Sun 29 March 2026
Could Wale Okediran in writing his novel MADAGALI have been influenced by Ernest Hemingway’s novel “A Farewell To Arms?”
The semi – autobiographical ‘A Farewell To Arms ‘ is about an ambulance driver who fell in love with a nurse.
Wale Okediran, medical doctor, ex Parliamentarian, visiting Professor of Narrative Medicine is the Secretary General of the Pan African Writers Association ( PAWA)
With an empty nest ( the children have all left home) he travels all over with his wife — a second honeymoon.
Just like Hemingway’s book, MADAGALI is semi fiction borne out of an actual place and actual event…as the author put it… he heard someone narrating an experience. He listened surreptitiously and committed as much as he could to memory and getting back home hurriedly put things down on paper.
So MADAGALI is a piece of Faction. Partly fact and party fiction and that compares with ‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Ernest Hemingway a semi autobiographical work set during world war 1 .
Set in the North-East of contemporary Nigeria, MADAGALI is also a love story set in a time of war. It pays a fundamental attention to the pathetic nature of Nigeria’s prolonged fight against the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents, and it follows a complex dilemma of love. This makes the story of the protagonist, Lance Corporal Bukar Salisu, one that should not be missed.
A Farewell to Arms (1929) is a classic semi-autobiographical novel by Ernest Hemingway set during the Italian campaign of World War I. It follows Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver, who falls in love with nurse Catherine Barkley while navigating the brutality of war, disillusionment, and eventual desertion, making it a poignant story of love and loss.
Though written years apart, the two books remind us that however painful wars could be, they are no deterrent to love.
A Farewell to Arms (1929) is a classic semi-autobiographical novel by Ernest Hemingway set during the Italian campaign of World War I. It follows Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver, who falls in love with nurse Catherine Barkley while navigating the brutality of war, disillusionment, and eventual desertion, making it a poignant story of love and loss.
