10 Questions with Wale Okediran

Wale Okediran with SSRP participants at the ZODML Community Library
 

Wale Okediran, author of After the Flood and Tenants of the House, visited ZODML this June for an SSRP session and graciously answered a few questions for us. Learn below which Russian classic he wishes he had written, his most treasured possession, and more.
1. Who are your favourite authors?
Wole Soyinka, Boris Pasternak, Arthur Conan Doyle, Anton Chekhov, and Chinua Achebe.
2. Who are your three favourite literary characters?
President Ambrose Oneya in Tenants of the House, Anna Karenina, and Wild Christian in Soyinka's Ake: The Years of Childhood.
3. If you could have any talent in the world (aside from writing), what would you choose?
Acting.
4. What’s your favourite literary quote?
'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' - Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina
5. What literary work do you wish you could say you wrote?
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
6. If you could invite three figures – historical or literary, real or fictional – to your last supper, who would you pick?
Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, and Obafemi Awolowo.
7. Who do you consider the funniest person in the world (that we would know)?
Baba Sala.
8. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Barack Obama.
9. What is your most treasured possession?
My name.
10. What is the last thing you do before going to bed?
Read.
Liked this? Read more 10 Questions interviews with Tolu Ogunlesi, Tade Ipadeola, and Sola Alamutu.