Rating: 
Summary: A Densely Written, Deeply Evocative Memoir of Childhood
Review: There is a wonderful chapter in Wole Soyinka's "Ake: The Years of Childhood" which can be read as an extended metaphor for growing up or, more specifically, growing up in a small town in western Nigeria and becoming a world-recognized author and Nobel Prize winner. In that chapter Soyinka relates the story of how his older brother first hoisted the then four year old boy up on his shoulders so he could see over the wall, see outside the school compound, where he lived. This glimpse of the outside world fascinated the inquisitive young boy, so much so that the next time he heard a commotion outside the walls-a police band marching by-he ran to the gate, only to find it latched. As Soyinka relates: "Then I heard excited voices on the outside, obviously there were others before me who had the same idea. I banged on the gate and someone opened it." It was an epiphany for the young boy, leaving the safe confines of the compound for the fascinations of the outside world. Soyinka clearly was enchanted by what he saw and experienced, following the band for many miles, to the next town, where he suddenly found himself alone. "The ragged, motley group of children who had followed, clowning, mimicking, even calling out orders had fallen off one by one. It occurred to me now that I had seen no one nor heard any of their festive voices for a while. They had all vanished, leaving no one but me." Just as Wole, the little boy, plunged into the outside world only to find himself alone at the end, so has the mature Soyinka, the brilliant author of this densely written, deeply evocative childhood memoir, written himself into a singular position as Nigeria's leading and, perhaps most courageous, literary figure. "Ake: The Years of Childhood" is not an easy book to read. Soyinka's prose is rich and detailed, his style at times elliptical, requiring the reader's careful attention. But the effort is certainly worth it, for Soyinka warmly and affectionately details not only his own memories and experiences from the age of four to eleven, but strikingly captures the universal feelings, sensations, and perceptions of childhood itself. Soyinka takes the particularity of growing up in a culture where traditional folklore, magic and superstition mix with Western Christianity, education and invention, where Yoruba is spoken along with English, where cultural and experiential references are polyglot, and he sees this particularity through the eyes of a child. By doing this, Soyinka brilliantly depicts not only his own experience of growing up in Nigeria during the late 1930s and 1940s, but also the experience of just plain growing up. It doesn't matter whether you know anything or nothing about Wole Soyinka or Nigeria to appreciate this marvelous memoir; it only matters that you have an inquisitive mind that wants to enter an even more inquisitive mind, the mind of a child.
Rating:
Summary: Not just a memoir, a celebration of life
Review: These are Soyinka's memoirs of his early childhood, growing up the youngest son of a headmaster in the Yoruba town of Ake. But this is more than a memoir. Ake succeeds on every level: first as a vivid, humourous, touching, evocation of an African culture. Having spent years in Africa, I know no other book which so succesfully conveys the warmth, the intimacy, the web of interconnections which characterises African life at its best; second as an account of talented and much loved child's efforts to explore and rationalise the world opening up around him; third as a social document, minutely recording a particular facet of Nigeria's social history; fourth as a celebration of our world. I only have to re-read a single page of this book, and my faith and optimism in life itself is restored. Perhaps my all time favorite book. Unmissable.
Rating:
Summary: It is simply wonderful
Review: This book is wonderful told from a child's perpective.The setting is a child in this case the author growing up in the late 30's and 40's in colonial Nigeria.It also has as it's backdrop several issues such as growing up as the son of a headmaster,the extended family system,conflicts between Christianity and traditional religion.It also explores the relationship of Kingship in Nigeria to their subjects and the colonial masters-Tax riots.As someone who is from Nigeria i can readily identify with it,but this book has a much wider perspective and deals with the innocense of childhood anywhere and everywhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, if a bit confusing
Review: This is a wonderful portrayal of both time and place, written through the eyes of the artist as a child. The descriptions are vivid and generally entertaining, once you get past the style of the author. He presents the story in a disjointed flow of events or images, and not until you realize that this is how childhood memory usually flows can you let yourself be swept into the current. In the early chapters, the flow is nearly stream of consciousness, but there is a cohesion that comes as each chapter nears its end. Then the next chapter does it again. Later in the book, he seems to juxtapose time, going from present (with MacDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken lining the old main street ) to past, and describing the culture and society that these newcomers have replaced. All in all, the quality of Wole Soyinka's storytelling held me against the confusion that his timelines created. Wonderful reading if you have the gumption not to have your literature spoon fed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, if a bit confusing
Review: This is a wonderful portrayal of both time and place, written through the eyes of the artist as a child. The descriptions are vivid and generally entertaining, once you get past the style of the author. He presents the story in a disjointed flow of events or images, and not until you realize that this is how childhood memory usually flows can you let yourself be swept into the current. In the early chapters, the flow is nearly stream of consciousness, but there is a cohesion that comes as each chapter nears its end. Then the next chapter does it again. Later in the book, he seems to juxtapose time, going from present (with MacDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken lining the old main street ) to past, and describing the culture and society that these newcomers have replaced. All in all, the quality of Wole Soyinka's storytelling held me against the confusion that his timelines created. Wonderful reading if you have the gumption not to have your literature spoon fed.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read
Review: This is without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. I could not put it down. I think just about anyone should enjoy it, but it should be of special interest to anyone who grew up in Western Nigeria like myself. There are some subtle things like Soyinka's relationship with Fela's father that might be lost on non-Nigerians. I think this book should be required reading in Nigerian secondary schools, just like Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" was during my school days.
Rating:
Summary: An engrossing read
Review: Wole Soyinka takes us back to his childhood in colonial Nigeria and shares with us his experiences and thoughts on growing up Yoruba. The book is written for the most part from the perspective of the young Soyinka and hence is void of any criticism of events as they unfolded. For example, the stoning of the "pregnant mad woman" was related to us without any reasoning behind such behavior. I was disturbed that such a thing was allowed to happen without anyone opposing it. He gives rich descriptions of the Nigerian ceremonies that took place during his youth, and of the conflict between Christian and traditional Nigerian beliefs. It is my belief that these experiences during Soyinka's youth were instrumental in forming his future (now current) perceptions of the World and Nigeria in particular. This makes the book extremely revealing as we are allowed to view the process of development that went on in the mind of the young Soyinka. Read this book to be entertained, by its splatterings of humorous anecdotes and Yoruba wit. Read it to understand the background of Soyinka and of those of his kind. Finally read it because it is another of those great biographies of great men.
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