Book Review: BECOMING By Toke Makinwa

In my previous post, I spoke about how I am only concentrating on books written by female authors this month, well… I consciously decided to read books by female Nigerian authors towards the end of last year a twitter conversation about female writers…

I don’t remember the conversation sha…. Forgot to DM it to myself.. New feature alert… now you can bookmark your fav tweets on twitter now and come back to view them later.. Thank me later..

I have some very exciting reviews lined up so stay tuned…

The First book I am going to start with is On Becoming by Toke Makinwa.. Mainly because the crazy hype for this book has died down and a review is so long overdue. Lemmy get it out there before I forget..

A lot of people know Toke Makinwa.. She’s a Nigerian Media girl and kinda a Socialite..

She came out with her book which was supposed to be her memoir with a lot of fanfare and publicity.. This wasn’t surprising to many..Onbecoming became best seller in the first week because a lot of Nigerians like Amebo and we wanted to know part 2 of her gist.

Let me give you a back story.. Tokes husband was involved in a scandal some years back.. He got another lady pregnant while married to Toke.. Then left his wife (toke) for this other lady… WHATTT?? It was the stuff Nollywood scripts are made outoff… (Ndani TV was malicious enough to make a web series off her story sef) How did toke come into this seeing as it was her ex-husband that did the deed.. We live in a patrician society where a woman is blamed for her husband’s marital indiscretions … to now add petrol to this fire, Toke had a thriving YouTube channel where she used to dish relationship tips like hot jollof rice.. Even me I used to watch her… (shes good ya’ll).. She hasn’t posted recently cos the people of the internet are not nice people…

I was super indifferent to Tokes story.. I still don’t get why people hate her so much neither do I see why you should have her as a role model.. But the publicity she got from her husbands infidelity was mind blowing..

anyways, Back to the book.

If we are to state the fact.. This book was supposed to be a memoir and I beg to differ. It was kind of an extended Linda Ikeji blogpost… cos I don’t think I know Toke better now that I am done with the book..

I didn’t get to know about her personality, how she rose in the media/broadcast industry, School life and Work life.. Life with her foster parents etc… The only focus of the book was the explanation- of her daddy issues due to the death of her parents which now tied into her long and quite emotionally abusive relationship with Maje… her ex husband. with The reader in me was very very sad….. BUTTTT the business person in me was super glad… Mhen if I can monetize my heartbreak like she did…. I would do it over and over again…

She basically packaged and sold her scandal to us instead of making us read it from Linda Ikeji… go get your coins dear… I admire you for that.

Oya lessons and spoilers from the book…

• Learn to Manage conflict around you… 2 househelps were not talking and this led to the gas explosion that killed Tokes parents. Yes mind your business but when the trouble could directly or indirectly affect you.. Please intervene.
• Theres always a hand writing on the wall… she saw the signs that Maje was cheating but she still went ahead. I know people that can fall in love with goats… its just who they are.. if you know you are that kind of person… please and please.. Have a trusted group of ladies who you can take their advice… your personality can work against you in some issues of life if you don’t guard yourself..
• Her story was relatable: like who hasn’t been heartbroken before… people want to know if your storry is sadder/ happier or same as that… then maybe judge you in the process.. Lonjg and short is that relatable stories make for a good read..
• She survived: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…
• Maje has a story too: maje seemed like the classic Yoruba demon in this book… while im not saying Toke is lying… Maje too has a story that we will most likely relate to when we hear…
• There are always 3 sides to a story..
• Don’t Judge a book by its cover: Toke always looked really nice on the outside… we didn’t know what she was going through.. Be nice to people.

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I had a problem with the maliciousness to which people pirated and shared the book on social media… it was as if they were against her success… someone took it upon herself to share the book on as many whatsapp groups as she could… which wasn’t fair… I saw the efforts Toke was making to promote her book and it just didn’t seem fair to read the bootleg version…

Please buy the book if you are going to read it.. Its accessible on Okada books and Kindle… (Ps, you get credits which you can use to buy books if you sign up to okada books using my referral Code, Yeva.)

In all… this was an ok book.. I finished it in less than 2 hours, and while it had its issues, it wasn’t a bad read and ill actually recommend it. I give it a 5/10….

The Next book I am going to review is Rebirth by Julianna Olayode… also called ToYo baby.