Chiké Frankie Edozien

“There once was a popular soap opera called The Village Headmaster. It aired weekly on television sets all over Nigeria in the late 1970s. It made millions howl with laughter. It was appointment viewing in those heady days just before and after FESTAC '77, before Nigerian movies made in Nollywood exploded and sucked up all the onscreen entertainment in Africa. I quite recall sitting on the floor to watch a small black and white television in our living room at 27 Lugard Avenue, in Ikoyi. Back then Ikoyi was mostly residential. And bucolic. And, compared to now, it seemed sparse. There was little traffic on its narrow streets and the large trees provided shade to pedestrians.”

Keywords: Accra ; Africa ; African writers ; Gay men ; Labone Dialogues ; Lagos ; LBGTQ ; Memoir ; New York ; nonfiction ; Reclaiming the Narrative