20 best Nigerian books to read: once in a lifetime

20 November 2021

If you haven’t read a book authored by a Nigerian, I must ask “What are you waiting for?”. Well, you can start from these 20 best Nigerian books to read.

There are books that should be read at least once in a lifetime even if you are not a book lover. There are books that tells you more about your origin and where you come from, books that explains yourself to you and books that makes you understand the past as well. These kinds of books should be read at least once, i.e. ‘if you are not a book lover’. But if you are a book lover, you should probably read those books more than once to fully comprehend them.

Nigeria is a country with so many renowned authors, whose books has won several awards such authors starting from the 1986 winner of Nobel prize in literature Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Buchi Emecheta, Cyprian Ekwensi, Ola Rotimi, J.P Clark, Elechi Amadi, Flora Nwapa, Femi Osofisan, and many more renowned authors whose works are great.

Without further ado, the 20 best Nigerian books to read: at least once in a lifetime are:

BOOKS BY CHINUA ACHEBE

1. Things fall apart

The novel is about the life of Okonkwo an Igbo man who is a local wrestling champion, who is well respected in his village and who wouldn’t accept the new ways of the white man. The novel depicts the pre-colonial life of the southeastern part of Nigeria and the invasion of the Europeans. Reading this novel will make you learn some of the Igbo culture.

2. No longer at ease

This is a sequel of Things fall apart. It is about the life of Obi Okonkwo, whom after his studies in Britain got a job in the Nigerian colonial civil service contrary to working in a law firm which his village people had hoped for.

3. Arrow of God

A novel that is centered on Ezeulu the chief priest of several Igbo villages and his struggles with accepting the Christian missionaries.

4. There was a country

This book got the author reviews from great persons like Nelson Mandela etc. It is a personal account of the Nigerian civil war also known as Biafran war. This book made me understand some of the things that happened during the war, it gave me much clue to how some things started. It is a book you would want to start reading now if you want to know more about the war.

BOOKS BY CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE

5. Purple Hibiscus

Is all about a wealthy family in the post-colonial Nigeria whose father is devoutly catholic and a violet figure. The story is told through Kambili’s eyes and is essentially about the disintegration of her family unit and her struggle to grow to maturity.

6. Half of a yellow sun

This is also a novel that talked about the Biafran war. It has a movie ( for those who prefer watching than reading). The novel also has romance, betrayal and love as it’s theme.

7. The thing around her neck

This is a collection of short stories. The author used different person narration in the stories, which for me, made it very interesting. My best is “Tomorrow is too far”.

8. Americanah

This novel made me know more about America without going to America. It’s about the love story of Ifemelu and her life in both Nigeria and the United States.

BOOKS BY WOLE SOYINKA

9. The lion and the jewel

This is a play that was first performed in 1959 in Ibadan. The play chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights with the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi, the titular Jewel.

10. The trials of brother Jero

This is a satiric comedy play about Brother Jero, who manipulates and deceives his followers who are gullible enough to believe him because he understands what they long for: Money, social status and power.

BOOKS BY BUCHI EMECHETA

11. Second class citizen

This is a semi-autobiography of the author. This novel is about a Nigerian woman Adah, who overcome strict tribal domination of women and setbacks on her journey to attain independent for herself and her children. This story made me cry.

12. The bride price

This for me is the tragic-story of Akunna’s life. It deals with the problems of women in the post-colonial Nigeria. It was the first novel of the author ‘Buchi Emecheta’.

13. The joys of motherhood

In this novel, Emecheta reveals and celebrates the pleasures derived from fulfilling responsibilities related to family matters in child bearing, mothering, and nurturing activities among women. The author also highlights how the ‘joys of motherhood’ also include anxiety, obligation, and pain

BOOKS BY CYPRIAN EKWENSI

14. Burning Grass

The story is about the series of adventures involving the Fulani Sunsaye family, particularly Mai Sunsaye, who is the head of the household and chief of Dokan Toro.

BOOKS BY OLA ROTIMI

15. The gods are not to blame

Story about Odewale who unknowingly committed an abomination that brought death.

16. Our husband has gone mad again

A hilarious and interesting play about polygamy in Nigeria.

BOOKS BY ELECHI AMADI

17. The concubine

A story about a beautiful woman who brought death to her lovers.

18. The great pond

Its about the battles of two Eastern Nigeria villages over a fishing area.

BOOKS BY FLORA NWAPA

19. Efuru

This is the first book written by a Nigerian woman Flora Nwapa, she is the first African woman to be published internationally. The novel is about Efuru an independent-minded woman.

20. Wives at war and other stories

This is the collection of short stories about women fighting heroic wars.

Conclusion

You definitely would love to read these books because it is necessary you do, especially if you are a Nigerian and wants to know the history of your country. These books are very good for fun because they are interesting, educating and contains lots of information in them.

