GENDER POLITICS: WOMEN‟S WRITINGS AND FILM IN NORTHERN

NIGERIA

EDITED

AHMED YERIMA

SAEEDAT ALIYU

EDITORS NOTE

Literature and film from Northern Nigeria is a robust and progressive tradition of creativity

contributing to African literature and production in the quest for egalitarian society. Enjoying

a long history spanning decades even before the advent of missionaries into sub-Saharan

Africa, literature from the northern part of Nigeria encapsulates aesthetics of style and

content reflective of that unique part of the Nigerian nation. The social, political and

economic contributions of northern women to the establishment and development of

Northern Nigeria has been monumental with historical accounts of the contributions of

heroines such as Nana Asmau, Queen Amina of Zazzau, Gambo Sawaba and legions of

others whom written history may not have recorded, cannot be quantified. Thus reflections of

the strengths and vision of northern women has found expression in literature and film from

the region. However, have these reflections, portrayals and characterization of women and

issues about women been accurate; have women writers, critics, actresses and producers

enjoyed acceptability and equality from the populace? What are the issues surrounding

northern women in Nigeria?

These are some of the issues the articles in this book attempt to answer. For instance, in a

discussion about the stereotyped beliefs about Islam prohibiting the education of women,

Hamzat AbdulRaheem makes a firm stand, using historical facts to counter the erroneous

perception. He goes further to cite examples of northern women who were educated and

contributed significantly to the development of their societies. AbdulGaniyu Issa and

Akinfenwa Stephen address the issue of Western Education and its impact on Northern

Nigeria. They posited that the slow development of western education in the north may not be

unconnected to the challenge posed by another form of civilisation which has taken firm root

in the region. Femi Abiodun attempts a justification of two women music forms from Ilorin,

Baalu and Senwele as reflective of the predominant music trend of northern women music. In

a study of a Hausa films (Kukan Zaki) Asabe Kabir Usman and Aisha Umar Muhammed

examine patriarchy-induced stereo-typical depictions of mothers-in-law and conclude that

society conditions the continued patriarchal sensibilities even as the world continues to

clamour for an end.

One trend that resonates is the examination of women characters and writings which

emphasize the resilience of the women folk in subtly rejecting roles of remaining in the

background which culture and tradition has made almost sacred. Yacim Ande, Adebola

Isaiah, Halima Sekula, Foluke Aliyu-Ibrahim among many others highlight this germane

point in their write-ups to emphasize that the northern woman is not going to remain in the

background but will prove herself to be worthy members of the society, willing and capable

of contributing significantly to the development of her society.

Amed Yerima

Saeedatu Aliyu

Foreword

I am happy to present this collection of papers of the 6th Conference on Northern Nigerian

Literature which was held at the Kwara State University from the 29th of November to the

2nd of December, 2011. The hosting of the conference was a major landmark for KWASU

because it showed the beginning of a collaborative relationship between the Kwara State

University and Bayero University, Kano and it also celebrated the interest of the two

Universities to forge ahead with the encouragement of research in intellectual work especially

as it concerns specifically, literature and the humanities in a broader sense.

This year's conference was titled "Women in Literature and Film in Northern Nigeria" and it

focused on challenges and hopes and most of all, on how to bring newness, and address the

issue of participation of women in literature and film in Northern Nigeria. This is why the

collection of essays here are most unique. Because they are written by some of the foremost

interpreters of the development and evolution of literature especially as it concerns the

"woman" in Northern Nigeria, care has been taken to note the density, originality and

cohesion of materials of this collection of essays. It is also interesting to note that none of

these essays has been published previously elsewhere.

I must once again acknowledge the founding minds of the conference, Professor Shuaib Oba

AbdulRaheem for his foresightedness in initiating the conference and the present Vice

Chancellor of Bayero University, Professor Adamu Rasheed for his zeal and pro-activeness

in agreeing to a fruitful working collaboration between our two Universities in the review of

the literatures coming from the Northern part of Nigeria.

Professor AbdulRasheed Na'Allah

Vice Chancellor

Kwara State University.

Gender Politics and Sexual Dynamics, Imaging Men in African Women‟s Writing: The

Quest for Identity and Integrity.

A paper Delivered at the 6th

Annual Conference on Northern Nigerian Literature,

Ilorin- Kwara State

29th

November- 2nd

December, 2011.

Prof. Zaynab Alkali

I am delighted to be here and grateful for the honour and privilege of presenting one of the

lead papers. I thank the Vice Chancellor and the organisers for realising this laudable

conference. The title of this paper, slightly altered, reads, ―Gender Politics and Sexual

Dynamics, Imaging Men in African Women‟s Writing: The Quest for Identity and

Integrity”. I am fully aware that the focus of the conference is on literature in Northern

Nigeria; however, the nature of the theme of my paper commands a wider coverage to

include African Literature. The reason is simply that African women writers of earlier

generation had set the precedence for the imaging of men in their literary works, the fact of

which will soon be made clear.

The theme of the paper ―Imaging Man in Literature‖ came to me with a sudden jolt. ‗No

way!‘ was my first reaction. Asking a ‗branded‘ feminist to deliver a paper on ―Imaging

Man‖ must be, I thought, the height of mischief by my literary colleagues in Literature, but

on second thoughts, I decided, why not? Whatever the motive, I appreciate the challenge. It is

my chance to take a hard look at the image of man in African women‘s writings, and to re-

examine my own stand on gender politics, not that I am conscious of standing on any

particular ground.

Gender politics is as old as humanity. It started with our ancestors Adam and Eve, Satan and

the Serpent. Gender politics will survive as long as humankind exists, for it is the salt that

spices our union, and the subtle cord that binds a man and a woman together. To discuss

gender politics and the imaging of man in African Literature is to go the whole hog in

discussing the genders as they relate to each other, for a man‘s image is firmly anchored on

his treatment of the woman in his life. ―Treat me like a Queen and you‘ll be treated like a

King‖, is an appropriate saying.

Where best then can imaging man be sought for, but in women‘s literature? Most women‘s

writings have been classified as feminist literature. Whether the women subscribe to it or not

is not the issue here. The issue is why the image of man becomes a dominant feature and

comes across strong in African women‘s direct response to the imaging of woman by male

writers in African Literature? Could it be that the male dominance in African Feminist

literature is a direct response to the imaging of women by male writers in African Literature?

Feminism is history in the making, and feminist literature, like other literatures before it, is a

protest literature. Art is generally said to be ―an emotive expression‖ triggered by the need,

sometimes an urgent and anxious need to correct certain injustices perceived in society. Such

literatures attack, in order to defend dignity and integrity. We are all aware of vibrant poems

that came out of Apartheid South Africa, or Negritude poems from French colonies. Back

home in British West Africa, the emergence of a body of literature, by our prolific fathers is

believed to be a protest literature against the misrepresentation of Africa and Africans by

British colonizers, sailors, slave merchants, explorers, missionaries and political adventurers.

The colonizers especially those who wrote on Nigeria, presented a one- sided negative

account of Africans ―which emphasized the barbarity and inhumanity of Africans, their lack

of inventiveness and their addiction to human sacrifice and lawlessness‖ (Taiwo, p.6). How

much more provocation did Africa‘s literary giants need to correct such distortions and

misrepresentations? With Chinua Achebe in the lead, African writers set out to ―assert our

true image‖ to ―propagate our cultures‖ and to quote a critic, ―to reconstruct in fiction a

Nigerians‘ Nigeria out of the ruins of history and as an appropriate reaction to the

misrepresentation of Africa which has gone on for so long‖ (Taiwo, p.23).

There is no doubt the writers have succeeded in this noble quest. They made Africa proud by

placing the continent on the world literary map.to quote Ngugi wa Thiongo of Kenya,

―Achebe has succeeded in giving human dignity to African characters‖, his task as a writer is

of ―helping his society to regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of years of

denigration and self-denigration‖ (Ngugi, p.7, as quoted by Alkali, 2011).

African novels the likes of Sembene Ousmane‘s God‟s Bits of Wood, Peter Abraham‘s A

Wreath for Udoma and Ngugi wa Thiongo‘s The River Between, have captured the image of

strong and powerful women of Africa. The writers pay women laudable attention to their

roles as ‗politically active, morally powerful‖ and great contributors to the successes of

revolutions (Chukukere, p.8), (Flora, p.527). The effort however, seems to be too little and

too far away from home, considering that in Nigerian male authored fictions, women are left

behind in this laudable uplifting. Unfortunately left behind where the colonial masters had

relegated them to the background, like Bamu the wife of Mister Johnson in Joyce Cary‘s

Mister Johnson, stupid, docile, subservient, timid and of lowly status. ―She knows nothing

and can say nothing because she can think nothing‖ (Uko, p.83). Such characterization in

earlier writings is reserved for married women who should have been deserving of respect

and honour.

For the unmarried ones, they come as prostitutes, seductresses, mistresses and women of easy

virtue, even when they are highly placed career-oriented women. Going by some male-

mentality, the beautiful, intelligent, scheming seductress who attracts the male is better kept

outside the matrimonial home and secretly visited because she is not only dangerous but

without respect or honour, what the French would refer to as ―femme fatale‖. Thus, a double

standard is set, one for the obedient wife and respected mother, and another for her

dishonourable sister. Such female stereotypes are found not only in African Literatures but in

literatures all over the world.

Indeed, African male creative writers are not the only culprits in their neglect of credible

women in their works; male critics are also to be blamed. Ama Ata Aidoo, a Ghanaian

prolific writer/ critic complained bitterly of the neglect African women writers suffer at the

hands of male critics. In her article ―To be an African Woman Writer…‖ (pp. 5130518),

Aidoo mentioned a German Professor, Dieter Riemenschneider, who in his lecture titled

―Regional Similarities and Differences in African Literature‖ in March, 1985, failed to

mention a single African Woman Writer. She also mentioned another famous critic, Gerald

Moore in his Seven African Writers published in 1962 and updated in 1981, to cover Twelve

African Writers, who also failed to include a single woman from Africa, even though by

1981, quite a number d credible women writers had emerged from Africa. Again, what about

Emmanuel Ngara in his book Art and Ideology in African Novel, published by Heinemann as

recently as 1985? Again Aidoo reported that Ngara did not mention a single African writer,

even in passing, maybe Nadine Gordimer. Aidoo‘s rage is expressed in these words:

What is clear is that there is truly a shocking and over lengthening

list of African commentators on African literature who manage

to convey solidly to the interested world community, an impression

that either there are no African women writers around at all, or if

there are, then their work is not deserving of serious critical attention

(Aidoo, pp.516).

A female critic, Chukukere believes that ―the unsatisfactory appreciation of the significance

of women in life has spilled into imaginative literature‖ and not only ―African male creative

literature, but African literary criticisms have largely become a male-oriented and male-

controlled cult (emphasis mine) (Chukukere, p.9).

African women writers are therefore enraged by the poor imaging, or complete neglect of the

true African woman. The rage has roots and the writers feel the urge to correct such

misrepresentation.

Flora Nwapa of Nigeria admitted that the imaging of male characters in her works was a

deliberate attempt to reverse the roles credited to women by men. She claimed to have

explored the theme of moral laxity as a direct response to earlier novels written by men on

the theme of prostitution. The Jagua‘s of Ekwensi‘s Jagua Nana, the Simi‘s of Soyinka‘s The

Interpreters and the Wanja‘s of Ngugi wa Thiongo‘s Petals of Blood are promptly replaced

by male pimps and prostitutes, Chris, Ernest, Mark and Olu, in Women are Different (Nwapa,

p.531).

Nawal El Saadawi of Egypt confesses to the initial purpose for her writing as inspired by

anger, she claims to write in order to release her anger. ―What angered me most‖ she writes,

―were oppression; oppression of women and oppression of the poor‖ (El Saadawi, as quoted

by N. Eke, p. 49). In her fiction, the Arab world is masculine, women are just appendages. El

Saadawi ―unabashedly exposes the lowest part of African womanhood‖ (ibid, p.133). The

woman in El Saadawi‘s novels does all the work, satisfies her husband‘s urges, sleeps

without food, washes her husband‘s feet and gets beaten when a son or a domestic animal

dies (Ibid, p133). Not only are Saadawi‘s male characters heartless, selfish and cruel, they are

also morally depraved. A female character describes her father in these words:

My father, a poor farmer who could neither read nor write,

knew very few things in life. How to grow crops, how

to sell a buffalo poisoned by his enemy before it died, how

to exchange his virgin daughter for a dowry… how to be

quicker than his neighbour in stealing the crops from the

fields once the crop was ripe …How to beat his wife and

make her bite the dust each night

(Woman at Point Zero, p. 12).

To crown this, most of El Saadawi‘s male characters are physically despicable. Here is a

typical description of a father by a daughter in Woman at Point Zero:

His mouth was like that of a camel, with a big opening and wide jaws.

His upper jaw kept clamping down on his lower jaw with a loud grinding

noise, and chewed through each morsel so thoroughly that we could

hear his teeth striking against each other. His tongue kept rolling round

and round in his mouth as though it also was chewing, darting out every

now and then to lick off some particle of food that had stuck to his

lips or dropped on his chin (pp18-19).

George Tarabishi, one of El Saadawi‘s ardent critics, observes that in Saadawi‘s novels, men

in general are almost always portrayed as having ―a hairy chest like that of a monkey‖ and

―prominent belly like that of a pregnant woman‖ and their bodies are almost always ―huge‖

and ―smell of tobacco‖ (Tarabishi, p.172).

The famous critic, Ernest Emenyonu in his article titled ―Iconoclasm or Radical Realism?

Socio-political Portraits in the Fiction of Nawal El Saadawi and Zaynab Alkali‖ observes

that:

By accident or by design, both Nawal El Saadawi and Zaynab Alkali,

depict in their fiction, male characters who even when striding as

macho men, are indeed moral weaklings. In Saadawi‘s characters,

the debility is psychological and physiological, approaching

neurosis. The result is a portrait of men who are both

ridiculous and ludicrous…

With Alkali, the men are portrayed as inadequate in ‗masculine‘ tasks.

They are wimpy, degenerate, retarded and emasculated. They live a

zombie like type of existence, systematically becoming irrelevant

in family leaderships until their roles are taken over by the

womenfolk! (Emenyonu, pp.220-221).

As for Flora Nwapa, Charles Nnolim thinks:

Flora merely renders the men of no consequence to allow her

superior women occupy centre stage, Buchi Emecheta proceeds

to paint grotesque, repulsive pictures of men (Nnolim, Issues, p.140).

Even Mariama Ba‘s world acclaimed winning novel, So Long a Letter, that has seen her

through being a liberal or moderate feminist, is accused of imaging man as ―a monstrous

beast, essentially and thoroughly egocentric, heartless, atrocious, promiscuous and licentious‖

(Asoo, p.116).

Ba is accused of making her major character-Ramatoulaye, to reject all suitors after her

husband‘s death for no other reason than that men are all the same; ―Moudau is not the only

man, but all men… all men are traitors. All are polygamous by nature. All are sexual animals.

All are victimizers‖ (Ba, as quoted by Asoo, p.118).

African women writers are definitely on the war path to redeem their image and to reclaim

the identity and integrity of their ancestors. The earlier works by male writers like the

colonial masters, down-played the African woman‘s intelligence, her hard work and

independence of spirit. The men failed to ―recognize women‘s power base‖ (Nwapa, p.528).

The women writers therefore, have to recreate credible African women‘s image by creating

characters that are preferably in male dominated professions; the sciences and the social

sciences, women who are not only economically independent, but psychologically strong and

as ambitious as the men. Not only did female writers ―re-order the trends that perpetuate

female inferiority, subjugation and silence, they try to re-assess the positions and roles‖ (Ini

Uko, p.85). If some of the earlier women writers are labelled radical feminists simply because

they cried foul, to ill-treatments and set out to reconstruct the true African female image,

what would male critics label the younger generation of African female authors; Fauziya

Suleiman, Halima Abdullahi, Hadiza Shariff, Asmau Badamasi, Fatima Alkali Mundi, to

mention a few? What legacy has been left for this generation?

Interestingly enough, the male literary wizards unwittingly recognize that woman is supreme.

Some of the most powerful deities and priests of such deities presented in African literature

are women. Such community goddesses are often, as quoted by a critic, the ―ultimate judge of

morality and conduct‖, and wield absolute power over the people. The priestesses, who

mediate between them and mankind and carry their power, are greatly feared and revered in

their communities.

The same trend is seen among the Arab-Africans, where again history reveals the immense

power wielded by women who are said to be once ―goddesses of knowledge, the makers of

civilisation, [the] creative minds in the evolution of scientific knowledge, agriculture,

philosophy and medicine‖ (El Saadawi, ed. Toubia, p.20).

Any society which arrogates such immense powers to her female deities cannot be said to

view female members of its community as inferior beings, yet such recognition of female

dignity and superiority falls short of covering the ordinary woman, wife, mother, sister and

daughter. It would seem that only in the realm of the supernatural can the woman be accorded

such immense respect and honour.

Indeed, not many had the grace that before colonialism ―ruined our collective integrity‖, there

were some notable and formidable normal women of substance and integrity, (not goddesses

of some rivers or hills), women worthy of emulation by the younger generation of women. To

mention a few, Queen Amina of Zazzau, Nana Asmau Dan Fodio, Ya Gumsu of Borno,

Daurama of Daura, Inkipi of Igala, Moremi of Ile-Iffe, Egbe Iyalode of Oyo, Iyalode of

Ibadan; women that were not only successful wives, mothers, and princesses but military

generals, diplomats, teachers, merchants, warriors, political and religious leaders whose roles

in nation building were said not to be ―passive‖ and supportive to men only, but also

―dynamic and constructive‖ (Nana Mba in Awe, pp75-88).

History is indeed replete with the contributions of Nigerian women to national development.

Great and powerful women who made sacrifices, mobilized groups and formed societies and

organisations in order to make meaningful changes in society through women‘s wars,

protests, riots and uprisings in the South-East, South-West, South-South of Nigeria between

1950 – 1986.

Most importantly, what about the silent policy movements by the Arewa Women‘s

Association led by Laila Dogonyaro, the Miller Sisters, Gambo Sawaba, Comfort Dikko,

Mrs. Ayo Bello and a host of others, and the contributions to national development by

pioneers of the National Council of Women Societies with their Grand Patrons, the 1st Ladies

of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? (Ojewusi pp.171-202).

These movements, whether militant or intellectual, were and still are, led by women and have

contributed hugely to the development of our societies. The question begging for answer is

why did these women leaders not make the list as powerful female characters in the fiction of

Nigerian male writers?

However in all fairness to the male writers, the trend is beginning to change. In latter novels,

the men, to borrow Flora Nwapa‘s words, have had a sudden awakening to the importance of

women-being‖ and are beginning to create liberated and powerful women characters,

characters to be reckoned with, for example, the character of Beatrice, Nwanyibuife in

Achebe‘s Anthills of the Savannah (Nwapa, p.528).

The ―awakening‖ can also be interpreted as a positive response to African women‘s protest

writing against poor female imaging. We could safely assume that the older feminist writers

have succeeded to a large extent in hauling the image of the woman to the centre stage by

creating strong and credible female characters worthy of discourse, not as prostitutes,

mistresses, naggers or over-dependent, subservient wives and battered mothers, but as co-

travellers, worthy companions to men, respected mothers and wives who are stakeholders in

their moulding of nations.

If the founding fathers of African literature over-glorify Africa and Africans to counter the

negative presentations of Africa by adventurous strangers- a necessary measure in the

excising of a malignant growth, the same could apply to feminist writings. The image-

bashing may have been necessary for a while. The image bashing and misrepresentation may

probably not stop on either side for a long time or not ever. Gender politics is an on-going

phenomenon, the salt in our sauce, the delicious aroma of a hot spice wafting in the air, even

as the subtle bond that ties together the man and the woman gets firmer and firmer. Man and

woman are ―two side of a single coin. There ought not to be an alternative to man/woman

relationship, no matter how harsh the battle rages. Why else would Mariama Ba, a renowned

feminist writer through her character say that:

I am one of those who can realise themselves fully and bloom only

when they for part of a couple. Even though I understand your

stand, even though I respect the choice of liberated women, I

have never conceived of happiness outside marriage (Ba, pp.55-56).

