Wole Soyinka, Aké: the Years of Childhood

Craig McLuckie (Okanagan College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1981

Places

Nigeria (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

Resources

Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981) recounts Oluwole (Wole) Soyinka's first eleven years (1934-1944), centred on his home life in Abeokuta, within the parsonage compound, where his father, ‘Essay' [S.A.], was headmaster and his mother, ‘Wild Christian', was a homemaker and market woman. A fifteen-chapter autobiography, Aké is an artistic shaping of memories. It has received accolades and some negative reaction – for its lack of strict adherence to psychological perspectives on childhood and consciousness. A special issue of The Southern Review (23.3 (July 1987)) is devoted to the reception of and strategies for approaching Aké.

Aké reveals Wole's growing consciousness and his m…

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2511 words

Citation: McLuckie, Craig. "Aké: the Years of Childhood". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12846, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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