My teenage years were characterized by three activities: school, soccer, and reading. I was drawn to literature by my sixth-grade French teacher, who I believe had a calling for teaching. I always enjoyed watching him speak passionately about books and writers. I became a big fan of books in his class and an avid reader afterward.
I remember one of the first books I read that ignited my love for literature: Nobody’s Boy or “Sans Famille in French, by Hector Malot. The book was about a young boy, Rémi, who was born to a rich family but was lost and traveled through the countryside, villages, and towns as an actor in old man Vitalis’ small circus group that featured a monkey and a dog.
As my passion for reading grew, I felt particularly drawn to novels that explored everyday life and social issues. I later learned that the literary movement of the books I was gravitating towards was called “Realism,” and most of the authors who wrote such novels were labeled as committed authors, as they mostly wrote about things related to human society and real life.
It seems that my writing has been greatly influenced by these authors, as I can’t see myself writing about anything other than things that really happen in human society or things that can potentially happen to any living being. My novel, Blindspot in America, explores some hardships that immigrants face in America but also their hope and faith in their adopted country’s promise of freedom and opportunity for all.
Here are five writers that I believe had a great influence on me as a reader growing up and as a writer today:
Eza Boto, also known as Mongo Beti (real name: Alexandre Biyidi Awala)
This post-colonial African writer from Cameroon spent most of his life in France, where he worked as a teacher and a writer. Most of his novels sharply criticize the relationship between France and its former African colonies that it never wanted to see gain real independence. The first novel I read by him was Cruel City or Ville Cruelle in French, under the pseudonym Eza Boto. The novel caused me to reflect deeply on the meaning of life as I embarked on a journey with the protagonist, who was trying to make ends meet in the middle of a social crisis.
Aminata Sow Fall
This Senegalese writer’s novel, The Beggar’s Strike or La Grève des bàttu in French, left me speechless as it depicts the power beggars hold in the streets of Dakar and the backlash of an attempt to get rid of them in a society deeply rooted in religious belief and social obligations seen in the giving of alms.
Émile Zola
Zola was the French writer who introduced me to the literary movements of naturalism and realism. His books L’Assommoir and Germinal expose the fallout of the Industrial Revolution in Europe during the 18th-19th centuries, which had a lasting negative impact on the working class while the wealthy became wealthier.
Victor Hugo
It was my sixth-grade teacher mentioned earlier who introduced me to Victor Hugo, and I became fascinated with all his works throughout my teenage years. I remember the teacher making us recite and act out “Tomorrow at Dawn,” or “Demain dès l’aube” in French, one of Victor Hugo’s most popular poems from his poetry collection Les Contemplations. In this poem, Victor Hugo paid tribute to his daughter Léopoldine, who drowned in the Seine River during her honeymoon. I remember bringing a tree branch into the classroom to use as the flower the author put on his daughter’s grave. Not only did I receive an excellent grade, but my classmates and the teacher praised me for my creativity. Victor Hugo became one of my favorite authors of all time with his world-renowned novels The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or Notre Dame de Paris in French, and Les Misérables. I couldn’t hold back my emotions when I visited the Panthéon in Paris, where Victor Hugo and Émile Zola are honored, during my last trip to France.
Ernest Hemingway
It would be unfair to leave out one of the English-language writers who greatly influenced me with their writing style and mesmerizing stories. One such writer was Ernest Hemingway. I was captivated by The Old Man and the Sea, which I read in French as Le Vieil Homme et la Mer, and couldn’t get the movie that played in my head from the novel out of my mind long after I finished it.
Elom K. Akoto immigrated to the United States from Togo (West Africa). He earned a bachelor’s degree in Education and a master’s degree in TESOL (Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages). He is the founder of Learn and Care, a nonprofit organization that aims to promote Literacy and Adult Education, not only among immigrants but also among Native Americans who missed the opportunity to earn a high school diploma. The program offers ESL, literacy, GED preparation classes, and more. He self-published two ESL workbooks: Ideal Companion, ESL level 1 and Ideal Companion, ESL level 2. He teaches French in a high school and ESL at a community college in Omaha, Nebraska, where he lives with his family. BLINDSPOT IN AMERICA, his debut novel, is published by Red Hen Press.
