If you have never read A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt by Toyin Falola, please try and do so. It will make you laugh and laugh from page one to the last page. I have read this book, written by my former lecturer and friend, three times.
I have two copies in my library and have given out three as gifts. It has always come in handy whenever I needed something to kick me out of a dark mood. It is full of memories and information that only an attentive writer like Falola could pick up and piece together. I still could not stop laughing each time I remembered his portrayal of Iya Leku Leja in the book. In my Ekiti country, they are called oniwosiwosi. They are the women who sell the dried heads of rats, snakes, cats, etc. for the making of charms or some healing portions. I recently drove through Oje Market in Ibadan, and I saw scores of these traders selling weird items, and my mind could not stop going back to Falola’s book.
Hear what Ama Ata Aidoo said about Enu dùn jù iyọ̀. —A Mouth Is Sweeter Than Salt: “Toyin Falola has given us what is truly rare in modern African writing: a seriously funny, racy, irreverent package of memories, and full of the most wonderful pieces of poetry and ordinary information. It is a matter of some interest that the only other volume A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt reminds me of is Ake, by Wole Soyinka. What is it about these Yorubas?” So much Ama!
I am using this medium to call on our education authorities to select books such as this as recommended texts in our high schools. It will open the minds of our youngsters to the intricacies of our culture and wean them away from thinking that everything that does not conform to Judeo-Christian ethics is abhorrent.
Grab your copy today and read.