Mr Chairman, Highly Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me to have a word or two

with a sister:

‗Big sister‘, Li called.

‗Uhmm?‘ Awa raised her head.

‗I am going back to the city‘, she said simply.

‗To the city, Li?‘ Awa asked in surprise.

‗Yes, to the city. And I am taking Shuwa with me‘, she said firmly.

Awa shoke her head thoughtfully, ‗You are going back to him?‘

‗Yes‘

‗Why, Li? The man is lame‘, said the sister.

‗We are all lame, daughter-of-my-mother. But this is no time to crawl. It is time to

learn to walk again‘.

‗So you want to hold the crutches and lead the way?‘ Awa asked.

‗No‘, answered Li.

‗What then, you want to walk behind and arrest his fall?‘

‗No, I will just hand him the crutches and side by side we learn to walk‘.

‗Mat the gods of your ancestors guide you‘, Awa said.

‗May the good God guide us all‘, replied Li.

References:

Aidoo, Ama Ata. ―To Be an African Woman Writer: An Overview and Detail‖ ed. Tejumola

Olaniyi and Ato Quayson. African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory.

Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing Meldein, 2009.

Alkali, Zaynab. The Stillborn, Longman: Harlow. 1984.

------------------. ―Literature and National Development‖, ANSA, ABU Zaria. 2011.

Asoo, Ferdinand Iorbee. The African Novel and the Realist Tradition. Aboki Publishers,

2006.

Ba, Mariama. So Long a Letter. Translated by Bode Thomas: New Horn Press. 1980

Chukukere, Gloria. Gender Voices and Choices: Redefining Women in Contemporary African

Fiction. Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1995.

El Saadawi, Nawal. Woman at Point Zero. London: Zed Books, 1983.

Emenyonu, Ernest. ―Iconoclasm or Radical Realism? Socio-political Portraits in the Fiction

of Nawal El Saadawi and Zaynab Alkali‖. Eds. Ernest Emenyonu and Maureen N.

Eke. Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi. Africa World Press, Inc. 2010.

Mba, Nina. ―Heroines of Women‘s War‖. Ed. Awe, Nigerian Women in Historic Perspective.

Lagos: Sankore Bookcraft, 1992.

Nnolim, Charles. Issues in African Literature. Yenagoa: Treasure Books, 2009.

Nwapa, Flora. ―Women and Creative Writing in Africa‖eds. Olaniyan and Quayson, Ibid.

2009.

Ojewusi, Sola. Speaking for Nigerian Women: A History of National Council of Women

Societies. Lagos: Timik Consult Ltd, 1996.

Orabueze, F.O. ―Women as a Metaphor for Sexual Slavery in Nawal El Saadawi‘s Woman at

Point Zero‖ eds. Enenyonu and Eke, ibid 2010.

Salami, Irene Agunloye. ―All Rulers are Men: Patriarchy and Resistance in Nawal El

Saadawi‘s Woman at Point Zero”. ibid, 2010.

Taiwo, Oladele. Culture and the Nigerian Novel. Londion: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1976.

Tarabishi, George. Woman Against Her Sex: A Critique of Nawal El Saadawi. London: Al

Saqi Books, 1988.

Uko, I. Iniobong. ―New Directions in Womens Writings‖ ed. Ernest Emenyonu. New

Directions in African Literature. 25 ALT James Currey Oxford, 2006.

KWARA STATE UNIVERSITY IN COLLABORATION WITH BAYERO

UNIVERSITY KANO

6TH

ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON LITERATURE IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

GAMBO SAWABA LECTURE ON WOMEN‟S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

“Challenges of Economic Sustainability for Middle and Lower Class Northern Nigerian

Women”.

BY HAJIYA AMINA AZ-ZUBAIR OFR

Hajiya Gambo Sawaba, a woman of substance, described as the ―indomitable fighter for the

liberation of women‖ and ―a symbol of the dogged, determined, committed and fearless

struggle against injustices of all kinds‖.

Almost 6 decades after Gambo Sawaba‘s crusade for the empowerment of the Nigerian

woman and in particular, the Northern woman, it is a very sad that one presents a lecture in

her honour while women still carry the burden of some of the worst social indices in the

world today. This burden is even direr in the North of our dear country, Nigeria. What would

she say if she were alive to see this grave situation having given up her liberty, been the

target of vicious violence and fought many a battle with the political elite?

THE CONTEXT

Nigeria today has some of the worst human indices in the world, ranking 156 out of 173 and

categorized as low human development (HDI 2011). Our poverty rate is 54% (NBS 2004)

claiming over 80 million Nigerians with about half of them being our women and over 75%,

our youth. It is estimated that over 50 million Nigerians go to sleep hungry every night.

Although the maternal mortality rates have dropped considerably over the past 3 years, it is

still unacceptable with a ratio of 545/100,000. Our children under five mortality rates are

138/1000, while the mother to child transmission of HIV AIDS for testing stands at 30% with

access to medicines at 18%. While there are over 11 million out of school children, over half

of this figure is girls with less than 30% transition rates for girlsin some of our northern

States and that is compounded by very poor learning outcomes as demonstrated by the recent

exam results. More than 40million Nigerians go without access to potable water while 45%

have no sanitation. Sadly, the burden of the heavy baggage lies very much on the shoulders of

our women who reside mostly in our rural areas, voiceless and unseen.

Yet, Ladies and Gentlemen, our economy is one of the fastest growing at over 6% per annum,

surpassing many of the developed economies in the world. A situation that has caused great

concern amongst the citizens of our country who ask ―where is the impact in our lives?‖ even

as the Government is beginning to address the challenge in the shape of the nascent

Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan and underpinned by Vision 20:2020.

Let me say from the onset that our predicament is not one where we can apportion blame

easily, it is quite complex and has root causes that have been neglected over the decades and

grown in some cases beyond the capacity of many constituencies to address in isolation. This

is even further complicated by the Federal structure our Nation.

Our population of 168million, growing at almost 3% per annum within the current reality of

our circumstances is not sustainable by any stretch of the imagination. At this current

trajectory, if not addressed, Nigeria will have a population that is third behind India and

China in 2050. By 2100 when the world population is estimated to be at 10billion, Nigeria

will have 3billion. Our infrastructure deficit, weak governance structure, inadequate service

delivery systems especially in Health and Education, inequality issues, levels of poverty and

growing youth restiveness and insecurity are all a recipe for crisis.

It is against this backdrop that I will discuss the key challenges to our Northern Women in

both the middle and lower class of our society as it relates to increasing and sustaining their

economic empowerment.

KEY CHALLENGES IN THE NORTH

Poverty is a key determinant to the status in which women in the north find themselves. With

the inadequate or in many cases, the near absence of food, shelter, access to health, water,

sanitation and basic education, there is simply no foundation on which to empower women.

They are for all intents and purposes on death row, too weak and incapacitated to help

themselves and therefore their children and the community at large. So it is imperative to

ensure that the basic rights to the above mentioned are a sine pro non quo. This is particularly

so for the rural poor and less so for the middle class who are likely to be above the poverty

line.

Once these are in place, one can begin to address the ingredients needed for the economic

empowerment and sustainability of the northern woman. These would include access to

marketable skills, collateral, credit and markets. This applies to both levels of women but I

would add that as we address sustainability, one has to look beyond ―small‖ and ensure the

middle class have the opportunity to grow their businesses with friendly policies in sectors

that are protected for the menfolk such as Industry, finance, information technology (IT), and

telecom.

GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Weak or a lack of proper structure for governance and accountability creates an environment

that excludes women from access to services and business opportunities. Institutional

capacity that is geared to attend to the special requirements of women must be provided as

must the opportunities for business be open, transparent and accessible. Due process and the

rule of law and the recourse to justice must underpin policies that create a woman-friendly

environment.

Investing to fight inequality is key o women‘s empowerment. Our budgets in the North have

to recognise that investing in a social agenda when the majority are poor makes economic

sense. Nigeria‘s greatest asset has often been referred to as its people and this is very true,

however when investments are not targeted at all segments of the society, missing out the

women, then with 50% representation, one would be flying on half an engine. So budgets

must have a careful balance between economic growth opportunities (infrastructure, SME‘s

etc) and human survival and empowerment (Water, Health, Education and Skills).

RELIGION

Religion will always remain a challenge to Northern women as long as it is used as an excuse

to oppress our rights. In both the two major religions, women are revered and entitled to basic

rights. To be clothed, fed, housed, protected and adorned. Therefore it is critical that our

religions and traditional leaders participate in ensuring that an enabling environment is made

possible for our women to play their role effectively in our society.

Reducing our appalling health indices will require that our men understand that family health

is about the survival of both mother and child and therefore the community as a whole.

Access to education-basic and higher, improves the quality of living in the home and

provides the basis for additional income for a better quality of life for the whole family,

especially the men!

CULTURE

Much of the culture in the North is closely related to our religion. Many of our cultural

practises that remain harmful to our women are usually in the rural areas where education is

at its lowest ebb. This is usually less of a barrier as women move up the class structure. Again

as programmes are designed, husbands, brothers, Traditional rulers and

Religious/Community leaders must be involved. This will go a long way in ensuring access

as well as sustainability.

Politics/Voice/Representation

The barrier to political participation includes access to and representation of women through

the whole process of democracy. Our voice can only be heard if it is properly represented and

this will require concerted efforts to identify that woman or women and give them the

necessary capacity building to enable her succeed. Affirmative Action is a foot in the door

but it requires much for it to become sustainable in the long run. Women‘s groups and party

representation and participation in the executive are all critical to northern women- both rural

and urban, achieving their goals through better participation in decision making roles. The

current representation in the National Assembly and State Assemblies of northern women is

too low to make the necessary impact on laws and resources for the key issues affecting the

living conditions of our women. On the other hand, the president‘s decision to live up to his

campaign promise to ensure a 3rd

of his cabinet is made up of women is unprecedented and

even more so when one sees the quality of the portfolio‘s given to our women.

Understanding the different roles and strength‘s women can bring to the table is essential for

women first. A policy maker and a community mobiliser have different skill sets and both are

equally important to the equation.

An important challenge to all is that mind-set‘s have to be changed and take time and effort

from the cradle to the alter. Better designed advocacy campaigns targeted at decision makers

from all constituencies using different platforms for communication need to be better

supported in a consistent manner that can also be monitored for change.

Opportunity Abound

All this said and done with a grim context and seemingly insurmountable challenges there are

many opportunities to make giant strides possible in the empowerment of our northern

women. Some of the challenges are being addressed in the Transformation Agenda in Nigeria

and the international platforms such as the MDGs. Some are being addressed by various

programmes in government, the private sector and civil society.

Let me allude to the Millennium Development Goals, a global compact agreed between rich

and poor nations at the UN in 2000. A time frame of 2015 was given to achieve 8 goals that

include poverty, Basic Education, Gender Equality, Child Health, Maternal Health, Malaria

HIV AIDS & other diseases, Environment and global partnerships.

Nigeria is largely on track but needs to scale up investments manifold if we are to reach the

MDGs by 2015. Progress has been made in the recent past and was acknowledged during the

visit of the Secretary General of the United Nations to Nigeria in May this year.

Nigeria‘s investment in the MDGs particularly Gender Equality has been spurred by the

opportunity we had with the successful conclusion of the Debt Relief negotiations by Dr

Ngozi Ikonjo Iweala in 2005. The gains were used as a direct investment in MDGs related

projects and programmes and to leverage additional funds from State and local Governments

and the private sector.

Key to the success of the investment strategy was to recognize that all 8 Goals were

independent and therefore leveraging and harmonizing programmes worked to achieve wider

and deeper impact at the grassroots level.

For instance, the Federal Ministry of Health lead by the National Primary Health

Development Agency designed a Maternal and Child Health programme while the Federal

Ministry of Women‘s Affairs to provide additional support for inputs such as Ambulances,

Anti-Shock Garments and essential drugs. The NHIS also joined the NPHCDA and expanded

the midwifery Scheme and the insurance cover for pregnant women and children under five.

The programme continues to grow nationwide.

Another example of collaboration at the local level is the NAPEP COPE program that the

MDG Office supported nationwide. It targeted vulnerable groups of women and the poor

while providing and incentive to ensure children went to school and attended all

immunization days they imparted skills and made available start-up credit to put the skills to

work.

The current proposal of the Government in collaboration with key stakeholders is embarking

on a nationwide employment generation initiative and is targeting women and youth, another

drive is also being spearheaded by both the Bank of Industry and the CBN/FMA Agriculture

programme. All these have target groups of women, ensuring access and support to succeed

in business ventures that are local but national in outlook.

It will be important for national policies to be seen to be implemented at the local level with

projects and programmes that are informed by the challenges that are peculiar to our women

noting that one size doesn‘t fit all. These programmes must be integrated with Health and

Education programmes speaking to water and sanitation provision while creating more

innovation around the opportunities for economic activities. For instance, waste to wealth

initiatives, environmental projects that feed and protect families and environment.

In conclusion, my paper has sought to paint a picture of our reality, highlight some of our key

challenges and throw more light on the opportunities government is providing.

What I have not addressed deeply are the many other opportunities to partner with our private

sector and the new era of Foundations set up by the elite wanting to give back to society in a

positive way.

Therefore, beyond government and I might venture to say, in the spirit of Gambo Sawaba‘s

legacy, we need a call to action that will challenge our young women to take up the gauntlet

and continue to push for change that is not only possible but a right that must be attained by

all poor and marginalised women, in particular our northern women carrying the burden of

our poor development indices.

Each and every one of us has a role to play and that role you can begin to play today. Make it

a priority to change the life of one sister, mother, aunt or daughter in a positive way. This can

be simple education or a small amount to set up a business or provide a service like water.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I challenge you us all to JUST DO IT and you will make the

difference and be the change we all want to see for a better Nigeria.

Thank you for the privilege to speak at this event that truly does honour to one of our fallen

heroines, our great Hajiya Gambo Sawaba.

Thank you.

References

Parliamentary Engagement with the MDGs report of House Committee on MDGs

2007-2011. NASS Nigeria 2001.

Nigerian Wiki, Gambo Sawaba

Millinium Project- Investing in Development- A Practical Plan to Achieve the MDGs

Earthscan 2005.

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011 UNESCO

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003/4 UNESCO

Combating Poverty and Inequality-Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics-

UNRISD 2010

Gender Policy for Nigeria. Federal Ministry of Women Affairs 2009.

Promoting Women Education Through Historical

Antecedents: An Analysis of the Flyting of Ghoni

and Dan Fodio as Contained in Tazyin-ul-waraqat

By

Hamzat I. AbdulRaheem, Ph.D

Department of Languages and Literary Studies

Kwara State University, Malete.

ABSTRACT

Northern Nigeria is today seen as educationally backward compared to

other parts of the country. Women education in particular is said to have

experienced more backwardness. This pathetic situation is always

attributed by many people to the culture and tradition of the area which are

well rooted in Islamic Culture. The historical antecedents however do not

in any way support this perception if the efforts and activities of Dan

Fodio‘s family are anything to go by. Not only that schooling during the

time was seen as a religious obligation, scholarship and research were

taken in high esteem. Thus, the trio of Usman Dan Fodio, Abdullahi Dan

Fodio and Muhammad Bello produced academic works running into

hundreds of books some of which have been translated into many

languages of the World. It is therefore questionable if Islamic Culture is

the real cause of perceived educational backwardness in the North. While

there are many evidences to prove that the North was enthusiastically

prepared to be advanced in Education if not for external politico-religious

reasons, a lampoon poem composed by Abdullahi Dan Fodio in response

to another poem by Ghuni from Borno on women education is a clear

evidence on the importance attached to education in general and women

education in particular by the Fodio‘s family. This paper analyses the

contents of the two lampoon poems with a view to appreciating not only

the literary prowess of the poets but also to correct the erroneous

perception that women education in the north is not promoted. The paper

is both literary and historical aimed at encouraging women education in

Northern Nigeria

Introduction

Great nations continue to maintain their greatness as long as their great history

is made to serve as a major impetus and source of inspiration for the young and

unborn generations. The culture of Islam as recorded in history has contributed

immensely to the growth and development of human intellectual capabilities. It

was Islam that revived the human pursuit of science and it was through the

Arabs and not the Romans that the modern world achieved light and power

through science (1).

The aggressive purist of knowledge as embedded in the

culture of Islam was replicated in Northern Nigeria where history recorded great

intellectual achievement in Borno Empire and Sokoto Caliphate ever before the

advent of Europeans on Nigeria soil. If the North is today considered relatively

backward in education compared to other parts of the country, the historical

antecedents must be used to inspire Northern youths, especially women for

educational pursuit as their progenitors had done in the past. Since this paper is

not a history paper, the focus is rather going to be on the intellectual activities of

Fodio‘s family with special attention on the flyting of Abdullah bin Fodio and

Ghoni on women education as contained in Tazyin-ul-waraqat authored by

Abdullahi bin Fadio, the Doyen of scholarship in Sudan and who has been

described by Hisket as the poet and the propagandist of Jihad movement (2).

This paper aims at analyzing the said flyting with the purpose of showing the

high level of Arabic poetic tradition in Nigeria and depicting the concern of Dan

Fodio‘s movement for women education despite all odds as contained in the

flyting.

The following sub-topics are going to be looked into in order for the paper to

achieve its aims: (1) Flyting as an Arabic poetic tradition (2) A brief review of

Tazyin-ul-waraqat (3) A literary analysis of the flyting of Ghoni and Abdullahi

Dan Fodio (4) Conclusion

Flyting as an Arabic Poetic tradition

Flyting in Arabic is known and called Naqaid. The word comes from the

consonantal root of Naqada which means to loose or destroy while technically

means poems composed as a reply to an abusive poem using the same meter and

rhyme (3).

It is therefore different and probably more technical and artistic than

the flyting that was described in the west as ritual poetic exchange of insults

practiced mainly between the 5th

and 10th

century (4).

Naqaid (Flyting) as a poetic tradition in Arabic literature flourished during

Umayyad period when Farazadq, Jarir and Akhtal were known as its exponents.

The popularity of this art during the Umayyad period was as a result of

resuscitated tribalistic favoritism that was known among the Arab tribes during

Jahilyya period, especially between Aws and Khazraj and between Bakre and

Taghlib as a result of tribal rivalry and feud between them which led to

exchange of abuses and insults in verses. As a matter of fact, flyting was not

completely absent during Islamiyya period despite the fact that Islam is against

the exchange of abuses on the basis of tribe and race. For example Dharar bin

al-khattal el fihry was exalting the bravery of the idolaters during their fight

against Muslims. The poem starts thus:

Fa ahjarnahun shahran karitan/wa kunna faoqahun kal Qahirina.

Meaning:

We interdicted them for a complete month

We were on top of them as conquerors

This poem was replied by a Muslim poet using the same rhyme and meter

When he says:

Sobarna laa nara lilahi‘adlan,** ‗ala ma naa bana mutawakklina

Meaning

We persevered we don‘t have an equal to God

on what has happened to us we rely on Him (5).

Naqaid however flourished exceptionally during the Umayyad period as earlier

on said. This is because the tribal sentiments that were suppressed during

Islamiyya period had now gained recognition and encouragement. The names

of al-Akhtal, alfarazdaq stood out prominently for their beautiful flytings. It can

therefore be said that flyting flourishes wherever and whenever there are tribal,

ideological or social differences.

The artistic nature of flyting in Arabic poetry earns it a special position in

Arabic literature. This is because it requires not only the ability to compose

poems of one‘s desire but to imitate another poet artistically. This highly

artistic poetic tradition was passed on to Nigerian poets of Arabic expression

through their exposure to the jahiliyyah and early Islamic Arabic literature.