Which of the books have you read? Which of the books will you start with? Let me know in the comment section below, so we can discuss. And if you have read anyone and feel it should have been included do drop the name in the comment section too.

Thanks for reading! xoxo

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WHAT HAPPENED TO PSQUARE THEN AND NOW?

Johellaa

19 November 2021

Waking up to the reconciliation news of the twin brothers is literally the best celebrity news of 2021 for me.

P-Square is a music duo consisting of the twin brothers, Paul Okoye and Peter Okoye They produce and release their albums through Square Records. They hail from Anambra State in Nigeria.

What happened to Psquare then and now?

The twin brothers Peter Okoye and Paul Okoye haven’t been in good terms shortly after the death of their mother (Late Mrs. Josephine Okoye) . There were so many rumors as to why they went their separate ways but no one knew the exact reason. There were so many advice. Some blamed their wives. Some said its because they don’t have a mother to keep them together. Some said it was their elder brother that was to be blamed. There were so many rumors but none was confirmed.

These two have been my best artist since childhood. I loved their songs and their dance styles. I knew all the lyrics to their songs. I had wished to see them, but when I heard the news of their separation, even though we weren’t blood related, It hurt me deeply. I still wish to see them though.

Before their separation, I didn’t know that twins could be separated, because of the immense bond they share. I love twins and wish to be one, but we know that is impossible (smiles) but you never can tell, I just might give birth to one.

But waking up to their reconciliation news on the 17th November, 2021, was the best thing for me especially their 40th birthday reunion which was 18^th November, 2021. Peace I must say is something very nice. When you have peace, things will go so well and there will always be happiness and no sorrow.

Peace is what we all should strive to maintain especially when there is chaos. When there is peace, you will sleep better. Work better. Do things better. And live better.

Forgiveness as well is something we should learn to do, I know it’s difficult but we should strive to forgive those who offend us.

There are two things I learnt from their separation and also their reconciliation: Peace and Forgiveness.

Its been 5 years since their separation. Fans went crazy, me inclusive when they separated. Some stopped listening to their music because they were not united. Some chose Paul while others chose Peter. But now, their fans went crazy again with the news of their reconciliation, which I pray will last forever because there is no gain in anger, chaos and separation.

Conclusion

According to Merriam Webster, PEACE means harmony in personal relations. And FORGIVENESS means the act of forgiving. ( Forgiving means to stop feeling anger about something to forgive someone for something wrong).

Peace and forgiveness are two virtues we should learn and stick to. “Love your neighbors as you love yourself” so said the scripture in Matthew 22:39; Love as you know is the greatest commandment of God. I wish you will learn from their story and try to resolve any issue before it escalates. Let peace reign in your life for: a better self, better family, better home, better city, better state, better country and a better world. For peace to reign, there should first be forgiveness after a wrong is done, that is why we should strive to forgive when someone offends us. For once there is peace there won’t be any room for war and crises or even anger.

Three things I want you to learn from this post are: PEACE, LOVE AND FORGIVENESS.

Peace I bring to you, peace I leave you with. xoxo

Thanks for reading!

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11 Benefits of Reading Books: Why you should start reading now

Johellaa

15 November 2021

I have been recommending books to read but today, we will be talking about the benefits of reading those books. When was the last time you read a book? Reading books benefits both your physical and mental health. There are so many benefits of reading books but I will be sharing with you all, the 11 benefits of reading books and why you should start reading now.

I am a book lover and I love reading a lot. Books can vary from motivational books, inspirational books, fictional books etc. These benefits are not limited to some specific kinds of books but to all books.

The 11 Benefits of reading books are:

Table of Contents

1. Reading improves your vocabulary

Reading improves your vocabulary, because when you are reading, you will come across different words. And sometimes you come across the same word in different books, which will make your brain to automatically retain such words. Researcher has found out that students who read regularly tend to have larger vocabularies than those who doesn’t. The more books you read, the more words you come across and the wider your vocabulary gets. Vocabulary size can influence many aspects of our life: job opportunities, college exams etc.

2. Readers have higher income

Those who spend their time reading books, acquires more knowledge and information that can help them in their field or profession or even in their career. This is true because readers tend to have more information than those who don’t read. The more they read books the more they are well equipped about the topic they are reading. When one has enough information about how to make something work well, doesn’t that person have the ability to earn higher? the answer is Yes! They have the ability to earn higher.

3. Reading increases your general knowledge

I learnt a lot about America by reading a novel called ‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Reading increases your knowledge about things. The more knowledge you have, the better equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face. Everything you read, fills your head with bits of information and you never know when that might come in handy. Remember that knowledge cannot be taken away from you.

4. Decreases depression

Reading keeps you busy that it makes you escape from every sad thoughts you had. Doctors and experts recommends patients or people with depression to read self-help books, because reading self-help books can allow patients with depression to better understand themselves and their symptoms and the issues they are facing.

5. Enhances your imagination and creativity

Reading books can make you become very creative. Reading is one of the best ways to foster imagination. The more we read, the more we can be open to new ideas and have an understanding of new things. Reading helps us practice imagination by letting the words describe a certain image while the reader manipulates the picture in the mind.

It encourages creativity, which brings about new ideas. It also takes a huge part in innovation. Without imagination, people wouldn’t be able to come up with new inventions and new ideas that help advance society. It also pushes discovery and understanding.

6. Reading helps you know more about culture

Reading helps you to know more about people even without physically meeting them. You can travel to a country and know about that country by just reading about it. You can know the peoples way of life, the way they behave and the way they lead their life by just reading. (Not hundred percent about them).

7. Enhances your brain and mind

Reading books makes you intelligent. It enhances your brain and mind in the form of thinking and understanding. By concentrating on the words and the storyline, it stimulates your brain and cognitive functions. This particular stimulation can help sharpen your mind, especially the part of the brain that is responsible for concentration and critical analysis. Reading sharpens this part of the brain. This sharpening of the mind will eventually heighten your focus when concentrating on something important.

8. Helps your writing

Ever heard ” a reader is a writer”? A writer who reads tends to write better than the ones who don’t read. Reading can help you learn the styles and themes of other author and help to improve your own style. Reading about the writing of others, is a great tool, especially if you enjoy writing.

9. Reduces stress

Once you start reading, you will start to focus, not on your stress, but on the happenings in the book. Reading lowers your stress level, and makes you feel better mentally and physically. The act of reading and focusing on the written word can help relieve your mind of anxiety and the pressures of the day. By pulling your mind away from the stress at hand, you can relax and let the stress melt away. Reading can help solve the issues that stress causes by allowing your mind and body to relax.

10. Motivates and inspires you

Reading motivational and inspirational books helps to motivate and inspire you. Reading such books can activate that part of you that you felt was dead into taking actions again. Reading books motivates and inspires you when you feel weak and defeated.

11. Prepares you for a good night rest

Reading in a place not your bed can help you prepare for a good night rest and even make you sleep well. In this case, reading a print book is advisable here. Do not read on your phone because of the light it emits that can cause unwanted health issues.

Conclusion

The benefits of reading books are not limited to just these 11 benefits. There are so many benefits of reading books, which is why I’m encouraging you to start reading now. What books have you read? What book are you reading now? And what book do you like reading? Let’s get busy in the comment section. I would love to hear from you.

Start reading now!

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DON’T SHUT PEOPLE OUT

Johellaa

13 November 2021

Dear Ella, my story is a very sad one and I regret that day till today. If only I knew what was about to happen, I would have picked her call that day and she would have still being alive now. Before I tell my story please Don’t shut people out. Learn to avoid this.

I’m from a family of six. My dad and mum, my elder brother, younger brother, younger sister and I. I am the second son and the closest to my sister; the only daughter. From childhood my elder brother had always set this standard that made it very uncomfortable to relate freely with him, maybe that was the reason my other siblings got closer to me.

We had all grown up and was living fine. I travelled out of the country in search of greener pasture but still kept in touch with them. We would always chat, voice call and also video call each other frequently. My elder brother was the only senior at home with my parents. My sister never shared anything about relationship with him but always does with me. When my brother discovered that she was in a relationship with a guy, he shouted and slapped her that day, saying all sorts of bad words to her like “ if you ever get pregnant I will kill you”.

This made her become more scared of him. She was 23 years old then. He wanted her to concentrate on her studies and not on any man. This made her to start keeping her relationship very secret; more secret than it was before. She started shutting us all out in the happenings of her life. I knew something was wrong but didn’t know how and where the problem was from and I was very far away from her, which made it very difficult to investigate and find out myself.

My sister continued with the relationship until she became pregnant. The man was willing to marry her but because of the fear of what my elder brother and parents will do to her, she refused him. She confided in her friend who advised her to abort the child.

A day before the abortion, she called me on my phone three times but I missed all her calls. When I saw the calls, I said I was going to return it not immediately though even though I had the time. I decided I will return the call when I am back from church.

But while I was still inside the church, a call came in and I went out to pick it because it was my mother that was calling me. I picked the call with the intention of telling her that I was in a church and would call back as soon as I am done. But she said “Your sister is dead”. That was the biggest shock of my life. Tears started dripping down my eyes. She hanged the call. I couldn’t concentrate again. But I tried to stay till the end of service.

When I got home, I cried myself to sleep. I kept opening my phone and staring at her missed calls. I wondered what she wanted to tell me.

