| dc.description.abstract | This study examines how two writers, Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong’o, present
their childhood experiences while growing up in colonial Nigeria and Kenya respectively.
This study set out to investigate how childhood memory shapes the consciousness of the
two autobiographers in particular and their societies in general. The rationale for the
study was to make a critical enquiry into the childhood memories of the two writers as
children and as established writers. This study compares the way Soyinka and Ngugi represent
memory as grown up writers from the point of view of privileged child in the case
of Soyinka and a deprived child on the part of Ngugi. The two writers grew up at about
the same historical time at a challenging period in the history of Africa in particular and
the world at large. The study employed the use of post-colonial theory, formalism theory
and the theory of autobiography as its critical approaches. The study found out that these
writers become major protagonists in determining their own destiny in a colonial
environment, the World War II and the struggle for independence. The study also shows
that Soyinka and Ngugi’s perception of life was greatly influenced by the family, the
politics of colonialism, school, sociological factors and other historical forces that were at
play during their childhood. The two autobiographies originate from West Africa for Ake:
The Years of Childhood and East Africa for Dreams in a Time of War and the study
suggests that despite the geographical distance, the experiences of childhood for the two
writers had some common denominators. | en_US |