Two scholars that are prominently referred to in this art in Nigerian literary

context are Sheikh Mustapha Ghoni and Sheikh Abdullah bin Fodio. Although

the flyting of the two was highly refined in view of the strong influence of

Islamic culture on the literary genres of the time, the ideological difference

which led to attacks and counter attacks were recorded. This flyting of the two

which was considered to be the first of its kind in Nigerian Arabic poetry was

recorded by Sheikh Abdullahi bin Fodio in his work entitled ‗Tazyin-ul-waraqat

the review of which is the next issue to discuss

Tazyin-ul-waraqat and Abdullahi bin Fodio

Tazyin-ul-waraqat is one of the most important works written by Sheikh

Abdullahi bin Fodio. The book consists of nineteen odes with the author‘s

notes and explanations narrating different events about the jihad movement and

the jihadists in addition to elegiac and eulogic poems for scholars of the time.

He says about the reasons for writing the book

―it came to my mind that I should collect some of the verses I composed in

praise of the scholars and elegizing them and in gratitude to Allah for the

favours, He has bestowed on us before our hijrah and concerning the battles

which took place during the holy war after hijrah together with an explanation

of anything in their language which might cause doubt to students and an

explanation of the cause of the composing of every qasida and in that is to be

found an explanation of most of our circumstances from the beginning to the

end…‖(6).

After dealing with the reasons for the writing, he discusses his first attempts in

poetry which was takhmis (quintain) on the ode of his brother. This is followed

by another ode in respect of mingling of men and women in the sittings of

Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio about which a scholar from Borno attacked the

Sheikh (7).

This attack and counter attack are what this paper focuses on. The

third ode has to do with the attempts of Sultan of Ghobir to shower alms on the

Ulama and the refusal of Sheikh Usman to accept the alms.

The Sheikh said, I and my community have no need of your wealth but I ask

you this and this… (8).

The fifth one is in respect of the planned visit of the

author to Sheikh Jibril and after missing him because the latter had left the

place, he composed a poem eulogizing him. The poem is known as

Jimiyyathaving jim as its rhyme.

The sixth is also another qasida ending with Jim in praise of sheikh al-hajj

Muhammad on his return from pilgrimage (9).

The seventh is an elegy for his

maternal uncle Abu Ali Muhammed Sambo B. Abubakar B. Sa‘ad who died at

Agades while he was being expected back to the sultanate (10).

Another qasida was composed in reaction to the rate at which many people

within and around the country were entering in to the Sheikh‘s fold in groups.

This is how Abdullah continued to document different historical events by

elegizing or eulogizing the key players.

The last ode was in praise of God for helping Muhammed Bello to conquer the

enemies of the religion, part of which goes thus:

- Praise and thanks be to my Lord, the one and the creator

For the destruction of the tyrants of the Banu Qari

- At the little hands of companies of our Community

People of the hyra, at their head a company of helpers

- Led by the prayers of our Qadiri

Our Imam stoning the company of unbelievers (11)

As expected, the book was concluded with prayers and salutations for the

Prophet and his followers. Hisket in his own introductory review divided the

book into paragraphs after dividing it into 2 sections:

Section 1

1. Doxology

2 & 3. The reasons for which the work was written

4. A quintain composed in 1784, on some verses by the Shehu.

5. The date of the beginning of the Shehu‘s movement (A.D. 1774-5)

6. The Shehu starts to preach, and certain people join him in Degel. He travels to

Kebbi and preaches reform. Here he begins to collect a following.

7. His visit to Bawa, Sultan of Gobir, whose support is helpful to him. He emigrates to

Zanfara where he remains for five years. The incident concerning segregation of

women.

8. A poem by ‗Abdullah refuting accusations of promiscuity.

9. A commentary on this poem and further discussion on the rights and wrongs of

mixed gatherings.

10. An interview with Bawa, Sultan of Gobir, in which the latter agrees to certain

religious reforms (1788-9).

11. A commentary on this poem.

12. A visit to Shaikh Jibril b. Umar at Kude by the Shehu and ‗Abdullah, followed by a

visit to Muhammed b. Raj (1786).

13. The Jimiya, a poem in praise of Shaikh Jibril.

14. A poem, also in jim, in praise of al-Hajj Muhammad b. Raj, written in 1794-5.

15. A poem giving the isnad from al-Hajj Muhammad b. Raj to al-Bukbari.

16. The Shehu continues his itinerant preaching, passing from Zanfara to Degel,

through Kebbi to Ilo, on the west bank of the Niger, back to Degel and thence to

Zoma. An elegy on the famous scholar Abu ‗Ali Muhammad Thanbu (1792-3).

17. Commentary on the elegy including a discussion of the origin of the Fulani

18. The genealogy of the Fulani traced from Is. b. Ishaq and al-Rum b. Is.

19. Further details of genealogy.

20. A poem appealing to the Fulani ‗Ulama‘ to support the Shehu.

21. The favourable reception of this poem by certain famous scholars.

22. Two elegies on al-Mustafa b. al-Hajj.

23. The arrival of a follower of Shaikh al_Mukhtar al-Kabir. A poem addressed to

this Shaikh.

24. The call to arms. The poem al-Qadiriya.

Section 2

25. The rising hostility of the Hausa Kings; the Shehu‘s visit to Yunfa, Sultan of

Gobir, and the final breach with him.

26. The attack on ‗Abd al-Salam. The emigration to Gudu. The Shehu is elected Emir.

Fulani conquest of Matankari and Birnin Kebbi. The battle of Kwotto. A poem

celebrating these victories.

27. A poem addressed to certain dissident Fulani

28. Subjugation of Kebbi. Campaign in Gobir. First attack on Alkalawa. Battle of

Tsuntsuwa.

29. Second attack on Alkalawa. Capitulation of Zamfara. Return to Sabon Gari. Revolt

of Kebbi. Poem enumerating these victories.

30. Commentary on the poem.

31. Departure for Gwandu. Defeat at Alwasa and defection of the Kebbi people. Battle

of Gwandu. A poem concerning the defeats at Tsuntsuwa and Alwasa.

32. Commentary on the poem.

33. ‗Abdullah‘s visit to Kano; a poem.

34. A poem concerning the battle of Fafara.

35. Conquest of Alkalawa, and death of Yunfa.

36. Campaign on the west bank of the Niger; a poem concerning this.

37. Commentary on the poem.

38. The Shehu emigrates from Gwandu to Sifawa. Further campaigns on the west bank;

a poem.

39. The capture of Ilo by Muhammad Bello.

40. Campaigns against Gwari, directed by Muhammed Bello; a poem.

41. Campaigns in Nupe.

42. The date of the composition of the Tw.

43. Conclusion.

44. Colophon.

From the present writer‘s review and the paragraphing of Hisket, it is clear that

the book is a history book documenting various events about Sokoto Khalifate

in its formative stage in verses.

Abdullah Dan Fodio

The prolific writer and great scholar was born in 1867. He started his early

education with his father who later handed him over to his elder brother, the

founder of the Khalifate Usman Dan Fodio for tutelage (13).

He learnt under his

brother several branches of Islamic Studies such as Tafsir (exegesis) Al-Hadith

(the tradition of the Prophet) al-hisab (Mathematics). He also studied Arabic

studies from the popular scholars of his time such as Abdullah bin Muhammed

bin Alhaji, his nephew Muhammed bin Muhammed and Ahmad bin Abubakar

(14) his solid training in Arabic linguistics and poetry turned him out to be

prolific in Arabic language and literature. He was probably the most prolific of

the trio Usman Dan Fodio, Muhammed Bello and Nana As ma. Some of his

major works include:

(i) Diya-ul-tawilfima‟ani-tt-anzil: This is an explanation of verses of the

Quran; it is the most voluminous book on the exegesis on the Quran

by any Nigerian. This book is of great value in the field of Arabic

rhetoric and it shows the author‘s prowess in Arabic language in

general and rhetoric in particular. Several contemporary scholars of

Arabic have studied this particular book and found it to be unequalled

in standard and quality ever written by any Nigerian scholar of Arabic.

(ii) Al-bahru-ul-muhit: It is a versified work on Arabic syntax and

morphology. It consists of 4400 lines whose major sources are Jam‘u-

ul-Jawami‘ wa ham‘ul-awami‘ by Jalal-d- deen al-ssayuti.

(iii) Fathul-ll-atif al wafi: It is also a versified work on the Arabic

prosody. It consists of 230 lines.

(iv) al-hisnu-r-rasin: It is also a versified work on Arabic morphology and

it consists of 1000 lines.

(v) Lam‟u-ul-barq: It is a work on Arabic syntax.

(vi) Tazyin-ul-waraqat: Which is a historical book documenting events of

his time and infact of Jihad movement. The book is also in verses

with explanation.

These were the major work of Abdullahi bin Fadio on language and

literature, leaving behind more than one hundred books on various issues and

themes which include administration, politics, sociology and even medicine.

No wonder therefore he has been described as Nadirat-z-zamani and

‗allamatus-sudan. A rare gem and the doyen of the black intelligentsia who

was also nicknamed as the moving encyclopedia, he died in 1830. 4

Flyting of Ghoni and Abdullahi Bin Fodio

It has earlier been discussed that Islam does not in any way encourage exchange

of abuses among people. It is however discovered that Nigerian poets of Arabic

expression, especially Abdullah bin Fodio and Sheikh Mustapha Ghoni had to

cross one another as a result of ideological differences in respect of women

mingling with men while seeking for education. While neither of the two nor

Sheikh Usman himself would approve indiscriminate mingling of men and

women based on Shariah injunctions, the attack of Sheikh Mustapha Ghoni was

as a result of suspected feud against Sheikh Usman whose preachings had begun

to gain ground in Hausa land and beyond (15).

Ordinarily, Sheikh Usman would

not have allowed women to mix with men but he tolerated such an act because

of his firm belief in the importance and necessity of Women education. He

considered education of Women as a necessity that overrides the issue of

mingling. He condemned in its entirety the way some scholars used quotations

to wrongly deny women access to education (16).

In fact women affair was very

central to his social reforms which included women education, women in

economy and women at home (17).

It is therefore not superising that Sheikh

Usman s daughter Nana Asmau having been given enough opportunity to

acquire knowledge became one of the most leading intellectuals of the Jihad

era. She was a poet, a prolific writer and linguist (18).

If Northern history cannot

be completed without a golden record of the intellectual capabilities and

achievements of Usman Dan Fodio, his brother Abdullah bin Fodio, his son

Muhammed Bello and more importantly his daughter, Nana Asmau, the North

in general and the Women in the North in particular have no excuse not to

develop intellectually and educationally.

Having said this as a background to the flyting, here are the poems

beginning with Ghoni‘s own. He says:

Alaika minna Tahiyyatun Mubarakatu

Shuminna miskan wa sukkan man yulaquna

Aya bin Fodi Qun tundhir uli-i-jahala

la'allahun yafqahun din wa duna

Famn‘a ziyarata niswani li wa‘adhika

Khaltu-rijah bi niswani kasa shaina

la tuf‘alan ma yuaddi lil maib idh

lam yamrillahu aiban kana yudlina

wa abyatul-mustafa yaju yutammimahi

fi‘aamin rashni ma‘a caidii add yakfiena

Meaning

- To you, from us blessed greetings which have been mixed with musk to

be smelled by whoever met us.

- O son of Fodio rise to preach to the ignorant,

so that they may understand religion and the world affairs

- Forbid women to visit your preaching

- For the mixing of men and women is sufficient a disgrace

- Do not do what contributes towards disgrace

- For God has not ordered vice which will harm us (19)

.

The poet first started by the natural salutation, appreciating the good

enlightening work Sheikh was doing but later came openly and boldly to call on

Sheikh to stop women from attending his classes because according to the poet

is a disgrace that must be avoided. He concluded his poem by referring to the

act as a forbidden act. The act is therefore not only disgraceful but ungodly and

harmful. The last line is just about the day and the date in which the poem was

composed.

The language of the poem is simple while the words are well chosen. They are

at the dictionary level of an average student of Arabic, no grammatical rule was

broken while the morphological construction of the words express the

disgusting feeling of the poet.

On receiving this message Sheikh Usman asked his brother Abdullah to reply

him and said:

- Ya ayyuha dha Ila ja‘ayurshidum

sanma'an lima qulta fasma‘anta maqulna

- Nasahta juhdaka lakin last tu‘udhirun

wa qulta subhana hadha kan buhtana

- Inna shajafna in ja; u limajlisna

hum yabuthuna sual qaol Tuyyana

- lasna Nukhalit bin-nswan kyfa wa idha

- kunna nladhiru lakin qulfa salamina

- an kandahaka wa lakin la usallim an

- yutrakna bil hahh hamlau kaa na ihsana

Meaning:

- O you who have come to guide us aright

We have heard what you said, listen to what we say

- You gave advise to the best of your ability

But would that you had freed us from blame

- And you spoke-glory be to God – this was calumny

Indeed devils, if they come to our gathering

- Spread evil speech, exceeding all bounds

We do not mix with women, how that should be

- We have warned on the country; I said we argue

That was thus but I do not agree that

- Their being left to go free in ignorance is good

For the committing of the lesser evil has been made obligatory

- Ignorance pardons, even though it were disobedience

We found the people of this country (20)

.

This ode of Abdullahi contains four major issues: first, the derogatory call on

Ghoni to listen to his own side of the story. Secondly, throwing abusing attacks

to those people in attendance who do nothing but spreading false accusations,

concerning the mingling of women with men in discriminately in the sittings of

Sheikh Usman. Thirdly, he explained why women must be given the

opportunity to listen to Sheikh‘s preaching‘s which is widespread ignorance

among women. Explaining the issue further, Abdullahi considered mingling of

women with men as a lesser evil than ignorance. This position shows that

Shariah has some restrictions on women movement but not at the expense of her

acquisition of knowledge.

The language of the poem is strong to express the strong dissatisfaction with the

attack of Sheikh Ghoni on sheikh Usman Dan Fadio. The words are

morphologically well constructed with no break of any syntactical rules.

That was probably the first flyting ever known in Nigerian Arabic literature. It

is not only the poetic power that is being appreciated but the special

commitment of the second poet to commit himself to the same metre and rhyme

in his counter reaction. More importantly, the issue that led to the controversy

was women affairs especially her education which show that centuries ago, a

man of Sheikh Usman‘s caliber has shown serious concern for women

education. This unique uncompromising position for women knowledge by the

greatest jihadist, social reformer and the renewer of Islamic consciousness in

our land is a testimony to the high respect Islamic culture gives to women.

Conclusion

Attempt has been made in this paper to show the rewarding efforts of the Fadio

family in the intellectual activities of the North in particular and Nigeria in

general. The efforts did not in any way exclude women who were seen by

Sheikh Usman himself as central in any developmental efforts. The established

system of the period which was fully based on Islamin principles and practice

was able to produce scholars of international repute like Abdullahi Bin Fadio

and his niece Nana Ama‘u who competed favourably in intellectual productivity

with any man of her time. The system did not only carry out various reform

activities but also emphasized in greater details the need for women to be

educated. Thus when some Muslim Scholars of the time wanted to oppose the

open door policy of Sheikh Usman for equal opportunity for both men and

women n pursuit of knowledge and acquisition of education, Sheikh had to

make it categorically clear through his brother Abdullahi that mingling of

Women with men for the purpose of knowledge is a lesser evil than leaving

women in ignorance. This historical antecedent if allowed to penetrate into the

hearts of northerners, the girl education that seems not to be at the best rate in

the North will be promoted.

References

1. A. Babs Fafunwa, History of Education in Nigeria, London, George

Allen & Unwin 1974, p.50.

2. M. Hisket, Edition and Translation of Tazyin-ul-waraqat by Abdullah Ibn

Muhammed, Ibadan, University Press, 1963, p.9.

3. Muhammed‘arafat El Maghriby, Muhadaratun F. Tarickh-ul-adab, nd

p.12.

4. Wikipedia.org/wiki/flyting.

5. Muhammad‘ Arafat El-maghriby, op.cit, p.14.

6. M. Hisket, op.cit p.84.

7. Ibid, p. 86-87.

8. Ibid, p. 88.

9. Ibid, p. 90.

10. Ibid, p. 92.

11. Ibid, p. 130.

12. Ibid, p. 3 – 4

13. Hasan Isa Abduz-Zahir, Adda‟watul-ul-Islamiyah fii Gharbi Ifriqiya,

Riyadh,s Iman University Press 1981, p. 291.

14. Ibid, p. 290.

15. Ibid, p. 299.

16. Ibid, p. 230.

17. Ibid, p. 231.

18. Muhammad Rabi Awwal,Asma‟u bint Usman Fadio wa intajatuha al-

arabiyyah, Kano, Gidan Dabino Publishers, 2007, p. 6.

19. M. Hisket, opcit, p. 87.

20. Ibid, p. 87.

A SOCIO-MUSICAL ANALYSIS OF WOMEN MUSIC IN ILORIN

DR. FEMI ABIODUN Department of Visual and Performing Arts Kwara State University, Malete

Abstract

Baluu and Senwenle music are women music in Ilorin. This cosmopolitan city is by political

arrangement part of the Northern Nigeria. What then constitutes northern Nigerian music in

the music of Ilorin women is the focus of this paper.

The methodology is exclusively ethnomusicological in its approach, analysis and discourse.

The primary data for this study was collected through interview, participant performance and

observation of five Baluu and Senwele musicians purposefully selected for this study. Data

collected were subjected to descriptive laboratory analysis. This paper employed the method

of musical, discographic, bibliographic and analytical techniques to determine the musical

relatedness of Baluu and Senwele to what music is in the Northern Nigerian context.

The study found out that while the melody of Baluu and Senwele songs has the nasal voice

quality of the Northern Nigerian musical phenomenon, the instrumentation is Yoruba (South

western Nigeria) using the Yoruba dundun musical instrument. Further still, while the text is

predominantly Yoruba, the Quranic text in the song text is an evidence of Arabic literature

which is a dominant feature of Northern Nigerian musical culture.

This study concluded that Ilorin women music is bi-cultural featuring the Northern Nigerian

voicing culture within the Islamic context and the Yoruba instrumental music. That men play

the musical accompaniment in Baluu and Senwele music is a significant difference between

northern Nigerian women music and its counterpart in Ilorin.

INTRODUCTION

That Ilorin is a part of Northern Nigeria is an undisputed fact. Kwara State is one of the 19

Northern states and Ilorin- the state capital, has been described as the most southerly emirate

in Nigeria. Two theories of historical facts have been in place about the location of Ilorin. On

the first hand, a theory reiterated that early in the 19th

century, there was a relationship

between Ilorin and Sokoto. Jimoh (1994) noted that the historical relationship and association

between Ilorin and the Sokoto caliphate is a point of reference to historical events between

the two emirates.On the other hand, the history of Ilorin is not complete without the mention

of Ojo-Isekuse, a Yoruba itinerant man whose occupational event suggested the name Ilorin

(sharpening iron). Jimoh also noted that Ilorin emirate developed into a military super-power

in Yoruba region. Ilorin ultimately subdued Oyo in about 1830 and prompted the collapse of

the Oyo Empire. These historical events and facts indicated that Ilorin might initially have

been a part of the Yoruba region.

The accounts given above form the basis of the hypothetical statement and a point of

reference to our assumptions in this paper that Ilorin is a confluence of cultures and its music

is multi-culturally related. These accounts also justify the assumptions that:

a) Ilorin music has Yoruba music elements.

b) Ilorin music has Fulani/Hausa music elements.

c) Ilorin music is a juxtaposition of Yoruba and Hausa music elements.

It is the aim of this study to determine the level of Northern or South-western music in Ilorin

women music. This will include the examination of singing style, the instrumentation, the

form, the melodic pattern and more importantly, the song-text (literature).

This analytical study made use of performance and participant observation methods to gather

data. Of the five musical groups used, three were Baalu musicians and two Senwele

musicians. This study also used the bibliographic and discographic methods where relevant

published materials were reviewed and recorded albums were analysed respectively.

Discographic and Bibliographic Appraisal of Hausa Northern Nigerian Music

This section of the study presents a discographic and bibliographic anlaysis of Northern

Nigerian music. The discourse is descriptive in nature. Northern Nigerian music on tapes

(audio & visual) were analytically appreciated with a view to finding out the structure of the

music- the melody, the harmony, the rhythm, the form and the texture. The bibliographic

analysis gave an insight into the context of performance, the concept, the performance mode,

the musical and social conventions and information on gender music of Northern Nigeria.

