From Left, Kunle Ajibade, Executive Editor, The News Magazine; Molara Wood, Journalist and moderator; and Ngugi wa Thiong’o after the panel on Prison Stories and Literature of Resistance at the Ake Arts and Book Festival. Photograph: Ake Arts and Book Festival

The interview session was concluded with the Festival Director, Lola Shoneyin;Ms. Wood;playwright Professor Femi Osofisan, and former Commissioner of Health in Ogun State, Dr Olaokun Soyinka presenting gifts to the revered writer and academic. True to Ms. Shoneyin’s promise to “make a Nigerian out of him,” Dr. Soyinka adopted the Kenyan author as his “second father,” while Professor Osofisan christened him “Babarinde”. This was followed by a book-signing session of his newly-released memoirs, Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening.

Ngugi’s presence at the festival was a fitting reflection of the festival’s theme, “Beneath This Skin”. With his exposition on the historical use of language as a tool of subjugation, the acclaimed author canvassed the promotion of African languages by emphasising that they are as beautiful and relevant as the colonial languages. As he aptly stated, “our obsession with prizes diminishes us”. His arguments for the promotion of African languages and indigenous language literature posed a challenge to writers, whose quest for foreign laurels ensures that they pander to colonial whims,engendering a society that is gradually losing its identity to the hegemonic effects of globalisation and Western powers.