We took on the challenge of giving Wole Soyinka’s classic memoirs a fresh face.
The goal? To design book covers that feel modern and simple enough to catch the eye of today’s readers, but still carry the weight of his legacy.
What we created was a visual language that bridges generations.
We kept it timeless, inviting, and unmistakably Soyinka.
Client:
Bookcraft Africa
Wole Soyinka
Services:
Creative Direction
Book Cover Design
Contributors:
Jide Awulonu
Ikeoluwa Odunjo
It all started with Aké, published in 1981, it was the first book in the series.
At Toast, we believe in ‘more research, less design’, and this project was no different.
While researching, we came across an old Aké cover from 2007 that showed the scene of young Soyinka being sent flying when a bench tipped over. That was our light bulb moment.
Instead of replicating the entire scene, we distilled it into one simple, bold image: the tilted bench. Playful, symbolic, and instantly memorable.
It captured the spirit of the original with a modern and minimalist twist to it.
This cover set the tone for the entire collection.
This memoir memoir, published in 1989, is a fictionalized account of Soyinka’s father. It is said that his father left him a briefcase filled with letters.
To represent this, we used a picture of vintage portmanteau spilling over with letters belonging to his father S.A. “Essay” Soyinka.
A family’s archive turned into a nation’s story. The portmanteau becomes a vessel of memory, legacy, and colonial history unearthed.
This memoir, published in 1994, charts Soyinka’s transition from youth to political activism amid Nigeria’s chaotic post-independence era.
For this, we used an image of rusted, corrugated roofing sheets as Ibadan is often referred to as the city of brown roofs.
Published in 1972, The Man Died is Soyinka’s unflinching account of 22 months spent in solitary confinement during the Nigerian Civil War, accused of treason by his own government.
We captured that experience with a single pair of handcuffs. Stark and Unavoidable.
They are more than iron restraints, they symbolize tyranny, oppression, and Soyinka’s unbreakable refusal to be silenced.
The redesign gave the collection a modern face without it feeling watered down.
Each cover is an invitation, a visual gateway into Soyinka’s words.
Designed for a new generation of readers, the books feel both timeless and fresh, reaffirming Wole Soyinka’s place as one of the world’s greatest literary icons.
