Author of ‘Food Sovereignty vs Food Security: The Future of Yam Farming in Nigeria’ Ayoola Oladipupo, reveals his next writing project. Oladipupo is working on ‘a collection of essays on food culture in Nigeria—investigating some of the spaces where food is eaten across Nigeria, the creators of these spaces and how they persist.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
Growing up, I didn’t have the patience for reading books. Barring a few Enid Blyton books I read in the first few months of junior secondary school due to peer pressure, I only read academic (at least in the conventional sense) books until university.
At 16, I moved to Scotland for university and had several experiences through which I discovered the realities that came with being Black in certain countries. I had quite a lot of anger against the world which I didn’t know what to do with, so I started reading books from the Heinemann African Writers Series; mostly Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Chinua Achebe, Steve Biko and Buchi Emecheta. At the time, I read these books for survival, but through them, I became fascinated by purposeful storytelling...
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