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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