Few days later, my mother called me back and while we were discussing she said “do you know what killed your sister?” I said no. And she said “your sister killed herself, she went to have an abortion but died in the process”. I cried more, after discovering the cause of her death. I blamed myself more for her death. If only I had picked up her calls that day, maybe she would have been alive today. Maybe she wanted to confide in me. She wanted to hear my own opinion but I didn’t pick up.

Since that day, I learnt to be doing three things:

Picking up calls whenever my phone rings and returning calls once I see a missed call.
Encouraging young girls to give birth and say NO to abortion.
Being open to people that cares about me and never to shut people out of my life.

If my elder brother and parents weren’t so mean to my sister and if I had picked up my calls that day, she would still be alive but now she is gone and all that is left of her is ‘memory’.

I am sharing my story with you today, for people to learn: “how to be open with their problems. Not to rely on a single person’s advice. Stop caring what other people will say and lastly, Abortion might seem like the best option but it is not a good option for unwanted pregnancy”.

Thanks for reading! I hope you learn from my story.

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WHY I AM STILL A VIRGIN AT 30

Johellaa

12 November 2021

Dear Ella, People may have their own different reasons for taking the purity pledge but here is mine. I want to tell you the story of my life. Why I am still a virgin even at 30.

I started living with my aunty when I was 7 years old, because my parents couldn’t afford to train me in school. My aunty; who is my mother’s younger sister was wealthier than my mother and she was willing to accept me in her home to help look after her children and to do the house chores.

When she visited us we were all happy because she bought me and my siblings’ lots of things. She was our favorite aunty. She continued being good to us until I went to live with them in the city.

Her house was very beautiful, more than the hut we lived in, in the village. We were very poor that we lived in a hut with a thatch roof.

The first week of my arrival was a living hell for me. My aunty made life very difficult that I wondered if she was on a revenge mission. Because she changed from the person she used to be into someone I didn’t know. She would beat me for a minor mistake. She and her husband always took turns in beating me. “Whenever I see you, I would show you the marks she inflicted on my body; they are still there till date”.

She trained me in school but I wasn’t allowed to waste a single minute after school dismissal because that would result to more beating and eating only dry bread crumbs with water and also sleeping under the stairs without any mattress or even cloth.

The maltreatment continued and when my mother came visiting, I went to her and cried for her to take me with her whenever she wants to return to the village. I told my mother that I was willing to suffer with them but all I wanted was to just go back with her. She promised to take me with her. But when I woke up the next day, my mother was gone. She had tricked me into believing that she will take me with her. Then I realized that I was alone in this world. The maltreatment continued but I had already made up my mind to face anything that comes my way.

One day, after school I couldn’t rush home like I used to because my body was in pains; I had started seeing my menses. When I got home, my aunty and her husband were already waiting for me with canes in their hands. They didn’t even allow me to explain. They descended on me and while beating me, my aunty called me a prostitute. In her own words she said “you prostitute! At this age you have started following men up and down. You good for nothing girl. You are very useless. Prostitute like you! Very soon you will carry unwanted pregnancy”.

I didn’t know which pain was much. The pain from the beating or the pain from her words. Those words felt like snake venom. That night I couldn’t sleep. I swore to not let any man deflower me until marriage. I swore to be very successful through hard work.

I stayed three more years with her. When I completed my high school. I told her I wanted to go home but she refused. One day, I ran away from her home into the streets. I slept under the bridge for three days before a relative saw me and took me in, and later called my aunty to let her know that I was with her; because she had circulated the news of my disappearance. I refused going back to her house and the relative took me straight to the village.

It was until Christmas that my aunty came back to the village and gave my parents little foodstuffs and a wrapper she bought for my mother. My mother called her out and asked what she was going to give me as settlement for staying 10 years with her, slaving for her. My aunty looked at her, hissed and walked away.

My mother couldn’t believe her eyes. She never communicated with my aunty again.

I later left the village with my friend who had recently gotten an admission into a university. I went to stay with her to see if I could do any menial job to fetch me money. When I got there, I learnt about a foreign language that was taught in that school. I worked and then registered for the language course. Two years later, I got a scholarship to go and study abroad.

After my bachelor’s degree, I started working in that country. I am wealthy now and so are my parents and siblings. My aunty and her husband are facing hard time now because: her daughter got pregnant for a hoodlum and her husband’s business isn’t going well again. I plan to help them when I return for Christmas.

I am actually grateful to my aunty for making me take that decision at that time, because it really helped me to be focused and have a goal which is to be a virgin and to be wealthy. Not that men weren’t coming for me or I haven’t being in any relationship but I tried explaining to any guy that wanted to be in a relationship, ‘that sex won’t be part of the relationship’.

I am 30 years old now and still a virgin, hoping to get married next year.

My reason for sharing this story is “for people to learn to treat others with kindness. That you are wealthy today doesn’t mean you will still be wealthy tomorrow. Nobody knows tomorrow.”

Thanks for sharing my story. I hope people learn from it.

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