Book Review: Kasali’s Africa

Hey bookworms.

Guess what?! I got to do a book review for an author in Africa! This book was called Kasali’s Africa by Feyisayo Anjorin.

Synopsis: Kasali’s Africa is the story of Kasali Adebayor’s struggle with the encroachment of the modern on the domain of the ancient in West Africa of the late 80s and 90s, as the states struggle in the treacherous waters of local politics; the time of the Liberian civil war, and the Sierra Leone diamond wars, and the military government’s devastating grip on power in Nigerian.

Kasali Adebayor, a barely literate farmer, who lives in the distant end of Akure, his home state’s capital city with his five wives and numerous children, gets a unanimous vote from all the farmers in the state as the head of the state farmers’ union; this happens at a time when government policy direction favours the agricultural sector.

The popular farmer, unprepared for the burdens of fame, becomes a hit with the press for his charisma and the myths attached to his name, and soon gets the attention of Liberia’s dictator, President Samuel Glay, who tries to match the desperation of persistent coup plotters with his own desperation to hold on to power by any means necessary.
Glay’s government is soon swept away, ushering in an unbridled reign of blood, tears, ruin, and rot.

And with the passage of time, Liberia’s national crises appears to unravel as Kasali’s family tragedy, as the farmer’s obsession with his youngest wife turns out fatal.

This is the story of humanity; the best of us, the worst of us, and everything in-between.

This book was interesting. It followed this farmer Kasali and the life he chose to live. He had about 5 wives and was working on a 6th. All of his children were put to work on his farm to work away their days. It was his form of homeschooling his children because he believed that they should follow in the footsteps of their father.

The storyline was ok because it switched it up a bit to give you different perspectives of other characters but I did find that at times I would get bored. Kasali’s life was definitely different from say your life or my life. He drank pretty much every evening and flaunted that he had lots of money (however, he did give some of his farms produce to charity).

There were parts where the story would pick up and it would have a little action in it. These parts I liked a lot and were what kept me going. The ending is very abrupt and not what I expected so I was also a fan of that (I hate when you know exactly what is going to happen).

Overall, it was decent and I would give it a middle rating. There was enough to keep me going through it. I also found it interesting how when characters were speaking to each other, they would end sentences with “o”. Example: “What are you doing o?”. I’m not sure if this is a cultural thing or not but it was cool.

Book Rating: 3/5

You can find the book on Amazon! You can also find the author on Twitter and Instagram. He promotes the book a lot on these platforms.

Disclaimer: This book was sent to us in ebook format to read and give an honest review.