In its political and practical terms, Northern Nigerian music would include: the music of the

Hausa, Fulani, the Tiv, the Okun of Kogi State, the Igbomina, Baruba and Ilorin music of

Kwara State, the Nupe of Kwara and Niger States, and a host of ethnic groups in the North.

What is Northern Nigeria music would include all musical styles of the 19 Northern states.

The position of the Northern states about open performance of music in all parts of the states

is analysed below. One Nigerian newspaper reported that ―Neither Rock nor Roll (style of

music) was allowed in the North as Sharia Police cancelled music festival in Northern

Nigeria. Does Sharia law forbid music festival or in a simple way does it forbid singing,

drumming and dancing?‖

A book titled Who are the Sinful Women quoted the Quran and Hadith saying ―music and

dancing have been found to be a great stimulant of carnal sex; a stepping stone to fornication

and adultery‖. This book and other such statements have threatened the local musicians in the

North. Performing music has therefore become a risky activity in states like Zamfara, Kano,

Jigawa and Katsina.

Alhaji Sirajo Mai Asharalle, a pop singer in katsina was arrested for ―breaking sharia law‖

and was put in jail for one week. In Kano, Kalengu Sani Dan Indo was harassed too that in

his assessment of the situation in Northern Nigeria he said ―Even in Saudi Arabia, l‘ve never

heard of musicians being as badly treated as we are in Nigeria‖. Haladji Waba Yarim

Asharalle, a musician too in Northern Nigeria lamented and said ―These hisbas, for me

should stop corruption, prostitution and homosexuality rather than ―the hate‖ for musicians‖.

He feels sharia law has done more damage to Kano‘s formerly cosmopolitan life and social

life. At a time in Jigawa state, the state council of Ulama banned public drumming and

singing. The instances above have continued to threaten Hausa musicians and they have

become symbols and victims of twisted interpretation of shariah. This concluding statement

is contrary to the position of Ali Bature that ―performing artists are part of the culture, part of

the royal system; therefore we cannot just stop it because of misunderstanding of religion‖.

Music in Northern Nigeria is occupational based. This includes the Butcher‘s rhythm on

Kalangu in Zaria, singing and drumming in praise of blacksmiths, praise song of hunters,

singing and drumming for farmers in most parts of the North, for example in Makarfi district,

Kastina, Bauchi and so on.

Music in Northern Nigeria also features the court music ofdifferent palaces‘ like the

entourage of the musical ensemble of Emir of Ilorin, the royal fanfare for the Emir of Zaria,

horn and drum ensemble of the Dan Galadima (district head of Giwa), songs celebrating the

investiture of the Emir of Kano and so on.

Musicians in the North are of different categories and status. Ame‘s (1971) category of

musicians includes those who entertain for various occupational groups such as blacksmiths,

butchers and so on. It also includes court musicians who perform for members of the

aristocracy, famous singers with backup bands, those who create songs of praise for anyone

wealthy enough to pay them and musicians who play at political functions.

Other categories of musicians are those who entertain at feasts especially during Ramadan;

musicians who are primarily clowns and whose job is to make people laugh with musical

antics; lute and fiddle players- a segment of non-professional musicians who drum and sing

with musical instruments such as komo (a stringed lute).

Women in Northern Nigeria are using songs as a performative art of resistance to all sorts of

relegation in the political scene, socio-cultural oppression, immodesty by men, marriage

challenges and other issues relating to traditional Islamic practices.Such women include the

group of elderly Hausa women who play Turkaka music in Kano. The music is known as

K‘warya. It is a gourd idiophonic ensemble led by a lead vocalist and a chorus of about six to

eight members. A leader/chorus narrative women group found in Kano is another women

ensemble. The music is known as Shantu music. The group uses shantu gourd. Hausa is the

language of the music.

The maani-foori songs of the Niger state women are used in the context of ritual performance

and expression of resistance to the limitations imposed on women in the overwhelmingly

rural context of Nigerian life. Aissata Sidikou‘s findings reveal that the music is played by

Hausa and Songhoy-Zarma women. According to her, ―the marchade is a Songhoy-Zarma

mock ritual performed by the senior wife in a polygamous marriage as a response to her

husband‘s recent or impending new wife‖.

Forms of music in Northern Nigeria include solo performance of the kakaki trumpet of the

Emir‘s Palaces; the ―evocative sounding‖ of algaita in call and response pattern; the group of

musicians singing in call and response pattern; the group of musicians singing in call and

refrain patterns and the band pattern of a lead singer who is the owner and producer of the

group and of the music (the composer of the songs). Forms include the wondering musicians

who go from one place to another playing for those who will appreciate their music for a gift

of money.

The popular art forms of the Northern music feature the band type of music of musicians like

Hajiya Sa‘adatu Barmani Choge and her Calabash ensemble called Amada and her mentor

Hajiya Uwaliya Mai Amada in Katsina. Amada music started as a religious music before it

metamorphosed to popular type. Others include Bala Usman, Sharif Rabiu Usman (Islamic

singers) Dan Maraya Muhamman Shata, Audu Yaron Goje (Goje player) and Ibrahim Na

Habu (kukkuma player).Instruments used in all these types include drums such as Kalangu,

Ganagan noma, rambari, Duman Girke, Gbande, Kazagi, Kurya, Bande and so on. The string

instruments include kukuma, Goge, Garaya, Molo, and Gurmi Kuntigi (plucked lutes of

Hausa). The blowing instruments include Damalgo, Mgaira, Kahoe (cow horn) Kakaki,

Sarewa and so on. Idiophones include Sekere, (Yoruba in the north) Agbe (Calabash)

Langtang, Mada (raft zither).

Tones (melody) produced (sung or played) featured a step-wise melodic line with notably

smaller intervals of a second, (minor and major seconds) a third, mostly minor thirds. The

high texture of the algaita shows the relatively high pitches of the melodic lines. The

rhythmic pattern is complex with more poly-rhythmic patterns but less cross-rhythm. No

hemiola was noticed.

Forms featured call and response of the singing mode and the interactive call and response of

the algaitas (single reed oboe) the interlocking of two or more notes of the algaitas form a

sort of harmony of two parts. No harmony in its western counter-part was noticed.

Dance in the north include the swinge of the Tiv. Other forms of Tiv dance include Kpingi

the old ngihngigh, ange (old men dance) and agbaga.

Socio-musical Analysis of Baalu and Senwele Music in Ilorin

Since Ilorin is a part of Northern Nigeria, its music, Baalu and Senwele arealso part of

Northern Nigerian music. They are women music which have grown from their neo-

traditional form to popular form. The aim of the analysis given here is to investigate if the

content and context of function of Ilorin music is entirely different from its counterpart in the

North. Kofoworola (1982) reiterated that Hausa music is losing its social placement and

others are in danger of dying out (p.8) the truth or otherwise of this statement is the basis of

the socio-musical analysis given here.

Beverly Blow Mark remarks in his book Muslim Hausa Women Sing: Hausa Popular Songs

that: ―Muslim Hausa women‘s poetry and song demonstrate that women‘s status in Northern

Nigeria is not subservient rather it is the beginning of the celebration of Northern women‘s

contribution to the performing arts in Nigeria. The women music in Ilorin is an organized

group with the leader (a woman) as the cantor (lead singer) and the owner of the music. The

chorus comprises female singers while the instrumentalists are male drummers. They render

songs which are poetic in nature with various themes. Data collected showed that Baluu

musicians have more groups than the Senwele groups. While Baalu music has 38 groups,

Senwele has 9 groups. Groups of Baalu music include Yewande Agbeke, Iyabo Awero,

Muniratu Iyatamiwo, and Ayanronke Muniratu and so on. Senwele groups include Iyaladuke

Abolodefe loju, Amope Alapata Eja, Fatimoh Kelebe, Fatimoh Dafo and so on.

The groups of women are all Muslims. The two musical genres are performed in the open in

many social activities. Their artistic status does not affect their belief and even their women-

hood as African wives. Na- Allah (2010) observed that the fact that Ilorin is predominantly

Muslimdoes not mean it has lost its Africanity and Africanity does not necessarily mean

devoid of Islamicity (p.173). Women in Ilorin are active participants in the arts. Ilorin which

is predominantly Muslim has not frowned at open performance of the women singers.

Though the Alfas always launched attacks on them, the sharia law is silent about their

performances in Ilorin.

The women music in Ilorin unlike other music from the North is not occupational based.

They are not performed in praise of blacksmiths, hunters, farmers,butchers and ―Jakan

traders‖ (cloth weavers in Ilorin which at one time was very popular). Music in Ilorin as

produced by women singers is basically for entertainment. Its performance is in three stages:

the first stage of the Baalu music feature dance of the apprentice before the leader comes on

stage with songs paying homage to Allah with some Quranic verses such as ―Bisimilahi al

Rahmani Rahim‖(In the name of God the beneficent the merciful‖. This song is in speech-

song mode in an irregular rhythmic pattern.

The second stage features songs of praise of the celebrants. It features different themes that

are contextualized by the aim and purpose of the performance. The leader uses various

singing techniques to facilitate this. The form is call and response with the exact repetition of

the lead singer lines; it is a call and refrains with different song text of the chorus featuring

the same melodic line. Different texts are worked and reworked to fit into the melodic

patterns by the song leader within the existing rhythmic patterns. The songs are mostly short

and repetitive. The leader uses improvisation technique to extend the performance practice

and uses extemporization technique to show his musical virtuosity, talents and ability. The

sound of the music is highly melodious and offers unique opportunity for the lead singer to be

creative using the variation technique to create melodies. This is more practiced in Baluu

music then Sewenle. The latter has more of call and response pattern.

The melody features nasal voice pattern that are indication of the distinct Quranic recitation

technique which draw upon the melodic modes of Arab music. This singing technique helps

the deliverance of the meaning of holy words without obscuring the words of holy Quran.

This is more pronounced at the first stage of the performance.

The rhythmic pattern of the performance is complex featuring the cross-rhythm and

polyrhythm of the instruments. Dundun musical instruments played by men form the major

instrumentation. The instrumentation has between 4 and 6 dundun musical instruments. Two

of the musical groups studied have included two Akuba drums. (Akuba are upright

membranophonic instruments covered at one end).

The middle section features songs that are dictated by the context of the performances. The

themes are categorized within the social activities: naming ceremony, funeral, wedding,

house warming and so on.

The end section features songs that praise members of the groups and songs of ―thank-you‖

to the celebrants and God. Words of prayer in speech-melody patterns are said to close the

performance.

A comparative analytical appraisal of Ilorin women music and Hausa women music shows

that the rendition of the two groups feature recitations of the Holy Quran in a singing style

called speech-melody.

Themes of Amada music are restricted to sociology of the family as it affects the women in a

typical Muslim Hausa household. Themes in Baalu and Senwele music feature religious,

social, political, economic and secular issues, while themes in Amada centre on social

empowerment in a traditional setting, Baluu and Sewenle deal with contemporary issues in all

Nigerian sectors.

While the women in Hajiya Sa‘adatu Barmani Choge and her calabash ensemble called

Amada play the five calabashes upturned inside a basin of water, men played the Dundun

music for Baluu and Senwele music. The two, (Hausa & Ilorin Women‘s music) are

secularized in public performance. Amada music which started as a religious music by

women in their inner apartments later was secularized.

The women in Amada music are fairly elderly but Baalu and Senwele have more young and

agile women between 25 and 45 years. Rhythmical and interpretative freedoms are common

features.

CONCLUSION

This paper discussed Ilorin women music of Baluu and Senwele. An attempt has been made

in this study to examine and analyse the relatedness of the socio-musical elements of Ilorin

women music and the Hausa music.

The inescapable conclusion is that Ilorin women music is bi-cultural, featuring the Northern

Nigerian voicing culture within the Islamic context and the Yoruba instrumental music. That

men play the musical accompaniment in Baluu and Senwele music is a significant difference

between Northern Nigerian women music and its counterpart in Ilorin.

REFERENCES

Abiodun, F. (1990). Life and Works of Yewande Agbeke, A Baluu Musician

in Ilorin Nigeria. Unpublished M.A Thesis Obafemi Awolowo University.

__________(1999). Performance Norms of Baluu Music and its Musical

Practices. Ilorin Journal of Arts and Social Sciences 2 (1) pp 38-45.

Adeola, T. (2008) Performance Practice and compositional devices in

Dadakuada music. The Performer Ilorin Journal of the Performing Arts Vol.. 10 Pp

196-216.

Aliyu, S.A. (2006) Muslim Hausa Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song

(review). Research in African Literatures Vol. 37 (2) Pp 196-198.

Ame, D.W. (1971) Glossary of Hausa Music and its Social Context.

Northwestern University Press.

Hausa Music-Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. Accessed October 8, 2011.

Hogan, B. (2011) Gendered Modes of Resistance: Power and Women‘s

Songs in West Africa. Internet material accessed October 10, 2011.

Kofoworola, Z. (1987). Hausa Performing Arts and Music. Federal Ministry of

Information and Culture.

Na‘Allah, A. (2010). Africanity, Islamicity and Peformativity: Identity in the House of Ilorin.

Bayreuth African Studies 88.

TRADITION MANAGEMENT AND THE QUEST FOR SELF FULFILLMENT IN

BILQISU ABUBAKAR‟S TO LIVE AGAIN

YACIM, ROSELINE ANDE

DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA, ABUJA.

andeyacim@gmail.com.

ABSTRACT

For Northern Nigerian literature to take its place in the history of our nation, the female

writers must take their stand on relevant contemporary issues that weave around their society

and the world. However, the Northern Nigerian Muslim woman is enveloped in managing the

tradition that has demeaned her rather than develop her. As she makes several attempts to get

out of this tradition, she finds herself frustrated and broken-hearted. Bilqisu Abubakar has

carefully X-rayed the life of the Northern Nigerian woman in To Live Again. This work

proposes empowerment through sound education for the Northern woman as the only route in

the realization of self-fulfillment.

INTRODUCTION

The Encarta Dictionary defines tradition as custom and belief, a long established action or

pattern of behaviour in a community or group of people, often one that has been handed

down from generation to generation. American Heritage Dictionary defines tradition as the

passing down of elements of a culture from generation to generation, especially by oral

communication. The Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia also sees tradition as a ritual, belief or

object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present with origin in the past.

This analysis routes through tradition as it examines the place of the Northern Nigerian

Muslim woman in her struggle to have a fulfilled life. However, this writer in the course of

this analysis is unable to divide the line between the Northern tradition and the Islamic faith.

This binary hascaged the Northern Nigerian Muslim woman over the years despite the

underlining tenets of the religion which is the Islamic faith.

Usman in her essay titled ―Feminist Writer and the Quest for Emancipation‖in Tess

Onwueme‘sShe Reigns” and “The Broken Calabash cited Mohanty‘s position on the place of

women when she opines: ―What bind women together is a sociological notion of the

sameness of their oppression. It is at this point that an elision takes place between ―woman‖

as a discussion group and women as material subjects of their own history.‖(2011:46) Bilqisu

Abubakar is of Northern Nigerian origin and of the Muslim faith. She has drawn from a

material subject of her environment; the marriage institution even as she identifies with issues

that distress women in marriage and the gap this has created in their lives. She proffers ways

of managing the tradition in this century for the benefit of the woman, the family institution

and the larger society. This agrees with Leslie‘s view as cited by Usman when she submits

that ―the most important challenge to the African woman is her own self-

perception‖(2011:47). These perceptions of women about themselves are being evolved into

the awareness that is about reshaping the management of tradition for the overall benefit of

the society as it relates to development.

TO LIVE AGAIN

Bilqisu‘s story weaves around Uwani, who defies the wishes of her parents to marry a

wealthy Alhaji. She marries the man of her choice Ahmad and enjoys a blissful marriage with

her two children Yasmin and Faisal. However, this bliss is short-lived as Ahmad gives in to

pressure from his mother to marry a second wife. The coming of the second wife- Khadija,

brings to reality a polygamous life which does not go well with Uwani. She accepts her fate

as she watches her husband Ahmad turn into a different person. Zulai comes in as the third

and Hajara the fourth. Uwani wonders at the change of Ahmad‘s attitude towards her as she

is treated with contempt and neglect. Her views in the house are immaterial on any issue. The

strained relationship ends in a divorce and Uwani is left to find succor in education.

Nana Mansa, her teacher gives her a shoulder to lean on by mentoring her. She encourages

her to pursue her academic career after the divorce. Her success in getting admission to the

Caliphate University to read Law brings her in contact with Ladi, a lady whose modest

modern lifestyle reformed Uwani‘s timid beliefs. The further pursuit of her career in

education at the prestigious Law School in Lagos reverses her decision not to love again. She

finds joy and love in her union with Umar, which she testifies in her letter to Hadiza her

friend.

MARRIAGE AND THE NORTHERN MUSLIM WOMAN

The marriage institution is an institution that is pivoted to establishing gender differences.

This takes place at the point when men and women decide to live in partnership. It also

establishes when all the cultural symbols in many societies are designed to reinforce the

active, dominant roles of men and the passive grateful role of women. The relationship

between marriage and patriarchy is one that stands at the peak of Nigerian societal belief and

norm.

To Ngcobo ―Marriage amongst Africans is mainly an institution for procreation. Every

woman is encouraged to marry and bear children in order to express her womanhood to the

full. The basis of marriage among Africans implies the transfer of a woman‘s fertility to the

husband‘s family group.‖(1998:531) From Ngcobo‘s view, it is easy for one to deduce the

place of women in the Nigerian society. Any woman that desires the respect and honour of

her community must endeavour to get married and bear children for her husband. This she

does by going into another family and subsuming her surname into that of her husband. Thus

the ultimate aim of the union called marriage is the children brought forth as a result of the

union. The fulfillment of companionship, the summation of the love and friendship and the

emotional satisfaction of the couple may not necessarily be evident.

The society has set a wide dichotomy between male and female sexes which can be said

emerged from its traditions and cultures. Mikell in the introductory pages of African

Feminism:The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa cited Mead and Fox argument:

Nature or reproduction appears to have pushed women towards domestic

activities. Men as a result of their biological make-up assert to have

taken responsibility requiring greater geographical mobility,

aggressiveness, defensive and military tasks, political representation

and achievements in the realm of culture and decision making (1997:7).

To these explanations, gender hierarchy emerged naturally from the bio-stand of social

relations of our society. That is why women themselves accept symbolic gender distinctions

that incorporate naturist assumptions about femaleness and maleness. This challenges the

subordination of women as an ultimate feature of the Northern tradition and that of Nigeria at

large. In essence, the Nigerian society tends to fuse culture in their traditional conception of

women‘s roles.

The marriage institution places the Nigerian woman at a disadvantage as it is looked at from

the angle of ―divine‖ and so a woman who is not married is not seen as responsible in the

society. The woman is expected to stay in the marriage whether it is pleasurable or not. We

see all efforts made by Uwani to keep her marriage by keeping mute during all conversations.

The only time her voice is heard earns her as we see in the novel a divorce which she never

expected. To Uwani‘s mother, she needs to settle down again despite Uwani‘s position on a

second marriage. ―It should be, my child. It should be for every woman of faith‖ (2007:104).

To the Northern Muslim society, a woman is a woman of faith if she is married. The case of

Uwani‘s sister who is divorced on account of her seeking for medical attention for her baby

makes the marriage institution and divorce ridiculous to this writer. The woman is portrayed

as a thing that is not capable of thinking or taking an initiative in the absence of the husband

who has proclaimed a decree that keeps her movement within the confines of the house.

The role of a wife in the home is not clearly defined by the tradition of the Northern woman

as portrayed in To Live Again. Bilqisu has asked so many questions that bother on the sanity

of the ‗man‘ in the marriage institution. On one hand is the woman whose views are

irrelevant even on matters that bother on her well-being or feelings as is the case with Uwani.

On the other, is Uwani‘s sister who takes her sick baby for medical attention and get divorced

for leaving the house without the permission of the husband. The fruit of the marriage she

tries to tender by seeking medical attention earns her a divorce.

