2022 -A Good Year For Nigeria Memoir Publishers- Part One
Publicists will describe the last 12 months as a good year for Nigeria memoir publishers.Especially, when they do a survey of memoir presentations in 2022 or when they evaluate the themes that featured in the 2022 edition of the Lagos Book & Art Festival or LABAF.
The Tradition of Memoir Publishing
The tradition of memoir publishing is not new in Nigeria.In the 1960s Aderogba Ajao recounted his experiences in, On The Tiger's Back:Six Years Under Communism by a Nigerian.Olabisi Ajala thrilled readers with his account around the world and recently,Nike Okundaye,the founder of one of the most popular contemporary art museums in Lagos released her autobiography.Again,we could attribute this to sheer coincidence,because it was the venue(broad street prison) that Fola Oyewole described in Reluctant Rebel that hosted numerous events related to this bouyant phase in the development of memoir publishing in Nigeria.
First photo:LABAF 2022 banner,
Second photo:Farido Ado,writer,Dare Oluwatuyi,president booksellers association of Nigeria,Olawale Kasumu,TV journalist, I.Avijah,poet and Richard Mammah, moderator.
Third photo:Toki Mabogunje, legal practitioner
A recurrent theme at LABAF 2022
In the first series of exchanges on Memoir titled,'Why I read,what I read," moderated by Dr Reuben Abati.Toki Mabogunje,the legal practitioner, introduced readers to the books she liked and drew the attention of the public to the availability of A measure of Grace,the autobiography of the great Geographer at one of the retail stands during the festival.
In another session moderated by Molara Wood,the Arts journalist,script-writer and literary campaigner, who made Lawson Omokhodion,the author of Powered by Poverty:the story of adversity,ambition and triumph to confess that the book took him 12 years to write.And talked about the University of Lagos crisis during his undergraduate days,the commission of enquiry created due to the event,the creation of loans for students under the Gowon regime and the need to build solid state enterprises before their privatisations by the government.
