Nigeria is an exceptional nation. It is both a microcosm of Africa and a representative example of the problems that have historically afflicted the continent. Nigeria is a “wealthy” country in the truest meaning of the word thanks to its advantageous location on the Atlantic Ocean coast, the presence of two of Africa’s largest rivers—the Niger and the Benue—as well as its proximity to the Sahara desert.
Just like in all communities, its biggest resource is its population. Nigeria, with a population of just under 200 million people, is nearly twice as large as the state of Texas.
This group includes a highly educated elite whose contributions to the arts, health, science, sports, and other fields are felt on a global scale. Yet nearly 50% of its people are living in abject poverty. Nigeria became the nation with the largest percentage of citizens subsisting on less than $1.90 per day in 2018, surpassing India, a nation with a population more than six times that of Nigeria. A place of perplexing dichotomies: in its affluence, severe po verty; in its great potential, extreme despondency. How therefore may this mystery be understood?
![Top 10 books about Nigeria](https://jaybesttrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/images-2022-10-31T231056.398.jpeg)
The anthology of this Our Country, edited by Ore Agbaje-Williams and Nancy Adimora, centres on this subject. From Ayobami Adebayo to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, this group of modern writers includes some of the most well-known in the country.
I strongly advise reading all of the authors in the anthology, but there is still a lot more to read. The authors listed below will help anyone learn more about Nigeria:
1. Because I Am Involved by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
Legends of the Fall author Jim Harrison previously proposed that every country had a “soul history” that holds its citizens responsible for the wrongs of the past. The Biafran War of 1967–1970 is without a doubt Nigeria’s and Harrison’s connection to American soul history. Colonel Ojukwu, the leader of the Biafran uprising, authored this book when his exile ended and he was allowed to return to Nigeria. It is a clever, persuasive book that gives what was at the time a straightforward analysis of Nigeria from independence until 1989 and still comes out as foresighted.
2. This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime by Stephen Ellis
This book has done a better job than any other in identifying the corrupt ethics that define and permeate our nation. It is an exhaustively thorough investigation that reveals the moral decay in the nation and calls those responsible to account.
3. Awo by Obafemi Awolowo
Written by the former head of the Western Region during the First Republic, this autobiography is instructive (1959-1960). The book took me back to Nigeria during the early wars for independence, a nation that seemed both completely foreign and strangely familiar. Additionally, it demonstrates that Nigeria’s political and structural musculature existed already at the time of its creation.
4. Violence by Festus Iyayi
A former Commonwealth Prize for Fiction winner, this author’s book is now all but forgotten. It is a book that will touch everybody who reads it because of how accurately it captures the heartbreaking realities of extreme poverty in Nigeria in the 1970s. It is an engrossing, quick-paced, and satisfying read.
5. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Even though it may sound cliché, Achebe’s first book offers the most accurate portrait of pre-colonial Nigeria of any book now in print. We learn about the demise of the Igbo civilization and the rise of the western one via the life of its tragic hero, Okonkwo.
6. Efuru by Flora Nwapa
This ground-breaking book is about a woman who finds herself in the middle of a patriarchal society. The first book written by an African woman to be published abroad, it had an impact when it was initially published in the 1960s and is now regarded as one of the key works on gender relations in Nigeria.
7. Be(com)ing Nigerian by Elnathan John
The title itself suggests various interpretations of what it means to be Nigerian, and how we navigate this both within Nigeria and outside of it, with deadpan jokes like “Nigerians have the shortest memories amongst human beings worldwide” and “A good Nigerian politician knows how to use God for protection.” John has written fiction, but his satirical broadside about modern-day Nigeria is a biting and penetrating take. You will chuckle and shake your head in disbelief.
8. Lagoon by Nnedi Okoroafor
Can we picture a Nigeria in the future where things are not what they seem? Such a book is Okorafor’s novel. Lagos serves as the setting for the novel’s depiction of what might eventually be a “Africanfuturist” world after an alien space ship crashes there.
9. Nigeria and the Nation-State by John Campbell
Campbell, a former US ambassador to Nigeria, has made it his life’s work to study, serve, and write about Africa. His first book, Nigeria: What Everyone Should Know, offered a useful outsider’s perspective on the nation’s myriad issues. However, this more recent study adopts a more theoretical approach and advances an argument I have frequently emphasised: Nigeria is not a nation-state, and considering it as such would be a mistake in terms of international relations.
10. Leaving the Tarmac by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede
Given that it falls within the taboo “celebrity memoir” category, this is a questionable inclusion. But why not look at people who have overcame those obstacles if we want to comprehend the economic issues that Nigeria must deal with due to its crumbling infrastructure? Buying and revitalising a bank, Aig-Imoukhuede is a successful banker. His account—which includes moving memories of being dropped from a flight he had been scheduled to take—provides numerous insights into the inner workings and character of Nigeria’s banking institutions.
The Borough Press book Of This Our Country: Renowned Nigerian Writers on the Home, Identity, and Culture They Know is available. By purchasing a copy from guardianbookshop.com, you will be supporting the Guardian and Observer. There can be delivery fees.
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