The Best Award My First Book Won

Living In Gidi, my first published book, had an interesting journey. It already had a cult following before it ever became a book. I used to blog about Lagos back in 2014, and by 2015, I had seen enough of that.?

In 2016, some of the epic stories were resurrected by the popular Facebooker, Itodo Samuel Anthony. He had asked that I give him the permission to share a few of the stories on his timeline. I agreed. The stories blew up. It was like no one had ever seen anyone write about Lagos like I did. Then came the clamoring. The readers wanted more.?

So I knew it was time to write a book. I decided to make my first book about Lagos to satisfy the demand. Living In Gidi was birthed. Gidi is the short form of Lasgidi, the street parlance used as substitute for Lagos. I wrote the story in episodes, not chapters. I figured this was a better way to capture the range of experiences the book covered. And, yes ke, I made it as hilarious as it could be. I mean, folks who live(d) in Lagos can relate to the stories, so why taunt them with their reality without giving them a good laugh? For context, Lagos is a tough place to live in especially if you're a regular everyday commuter.

The book was first published as an ebook in December, 2016. Not long after, the good Facebook folks were back, this time to contribute their monies so the book could be made available to secondary schools. They believed it would help teenagers' reading culture and spur their imagination. By mid 2018, the book was published in hard copies and shared to schools across Nigeria.

Months later, I would be invited to a Lipton Tea Party at the African Artists' Foundation, and fresh copies of Living In Gidi, I think 100, paid for. These copies were going to be given out for free to attendees of the event. The event also had in attendant, the Nigeria rapper, MI. I was there to sign autographs for those who got the books. It was a warm evening with poetry, conversations, music and hugs. I felt like I won an award. We were only about four authors who got the invite.

But this feeling was like nothing I felt when a teacher from faraway Sokoto got in touch with me to excitedly inform me that the book Living In Gidi had caught a fever amongst her students. Yes, we sent the books to different schools in about 30 of the 36 states in Nigeria. Sokoto was one of them. The teacher informed me of how the teenagers would go into the school's library on their own to read the book. She was so happy. She said I wouldn't understand how much of a big deal this was in the community where she taught, and, at the time, I felt the book won its biggest award. It ignited a craving in faraway Sokoto.

-- INA?