A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt: An African Memoir
by Toyin Omoyeni Falola
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"Toyin Falola has given us what is truly rare in modern African writing: a seriously funny, racy, irreverent package of memories, and full of the most wonderful pieces of poetry and ordinary information. It is a matter of some interest, that the only other volume A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt reminds one of is Ake, by Wole Soyinka. What is it about these Yorubas?"--Ama Ata Aidoo "A splendid coming-of-age story so full of vivid color and emotion, the words seem to dance off the page. But this is show more not only Falola's memoir; it is an account of a new nation coming into being and the tensions and negotiations that invariably occur between city and country, tradition and modernity, men and women, rich and poor. A truly beautiful book."--Robin D.G. Kelley "More than a personal memoir, this book is a rich minihistory of contemporary Nigeria recorded in delicious detail by a perceptive eyewitness who grew up at the crossroads of many cultures."--Bernth Lindfors "The reader is irresistibly drawn into Falola's world. The prose is lucid. There is humor. This work is sweet. Period."--Ngugi wa Thiongo'o A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt gathers the stories and reflections of the early years of Toyin Falola, the grand historian of Africa and one of the greatest sons of Ibadan, the notable Yoruba city-state in Nigeria. Redefining the autobiographical genre altogether, Falola miraculously weaves together personal, historical, and communal stories, along with political and cultural developments in the period immediately preceding and following Nigeria's independence, to give us a unique and enduring picture of the Yoruba in the mid-twentieth century. This is truly a literary memoir, told in language rich with proverbs, poetry, song, and humor. Falola's memoir is far more than the story of one man's childhood experiences; rather, he presents us with the riches of an entire culture and community-its history, traditions, pleasures, mysteries, household arrangements, forms of power, struggles, and transformations show lessTags
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120 Works 713 Members
Toyin Falola is professor of history, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and the Jacob and Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Common Knowledge
- Epigraph
The thick rod that troubles the brass gong
The heavy rain that reduces the anthill to mud
The irresistible deluge, child of a warrior
The author of life who bestows blessings on others
The chi... (show all)ld of death who kills as he dies.
Offspring of the wealthy ones
Possessor of the machine that brings wealth
The boisterous one full of stomach like pregnancy
Adesina is more handsome than a woman, but for her beads and breasts
A deity that tempers drought.
Adesina, I shall call you three times more
If you do not answer, you will be like the wild bird who lives along the road
Let the farewell be long
As we meet only in dreams
An encounter between man and the wild bird.- Dedication
- For James Adesina Falola
- First words
- I know when I was born; I mean to say that there are some people who know when I was born: the day, month, and even year.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)No one could have predicted that less than three years later I would become a high school dropout, joining Pasitor in a peasant rebellion that created a political earthquake.
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- Members
- 38
- Popularity
- 730,890
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
