5-3/4 x 9-1/4. 288 pgs. 5 halftones in text. (2004) Paper 978-0-472-03132-0 $21.95S  Available Add to Cart Search this Book's Content About the Book Praise Look Inside Subjects African-American and African Studies / History / Memoir

A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt
An African Memoir

Toyin Falola

Finalist: The Association of African Studies 2005 Melville J. Herskovits Award;

Finalist: The Association of Third World Studies (ATWS) 2005 Cecil B. Curry Award;

Winner: 2004 Association of Third World Studies (ATWS) President's Distinguished Leadership and Scholarship Award;

Winner: West African Oral History Association's E.J. Alagoa Prize for the best book for 2003-2004;

Runner-up: 9th Robert Hamilton Book Awards, University of Texas, Austin.

The long-awaited memoir from the most prolific historian of Africa

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About the Book

A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt gathers the stories and reflections of the early years of Toyin Falola, the grand historian of Africa and one of the greatest sons of Ibadan, the notable Yoruba city-state in Nigeria. Redefining the autobiographical genre altogether, Falola miraculously weaves together personal, historical, and communal stories, along with political and cultural developments in the period immediately preceding and following Nigeria's independence, to give us a unique and enduring picture of the Yoruba's history, traditions, pleasures, mysteries, household arrangements, forms of power, struggles, and transformations in the mid-twentieth century. This is truly a literary memoir, told in language rich with proverbs, poetry, song, and humor.

Toyin Falola is the Frances Higginbothom Nalle Centennial Professor of History and Nelson Mandela Professor of African Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Author or editor of over fifty books and countless articles, he has written extensively on subjects ranging from political economy, nationalism, development, and violence to religion.