“I hawked pancakes during my early days in Wotutu,” Edwin announces in his memoir, “From Wotutu to the World“. Immediately I get irritated. This kind of evoking childhood memory nauseates me. The kind that paints childhood like some station of the cross, the kind of journey that is usually meant to heighten experience and difference between childhood and adulthood in a way that is meant to give greater credibility to the memoirist eventual success and/or redemption. Oftentimes this perches the accounts through a lens of victimhood in which the author recounts things happening to them. A kind of weird conspiracy by the universe!
But in his case, in the next ten chapters, Edwin is brutally honest, deeply reflects on his experiences, taking accountability, experiencing adversity and appreciating love. He is seen grieving, venting over his displeasure and oftentimes his intolerance of the people and situations he disagrees with coming off in the fieriest of ways. The memoir enthralls and shocks!
Wotutu is more than a place. It is character in Edwin’s story, a complex person. The type that nurtures and pampers. The type that shapes and destroys. The type that reminds you of love and conflict, of friendship and adversity, of family, of searing grief and endless laughter. It is that person that you seemingly need to graduate from to become something. But it also that person that you come back t,o when the world sticks its teeth into your skin. It is a subtle alchemy of finding oneself, a reminder of hope and growth.
Wotutu to Edwin is home! It forms the backdrop of Edwin’s story. It is there that he began his early journey of excellence and discovery, one that sees him move to St. Joseph’s College, Sasse—arguably one of the most significant places in Edwin’s becoming. Sasse is Edwin’s first experience of the world, its variety, its complexity, its toughness. It is riveting to flip through his nostalgia of school, memories of his filthiness, his brutality, his mum’s exactness and intolerance of indiscipline, his dad’s contrasting softness and pampering.
How Edwin deals with the loss of his father, the impact that it has on his family and shape his life thereafter needs more fleshing out. You can feel him struggle with the recesses.
Edwin’s experience of university life as a student of Journalism and Mass communication is fraught with reflection. It is him beginning to face the world with its shades. His hard work stands out. His perseverance, his excellence, his love for communication and his lifelong relationship with some of his lecturers and mates is core.
When he gets into the professional world then Edwin faces fully the other character -The World. The one that throws lemons gives opportunity and seizes it with the other hand, the one that shows the worse of you and the strongest; it breaks you and asks you to be strong. Through the miasma of joblessness to the early days of employment with Orange Cameroon, Edwin’s story of his rise to the top levels of an institution that possess countless challenges requires a memoir on its own.
Edwin loves deeply. He values his friendships and networks. But you are left to wonder a lot about his romantic life until the last chapters when the lady he calls ‘Edwina’ materializes. His recollection of their love is vulnerable. The relationship later festers into a toxic thing, with them calling off a wedding. Edwin holds back a lot and yet says quite enough to give you glimpses of what the relationship had turn into and turned him into. A person getting to understand that you are not always enough to some people.
Edwin’s worse flaw is his anger. It contrasts sharply with his playfulness and loving nature. He skirts that place between poise, status and anger until the encounter with ‘Lenin’—his story’s antagonist. The confrontation with Lenin is a watershed moment in Edwin’s memoir. It reveals the worse of him (his anger), and the best of him, his accountability.
From Wotutu to the World is not a love letter. It is the layered journey of a boy navigating the world, flaws and all. It is a story of family, friendship, hope, career, adversity and coming to self. It is inspiring without the cheesiness of today’s gauzy motivational approaches. It is honest, fast-paced and rewarding. It is a must read that is available on amazon
*Writer, journalist, and researcher. He is passionate about politics and social issues.
