' that Laurie Lee conjured up in his recollections of infancy in 'Cider with Rosie' (albeit in a very different setting!) Later we see his early intelligence, and his attaining a scholarship. In the last couple of chapters the fairly tame Women's Group to which his mother belongs starts to take up politics, fighting the iniquitous tax levied on the poor and gradually becoming part of the anti-British rule movement.

Extremely well-written with some amusing episodes, bringing his world to life. ( )

Episodic, like most autobiographical fiction, and feels like what it is - one segment of a life, with much more to come. But what an observer he is! Some writers really are born, not made, and Soyinka seems to have been one of them. ( )