Toyin Falola has given us what is truly rare in modern African writing: a seriously funny, racy, irreverent package of memories, and full of the most wonderful pieces of poetry and ordinary information.
AMA ATA AIDOOThey had always told me that I wrote like a man.
More Ama Ata Aidoo Quotes
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Humans, not places, make memories.
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They had always told me that I wrote like a man.
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It is a matter of some interest, that the only other volume A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt reminds one of is Ake, by Wole Soyinka. What is it about these Yorubas?
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I’ve written poems about gifts.
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For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism.
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No matter what anybody says, we can’t have it all. Not if you are a woman. Not yet.
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Soyinka’s Death at Dawn, Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts, Stevie Smith’s Not Waving but Drowning and Wislawa Szymborska’s Some People come to mind immediately. But there are plenty, plenty more that I enjoy.
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It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.
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Its a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.
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There are powerful forces undermining progress in Africa. But one must never underestimate the power of the people to bring about change.
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After all, if we look closer into ourselves, shall we not admit that the warmth from other people comes so sweet to us when it comes, because, we always carry with us the knowledge of the cold loneliness of death?
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Life is inspirational; sometimes it comes from the most unlikely places.
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Things are working out… towards their dazzling conclusions.
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the best way to sharpen a knife is not to whet one side of it only. And neither can you solve a riddle by considering only one end of it.
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Once an interesting idea or theme occurs to me then I would want to write a poem about it. The rest, frankly, is not difficult.
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