Diaries of a Dead African (Meme's Diary)

About the Book

Meme Jumai's wife has just left him with the bulk of his barn.

Suddenly, he is facing starvation, with only a few tubers to tide him over until harvest. Can he stretch it? Will his friends and relatives help out? 

Diaries of a Dead African is a tragicomedy whose pages are both mercilessly funny and hauntingly bleak at the same time. Set in the village of Ikerre Oti, it explores the life-threatening circumstances of three protagonists, the farmer Meme Jumai and his two sons - Abel (failed writer) and Calamatus (aspiring conman). This first of three diaries is Meme's story, in which he tests the bonds of his extended family in a climate of Indifference.

First published in London Review of Books in 2001, it is now available in an audiobook narrated by the author.


About the Author

Chuma Nwokolo is a lawyer and author. Called to the bar in 1984, he was managing partner of the C&G Chambers, Lagos and writer-in-residence at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He was publisher of African Writing Magazine. His books include the Pacesetter novellas, The Extortionist (1983) and Dangerous Inheritance (1987), and the novels, Diaries of a Dead African (2003) and Extinction of Menai (2018). He also wrote the novelized anthology, One More Tale for the Road (2003), the poetry collections, Memories of Stone (2006) and The Final Testament of a Minor God (2014), as well as the anthologies, The Ghost of Sani Abacha (2012) and How to Spell Naija in 100 Short Stories [Vol.1] (2014) & [Vol.2] (2016).

He is the convener of the Bribecode Good Governance Campaign.