Writer and author of ‘Egba Women Unite!’, Lanaire Aderemi, wants to correct the misconception that African revolutions revolved around elite individuals: ‘It is important to acknowledge the role the masses play in liberation movements because, so often, the history that is written in the now is so obsessed with celebrities.’
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 and which female characters stood out in the books you grew up reading?
In my primary school, we were encouraged to read all kinds of books. There were competitions for people who read and reviewed the most books and I was part of informal books clubs that emerged in school corridors and during playtime. The girls in my school read a lot of Jacqueline Wilson and so I read books such as The Suitcase Kid and Dustbin Baby. In secondary school, I read the books that were taught as part of the curriculum: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Alan Patton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck, and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. I also read an anthology of poems titled Songs of Ourselves and dramatic texts like An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest...