Böcker av Dipo Kalejaiye

Nigerian playwright DIPO KALEJAIYE relates an educator and writer's experience of living in Nigeria and the United States in his latest memoir, Some Memories of California. The book charts the author's formative years as a lecturer in Nigeria and leaves readers with no doubt as to how the geographical, spiritual, political, and cultural aspects of his West African homeland prepared him for the amazing sojourn he undertakes upon his arrival in California, USA.Suffused with humor and grit, this is a purely personal tale that pushes to the forefront the African immigrant's experience in the United States. Kalejaiye's African background as a young lecturer, artist and family man is cleverly pitted against the American experience that seems to challenge and define his role as a fledgling but ambitious playwright who overcomes the odds to triumph in the end. Without equivocation, this book should serve as an informative read for lovers of memoirs exploring wit and adroitness to make peculiar humane concerns accessible to readers.

The book is a collection of nine letters addressed to former high school classmates. It uses these letters as mirrors into the nostalgic past of a 'grammar school' (high school) experience at the onset of the postcolonial era in Nigeria. The aim of the book is to show the routine antics of classmates as 'informal' education and that this, in conjunction with 'formal' education, make a total high school experience. The first part of the book, the introduction, shows the process of recalling the experiences contained in the letters. The second part is the individual letters, among them are: 'A letter to Aranmsko,' which shows adventure as a form of learning and the trepidation of the 'curse' he receives from a religious studies teacher. 'A letter to Sosorakota' portrays the controversial topic of sex during the teenage years. The third part of the book, the conclusion, asserts that the Letters reveal aspects of human character such as kindness, trust, hope, and fear.