The marriage institution among the Muslims in the Northern part of Nigeria is mostly that of

a polygamous setting. A few of the Northern Muslim men have one wife but in the course of

this study, this writer discovered that the few men are hoping to marry more wives when

their economic power improves as to cater for them. To the Muslim woman from the North, it

is no news for the husband to declare his intention to marry another wife as it is expected and

believed that it is part of the marriage institution. However, the treatment expected is a fair

one of all the wives, but most times this is not so.

THE NORTHERN MUSLIM WOMAN AND TRADITION

Marginalization, subordination and under representation of women is not a recent

phenomenon across the globe. However, the case of the women from the Northern part of

Nigeria is worth x-raying, considering the way their religion is being manipulated to suit the

whims and caprices of the patriarchal society she finds herself. It is worthy of note at this

juncture to clarify the notion that Northern Nigeria is made up of only Muslim faithful.

Northern Nigeria comprises of diverse linguistic and cultural groups that are Muslims and

Christians, though it is widely believed that Muslims dominate Christians.The focus of this

paper is not to determine the numerical strength of the religion that dominates this part of

Nigeria but to x-ray the Northern Muslim woman and how she manages her tradition and

religion.

Issues of Islam that would have otherwise modified the tradition of the Northern Muslim

woman are being manipulated by the same society. This is to perpetually keep the Muslim

woman marginalized and denied of her fundamental human rights to self fulfillment in the

society. The patriarchal nature of Nigeria as a country is aiding the Northern Muslim society

in giving deaf ears and blind eyes to the current trend of development around the world.

These dwell on issues that concern fundamental human rights and women‘s rights. The

Muslim woman is still living in the ancient world prior to the coming of Islam. This agrees

with Adu as cited by Arinde in his paper Repositioning Women for the Promotion of Global

Peace: A Case Study of The Wives‘ Revolt and Queen Ghasengeh where he laments the

treatment meted out to women in traditional setting:

To begin with, one will state that society‘s concept of womanhood is

negative. The reasons behind such conception can be found in customs,

traditions and beliefs which have, over the years contributed in keeping

woman under subjugation and to make them generally inferior to men:

institution of marriage with its related issues of bride-wealth, child marriage,

polygamy, purdah, widowhood and inheritance of property, fertility and

puberty rites with specific reference to female circumcision(2010:462)

Women before Islam were not seen to have any rights at all. She could be bought and sold

like property or livestock. She had no right to inheritance and she was seen as an object that

could be owned and never regarded as an owner herself. There has been a contradiction

between the tradition and the Islamic religion. The Islamic religion came with a message of

hope for the woman as it preaches equality of sexes as the Holy Qur‘an 49:13 where Allah

says:

O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female and have made

you nations, and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! The noblest

of you in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is knower, Aware.

The Northern tradition overshadows the teaching of the Islamic faith and thereby places the

woman at a disadvantaged position. Writers like Nana Asma‘u prove the faith as her writings

inspire women groups of her era. Zaynab Alkali‘s works such as TheStillborn, Cobwebs and

other Stories showcase the ordeal of women in marriage even as she advocates that education

is an essential tool for challenging one aspect of gender inequality as she locates her

characters in the North, her immediate environment. Bilqisu Abubakar‘s work To Live Again

is also on the involvement of women in marriage also in the North. Bilqisu can be seen to be

towing the line of Zaynab, her forerunner, as she brings in her artistry to display in her work.

For Bilkisu, the quest for fulfillment, the commitments to the survival of women in marriage

through sisterhood and decision making,and issues that concern the well being of her society

are her focus.

BILQISU ABUBAKAR

Bilqisu Abubakar was born and raised in Kaduna where she had her primary and secondary

education. She started writing about fifteen years ago as a housewife when she felt the urge to

document her experience as a lonely housewife, who was not particularly happy about the

situation she found herself. Several factors inspired her writing, her community, especially

the lives of Muslim women and how they negotiate their path in a conservative Northern

society. She out rightly condemns the abuse of the institution of marriage. According to her

―people believe I hate polygamy but this is not so, it is the abuse of the institution that I

dislike because I am a product of polygamy and it‘s been a wonderful experience.‖

Identifying the work of a writer is easy but placing her alongside an ideology is not an easy

task. However, feminism as a theory, movement or ideology has created a platform that

offers critical explanation about women‘s condition. We will not go into discussing major

theoretical perspectives of feminism such as Liberal feminism, Radical feminism, Marxist

feminism, Socialist feminism, Cultural feminism, African womanism, Womanism,

Stiwanism, Motherism, and Femalism as these have been extensively discussed by other

scholars and not a major focus of this study. However, Iwill situateTo Live Againin the class

of cultural feminism. To Azuike:

This brand of feminism emphasizes the difference between the male and

the female gender. Cultural feminists further stress that the qualities

that are characteristic of women have been devalued in the society. Cultural

feminists demand an end to the devaluation of women and that they work

towards a transformation of society that will honour and respect women.

Cultural feminism, like radical feminism celebrates what can be called

―women‘s values‖ and ―women‘s cultures‖ which are known to include

gentleness, meekness, peace, emotionality, a nurturing spirit and caring for

others…‖ (2007:30-31).

Uwani‘s role captures this. She is a caring wife to Ahmad, a loving mother to her children

and a respectful child to her parents. Ahmad‘s attitude towards her changed with the coming

in of new wives but her love for him did not, rather she prayed hard to win his love again. To

her children, a loving and caring mother, despite the fact that she couldn‘t change her

predicament, she tries to keep in touch with her children by visiting them at school and even

at home. She wants to be sure the children will love and accept their step father as she finally

accepts to marry Umar.

The tenets of Womanism (black feminism) are evident in Bilqisu‘s To Live Again. To Alice

Walker a Womanist is: ―A black feminist or feminist of colour…that loves other women,

sexually and/or asexually, appreciates and prefers women‘s culture…sometimes loves

individual men, sexually… is committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and

female…‖ (1982: xii).

The education Nana Mansa possesses is the vehicle with which she employs to drive the

encouragement Uwani needs to forge ahead with life after the divorce. ―I know you are hurt

but you must forge ahead,‖ she counseled trying to convince Uwani‖ (2007:104). Nana keeps

in touch with Uwani despite her busy schedule as the proprietress of a school. She identifies

the potentials in Uwani and in the spirit of sisterhood ensures she gave her good counsel.

―Look at you, Uwani. You can be anything you want to be in life, just believe and tell

yourself that you can make it.‖(2007:105). Shug helps Nettle get back on her feet in Alice

Walker‘s The Color Purple, so is Nana Mansa‘s relationship to Uwani. The progress in

Nana‘s carrier is due to hard work and resilience to provide for the upkeep of her only son

and mother back in Ghana. Nana is contented as a single parent, which brings to fore the

fulfilling relationship she enjoyed with her late husband. Marriage can be fulfilling if the

feeling of love is mutual. To Nana, a second marriage is not necessary even as Uwani tries

making her see reasons for remarriage. ―They are simply not worth it. My husband gave me

everything‖ (2007:77). Uwani meets Ladi at the Caliphate University as her roommate and

friend, this relationship reformed Uwani‘s timid attitude. Uwani‘s letter to Hadiza her friend

(a divorcee) is also in the spirit of sisterhood. She counsels Hadiza using her own experience

of the act of violence against her soul which Ahmad takes her through and how she has

forged ahead with life. This she hopes Hadiza will draw strength from in order to forge ahead

with life.

THE QUEST FOR SELF FULFILLMENT

Shrouded with tradition and religion, she finds herself a recluse compared to women from

other parts of the country. The peculiarity of her situation makes her relevant in productivity

in terms of bearing children and being a care giver to her husband and children though her

feelings need not be considered on matters that bother on her emotions. Bilqisu Abubakar has

enveloped the totality of the Northern Muslim Woman in To Live Again.

Uwani made her choice of a man she loves, this contradicts the popular tradition. Parents

make choices for their children on issues that bother on marriage, most often. She faces

opposition from both parents on her choice but the preferred suitor by the parents quickly

looked elsewhere for another bride and that made her choice of Ahmad acceptable though

reluctantly due to Ahmad‘s economic status, a village teacher compared to the wealthy

Alhaji. The blissful fulfilling marriage for Uwani with her two children Yasmin and Faisal

lasts but for a while as the influence and pressure from Ahmad‘s mother to take another wife

brings a new dimension to the otherwise blissful marriage. Khadija comes in as a second

wife, Zulai the third and Hajara, the fourth. Uwani accepts her fate as she is left with no

choice. Her consent is not relevant, rather the binary of tradition and religion weaves all as

Ahmad never regards or identifies with her as a wife anymore.

The events that follow are that of neglect, heart break by the same man she loves. This further

leads to divorce and she leaves the marriage heartbroken. Nana Mansa, her mentor

encourages her to further her education as there is life even after a divorce. She gains

admission into the Caliphate University and at the completion of the Law degree, she

proceeds to Law School in Lagos. Life for Uwani takes on a new turn as she discovers a new

love in Umar. This culminates in marriage to this young comfortable single pilot. She

discovers a new reason to live again. In the end, she testifies in her letter to her friend Hadiza.

The powerlessness of the Muslim woman on the issue of marriage is characterized by Uwani.

Nana Mansa‘s role is clearly defined as being the voice of Bilqisu in this novel, education

being the only way to the empowerment of self in the quest to adding value to life itself.

Nana Mansa leads Uwani through the path of truth that gives her the self-fulfillment she so

desires. It is quite obvious that polygamy make women go through emotional trauma caused

by jealousy as clearly exhibited by characters Bilqisu x-rays in her novel, Uwani, Khadija

Zulai and Hajara. In Islam, the Prophet did not advice on polygamy without equal love and

affection to all the women; rather, he advised that one should ensure that all the women are

treated equally with the same rights and privileges. The Muslim women give in to the

demands of tradition and culture by tolerating the husband to bring in as many wives as he

wishes.

The patriarchal nature of the society is evidently portrayed and very oppressive to the

Northern woman. However, Ahmad seems to be on the extreme as he does not thinkon his

own but carries on the wishes of his mother. Ahmad is portrayed as an insensitive being who

cannot even think of the past life he had with Uwani and how suddenly he abandons her after

his marriage to other wives. The character of Ahmad does exist amongst men as the novelist

has shown. Bilqisu tries to balance his character towards the end as he craves for Uwani‘s

return. Uswani‘s father is a caring father who will not want his daughter to go through any

form of hardship and so he prefers the Alhaji who is wealthy as a suitor to Ahmad, a village

teacher. He desires fulfillment in life for his daughter as he pictures prosperity and fulfillment

which he also desired having experienced poverty himself.

RECOMMENDATION

Women writers from the North need to strive further in their effort to act as the conscience

and liberation agents of their society. The empowerment of a woman is the empowerment of

the society either educationally, politically or economically. Besong‘s position about writers

in his article Literature in the Season of the Diaspora: Notes to theCameroon Writer submits:

The power of the writer is not always strong enough to change the political

and social situation of his time but his art can become a fighting literature.

He can write works that are artistically profound and politically correct: he can

write works of indictment and works that show how his world is and

could be (1993:18).

CONCLUSION

Bilqisu has exposed the Northern woman‘s plight as a victim of her cultural and traditional

heritage. The denial of education to women is still prevalent in Northern Nigeria. She

recommends a way out of this prison through a desire to have an alternative to a fulfilled

future. Babangida‘s comment on the novel is worthy of note when he says: ―…the aptness of

the story to the women of Northern Nigeria couldn‘t have come at a more auspicious time.

Women must appreciate the relevance of self actualization‖ (TLA).

This study posits that the Northern Nigeria Muslim woman is also endowed with great

potentials like her contemporaries in other parts of the country. She should endeavour to

search for more knowledge, as this will equip her with the skills for managing herself and her

tradition, which has trampled on her ‗woman‘ and fundamental human rights for a long a

time.

Works Cited

Abubakar, Bilqisu. To Live Again. Kaduna. AnyaRay Concepts Publication. 2007.

------------------In Conversation with this writer on October, 23rd

2011 at Kaduna.

Ali, Yusuf. The Holy Qur‘an (English Translation of the meaning and commentary),

Madinah:King Fahad Holy Qur‘an Printing Complex 1411 AH,49:13

Arinde Simeon Tayo. Repositioning Women for the Promotion of Global Peace: A Case

Study of The Wives‟ Revolt and Queen Ghasengeh. Ilorin.International Conference on

African Literature. ObafConfab Book of Proceedings. 1st-4

th April, 2010.

Azuike Maureen N. A Radical Feminist Approach to the works of Zaynab Alkali. Being a

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English,

University of Jos, Jos. (December, 2003).

Besong, Bate. Literature in the Season of the Diaspora: Notes to the Anglophone Cameroon

Writer. WEKA. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies, 1993.

Mikell, Gwendolyn. African Feminism: The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1997.

Ngcobo, Lauretta. Africa Motherhood- Myth and Reality, In Criticism and Ideology: Second

African Writers Conference. Stockholm.Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.

1998.

Procter, Paul. Cambridge International Dictionary.

Usman, Martha. Feminist Writer and the Questfor Emancipation in Tess Onwueme‘s She

Reigns and The Broken Calabash. Unpublished Long Essay Submitted to the

Department of Theatre Arts, University of Abuja in Partial Fulfillment of the Award

of a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre Arts. December, 2011.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.

Internet Sources

Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia. En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradition. Extracted on 11/11/11

Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia. En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture. Extracted on 12/11/11

CONSTRAINTS TO WOMANHOOD IN NORTHERN NIGERIA: A

FEMINIST READING OF HILARY ROUSE-AMADI‟S AMINA

SAEEDAT BOLAJOKO ALIYU DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND LITERARY STUDIES

COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES, MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

KWARA STATE UNIVERSITY, MALETE

saeedat.aliyu@kwasu.edu.ng

saeedataliyu@yahoo.com

08034494733

Abstract:

The northern part of Nigeria has been established as a traditionally patriarchal society. Aided

by culture and an over application of some tenets of the major religion, females are treated as

appendages and bent to the whims of their male counterparts. Discrimination against women

however transcends beyond the frontiers of the northern part of Nigeria; human right activists

and writers across the globe have for decades been championing for a change in selective acts

against women. However, to focus only on subordination and discrimination between women

and men is to generalize the more challenging gender practices. The differing cultural

practices across the globe require a modification of the general and Western form of

Feminism. Hilary Rouse-Amadi‘s Amina; a verse poem, explores the psychological,

intellectual and physical repression of Hausa female characters in a sexist society. This paper

will attempt a textual analysis of Hilary Rouse-Amadi‘s Amina to establish the repressive

tendencies of a culturally patriarchal society on its female members.

This paper concludes that there is the need for a counter-repression of the existing male

supremacy to facilitate a corresponding development of the intellectual, psychological and

economic status of the women.

Introduction:

Studies into gender issues have necessitated the postulations of regional theoretical

frameworks for the study and interpretation of the socio-economic and political biases against

the feminine gender. This has facilitated greater understanding of the representations of

specific gender issues as they relate to regions. Contributions from Nigerian critics and

theorists in the subject have led to key findings which have continued to promote calls for

proper interpretations of the social roles thrust upon the female gender in regards to the

different socio-cultural practices of the country.

One theme however, which continues to resonate irrespective of region, culture, or period is

the perceived marginalization of the female gender, though the level and perception of this

issue differ again according to the cultural viewpoint of the area. As such, theories with the

consciousness of cultural factors have continued to emerge, some of which include Mary

Ebun Kolawole‘s ―Womanism‖ among others.

For a continent such as Africa which promotes cultural practices which are believed to

enforce women‘s subservience, the complimentary roles expected from women to their male

counterparts in terms of providing a stable home front, supportive companionship and even

economic support underscore elements of discrimination between the sexes. Practices such as

the demand and payment of large bride-prices on girls, limiting access to Western education

for the girl-child and restricting women from engaging in key economic activities capable of

propelling them into economic independence are some practices which continue to subjugate

the African woman and promote male dominance. These and many other restrictive practices

continue to form the thrust of female and some male writers who are committed to raising

consciousness about the debilitating effects of cultural practices which subjugate women and

which has an overall impact on the development of the society.

Culture and Gender Discrimination in Northern Nigeria

Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination

against Women (1979) defines discrimination as:

any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which

has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment

or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality

of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the

political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.

The United Nation‘s position on acts inimical to the overall development of a particular

gender describes a situation in which patterns of inequality are maintained by rules and social

codes that enforce subservience on a particular sex in any society and emphasizes the need to

recognize their capacity to be front liners in developmental processes.

In African literary cum gender circles, gender discrimination is approached from the

perspectives of existing traditional mores which are the major contributory factors to the

denial of self-determination of women. Jehlen (1990) asserts that for an understanding of

gender issues in literary works, critics must understand the culture and ideology of the society

which engendered the work. As such the heterogeneous nature of the African and indeed the

Nigerian culture need to be understood and appreciated for a proper interpretation of the

various roles women and men have been assigned both in literary works and in the real

society.

The focus of this paper is on identifying the constraints- domestic, religious and cultural,

which affect the Northern Nigerian woman, preventing her from attaining economic

independence. The northern part of Nigeria has been widely acclaimed to be a traditionally

patriarchal society, though the extent differs from state to state. Perhaps Ojaide (2010) best

explains this when he describes northern Nigeria as ―…foremost a political creation that has

socio-cultural, religious, geographical and other connotations‖.

In view of the broad nature of the term ‗northern Nigeria‘ which encompasses among

Ojaide‘s ‗other connotations‘, the language variable, this study intends to restrict itself to the

Hausa speaking northern Nigeria. This is because the culture of the Hausa north is

irrevocably linked with the religion of Islam. Again Ojaide attempts a rationalization when he

posits that as part of the policy of indirect rule of the British administrators, it was agreed

upon not to promote the Christianization and thus the Westernization of the Hausa north

which invariably ensured the almost total Islamization of the areas. The rejection of Western

ways of dressing, education and social construct led to the enforcement of secluding and

shielding women from public glare as they are regarded as tools capable of being used to

destabilize the status quo.

It is against this backdrop of anti-westernization that the northern Nigerian female character

is pitched. What however enforces the image of selective discrimination according to gender

is that male characters in these literary works are allowed and encouraged to partake of

Western forms of modernity such as education and ways of life. This is what writers such as

Zaynab Alkali and Hilary Rouse-Amadi portray in their works as they attempt to depict the

Hausa female as willing and capable of taking western developmental initiatives that are

capable of catapulting them into economic and social relevance.

Gender Psychology and Discrimination

Researches on the psychology of women faced what every serious discussion about women

matters encountered before the age of gender awareness. Previous researches on the

psychology of women was conducted on the basis of their relation to men and only showed

women playing supplementary and subordinate roles to their male counterparts.

Feminist researches into the psychology of women began to identify difficulties arising from

social roles assigned to women and which had been hindering their growth, development and

self-esteem. These researchers such as Jean Baker Miller, Carolyn Zerbe Enns, Olivia Espin,

and Laura Brown worked from the premise that social and cultural dictates have been

foundational to the discriminatory acts against women.Therapy to address how social and

cultural dictates have affected females began to gain ground especially in the Western world

with the aim of developing women‘s self-awareness to be able to identify, rethink and

challenge age-long traditional concepts which had subjugated them for so long.

However,theFeminist therapy theory which evolved therein postulated that women‘s

problems were ultimately caused by masculinity and that gender differences beyond

biological compositions should not exist. This position is essentially un-African because the

culture of Africa acknowledges the biological or physical difference between the male and

the female and accords complimentary roles for both sexes in the advancement of communal

growth.Nigerian feminist theorists and critics have made insights into how the perceptions of

women in Nigeria and the African continent as a whole differ from their Western

counterparts. It cannot be doubted that culture has also been a factor in the discrimination of

women in Africa. Lewis (1995) as cited in Mama (1997) says ―…African cultural practices

have been weapons for enforcing women‘s obedience‖. Also Meena (1989) cited in Walker

(1991) says, ―women oppression has been located in some practices in traditional African

societies‖ adding that ―in the literary world… undiluted African culture bolster patriarchal

goals and desires while perpetuating the servitude of women‖. However, some strains of

feminism which developed from the Western world proffer tenets which are against some

African conceptions of morality. These include Marxist Feminism, Radical Feminism and

Lesbian Feminism among others. These strains advocate making child-bearing optional,

uprooting the society and classifying sexual attraction to men as one of the causes of

women‘s oppression.

