Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad

By: Damilare Kuku

Narrated by: Anniwaa Buachie, Thabang Makhubela

One night, you will calmly put a knife to your husband's penis and promise to cut it off. It will scare him so much that the next day, he will call his family members for a meeting in the house. He will not call your family members, but you will not care.

Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad is a collection of twelve short stories featuring characters with unique voices and stories that represent the diverse class, gender and ethnic melting pot that is Lagos.

There's a story of a young lady who tries to find her oyibo soulmate on the streets of Lagos; another of a pastor's wife who defends her husband from an allegation of adultery; a wife takes a knife to her husband's penis; a night of lust between a rising musician and his Instagram baddie takes an unexpected turn.

Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad underscores with wit, humour, wisdom and sensitivity, the perils of trying to find lasting love and companionship in Africa's most notorious city.

©2022 Damilare Kuku (P)2024 Swift Press Audio

The sexual content is so dominant that it drowns out everything else.

Almost every story revolved around sex.

The book is also explicit. All I know is, I would be embarrassed if this book was playing on loudspeaker in public. It’s basically erotica.

I’m not sure when we got to this point where books vividly describe sexual encounters—right down to penetration and the body parts involved. It’s crude and off-putting. Sex is merely cheapened and reduced to an orgasm.

There are truths and lessons in the book, but they’re overshadowed by the sex.

The narration was also a problem. I would have preferred a Nigerian narrator—these ones struggled to pronounce some words.

Formidable narration by Anniwaa Buachie

I thoroughly enjoyed the narration by Anniwaa, she brought the book to life. I didn’t expect this to be short stories however I was pleasantly surprised. It’s well written and entertaining but also strikingly relatable as a black African woman. I learned a lesson or two on how to insulate myself from the disaster of being a heterosexual single woman looking for love. It was also a very sad book, oh how men have let us and themselves down.

That provoking very entertaining.

Having lived in Nigeria for a time and hearing all sorts of things about the madness, that’s in the city or in the country it’s funny to listen to the stories and sometimes think of the situations that are relatable or untold. Very nice writing. Very interesting stories would recommend.

Can’t pick one title!!! 🥰

I wasn’t sure at the beginning because the narration was almost off-putting. It became bearable as the stories unfolded.

I guess the reason I love it so much is because most of the stories are relatable, I just would have preferred the narration done by a Nigerian because of the pronunciation of some of the words/slangs.

Overall, it is a 10/10 from me 💃🏻