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 (Birmingham 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

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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 moral awareness. The movement is from the general to the specific, from a ménage of events and

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2511 words

Citation: McLuckie, Craig. "Aké: the Years of Childhood". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12846, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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