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Book review by Radio OAP Michael Olatunbosun
Unpacking Akin Akingbogun’s Dreams from Yesterday, by Michael Olatunbosun
Dreams from Yesterday (Winepress, 2023) is a collection of 14 short stories. It is authored by Akin Akingbogun, a blogger, performance coach, civil engineer with experience in oil and gas, as well as renewable energy. The collection is a montage of various themes and perspectives, all given flight on the wings of the author’s potent storytelling power.
Thus one of the key themes is gender based violence. The first story in the collection discusses this theme.
Titled: “Old Town Road,” it opens with a scene which has just experienced a bomb blast. It is set in the busy Old Town Road in the heart of Kaduna city. And in the midst of chaos and human and non-human debris in the aftermath of a car bomb, we meet Garba, our protagonist in the story.
He and his wife Aisha have a daughter, Halima. Their daughter is in the hospital on admission. A bomb blast catches Garba on his way from the market as he goes grocery shopping. But alas, Garba is among the dead. He goes back to the hospital to make sure that his wife and daughter are fine only to discover his own death.
This theme is further played out in the fourth story, titled: “What have you done?” This story is about a couple, a DNA test and a neighbour. Tunde and Bola are married with a daughter, Temitope. But after she turned one, Temitope is diagnosed with haemophilia, a rare genetic condition in which her blood could not clot. Tunde is sure that his family does not have a history of such health conditions. Now three years old, and with Tunde suspecting an amorous relationship between his wife and Jaiye their neighbour, opts for a DNA test.
Tunde, a minister in his church, now resorts to violently abusing Bola, his wife, calling her a bitch after the paternity test returns negative. But at this point, things begin to happen really fast. Tunde gravely injures Bola who is pregnant but bleeding, and lays almost lifeless on the floor, Temitope also screaming and Jaiye is at the door. But is Tunde’s suspicion about Jaiye fathering the girl valid? Or could there be other possible options?
The theme of gender based violence is complemented by an equally unsavoury case of rape in the story: “Against Her Will.” A hitherto happy couple is put asunder by the husband’s perpetual pounding of his wife for her refusal to allow her body to be bruised and brutalised for his sexual gratification.
In the collection, Dreams from Yesterday, Akin explores the theme of death and the temporal nature of life. In the collection’s second story, the author tells the story of a 70-year-old man living with an abnormal mental condition known as Cotard’s syndrome. In the story, “You Cannot Kill a Dead Man”, we read about the weird and lonely Mr. Flo. He lives alone at his house. His wife is away with their grandchildren, and his meals are prepared by Aunty Clara, a widow in her late fifties. Each day, Mr. Flo fantasizes about Aunty Clara, and one day, he tries to fulfill his desire for her. In a rather humorous narration, we read about how he finally heeds the call of his mental condition.
In this collection, the majority of the stories speak to the theme of deceit and betrayal. Our first glimpse of this is in the third story in the collection, “Miss Gullible”, and it is the story of Anna, a teenager. Her desire to have a taste of love and attention leads her into the hands of a trickster impersonating as a chief executive. He ravishes her every week, taking her on an ecstatic voyage of love, turning her body to a workshop of love where all manner of experiments are performed. But after getting her pregnant, he gives her some pills and bolts off, only for Anna and her Aunty Jessica to later discover that he is a cleaner pretending to be a chief executive. Her naivety and gullibility fuel her hunger for fun pushes, which then pushes her to the brink of death.
In the fifth story, we are introduced to Joseph, a man in search of love after suffering serial heartbreaks. Having taken time off searching for love, he meets Kate, and his resolve is broken. Kate is an irresistibly beautiful woman and a single mother of a cute and intelligent six-year-old daughter, Daniella. In the story “Cute Little Devil”, Joseph’s experience with Daniella shows that however young and innocent they may be, children must never be underestimated.
In this collection, the sixth story titled “Baby Daddies” is a fascinating story of two friends who belong to different worlds and how one event turns them against each other.
“Dreams from Yesterday”, is the seventh and title story. It is also a story of top-grade deceit, treachery and multi-level betrayal of the highest order.
Harriet and Kunle have been married for over five years and unable to have a child. But in her regular dreams Harriet nurses a baby whom she names Hayden. Her dreams would come true one day but not as she planned or thought. Unknown to Harriet, her husband already knows that Harriet is living with an auto-immune disorder which is the primary reason for her infertility.
Chioma, Harriet’s best friend, is pregnant and desires Harriet to be there for her during her delivery. Chioma gives birth to a baby boy but dies from complications, but not before confessing to Harriet that Kunle is actually responsible for the pregnancy.
The eighth story: “Peeping Tom,” is about Frank, a driver who finds delight and sexual gratification from secretly ogling at women in the female toilets in his place of work. He has a reputation for supplying women’s nude videos in porn sites as he always hides to peep at them as they freely use the restrooms. But he runs out of luck one day and he is found out after he is confronted by an audacious rat in the female toilet.
In the book, Akin Akingbogun discusses the negative consequences of exposing children to fast life (Poisoned Darts) and exposes the reader to the underground operations of organ trafficking agents. He also discusses the negative consequences of negotiating other people’s personal choices and preferences with them. This is the story (Too Impaired to Deal) of Tokunbo and his two friends, Danjuma and Jered. The three young men are youth corps members posted to a village school. They share the same lodge, but Tokunbo does not indulge in alcohol bingeing like the other two. The two conspire to compel Tokunbo to drink with them one evening. They force him to consume some beer. And it all ends for him.
The collection also discusses depression and society’s often wrong perception and misdiagnosis. The case of Peter, a construction engineer in “Two-way Street to Depression” is a case in point.
In the collection you also have stories portraying infidelity and murder. “The Fellowship,” for instance, discusses the fate of four philandering men. In the story set in Kaduna, these men, all of them working in the refinery hatch a plan to rent an apartment where far from their matrimonial homes they can establish their sexual escapades with women. All seems to be going on as planned until one day when their rendezvous is unlocked by their four wives.
The last story of the collection discusses the eventual fatal end of Charles while he battles against a prank prophecy of a young boy. Titled “Two Days’ Notice”, the boy tells Charles, a banker, that he has only two days to live on earth. And on hearing this, an agitated Charles tries to do everything possible to avert this prophecy from coming to pass.
Being too careful has consequences, as is the case of Charles. After getting home safely without incident, he set out to celebrate his victory over death and slipped to his death from the peels of the banana that he had been eating.
The work: “Dreams from Yesterday,” is a beautifully written collection in which Akingbogun’s mastery of the art of storytelling is vividly showcased. It is fully packed with relatable stories and themes about everyday encounters in our society. It is a delight to read.
Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact-checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He can be reached via [email protected], on X @miketunbosun and 0802-351-7565 (SMS only).
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