In recognition of the unsuitability of most of the strains of western feminisms, Africanized

models such as Motherism, Womanism, Nego-feminism and STIWANISM were propounded

to serve as models for the proper understanding of the African woman in the peculiarities of

her socio-cultural environment.

This study intends to explore the psychological trauma northern Nigerian women face in their

quest for social, economic and educational development.

Background to Hilary Rouse-Amadi‟s Amina

Hilary Rouse-Amadi‘s Amina (1994. Further references to this text will be by title and page

number only) is a verse drama which portrays the social, cultural and psychological turmoil

female characters undergo in northern Nigeria where male dominance and female subjugation

is a strong feature of the cultural practice. The major character, Aminais forced to abandon

her dreams of further education as she is married off and instructed to guard the age-long

culture of female total subjugation in her marital home. The character of Amina symbolizes

the waste of potentials in the development of the society. Female characters that break the

challenges of culture are seen as prostitutes and the words of emancipation they utter are

regarded as capable of causing barrenness.

The typical northern Nigerian female portrayed in this verse-drama are those who fulfil the

home demands as well as being at the mercy of the whims and caprices of their husbands at

all times while their minds and intellectual faculties are expected to remain vacant of any and

all desires to advance themselves educationally or economically.Established codes for males

and females further entrench discriminatory acts against women. The code for males ensures

that they can be exposed to Western culture and education especially if it will ensure that they

have greater freedom and access to the comforts of life. This code is however inviolable for

the females who are expected to remain docile, meek, unassuming and unmotivated in the

face of global innovations.

While this verse-drama is the representation of the northern Nigerian female from the

perspective of a non-northerner, these presentations may not be far from the realities

obtainable from that society. A comparative analysis with one of the classics of northern

Nigerian prose fictions- Zaynab Alkali‘s The Stillborn, shows that Hilary Rouse-Amadi‘s

Amina portrays the gender concerns as they affect the northern Nigerian woman from a

somewhat similar perspective. The central character in Alkali‘s The Stillborn may not have

been denied secondary education, but she is subjected to her dictatorial father. Her marriage

to Habu Adams becomes traumatic as Habu Adams neglects and abuses her until she breaks

off to further her education and entrench herself as an economically and psychologically

independent female. The main character in Hilary Rouse-Amadi‘s verse drama is also

subjected to the dictates of her father. She is married off before she is ready and expected to

abandon all her hopes of intellectual advancement. While Alkali‘s central character achieves

fulfillment of her dreams as a result of her determination to break off the shackles of

tradition, Rouse-Amadi‘s main character is unable to attain her dreams as she is unable to

untie herself from the dictates of her culture.

Images of Subjugation in Hilary Rouse-Amadi‟s Amina

Employing the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination

against Women (1979) definition of discriminatory gender practices, issues of exclusion or

restriction of certain rights and privileges arising from gender segregation abound in the verse

drama under review. The poet-dramatist, Hilary Rouse-Amadi portrays issues of selective

discrimination against female characters as represented by the central character, Amina,

whose educational dream is cut short in order for her not to be ‗unsexed‘. This term is used

by Amina‘s father to portray that the education of the girl-child is liable to ‗rob‘ them of their

‗womanly ways‘:

I say this secondary school

Has untaught your daughter

Respect…

All the womanly virtues

Her family and society

Demand in the time-honoured

Name of tradition.

(Amina p.6).

The position of Amina‘s father is backed by cultural expectations which stipulate for a girl,

early marriage and prompt maternal responsibilities. He states: ―… my daughter/Approaching

her twentieth year/ Remains unmarried, when her/ Juniors are already mothers‖ (Amina p.6).

The imbalance in the social codes for male children and the female ones again underscores

the images of discrimination against the northern Nigerian female, so much that Amina

realizes that the brief education permitted by her father is to swell the bride-price collected on

her. This pain reveals in her wish that her child was born male: ―as I look with pity/ On my

daughter and wish/ For her sake, that she/ Had been born boy-child.‖ (p.12)

Amina begins to see motherhood as a curse. Of course, like every African woman, she takes

joy in having her husband home and in her daughter, but her dissatisfaction stems from the

fact that her social role has restricted her to a position where other faculties are left

undeveloped. This point is aptly described by Amina‘s age-mate when she questions the

inviolability of the age-long ways restricting women but permitting men:

why do our fathers and mothers

struggle to send their sons

to schools that will initiate

their minds into a new culture?

why cheer and jubilate

when one of our brothers

gains a scholarship to study

in England or America?‘

(Amina p.30).

However, enforcement of these practices is not from the men in the society alone. The

character named ‗Female Elder‘ in the text reveals that older female members of the society

help keep the younger females in line and check any possibility of revolt.

While various perspectives are given on the type of gender discriminating practices of

northern Nigeria, the northern Nigerian woman is still subjected to universally degrading

practices such as rape. The character‗Lami‘ is subjected to rape by a man who is her father‘s

age-mate. She becomes pregnant from this and is ostracized by her fiancé. Her father then

compels her to marry the man who defiles her. Lami‘s inability to fend for herself

economically restricts her from defying her father‘s decree:

I am a piece of property

To be acquired by a new master.

If I were qualified to earn my living

In this uncaring world, I should turn

My back on the peremptory commands of

My businessman father and my businessman suitor

(Amina, p.81)

Amina‘s decision to brave the wrath of her husband and seek his permission to further her

education is met with the threat of a second wife who Ladan says will take care of his needs

and that of the domestic chores while she seeks advancement. The psychological effect of

these practices on her is so profound that Amina states:

I am the mouse

Who has fled for survival

… I am the bird with the broken wing,

I am the insignificant prisoner,

Relegated to oblivion, condemned

To be sentenced and judged by enemies

…I am woman with fertile womb

And barren mind.

(Amina , p.120).

Hilary Rouse-Amadi juxtaposes the practices in other African societies with that of the core

north to establish that women can achieve advancement in any sphere of life. And it is

Amina‘s relationship with this nameless Ghanaian female character which opens her eyes to

other cultures more accommodating to the development of women.

Conclusion

This paper has explored some features of discriminatory practices which occur in the

northern part of Nigeria. The paper analyzed Hilary Rouse-Amadi‘s Amina as case study to

explore how a patriarchal society negatively affects the psychological and intellectual

development of the female group in that society. It is our position that females should be

given the same opportunities of self-advancement as the males in the society to encourage

socio-economic and even political development of the society.

References

Alcoff, L. (2003) Culture Feminism Versus Post-Structuralism: The Identity Crisis in

Feminist Theory. Cambridge; South End Press.

Alkali, Zaynab. (1984). The Stillborn. Lagos. Esio Printers.

Meena, R. (2009) Gender Research: Feminist Literary Criticism. London: Methuen Co. Ltd.

Ogundipe-Leslie, M. (1994). Receating Ourselves: African Women and Critical

Transformations. Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc.

Rouse-Amadi, H. (1994) Amina, Zaria; ABUP Ltd.

Defying the Coaxers, Coercers and Coaches: Women and Life Writing

in Northern Nigeria

Isma’il A. Tsiga, PhD Department of English and French, Bayero University, Kano

Abstract

Life writing in Nigeria has in recent years witnessed a remarkable growth; making it one of the

most vibrant modes in the country’s expanding literary tradition. This includes self-reflective

narratives, comprising autobiographies, biographies and memoirs, as well as other forms of

written life expression involving modern information and communication media. From a modest

beginning in the elegiac portraitures of the Nineteenth Century Sokoto Caliphate scholars, life

narratives, in particular, have now become popular reading and a veritable medium of individual

and group identity formulation for Nigerians from all social groups. They range from the life

stories of the early Western-educated elite and independence politicians to the personal accounts

of senior military officers and other members of the dramatis personae involved in the Nigerian

Civil War on the one hand, and the more recent narratives about the lives of some distinguished

personalities from all social and professional backgrounds on the other. However, there is no

notable life work published on any woman from Northern Nigeria, although countless Northern

women have achieved prominence in different professions, including fiction writing and print

journalism. This paper is an exploration of the phenomenon, arguing that ethical considerations

pertaining to evaluative reading of life writing and the resultant reticence of the individual women

writers are to blame, rather than cognitive or creative limitations.

Introduction

"That which resembles most living one's life over again, seems to be to recall all the

circumstances of it; and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in

writing." Benjamin Franklin*

"I shall never write an autobiography, I'm much too jealous of my privacy for that."

Nadine Gordimer*

" I don't think anybody should write his autobiography until after he's dead.‖ Samuel

Goldwyn*

The above three dissenting positions, with their different concerns, summarise the

controversy that continues to trail the theory and practice of the various forms of life writing

in most societies, with the autobiography in particular as their point of reference. More

significantly for the purpose of this paper, they provide an insight into the almost absolute

silence of the women from Northern Nigeria in life writing, in defiance of the growing

popularity of the discourse in the country‘s expanding literary practice. For the absence of the

women in the field of life writing creates an obvious vacuum in the region‘s literary output

and goes contrary to the cultural imperatives that should normally support its development, as

put forward by both the theorists and critics of the discourse.

For instance, in the introduction to his ethnographic investigation into life narratives and

social ideology, Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds (1995), Plummer

identifies three sources of action from the sociological perspective, which normally govern

the function of the life narrative: the first is the charisma of the narrator who produces the

story, the artist that actually waxes the various pieces of events into a ‗narrative whole‘, and

without who there shall be no story telling. The second is the presence of the coaxer, who

may be an individual or cultural establishment that ‗coaxes‘ and sometimes ‗coerces‘ the

story out of the narrator, through the employment of a number of ‗inducements‘ and

‗provocations‘; the third is the consumer institution, including the reader and the general

audience, who interpret and devour the story. In their own contribution Smith and Watson

(2010:64) further include ‗coaches‘ among the coaxers, those elements involved in framing

the paratextual surround, which is produced by the publication, reception and circulation of

the text.

Life writing is thus, normally a product of ‗coaxers‘, ‗coercers‘ and ‗coaches‘, who come

together to coax and sometimes coerce the story out of the narrator, guided by the various

cultural forces that shape and influence the nature and direction of the narrative flow. Indeed,

we are involved in one form of life narration or another everywhere in our social

communities and every day of our lives: ―The coaxer/coercer…is any person or institution or

set of cultural imperatives that solicits or provokes people to tell their stories‖, ranging from

face-to-face interaction with family members, friends and academics, to religious rituals,

media interactions, social occasions, electronic communications or the filling of official

documents. Smith and Watson (2010:64) identify at least ten situational and interactional

‗acts‘ that actually reflect the different ―occasions when people are coaxed or coerced into

‗getting a life‘‖, including the paratextual surround (especially the publishing industry),

which somehow shapes the joint action of everyone involved - the life writer who narrates the

story, the coaxers/coercers and the general readers.

This paper explores why, in spite of the countless potential narrators available, and the

stimulating pressure of the different forms of ‗coaxers‘, ‗coercers‘ and ‗coaches‘ surrounding

them, women in Northern Nigeria still fail to produce books about their own life stories or the

lives of other women in their societies, in contrast to the men and their own effort in other

discourses of creative literature, especially fiction writing. At the same time, the paper argues

that ethical considerations pertaining to the evaluative reading of life writing itself, as well as

the consequent reluctance of the individual women to openly render their subjectivity, may be

more to blame than creative or cognitive limitations.

Women and Life Writing

Introducing one of the earliest critical reviews on women life writing, Mason (1980:207)

quotes Margaret Cavendish‘s famous question, with which she began her autobiography,

―Why hath this lady writ her own life?‖ The question was not irrelevant, as Cavendish

expected that when the book, True Relation of My Birth, Breeding and Life, was first

published in 1656 her readers (who were overwhelmingly men) would set loose their

―carping tongues‖ in that direction, and many ―malicious censurers‖ would want to

―scornfully‖ enquire in that regard. Furthermore, Mason thinks Cavendish was echoing Dame

Julian of Norwich, ―the first English woman to protest that she would speak out about

herself‖ nearly three hundred years earlier. When she wrote her own personal history Dame

Julian had also asked, ―But because I am a woman, ought I therefore to believe that I should

not tell you of the goodness of God, when I saw at the same time that it is his will that it be

known?‖ (Mason, 1980:207)

More than four hundred years later, women life writing is still not totally free of this concern

for its particularity, and about why the women ‗writ their own life‘, as demonstrated by the

recent theoretical thinking, and the countless critical publications on the subject. These

include the prolific works of Sidonie Smith, comprising her A Poetics of Women‟s

Autobiography: Marginality and the Fictions of Self-Representation (1987), and (with Julia

Watson) De/Colonising the Subject: The Politics of Gender in Women‟s Autobiography

(1992) and Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader (1998); as well as Shari Benstock‘s

collection, The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women‟s Autobiographical Writings

(1988), Francoise Lionnet‘s Postcolonial Representations: Women, Literature, Identity

(1995), and Gillian Whitlock‘s The Intimate Empire: Reading Women's Autobiography

(2000). Indeed, the more recent feminist critics specifically have helped to bring out what

Culley and Styler (2011) in their review call the ―inadequacy of individualism‖ in

understanding the traditions of women‘s life writing, ―both in terms of their textual forms and

conceptions of personal identity‖.

In fact, in the case of autobiography specifically, the poststructuralist and psychoanalytic

approaches have gone further to question the ‗essential concept of selfhood‘ that initially

gave the discourse root, by putting under scrutiny the autobiographical subject‘s ability to

represent itself in the enterprise. For example, as Smith puts it in his study on the impact of

the deconstructionist theory on self construction, Derrida and Autobiography (1996), for the

self to represent itself in order to constitute itself, the autobiographical subject needs language

as a means of representation. But if that is all it has to depend on for its identity and impact,

then it would have lost its hold and independence; consequently, the ―‗I‘ ends up not only as

political and philosophical delusion but as a linguistic one too‖ (Smith, 1996:58). This would

also appear to signal the beginning as well as the end for the discourse, since it means the

complete ―dismantling of the autobiographical subject‖, for both male and female

autobiographers.

Life Writing and Subjectivity

Thus, for critics of the African autobiography or Africans involved in writing their own lives,

having recently awoken to the mass appeal of the discourse within their societies, the

intractable problem would then be how to define the writers‘ personal identity within the

context of ―something that…doesn‘t essentially exist‖, as Berger (2010:34) puts it.

Nonetheless, a consideration of the extant arguments by other critics, especially those

projected within the precept of post-colonialism, reduce the complications to a single factor:

the autobiography is simply the record of the writer‘s consciousness in response to the

nagging enquiries engendered by his/her problematic self. This would appear to allow just

about anyone able to ask, ‗Who am I?‘, the complete right to an autobiography, without, in

the case of the post-colonial of either gender, becoming an ‗ethnographic object‘ (Spivak,

1990).

The argument holds significant implications for the study of life writing in general, because

subjectivity itself, rather than its expression, becomes the focus in the discourse, a situation

which would have otherwise kept it ―imprisoned by language‖ (Berger, 2010:35). As Smith

and Watson (2010) further explain, this reconceptualisation of subjectivity and the

dismantling of the previous ‗structures of exclusion‘ now enable a fresh consideration to be

made of the issue of life expression in all discourses and societies across time, especially in

Africa. After all, as Young (2003:2) summarises it, ―Post-colonialism claims the right of all

people on this earth to the same material and cultural well-being‖.

Women and Life Writing in Nigeria

In Nigeria in particular it allows unfettered investigation for formal expressions of

subjectivity in the country‘s oldest available records of literacy and literary writing,

beginning with the scholars of the Sokoto Caliphate, as examplified by Nana Asma‘u Usman

Danfodiyo (1793 – 1865). Not only was she among the prolific scholars of the caliphate, but

was also one of the most outstanding intellectuals of Nineteenth Century Africa, as detailed

in Jean Boyd‘s biography, The Caliph‟s Sister: Nana Asma‟u, 1793-1865, Teacher, Poet and

Islamic Leader (1987). Influenced by ethical and literary considerations of their time, which

discounted direct self projection, the scholars had normally expressed subjectivity in their

literary writings through casting the personal and public values of others, mostly in lenghty

and emotional elegies. This method is described by Miller (1997:10) in her analysis of the

works of N‘Diaye, the Senegalese essay writer, as a special technique in which ―writing

about others andotherness becomes a kind of self-writing, as the narrator examines

similarities, differences, connections and gaps, and situates herself in relationship to them.‖

In this regard,Nana Asma‘u‘s favourite style was the elegy; out of the sixty-six recovered

works published by Boyd and Mark in their Collected Works of Nana Asma‟u, Daughter of

Usman Dan Fodiyo (1999), at least twenty-two are elegies; eight others are panegyric odes

dedicated to the remembrance of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and other

prominent figures in Islamic history. As demonstrated in a separate study (Tsiga, 2011), the

numerous elegies were composed to commemorate some family members and other local

companions in tribute to their learning, values and individual contributions in the affairs of

the society. Collectively, they display an awareness for the value of subjectivity, and the

―crytallisation of the innate and commemorative impulse that normally lies behind all life

writing‖. Indeed, Nana Asma‘u was adjudged to be quite famous for her mediating use of the

elegy in her literary writings to express her subjectivity, ―proving to be one of the most

prolific lament writers of her time‖ (Mark and Boyd, 2000:85).

Surprisingly, more than two hundred years later, such expression of subjectivity by the

women has not blossomed into any notable tradition, because the proportion of women life

writing in Nigeria today is still disappointingly low, when compared to either the voluminous

works of the men or the notable effort of the women themselves in other literary discourses,

especially prose fiction. Only a handful of women have so far ventured to write about

themselves or the lives of other women. Of course, considering the close affinity between the

historical facts of the subject‘s life and the literary life constructed in life writing, one could

make allowance for the unimpressive performance, since the women have often contended

with different realities in their lives. As the social psychologists, Baron,Branscome and Byrne

(2009:131) conclude in their joint study, ―Because women occupy positions of lower status

and are frequently targets of prejudice, their social structural position should have negative

consequences for their self-esteem.‖ This goes further to support Floyd‘s (2010) summary of

women‘s life writing as ―a bewildering labyrinth full of political pitfalls; uncertain subjects

and subjectivities; confused histories; and pedagogical perils.‖

Ironically, this comes at the peak of life writing activity in Nigeria, because the last three

decades in particular have been by far the richest and most varied in the country‘s history,

with the publication of hundreds of titles on the lives of different individuals from all parts of

the country. In fact, Nigerian life storiescan now be arranged into five broad sub-categories,

made up of the pre-colonial subjectivity expressions, the personal writings of the early

Western-educated elite concerned with the disappearing past, the self narratives of the First

Republic politicians, the personal accounts of the Civil War military officers, and the

innumerable contemporary life stories about various prominent individuals and professionals,

either written by themselves or which feature them as subjects. The last sub-group consists of

academics and educationists, artists and literary writers, businessmen, doctors and other

paramedical officers, journalists, judges and lawyers, religious leaders, retired public

servants, traditional rulers, and sportsmen.

Reasons of space will not allow more than this cursory reference, but due attention should be

drawn to the fact that the proliferation of the writings offers a direct commentary on the

quality of the people‘s intellectual growth and the nation‘s changing pattern of individual

awareness and self conception. Actually, looking back at their history collectively, the life

narratives could be seen to parallel the country‘s growth and evolution as a nation, and offer a

special contribution to understanding the foundations of the Nigerian state by reflecting its

past, as well as the origins of its collective consciousness.

Women Life Writing in Northern Nigeria

It still remains awkward that in contemporary times there has been no serious life writing

from women in the vast area covering the old Sokoto Caliphate and the colonial additions

that make up Northern Nigeria today. So far, the only published work that relates female

subjectivity is Eugenia Abu‘s In the Blink of an Eye (2007), a compilation of the essays and

other personal pieces, which the author had disparately published in newspapers and

magazines over the years during her career as a journalist. Clearly, the individual articles lack

reflexive coherence in their depiction of the growth of the author‘s consciousness; the still

pictures they present only reveal her inner perception at the different times they were painted,

and whatever collective values they currently convey together are supplied extraneously

through partisan interpretation by the reader. In another paradox, the only other known life

works written by a Northern woman are Hauwa Imam‘s two biographies, both of which

feature men as their subjects: A Judicial Path: Biography of Honourable Justice S. M. A.

