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Nigerian writer, El Nukoya, on August 2, 2015, launched his second book, ‘Baron
of Broad Street’ in Lagos.
During
the questions and answers section, he shared how someone asked him sometime ago
whether he was in a cult for him to write a fiction that relates to cult
activities in his first book, but someone in the audience responded before him
and asked the person who asked the question, “how do you know how accurate
things are inside the cult? For you to have been able to describe it with
accuracy, then, you were in a cult yourself.”
“To
me, it is imagination. It is a validation that somewhere along the line, you
probably know what you have written. As a writer, you are creative. You can
imagine anything. There was a time I struggled with lines and rhymes. It was my
personal experiences. It is fiction. The general perception is that before you empathize
or sympathize, you must be in that situation. You necessarily have to come from
a place to be able to sympathize,” he explained.
He explained where money he invests into writing books comes from as well as those that will buy the book by saying: “It is a service, a responsibility and I am so happy that this is not a commercial project. I grew up at a time it was fashionable to have a James Hadley Chase rather than Levi. Then, the Levi would so much fade but the knowledge from James Hadley Chase would show. We would sit and discuss about the books we read such as, Chase, Jeffery Archer and so on, while some ladies read Mills & Boon.
“We
can’t just sit down and say Nigerians don’t read. We have to make an effort and
see how we can change that idea and make it more fashionable for Nigerians to
be reading. Our aim is to tell our story from our perspective to our people and
to the rest of the world. What is driving us is getting Nigerians read again so
that people won’t see us and say, “If you want to hide something from a
Nigerian, put it inside a book.”
Asked
whether an adaption of the book could be turned to a movie, El Nukoya said he
had proposals about Nine Lives but the proposals were not followed up. “We have
a proposal about Baron of Broad Street, so watch out for these two movies.
The
winner of the Ana-Jaccaranda Prize for Prose, read chapter 15 of his book to
the admiration of guests.
His
first story, Nine Lives
tells a story about the pains a young
village boy, Olupitan Ogunrinu (aka, Pitan) goes through to become a man. The first of three children, he has come to
enjoy the serenity and peace associated with village life comes from a poor
rural fishing community. But his life changes abruptly, when he gains admission
to study at a university in the city.
tells a story about the pains a young
village boy, Olupitan Ogunrinu (aka, Pitan) goes through to become a man. The first of three children, he has come to
enjoy the serenity and peace associated with village life comes from a poor
rural fishing community. But his life changes abruptly, when he gains admission
to study at a university in the city.
Synopsis
of Baron of Broad Street
Baron
of Broad Street chronicles
the polarized worlds of the Lagos impoverished and the affluent, living
side-by-side, yet a world apart. It captures the limited prospect for mobility
in an often negligent society, and the determination of a select crop of youths
to take it upon themselves and change this seemingly rigid equation, by all
means necessary.
Disun Falodun and his bosom friend Ige are young boys growing up within the squeeze and squalor of Makoko. As they sit on the banks of the Lagos Lagoon, they contemplate life on the other side of town, the exclusive district of the Metropolis covering Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Broad Street that mysterious area, so distant, yet so close. Disun is the optimistic of the duo, resolute in his faith in a fair chance at success in Lagos, his ordinary background notwithstanding. Ige, on the other hand held by a vibrant, radical mind reasoning that the expectation of a fair chance was utopian, entrenches himself in the firm belief that the only reliable choices open to them were illicit. The road to realizing this ambition is lined with real dangers. Would they prevail? And if indeed they would, what prices are there to be paid...and, perhaps, more importantly, of what texture would their residual soul be?
“The book focuses on contemporary Lagos; Conflicts (of a different kind - class, culture, identity, moral); Consciousness; a fresh conversation about who we are and a daring confrontation of the realities thereof,” said El Nukoya
Written over a period of seven years, El Nukoya’s new book has received several endorsements and many accolades from the literary world. 'Baron of Broad Street’ is available nationwide at selected bookstores, online or directly from the publisher.
Disun Falodun and his bosom friend Ige are young boys growing up within the squeeze and squalor of Makoko. As they sit on the banks of the Lagos Lagoon, they contemplate life on the other side of town, the exclusive district of the Metropolis covering Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Broad Street that mysterious area, so distant, yet so close. Disun is the optimistic of the duo, resolute in his faith in a fair chance at success in Lagos, his ordinary background notwithstanding. Ige, on the other hand held by a vibrant, radical mind reasoning that the expectation of a fair chance was utopian, entrenches himself in the firm belief that the only reliable choices open to them were illicit. The road to realizing this ambition is lined with real dangers. Would they prevail? And if indeed they would, what prices are there to be paid...and, perhaps, more importantly, of what texture would their residual soul be?
“The book focuses on contemporary Lagos; Conflicts (of a different kind - class, culture, identity, moral); Consciousness; a fresh conversation about who we are and a daring confrontation of the realities thereof,” said El Nukoya
Written over a period of seven years, El Nukoya’s new book has received several endorsements and many accolades from the literary world. 'Baron of Broad Street’ is available nationwide at selected bookstores, online or directly from the publisher.
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