The Books 10 Writers Would Pass on to Someone Younger

I grew up reading all kinds of books: roadside storybooks that sold for ₦100 and were passed on to friends after reading; African literary classics written by Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and Ola Rotimi; and the recommended literature texts in secondary school written by William Shakespeare, Asare Konadu, and Femi Osofisan. These books helped cultivate my love for reading. Interestingly, in recent times, I have been revisiting some of these books. In 2022, after reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for the first time in a long while, I was reminded of why I love African literature. The story felt so authentic, and Achebe’s vivid portrayal of a pre-colonial Nigerian community, and how communities like that grappled with the coming of the British colonial powers, was striking. If there’s one book from my childhood I would pass on to someone younger, it has to be Things Fall Apart. In my opinion, it feels like a book that would spark curiosity about the history of Nigeria, which is not a popular topic among young readers at the moment.