Book Review: ‘Corals Of Youth’ By Margaret Obiageli Olele

Corals of Youth is Olele’s reminiscent of memories that formed her childhood.
Growing up in the 70s first in Government Residential Area (GRA) of Ibadan, Oyo State, and eventually, a middle-to-low class neighbourhood of Abule Oja, Lagos, Olele and her siblings Emmanuel, Anthonia, and Lizzie cavorted freely and without worry with neighbours/friends spanning different ethnicities.
Consisting of eleven chapters, each explores a different aspect or theme of her childhood whilst also providing glimpses of the state of Nigerian society at the time.

Chapter One, focused on description of her family living in GRA Ibadan, and the Abule Oja environs where they moved owing to her father’s transfer to Lagos by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1970. Chapter Two, highlighted the impact of communal living in a nuclei family, where a child is raised by solely by the parents but with the direct and indirect aid of other members of the family. Chapter Three address the subtly implied tension of between the Abiagom’s children and members of the Africa Bethel Church, Chapter Four expands on their primary and secondary school experience. Olele goes on to expand on their social life as teenagers both in school and at home in Chapter Five, then reflects the love-hate relationship middle-to-last born children share about a parent, more often mothers. Chapter Eight expands on their extended family members, this time her mother’s older, handsome brother’s household and other siblings, whilst touching upon couple dynamics, shining the light on the history and evolution of women’s right in the southern Nigeria society – albeit in marital setting. Chapter Ten speaks of her television and entertainment background, a couple that had impacted her life’s philosophy to a point. Finally, Chapter Eleven which addresses her transition from senior secondary school to closing lines of her departure to University of Benin.

There is a lot to like about this book. First is the author’s ability to write as she speaks. This makes the text which lacks any sort of continuous dialogue, interesting and easy to breeze through. Without straying too far from her train of thoughts, she manages to chip-in bits of events happening in the Nigerian society in the 70s – like the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which led to the increase of fees and student living in the University, and the many student protests that followed. Middle-to-last children can certainly relate to the feeling that our parent (mother) preferred our elder sibling than us.
Also to be appreciated is the author’s sprinkling of Igbo and Yoruba language in nearly all chapters of the group, and the fact that there’s are footnotes to explain both the indigenous languages and references to historical events, or acronymized words.

However, the pitfall of writing as one think, are lack of grammatically constructed sentences, improper punctuation, and the sub-par, unaccented Igbo words, or sentences that leans more towards a particular dialect than central Igbo. There are also several experiences like her mom slapping her Greek Leventis Store boss, without being fired, and her father being transferred to Lagos as a senior civil servant in 1970, when the Biafran War ended and being able to build a two-storey building with a backyard house same year that just seems exaggerated and impossible.

Nonetheless, the author did the most believably recalling events and experiences that took place a very long while ago, to put together an interesting non-fiction reading that once can immerse themselves without noticing the time fly by.