Aké: The Years of Childhood Summary
Wole Soyinka

Aké: The Years of Childhood Summary

Ake: The Years of Childhood is author Wole Soyinka's autobiographical account about events in his childhood between about 1934 and 1945 in the town of Ake in present-day Nigeria.

He begins his life in a parsonage compound. His father is Essay, Headmaster of the local equivalent of an elementary school, a man who delights in arguing. Wole's mother, called Wild Christian by most, is a strict disciplinarian, never failing to provide lashings for the slightest offenses.

Despite his toddler-aged stumbles (he gets knocked out playing see-saw, and nearly loses an eye to a grass-cutting scythe), Wole develops into a keenly curious and intelligent boy. His is a time of great transition, with traditional pagan spiritualism giving way to Christianity, and the local language of Yoruba becoming mixed with the English of Mother England. To many, the old ways still reign, with superstitions rampant, a world where gourds can... View more of the Aké: The Years of Childhood Summary