Ake:the years of childhood by Wole Soyinke

Wole Soyinke, a Nigerian poet and playwright, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 - the first African to do so.  This is very young Wole as the brilliant, sensitive observer of Yoruba life in his Nigerian town of Abeokuta.  Although he came from an educated family, he was not immune to the comings and goings of village life.  There are tragic moments in this story but this is a life filled with the joy of discovery as Wole strives to make sense of a world we can only understand from afar.  The importance of family, the love of learning, and the respect for tradition are the lenses Wole uses to help us understand life in "Ake".