Welcome Adept.Well you might be wondering what Ayomide Faith has for you today. Don't worry; your wonders will be satisfied.
In my last post,I made mention of honestly not having a schedule,as you know, scheduling is the brick by brick foundation of achievement. In lieu of this I decided to set apart a day for the great things Ayomide Faith has promised to deliver and yes I decided Friday.
Why Friday ,you might be asking?. I choose Friday because, Mondays is the dawn of a new week and who would have the time to scroll through Ayomide Faith's blog. Tuesdays lures you into thinking the week is still far from ending so you might as well postpone reading AF's blog, Wednesday and Thursdays middles the week,so you might want to chill off from stress ,so Fridays stays as the best option for AF's great things just before you slip into that anticipated, beautiful weekend of yours. So if we all agree,see you next Friday and don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter and also don't leave your friends and permit me to say foes,you are doing a great thing forwarding this to them.
But before we catch each other on Friday, here are some awesome things to catch up with. Just a little appetizer of what is to come. And remember, hang on with me for something great is coming.
WHAT'S UP
- Chika Unigwe, winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literature, returns with a new novel out about a doctor whose carefully built life unravels when her estranged mother returns after twenty-six years — a story of motherhood, secrecy, and forgiveness.
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: The archetype of modern African literature is currently in production as a major Hollywood television series, generating worldwide buzz.
- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: Paramount Pictures' major film adaptation of this West African-inspired epic fantasy is locking in its theatrical release.
- The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin: Following years of anticipation, this iconic Nigerian literary masterpiece is being brought to the big screen.
THE REJECTION STORIES
Tsitsi Dangarembga's *Nervous Conditions— now hailed as a modern classic and named by the BBC as one of the 100 books that shaped the world — was turned down by four Zimbabwean publishing houses in the 1980s. At the time, women made up only a small fraction of published Zimbabwean writers, and Dangarembga later said it was difficult for the era's male publishers to accept what women were writing about. The manuscript was eventually picked up by the Women's Press in London in 1988 and went on to win the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Africa the following year.
Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard did get published quickly in 1952, but its unconventional, non-standard English drew sharp criticism from Nigerian and British critics alike, who dismissed it as unpolished. Decades on, it's now recognized as a foundational text of African fiction, admired for the very stylistic boldness that once got it mocked.
Buchi Emecheta faced repeated setbacks breaking into British publishing as a young Nigerian single mother in 1970s London, with an early manuscript reportedly destroyed by a partner before she could get it published. She kept writing anyway and became one of the most prolific and celebrated voices in African literature, publishing over twenty books.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o ,wrote Devil on the Cross on prison toilet paper while detained without trial by the Kenyan government for his politically charged theatre work — a book born directly out of an attempt to silence him, later published to acclaim and now considered a landmark of African-language fiction, written entirely in Gikuyu.
Things Fall Apart— Chinua Achebe's manuscript was reportedly dismissed by early readers as unpromising before Heinemann took a chance on it. It went on to become the most widely read work of African fiction in history.
Purple Hibiscus — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie faced multiple rejections before the novel found a publisher. It was later shortlisted for the Orange Prize.
Take Away Note: Rejection isn't always because you did not do well enough,but because your best was way beyond comprehensibility ,so it has to be reserved for the best moment.
SIGN OFF QUOTE:
"Sometimes you gotta make your own opening. Don't wait for somebody to give you permission to do your best"— Kwame Mbalia
