How Nigeria Happened to Tanko: Early Life is the opening book in a five-part fictionalised series that follows Tanko through the experiences that shape his life, character and understanding of the world around him.
Born to an Igbo mother and a Hausa father, Tanko grows up at the intersection of two of Nigeria’s major cultural traditions. Set against the social, economic and cultural realities of Nigeria, the novel explores ambition, identity, love, family, friendship and survival. Through Tanko’s journey, the story examines how the circumstances of a person’s upbringing, the people he encounters and the society around him can influence the choices he makes and the person he becomes.
This first book takes us into Tanko’s early life, tracing the experiences that begin to shape the man he will become. It is both a personal story and a reflection on a country whose complexities and contradictions are woven into the everyday lives of its people.