ABEOKUTA - A young Nigerian writer, Dimeji Sodeke has lamented the low reading attitude among younger generation, adding that the ignorance of the past heroes was rubbing off on the behavioral pattern of the younger generation.
The young Sodeke disclosed this recently in Abeokuta during the launch of a book titled "Dwelling in the belly of the beast", to commemorate the 176 years of the foremost Egba warrior, Sodeke.
He said many young Nigerians have lost interest in reading books because of many distractions and more focus on social media.
The writer maintained that, he was motivated by realities of the African setting and the urge to keep record of past heroes.
He added that, he would convert some of his literature into motion picture in order to further improve the reading ability of the younger generation.
"So here, the reading culture is not really booming like it use to be, because there's a lot of distractions these days but I can still tell you that the readers are leaders so they are still few conscious people out there who will still read.
"I found it so sad when I was asking a girl at a time about Fela Anikulapo and she doesn't said anything about Fela Anikulapo. So it that serious?
"The coming generation is becoming so ignorance of their past, they're becoming so ignorance of what our heros have done in the past
"we want to know what happened, the role our fathers play, like me now, am so proud of my forefather, when I got to know the role they played to what Abeokuta is right now, I planned to associate myself with it, but stylishly this is very very important due to self actualization.
"I'm working towards converting every of my arts into a movie screen, these days it's so easy for us to watch documentaries and you think have learn something. The world has evolved, so there's a way we have made learning simpler"
"Well, I have always been motivated by realities. There's a reality that's in African which is different from European world, so our African reality and predicaments has led me to actually want to lend my own voice also and tell our own stories.
"So, I'm motivated by the way and my experience have been shaped over time which has been evolved in so many things and have passed through so many things, have had encounter with a lot of people, so I draw my inspiration people's reality".
Sodeke further stated that his literatures have different perspectives depending on the current realities he found himself, adding that he tries to appeal to the ordinary people on the street, using simple words to depicts his messages.
"Well, I think this book is for all ages, everyone can relate with the book, either you are old, young, or you are aged, I think is more appealing to we the youth, we can relate more and the teenagers.
"We're bringing learning to doorsteps of people, that's why when you read my novel, I don't want to use big grammar, an average kids can read my book and relate and laugh, so I made it in a simplest form, like Nigeria Pidgin and Yoruba dialect. So you relate well, just like Chinua Achebe.
"That would bring me back to my first novel which the tittle is 'athe Gods of my Parents'. That was revolutionary, it really the warrior a kind of person, you will find it my first novel.
"But the second novel is actually tailored towards a kind of person that found himself in this kind of system that is disorganized, a kind of system that government doesn't really have time for its citizens, the average Nigerian setting.
"So I wouldn't say is more like am hearing voices, am trying to revolutionalize, am trying to spark an average mind towards our African realities and predicament, am trying to shift our mind away from distraction, one of the distractions are mediated reality, are things that people are giving away to."
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