Belgore (2009), and The Banking Guru (2003), the story of a former chief of the regional

Bank of the North.

Why these three titles remain the only published effort by the women from Northern Nigeria

may be difficult to explain, although researchers have always been preoccupied with the

wider dimensions of the cultural elements that militate against the growth of literary writing

in English from the region in general. This concern essentially led to the first summit of

northern scholars and writers in Minna, Niger State, in 2006, where eminent personalities

gathered to discuss ―on the progress, problems and prospects of Northern Nigerian culture

and literature.‖ Many of the individual research presentations had sought to discover why the

―literary enterprise in Nigeria has progressed on a lopsided tangent, to the extent that

Northern Nigeria is deemed to lag behind, despite its long history of creative writing…[and]

in spite of the determined efforts of many talented writers from this region who have written

commendable literary pieces‖ (Isma‘ila et al, 2009).

While recognising the arguments put forward by the scholars, that there are not one, but

many factors that combine to give rise to the situation, it still does not explain why in the

specific case of the Northern women, whether literary writers or other intellectuals, they seem

to totally shy away from life writing, self-reflective or otherwise. For instance, Abubakar

(2009:23) has posited that;

The challenge facing the creative writer in Northern Nigeria today

is how to navigate his/her way through the turbulent current of

commitment and commerce, relevance to and affinity with locality

and the pull of international receptibility‖.

This is further echoed by Obafemi (2009:59) who observes in addition that nearly all the

publishing outlets in Nigeria are based in the South, and ―hardly establish branches to

promote literature in the North.‖

No doubt, an effective writer must be able to produce works of enduring value and profundity

that strike the appropriate balance ―between being local, national and international‖, and

which also attract sufficient patronage from ‗corporate capitalism‘ for their survival. But in

depicting the personal experiences and vision of an identified subject who is from a particular

society, narratives of subjectivity are unrivalled in literature in projecting the ‗local‘,

‗national‘ and ‗international‘ in a natural balance; and no mode translates ―aesthetic vision

into quantities of common, applicable or interesting experiences‖, as Abubakar further

advocates (2009:21), better than life writing.

Every life writing text is an exploration of ‗relational selfhood‘, shaped by the multiple layers

of relations between the subject and his/her family, peers, religious and political movements

and intellectual discourses (Culley and Styler, 237); at the same time, the craft also ties the

writer, subject, and imagined reader together into another fresh relationship. Through these

multifarious relational forms, life writing texts, especially the self reflexive accounts, have

often provided the platform for some social groups to make their entrance into the literary

and even ideological worlds in many social and political contexts, like in the case of African

Americans and American Latinos in the United States, and the black South Africans under

apartheid (Tsiga, 2010). Indeed, today one cannot imagine any credible gender studies

without considering the women‘s narratives of selfhood, as demonstrated by the critical

publications cited at the opening of the paper.

As for the critics‘ concern for lack of commercial support for the Northern creative writer,

one must admit the vital role that print capitalism plays in the development of writing and the

book industry. But the recent popularity of the home video in Nigeria, of which the Hausa

film alone generates about ten billion Naira a year (Abubakar, 2009:16), and the Soyayya

Novel that produced about three thousand titles between 1984 and 2007 (Abubakar, 2009:16;

Obafemi, 2009:57), demonstrates that there is sufficient commercial interest to lend support

to any sustained attempt by the Northern Nigeria women to bring out authentic life writing

texts, similar to that which is being given to their male counterparts. It should be noted that

nearly fifty of such male life writings texts in English have so far been published in different

sub-discourses, from Ahmadu Bello‘s My Life (1962) to date. Clearly, the Northern

paratextual surround does not offer the best to the prospective writer, but even the little it

offers has not been harnessed by the women in life writing.

Echoing Abubakar and Obafemi, Akosu (2009:37) further argues that it is crucial to

―remember that it is the place and society in which the writer lives that supplies him with his

themes and images, and provokes his point of view.‖ He, therefore, broadens the obstacles

against the contemporary Northern Nigerian creative writer to include a few more related

factors, like the challenges that have to do with ―audience/readership, a declining reading

culture, the existence of other competing forms of knowledge production and entertainment‖,

as well as ―security and instability, economic problems of author-publisher relationship,

language choice‖, and the ―political and cultural‖ climate. In endorsing these points

Abdullahi (2009:99) advances a more pointed argument concerning the ―abiding sense of

religious self censorship‖ resulting from centuries of Islamic cultural presence among the

Northern Muslim writers, which he identifies as part of the problems responsible for the

region‘s current literary underdevelopment, as ―the core Northern writers cannot avail

themselves of ‗cultural originals‘ that can be used as tropes, premises, metaphors or launch

pads in their writings.‖

Surely, these challenges have their impact in different ways on the sustainability of creative

literature in the North, but are not gender or discourse specific. Besides, the fact that many

male writers have achieved some amount of success against their limitations suggests that

their effect on Northern literary creativity is not total. In the specific instance of life writing

these apparent inadequacies could really have only marginal impact on the determined writer,

since they exhibit no hindrance to personality depiction and the expression of subjectivity,

even for those from ‗an absolutised society‘ as described by Abdullahi (2009:99).

What is actually perplexing is why the women from the ‗Middle Belt region of the North‘,

who live and write in a society that gives the individual a ―multiplicity of choices‖ with

―relative freedom from overbearing religious self-censorship‖ and ―frees the imagination…to

take up any cause, tackle the society itself from any point and explore the endless frontiers of

creativity‖ (Abdullahi, 2011:99), have also never exploited those freedoms to go into life

writing. Certainly, certain sociological indices have direct bearing on the writer‘s choice of

themes and their manner of depiction, but the apparent differences between the sub-cultures

of the ‗core North‘ and the ‗Middle Belt‘, as the critic identifies them, are not the palpable

cause for the silence among the Northern women from all geographical sections, ethnic

groups and social classes.

Apart from the critics, some published male authors of life writing texts from Northern

Nigeria have also advanced other reasons that often make the discourse difficult in the region.

Thus, Dambatta, whose autobiography, Pull of Fate: The Autobiography of Magaji Dambatta

(2010), has received warm reviews, in an interview with the Daily Trust newspaper

(28/10/2010), suggests three reasons that explain the reluctance of the Northerners to write

their personal stories:

One, is the [absence of the] facility for writing and research.

[Two,] The reluctance of many of us out of what I regard as

modesty, to record our thoughts because we very often think

our lives were not that worth recording…

[Three,] I think there is general reluctance on the part of people

from this part of the country about writing, largely because

we have not developed reading culture (2010).

The absence of a more vibrant supportive reading culture and facilities for research and

writing are pretty familiar obstacles to creative writing and its reception in Nigeria as a

whole, and against which experts have repeatedly cried out over the years; and are, therefore,

not confined to the Northern region.

Nonetheless, Dambatta‘s fresh insight into the discussion relate to his comments concerning

the peculiar case of the ‗Northern Modesty‘, a unique personality trait borne out of the

Northern cultural disposition, which discourages egotism and self praise. Kurfi also cites how

he had to conquer this self modesty to justify writing his own autobiography, My Life And

Times (2004), which he says he wrote in order to document some of the enormous

contributions of the Northerners to the progress of Nigeria, and help fill the gap in the

country‘s history, owing to the ―dearth of recording by northern leaders...unlike their

counterparts in the South who have written copiously about their exploits.‖

No doubt, as Abdullahi (1986:14) explains in her ‗basic personality structure concept‘

hypothesis, ―One‘s culture to a certain degree determines a particular personality structure;

especially where there is a strong value system being shared by that particular society.‖ But

the personality trait is not ‗blind conformity‘; rather, it is ‗an affirmation of self existence‘ by

individuals derived from the shared ideals of the community. In the circumstances, the

‗Northern Modesty‘ would affect everyone in the North in general, since the attribute is

shared by most societies across the region, but should not constitute a handicap to the women

only, if they genuinely wish to venture into life writing.

Where the modesty could really matter, however, is in how the prospective women writers

conjure their personhood when they come to narrate their stories or in assessing the lives of

their female subjects. Every life writing text is an ideological document, in which both the

writer and the readers are culturally and historically situated, so that the writer‘s ―notion of

personhood and the ideologies of identity constitutive of it‖ (Smith and Watson, 2010)

equally supply validity to its reception by the readers. Thus, the personality structure

responsible for the value systems among the Northern women, including the ‗modesty‘

orientation, could constitute a hindrance to the full disclosure of their subjectivity.

For instance, when asked by this writer whether, considering her tremendous life experience

and success as a novelist, she may want to venture into life writing, Zaynab Alkali (2011)

answers unequivocally:

Writing autobiography is a difficult business, speaking for myself. It is like a

striptease, if I am to be honest about it. Tell me, how many people would like

the world to see who they really are? So the ugly parts and bitter parts are

often either omitted or dressed up, and you don‘t actually learn about the real

person. It is human to want to appear better than who we are, because we want

to be appreciated; above all, we want to be loved. So, for Zaynab, no striptease

yet, definitely no lying or masquerading; only truth helps people to grow.

―Telling the truth about the self, constituting the self as complete subject – it is fantasy‖,

Lejeune (1989:132) has argued. This is because every text in subjectivity writing is an

exercise in life creation, in which the subject is ‗invented‘ to meet a defined ‗subjective‘

purpose. ―Literary lives‖ Mariani (1983:286) also keeps reminding us, ―are, after all, made up

of words‖. It is, therefore, quite legitimate that no ‗ugly parts‘ should possibly appear unless

they are intended to achieve a certain effect by their appearance. This is even more so in the

case of the autobiography, where it is the author himself that invents himself by himself and

narrates the story himself. Hence, Rosenblatt‘s famous statement (1980):

Whatever else it may be, autobiography is the least reliable of genres - one

person in relation to one world of that person‘s manufacture, which is that

person in macrocosm, explained and made beautiful by that same person

in the distance, playing god to the unholy trinity.‖

The other serious point denoted in Alkali‘s comments is the concern for the woman to treat

her life matters with confidentiality as they are not really private to her, because of her

relational involvement with her family and society in general. Many female colleagues and

senior students questioned by this writer in his university made similar allusions, arguing that

they would not want to expose themselves and their families in the text, when the social

context considers the affairs of any responsible woman in both her parents‘ and matrimonial

homes essentially confidential. To this end, although Alkali‘s views are personal, they also

point to a common justification for the reluctance of the women in Northern Nigeria to

openly express their subjectivity in any formal writing. The reference to the striptease dance

twice in the short answer above underscores the image powerfully, against what is generally

considered within the cultural context as an ‗indecent‘ exposure of nakedness before ‗strange‘

readers.

But while safeguarding self and relational confidentiality may be a general cultural trait

among a number of African women, it has not imposed total silence on them in most

societies, including the women from Southern Nigeria. As early as 1965 Mabel Segun from

Ondo had published her autobiographical reader for children, My Father‟s Daughter. More

recently, Buchi Emecheta, a very successful novelist from the Southern State of Delta, who

had written ten novels, finally came out to publish her autobiography, Head Above Water: An

Autobiography (1986). Previously, she had sought to present her own personal experiences in

thinly disguised fictional characters, but explains that the autobiography is ―me in the almost

Now‖, freely admitting that the novels were ―too real‖ and ―too me‖. Other less dramatic

subjectivity texts recently published by some women from Southern Nigeria include Irene

E.B. Ighodaro‘s A Life of Service(1994), Jane Ejueyitchie‘s Reminiscences of a Teacher

(1996) and Phebean Ajibola Ogundipe‘s Up-Country Girl (2005), all of which display strong

confidence by the authors in their review of their own lives and successful public careers.

Conclusion

All considered, therefore, it could be argued that there appear to be no absolute factors

against women in Northern Nigeria who wish to venture into life writing, except, perhaps, for

their own reluctance. The brief survey above indicates that the handicaps commonly cited are

not peculiar to the female gender, and have not barred their counterparts from the South or

the Northern male writers from producing in the discourse. On the contrary, the silence of the

Northern women is in defiance of the regular sources of action from the sociological

perspective that should normally govern the function of the life narrative, as argued at the

beginning of the paper.

Kerr (2007) could well have had life writing in mind when, in his lead address to the

fourth round in the series of the present conference held in Kano in 2006, he decried the

Northern literary situation and mourned the ―Stories in Search of Writers‖ in the region,

while making a passionate appeal to the participants:

I am worried about the numerous untold stories of this region. There is a clear case of

stories in search of writers in my part of Nigeria. Yet if we do not tell our own story

who is going to tell it for us? The peoples of this region must speak to themselves.

The talent is there, the inspiration is there; the diversity of cultures and imperatives of

integration into the wider Nigerian community make it necessary to for us to call for

more voices.

In concluding this paper, one can only make a similar appeal to the numerous participants

here and elsewhere in the North, especially the women, to take to life writing, with

themselves or other women as the subjects, in order to find a meaning for their lives as

women, express their individuality, preserve their historical circumstances, describe their

aspirations, defend their beliefs, educate their societies and project themselves permanently

into the indefinite future. There are many women from all social groups and in all societies in

the North, whose stories are urgently waiting to be told, ranging from great historical figures,

academics, professionals in different fields and political activists, to the older housewives

whose lives mirror the changing structure of womanhood in the region in contemporary

history.

Some prospective male or female writers or their subjects may still argue against the

striptease inherent in life writing, in deference to their cultural platform or individual

judgement. But the firm declaration by Baikie (2011:xii), who is from the ‗core North‘ of

Kano, in the preface to his own autobiography, Against All Odds: An Autobiography, should

give hope to all committed writers:

If and when these memoirs are published, whether I am still alive or gone, I would

feel much fulfilled, satisfied that I have discovered myself and laid myself bare for the

benefit of my family, friends and acquaintances.

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* Quotations downloaded from http//www.com.iwise

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THE PERSPECTIVES OF TRADITION AND RELIGION IN

NORTHERN NIGERIAN WOMEN: ZAYNAB ALKALI‟S The Virtuous

Woman.

ISAIAH, Adebola Ayoola.

Department of Linguistics

Kwara State University, Malete.

bojeluv@yahoo.com

Abstract

Tradition in diverse places including northern Nigeria has prescribed what the female gender

should do. Many societies throughout the world have for a long time relegated the girl child

into the background, a situation attributed to tradition and religion. Northern Nigeria is

predominantly a Muslim community; as a result religion plays an inseparable role in the daily

life of the people. The customs and traditions of the people- who are mainly Hausa/Fulani,

Nupe, Kanuri, Igala and Tiv, are influenced by the religion of Islam. Zaynab Alkali in her

workThe Virtuous Woman shows that the girl child should no longer be kept in the

background, hence, female segregation and seclusion should stop. This in turn would be of

benefit to the nation and a good course for future development.

Introduction

Women constitute more than half of the total population in Nigeria, according to the

controversial 1991 census. Prior to the 1970s, the role of the women in Nigerian culture was

fairly traditional. Women played the traditional household roles of mother and wife. In the

northern Nigeria, tradition and religion are not of much benefit to women as they encourage

male dominance over women. Tradition which is a long-established custom is seen as a part

of life which must not be separated from man. In traditional northern Nigeria, there is no

separation between the laws governing secular and spiritual spheres.

Religion in Nigeria helps to accentuate regional and ethnic distinctions. Religious affiliation

in Nigeria is strongly related to ethnicity, with rather distinct regional divisions between

ethnic groups. The northern states dominated by the Hausa and Fulani groups are

predominantly Muslim, while the southern ethnic groups have a large number of Christians.

Islam dominates the north and majority of the northerners are Muslims.

This paper attempts to discuss the situation of northern Nigerian women in relation to

tradition and culture amongst other aspects of life, as portrayed in The Virtuous Womanby

Zaynab Alkali.

Theoretical Framework

This is an extrinsically motivated analysis of Zaynab Alkali‘s,The Virtuous Woman.

Therefore, the literary text is analyzed as it portrays external reality, here the lives of the

northern Nigerian women and their society. This paper‘s brand of criticism is Feminism.

Feminism, which is feminist criticism directly, concerns itself with contemporary agitation by

women for social, economic, religious, political and cultural equality with their male

counterparts. The patriarchal society sets the parameters for women‘s structural unequal

position in families and markets.

First inaugurated in the sixties, feminist criticism proceeds from the

assumption that ―the history of all societies is the history of patriarchy,

of male domination and exploitation of women‖, a situation which they

claim has hindered the actualization of women‘s possibilities and

potentials in all fields of human endeavor. Indeed, as it is often argued,

women over time have come to be defined as the negation of the male,

the human norm whose characteristics include intelligence,

rationalism, adventure and creativity; women themselves have, in the

process of socialization come to accept their own denigration as true

and natural. They have submitted to the concept of male superiority

and eventually agreed to participate in their own subordination (Wumi

Raji).

The argument of feminism here is that there is nothing natural in this form of gender

segregation. The divinely ordained male dominance need not form the basis of patriarchal

entrenchment in cultural constructs.

Since the 1970s, the increased production by women in the economy along with the

influences of western culture has given birth to a feminist movement. Beginning in the 1980s,

this movement gained some grounds in Nigeria through dialogue. Nigerian women protested

that they lacked opportunity compared to that of men. Although this attempt was not a total

failure, traditional roles still governs the role of Nigerian women in the society. Hausa

women writers only began to emerge recently. Fatima M.A. Abdulwaheed‘sSo Aljannar

Duniya, happens to be the first Hausa novel written by a woman.

Culture and Religion: The Northern Nigerian Woman

As with many cultures, the role of northern Nigerian women is defined by history, cultural

practice and religion. Their role is subservient to the role of men. The socio-cultural and

religious background of the Nigerian society especially that of the northern states, accord

men more advantages over and above women. The Nigerian constitution guarantees religious

freedom. Native religions, that is, belief in deities, spirit and ancestor worship, are spread

throughout the country. The northern part of the country is not an exception to this as

reflected in the life of Baba Sani, Nana Ai‘s grandfather in the text.

Tradition in diverse places including Northern Nigeria has prescribed what girls should do.

Many societies throughout the world assign the responsibilities of preparing food and

catering for the family domestically to the woman. Women control most of the non monetary

economy, like agriculture, child bearing, domestic labour, etc.

All the dominant religions in Nigeria – traditional religion, Christianity and Islam- proclaim

the superiority of males to females. The law governing secular life and spiritual matters have

no clear cut separation in traditional Islam society. Religion sanctions the Hausa women and

forms the norms of the community. They cannot be challenged at all by the women as they

are expected to accept their fates. As with all heavily patriarchal societies, the expectations of

men and women are very different. For women in the rural areas, to consider any engagement

in a particular trade is taboo whereas men who do so are regarded as productive. The

traditional medicine practiced by Nana Ai‘s grandfather interested her, but it is regarded as a

taboo by her because she could not find any female in such profession. Modern day medicine

also interested her but in her mind, she cannot be a doctor since she was not a man.

―Perhaps‘, she said to herself, ‗if I were a male, I would be a doctor also‖ (p.10).In her young

mind, it is simply impossible for a black woman such as her to be a doctor. In order to

properly fit into the society, Nana Ai thought if she were a man her lot would have been

better. Another instance is when she heard the argument between the school teacher and his

wife when they needed someone to buy food in the middle of the night. Instances like this

made her wish she were a man. She thought it was only a man that could show bravery.

Girls‘ educational opportunities are usually guarded by patriarchal attitudes. If the father or

relatives of the girl child sees girl education as a financial waste, then the girl child is on the

path of illiteracy. Parents attach greater importance to the education of boys than girls. In the

urban areas, because of socialization and modernization most parents are enlightened and

know the importance of education for their children, the girl may have equal right with her

male sibling. But when there is a financial constraint, and the parents lack resources to enroll

all the children in school, the male child is often favoured.

