Nigeria 3: BookBuilders

While I conducted research at the National Archives and the library of the University of Ibadan, I stayed with a wonderful lady, Aunty Chris. Aunty Chris deserves a book of her own, but instead she spends her time publishing other peoples' books, through the publishing house she runs out of her home: BookBuilders. Aunty Chris came to Nigeria in the 1970s, married a Nigerian man, and began a career in publishing. After working for the University of Ibadan Press for many years, she started her own publishing company in the early 1990s, which has become one of the most successful publishing houses in Nigeria's thriving literary market.

BookBuilders, publishing house

BookBuilders is a true publishing house--in that it's a house where people publish. This is not a small operation, though, as BookBuilders employs about six editors, an office manager, and provides a great deal of business to a local printer. Combine this with three dachshunds, an Alsatian, Aunty Chris's housekeeper Aunty Gladys, and the office's housekeeper Aunty Esther, and you have the recipe for what I believe would be a great sitcom. Any showrunners or writers wanting to pitch a pilot based on this premise, just call me; I'll happily split the advance 50-50.

BookBuilders staff hard at work

Aunty Esther (L) and Aunty Gladys (R) at work.

Aunty Gladys (L) and Aunty Esther (R) at play.

The inter-office dynamics made BookBuilders the most delightful of sitcom locations, with Aunty Gladys fussing over Aunty Chris having beer at lunch, everyone in the office's real and feigned fear of the dogs, and the occasional travails of the office's solar system--installed by Aunty Chris's truly ingenious son. (The system worked marvelously, but a storm halfway through my time there knocked some panels down, so it occasionally went out. But to have reliable power was a true blessing, in a country where it is rare to have 12 hours of electricity at a time.)

Even more sitcom-like were the colorful characters coming in and out of the office: taxmen selectively assessing VAT, an architect offering the 20th revision to the drawings in her textbook, and most prominently, the famous Nigerian lawyer (and grand lady, I might add) Chief 'Folake Solanke, SAN. "Chief," as she was known in the office, was the first woman lawyer to become Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the highest rank a lawyer can achieve--akin to being called to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. Moreover, she has been active in UN women's programs (she attended the landmark 1995 Beijing Conference on Women's Rights) and served as the first African president of Zonta International, a service organization for professional women along the lines of the Lions or Rotary Clubs, both of which barred women until the 1980s. BookBuilders published a new edition of her autobiography, Reaching for the Stars, during my time, and I shall have to address the events surrounding that in another post. It was a small cultural education for me.

Program for Chief Solanke's celebration; photo of her in regalia as SAN

From a research standpoint, I ended up staying in Ibadan longer than I had intended, which forced me to cut corners elsewhere in Nigeria. However, only my research project could have torn me away from the BookBuilders family. Aunty Chris was incredibly generous in hosting this unknown grad student who would sleep all hours of the day. Aunty Gladys and Aunty Esther treated me as their own son--and fed me accordingly, which I was happy to oblige. I was truly sorry to leave Ibadan because of BookBuilders, and I'm looking forward to getting back.

Aunty Esther readying some jolof rice to send with me to the airport as I leave for eastern Nigeria.

My two Aunties

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For whenever BookBuilders the TV series comes to pass, maybe we can use as a template for the opening credits some combination of this...
...and this: