Hi GEZE 2S,
I think you can’t go wrong with either author. Soyinka, of course, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. He’s mostly known for his plays and poetry, along with some spectacular political stunts, such as once holding up the dj at a Nigerian radio station at gunpoint so that he could play a tape he’d made satirizing the Nigerian head of state. He’s a challenging writer, because he uses language in such creative and unexpected ways. Of his plays, The Lion and the Jewel, an early play, is probably most accessible. It’s about a village chief who gets tricked by the beautiful young girl he wants to marry. Death and the King’s Horseman, once you get past the complex opening scenes, is a good read too. It’s about a man who has sworn to keep a contract with his people to die one month after the king dies, but fails to keep his word. My favorite work by Soyinka though is Ake, a memoir of Soyinka’s childhood, told through the naïve eyes of Soyinka himself as a child. It can be confusing, because he sticks to the point of view of a young child, with all his mistaken perceptions and fanciful projections, but it’s full of memorable characters and events (such as, for instance, a strike by the market women against a new tax on their produce, complete with a physical confrontation with the male power structure of the town). Ben Okri is a terrific writer too. The Famished Road is also a challenging book though. Again the narrator is a child, whose perceptions are confused and confusing at times. To complicate matters further, this child is an abiku—a spirit child whose head is half in the world of ancestor spirits and forest demons. He tells you what living people are up to, but also sees visions, right alongside them, of monsters, freaks, and devils that no one else can see. It can be really disorienting at times to be asked to believe in realistic events and fantastic events in the same scenes. Two great, great writers. You could really start with ether one.
posted 1 year ago. ( reply )