To some people, investing in a girl‘s education is regarded as investing for the benefit of the

man or family she will eventually marry into. Take for instance, the case of the character

Dogo in the text, all the six daughters his wife bore were considered worthless by him. In his

word,―whichever way you look at it, the father of a female child is the loser. Let the girls stay

at home and help their mother, when it is time for them to marry, let them marry‖ (p.47). To

him, the female children are a waste. Therefore, educating a girl-child and equipping her for

the future is not as important as doing so for the male child who will bear his name. Whatever

attempt that is sometimes made by the mother of the girl child to educate her child is often

met with strong hostility. This attempt is regarded as rude and punishable. When Dogo‘s first

wife began to work in order to finance the education of her female children, Dogo punished

her by disowning the two girls sent to school and built a wall between his hut and that of their

mother.

The issue of marriage is another factor to be considered. This may be viewed from various

angles. In the northern part of Nigeria, women often marry at a very early age. This is

attributed to many reasons which include lack of proper education, poverty, religion and

traditional understanding of the role of women. Most girls in the north marry or are married

long before they mature. The society believes that is the most important thing in the life of a

girl. Nana Ai, Laila, and the girls at the fountain were already thinking of marriage before

finishing their secondary school education, at their teens. Most often than not, the resultant

effect of early marriage is not always favourable to the girls. They bear children from the

start of the marriage until when their own children are bearing children. Laila‘s mother bore

ten daughters and two sons! This can result to poverty in the home, the mother having one

health problem or the other and poor treatment of the children amongst others.

Northern Nigerian women often do not have a say in family planning. They are to submit to

their husbands‘ desires for sex and give birth to children as they come especially if there is

the preference for male children. They cannot make the decision as to the number of children

they want to bear or do not want to bear. To many, a woman having up to twelve children is

considered too many. There may be a risk to her health, but like the foregoing argument,

most women, especially those in the rural villages are expected to just keep on giving birth.

Child marriage, prostitution, polygamy (those discussed in the text) including genital

mutilation, widow inheritance, rape, etc. (not discussed in the text) subject the women to

various venereal diseases. For instance, Dogo who married another wife because his first wife

only bore him female children did not consider that his first wife was vulnerable to

HIV/AIDS through him. Because of religion, women cannot expect fidelity from their

husbands. Women are more at risk than the men because of their subservient status. They are

expected to submit and be faithful while the men go about proving their virility. Throughout

their lives, women are expected to bear suffering and humiliation in silence. This is what the

society expects from them when it comes to the issue of marriage. They also believe they are

doing it for the sake of their children. Dogo‘s wife could not just leave her home despite all

the ill treatment she got from her husband. She left her fight to God, which is a reflection of

the belief in God. Truly, the gods fought for her. Man‘s character is believed to be judged by

God or the gods. Dogo‘s actions or inactions were regarded as being judged by the gods.

―The gods are not asleep,‖ ―A man who taunts the gods will have nowhere to run to when the

gods turn on him‖ (p.48)All these are indications that some men do not believe in neglecting

their wives just because they would want her to bear them male children. To such men,

anybody who maltreats his wife because she could not bear him many sons will not go

unpunished. Dogo suffered for his sins. Some castigated the first wife when the second wife

could not conceive after six years. They accused her of witchcraft and said: ―We have always

known the first wife is no ordinary woman. Evil usually takes abode in the quiet and

seemingly patient ones‖ (p.48).This means that they faulted her patience and used it to accuse

her. The outcome of the two girls sent to school by their mother was palatable. They became

the pillars of Dogo‘s house.

Discussions of sexuality are considered indecent for girls and women. Nana Ai like most girls

of her age finds it difficult to understand some emotions. Parents often follow the trend of

tradition by not giving their children, especially girls, sex education. The consciousness of

being a woman meets a girl-child by surprise. In the case of Nana Ai, her grandfather who is

a traditionalist to the core did nothing in this area. When he knew that Nana Ai has matured

enough for sex education, he just kept mute. This action could be due to various reasons.

Maybe the grandfather thought it was not his duty to do such thing, as this is considered one

of the traditional duties of mothers to their children.

Another important issue portrayed in the text is the issue of health. Polio strikes and either

kills or maims children in the rural villages. Most often because of the strong belief in

religion or the ignorance of the importance of present day medicine, when things happen

either good or bad, people attribute all to fate. When Nana Ai was struck with polio, her

grandfather felt it was fate at work again instead of thinking that it was his failure to

immunize the girl before then. As treatment, he prayed ceaselessly for days and looked for

other traditional healers. Well, the gods granted his prayers and the fever abated, although

Nana Ai had to limp all her life.

Culture and religion seem to prevent women from terrifying or unpleasant situations.

Women‘s strength are seen or equated with that of children. They are considered weak. On

pp 63- 65 in the text, this is clearly seen. The school teacher‘s admonition that women do not

have a business in a chaotic situation is a reflection of this. Eventually, it was the men that

performed ―the saddest task of their lives, separating the living from the dead‖.

When the time for decision-making in an important matter comes, women only keep their

opinions to themselves. Men are the ones expected to talk, or talk first traditionally. Instances

of this are found in the text such as when going for food, pp 41-42, when deciding on where

to take the injured (p 65). Women only watch and pray, e.g. ―Oh Allah, not another storm,

not in this situation‖ (p.65)Religion plays an important role in the life of Nana Ai like every

northern Nigerian girl. Everything that comes her way is always directed to God. For

example on p 20, when her grandfather asked for her opinion of Boni‘s visitor, also when the

secretary punished them with a ‗royal‘ escort because of her refusal to take a free ride with

him (pp 23-24, 32-34).

The relegation of the female gender can also be seen in the mode of worship. Women are

permitted to attend public worship at the mosque, but their attendance tends to be

discouraged, and more frequently they pray in the seclusions of their homes.

Many women are particularly at risk of abuse at home, school or work,

especially in a society where there is a marked imbalance between men and

women and places where there are little or no penalties against such behavior

(Toyin Saraki)

Conclusion

Zaynab Alkali published the book to reflect the lifestyles of the people in the early 1960s. Yet

most of the things portrayed are still happening today. Whether Nana Ai eventually becomes

a doctor or not is left to the reader‘s imagination, but her being in school is a right avenue that

can lead to this fulfillment. No effort to curb or reduce the level of ignorance in the northern

Nigerian women and Nigeria as a whole can afford to ignore the influence of religion and

culture. Women must be empowered to make decisions about their lives and future. They

must be encouraged to resist religious, cultural and economic pressures to engage in acts they

do not want to indulge in. An enabling atmosphere should be promoted by the Nigerian

government. This may include scholarship awards, sponsored seminars, conferences for the

women, especially at the grassroots.

To be effective in the liberation of women, too much effort should not be on attacking the

aspects of religion that reduce women to the weak gender, but education and technical

development should be encouraged in females to weaken the stronghold of the subservient

nature of religion and culture on women to their male counterparts.

References

Alkali, Zaynab. (1986). The Virtuous Woman. Lagos: Longman.

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Communities, Nigeria.

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English Language and Literature in English: An Introductory Handbook.University

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Saraki, Toyin. (2011). A Paper Signed by her Spokesman on the International Day for the

Elimination of Violence against Women: The Observer.

Shittu, Abimbola. (2007). ―Violence against Woman and the Question of National

Development in Nigeria: The Example of the Drama of Zulu Sofola and Tess

Onwueme‖ in Zaria Journal of Liberal Arts. Ahmadu Bello University Press Limited.

pp. 64-70.

NORTHERN NIGERIAN POPULAR FICTION AND STEREOTYPES OF WOMEN AMBITION Dr. Halima Sekula

Department of English

Nassarawa State University, Keffi

Nassarawa State.

Abstract

The interest in popular fiction stems from the notion that they are a valid reflection of the

society from within which they are written because the writers are influenced by the day to

day occurrences and trivia that ultimately shape experiences. Like most developing and

dynamic societies, the Northern Nigerian contemporary society is undergoing socio-cultural

changes that would have far reaching effects on how people perceive institutions such as

marriage, education, and general social interaction. To a large extent, the popular fiction of

female writers within this milieu mirrors these changes and at the same time reflects the

ambivalence that is perceivable at the period of any great change. These changes include, but

are not limited to, even more reliance and emphasis on Western type formal education. This

paper examines the ways in which popular romance by women in Northern Nigeria has

attempted to explore the changing/desired role of women as formally educated members of

contemporary Nigerian society. The paper postulates that popular texts written by Northern

Nigerian women relegates education and empowerment issues to secondary positions and

rather emphasize the pursuit of marriage as a woman‘s ultimate desire. Hence three texts,

Silent Tears, When the Wall Cracks and Rabiat are analysed from the feminist literary

perspective.

INTRODUCTION

In spite of the fact that literary critics in Nigeria tend to ignore it, popular fiction in Northern

Nigeria has witnessed a proliferation in recent years. This paper attempts to explore Northern

Nigerian women‘s popular fiction as it relates to stereotypes of northern Nigerian women,

especially Muslim women in northern Nigeria.

Most of these texts depict young heroines who tread the line of love with a perceived knight

in shining armour and the final destination, a happily ever after marriage. Thus this is a

discourse on the formulaic writing of female writers as prescribing marriage as an end,

almost to the exclusion of all other aspects of human endeavours such as a career or

economic empowerment.

Popular fiction from the premise of this paper refers to those texts that are regarded as light

reading materials and which do not tax our literary intelligence unduly. They are usually

simple in their treatment of plot and themes and more often than not, characterization is

usually flat or stereotyped. The interest in this type of fiction stems from the fact that they are

often reflections of the society from within which they emanate. As such, the writers are

influenced by the daily trivia that ultimately shape social experiences.

The texts are often available and easy for both literate and semi-literate housewives and

young, impressionable teenagers to read. Women read these texts and more often than not,

tell their friends and peers the juicy bits and pieces of the stories. And because gender issues

have become an inherent part of the Nigerian literary discourse, it is important to study the

feminist implications of popular fiction written by women for women.

Popular creative writing by men has used the usual stock of good, bad, old maid, or hag

stereotypes of women in many of their fiction. Interestingly, female writers have to a large

extent also used, quite indiscriminately, the stock stereotypes they inherited from male

popular and mainstream writers. Therefore, the images of Northern Nigerian women in

popular fiction include those of meek, virtuous women, vicious co-wives, rivals or

stepmothers.

For instance, in Silent Tears Jakadiya, the emir‘s emissary for no reason hates Sansanatu

the emir‘s favourite wife and plots to drive her away from the palace. In depicting Jakadiya‘s

frenzy of wickedness as juxtaposed against queen Sansanatu‘s goodness, gentleness and

amiability. Wada Ahmed the writer, forces the reader to take sides.

What this means is that ‗good‘ is usually depicted as passive, meek and weak while bad is

actively vicious. Therefore if good is stereotyped as meek and weak, in taking sides, (usually

the side of the ‗good‘ character) there could be a subconscious effort on the part of the reader

to adopt meekness in behavioral attitude. Hence the socialization of women as weak and

meek is a process which could and does find support in the popular fiction of Northern

Nigerian women. This means that these female popular writers, in employing their art and

through their characterization weaken perceptions of women‘s strength.

Molara Ogundipe-Leslie (1987) posits that the predominant image of women in African

literature is that of lover. She asserts: ―In addition to the … ‗houri‘ stereotypes of the African

woman, we may consider stereotypes of the ‗sophisticated‘ city girl and the rural woman…

Both figures are often shallow, exaggerated and false. This is true of the central characters of

the texts under discussion. In these texts, apart from being exaggerated stereotypes, these

characters‘ actions often misrepresent contemporary Muslim women‘s preoccupation.

This is because like most developing and dynamic societies, Northern Nigerian

contemporary society is undergoing socio-cultural changes that would in all probability have

far reaching effects on how its people perceive cultural factors such as marriage, formal

education and generally, social interaction. However, these social conflicts are reduced to

individual‘s attempt to achieve a blissful marriage.

In this context, the resolutions at the end of the novels usually proffer simplistic solutions to

complex issues of human existence. The female character is portrayed as born half-finished

and only a merger with an appropriate hero can complete her.

The issues raised are not overtly religious but, the three novels used in this analysis are

written by Muslim women and attempt to contextualize issues relevant to Muslim women in

northern Nigeria. However, within the context of the novels, the writers depict Muslim

women as concerned with only how they achieve marriages or revert problematic marriages

to happy marriages. The novels‘ themes centre on themes of love in different ramifications

such as romantic love, impaired love or loveless marriages. In fact, love in the texts is

thematized and depicted from the perspective of woman as receiver of attention: A person

who is only able to win love as results of her cultural and social correctness and in these texts

this social appropriateness translates into a woman with a non-assertive nature.

The three texts chosen deal respectively with teenage courtship, divorce and its socio cultural

implications in northern Nigeria and lastly, the role and place of the woman in a polygamous

marriage. Silent Tears by Talatu Wada Ahmed traces the travails of a teenage girl in her

attempts to achieve success in life. Born to a mentally deranged mother, this girl is raised in

the Palace of the emir of Kainuwa. Because of her extra ordinary beauty, the prince falls in

love with her and against all odds they succeed in getting married. Now, in the context of this

paper, the important factor lies in the fact that almost from her first year in secondary school,

Nana is continually sensitized on the need to acquire a suitable marriage partner. Thus her

educational achievements are described in such words:

In school Nana‘s report was appreciable, but it was in hand craft that she had

no rival; she stitched, sewed, concocted and created all manner of things.

(Ahmed 1998:64)

What the above quotation indicates is that homemaking or domestic crafts are more important

for Nana than academic excellence. Thus this further entrenches the notion that Muslim

women in Northern Nigeria are passive and not focused on academic excellence. This

emphasis on Nana‘s home making skills to the detriment of her intellect underscores Bell

Hook (1981)‘s assertion that most men in a patriarchal society fear and resent women who do

not assume traditional passive roles. In essence, Wada Ahmed in Silent Tears helps to

promote gender discrimination in her texts in order to reduce the patriarchal resentment of

non- traditional women. Hence the hero of the novel, Prince Sadiq Karim goes as far as

Oxford University in the United Kingdom to acquire a postgraduate education while Nana‘s

success story is her courtship.

By portraying docile and only marriage-oriented heroines, these writers‘ help to socialize

young female readers into roles predetermined for them by their gender. Paradoxically, it is

the often meek Nana, who perceives the plot of the patriarchal society in the text to marry off

every teenager whether she is ready or not. This little teenager not yet out of secondary

school is besieged by everyone around her to marry as soon as possible, even before leaving

secondary school. She fretted that her opinion had not been sought and in fact no one wanted

to know if she wanted a suitor or not. Nana is baffled by this frenzy of matchmaking around

her and she wonders,

Is it by force that I must marry? All I want to do is to be left alone, I have no

time for any silly love and if the principal thinks I don‘t know what I want

then she has another story to tell. (126)

She resents the fact that even her school principal joined in the throng of people pressurizing

her to marry the man who they saw as a beautiful catch.

In the case of Rabiat in the novel Rabiat, she is in an unhappy marriage but everyone in her

community including her family friends and well-wishers wanted her to stay in the marriage

so as not to rock the boat.

In all the dialogues in the novel, there is an underlying notion that for a good Muslim woman,

marriage and staying within marriage is the best option in order to achieve paradise after life.

As such there is a heavy price to pay when a character becomes deviant; this fact is

underscored by the travails Rabiat goes through when she leaves her husband‘s house after he

married his cousin. Rabiat becomes almost a social outcast and she tells her audience,

―People have seen faults in you for accepting defeat in your marriage,‖ I remember

my grandfather telling me.

―It is I, only I who knows what I have been through,‖ I had told him. ―Now that I am

as free as a bird, I feel consoled. One had to be in my shoes to know exactly how I felt

and coped.‖

…

You cannot deny that a bird in the cage is more attractive than the one out in the bush

can you?

‗With a coy smile, he added, ―And you did recommend Mohammed Highly to me

once, remember? And now that the bird is no longer in the cage, no doubt the vacancy

in your bed is widening‖ (p13).

Rabiat wonders, ―Was that an insult? Even her own grandfather makes her the butt of his

jokes. As a social outcast, Rabiat could not think of other options of reintegrating herself into

the centre than to remarry as speedily as possible. That is the way, in the novel, to achieve

success.

Talatu Wada Ahmed in Silent Tears and Mairo Mudi in When the Wall Cracks enthral

readers by thrashing issues that are already well known to the readers‘ socio-cultural

psychology; issues of polygamy and courtship. In fact they are not only well known, but in

Northern Nigeria the reader could probably be involved at some point in her life with the

complexities of one or more of them. Hajia Hakuri practices ideal polygamy by being a

submissive and uncomplaining wife even in the face of extreme provocation and it is written

of her that, ―Though she could not fault her husband in the way he treated them but she

thought he ought to have done something about her mate and her trouble a long time

ago…‖(p.7)

The quarrel on the opening pages of When the Wall Cracks prepares the reader for a division

of values into two distinctive camps. While Hajia Gogo is railing and ranting and threatening

hellfire and brimstone, Hajia Hakuri quietly locks herself and her daughters in her own

apartment, thereby limiting the scale of the quarrel, thus justifying her appellation. These

roles and characters are so predictable that it sometimes appears the writers of the three texts

under discussion are not even aware that there are other roles for women in the society.

Furthermore, Mairo Mohammed Mudi‘s When the Wall Cracks is especially relevant in the

discourse of female morality as depicted in popular fiction. The writer is concerned about the

conduct of wives in relation to their husbands and with each other. There is serious

disharmony in the Mutunci household because the two wives of Alhaji Mutunci do not see

eye to eye. In accordance with the unwritten law of popular fiction, the characters are divided

into two disparate camps the good and the bad. Hajiya Gogo and her children are bad to the

point of being caricatures while Hajia hakuri is soft spoken patient and long suffering.

Although, as is prevalent in many societies of the world, the social, moral and religious

norms of Northern Nigerian society, prefer women as married, because as Stephanie Newell

(1997) indicates, the African society sees marriage as a stabilizing institution. None of the

female characters presented to the reader in these texts has any dealing outside the home front

and conversely all the male characters have strong careers or businesses outside the home.

Furthermore, women are depicted as meaningful only in relation of their importance to the

male characters.

This type of characterization undermines the advocacy of feminist literary critics in

postcolonial Nigeria because women writers have a role to play in the continued struggle for

better cultural and social conditions for women in Nigeria.

While the models of radical feminist philosophy does not appear to be the answer to

marginalization and could even lead to alienation between society‘s disparate genders,

African women need a feminist literary awareness based on the socio cultural and religious

back grounds of the African people. But by portraying heroines who suffer when they

deviate from social norms and expectations, these writers neglect the fact that more and more

Muslim women from Northern Nigeria are acquiring formal education and are using it

outside the home sphere especially in the Nigerian civil service. This type of working class

Muslim women is reflected in Northern Nigerian main stream literature such as Li in Zaynab

Alkali‘s The Stillborn and Zahrah in Abubakar Gimba‘s Sacred Apples but rarely find a place

in popular fiction.

The fictional perspectives of Talatu Wada Ahmed, Mairo Mudi and Aisha Gidado rank

marriage on the same scale as the five pillah‘s of Islam, while marriage is actually, a very

desirable Sunnah (practice/tradition). In essence, by calling forth no new dimensions to these

age old dynamics, the texts and by extension the writers support the existing norms of a

young girl (at a sometimes heavy cost) believing that marriage is the only calling in her life.

Thus in the texts, the heroines after suffering many obstacles finally attain the most important

component of her existence; a man. We usually leave these heroines at the point when they

have just entered or are about to enter the joys of matrimony.

Finally, it is obvious that while the desired role of women in these novels is that of a pliant

and beautiful home maker, the hero is given the responsibility of being the savior. Rabiat as a

novel in its treatment of divorce as resultant upon unrealistic expectations of the couple, then

subconsciously reveals the inadequacies of assumptions of the man as a messiah.

Works Cited

Adamu, Yusuf, M. ―The Hausa Novel at a Crossroad‖ in ANA Review Review

October, 1994.

Ahmed, Talatu W. Silent Tears Katsina Nigeria Adeleke Press, 1998.

Ashcroft, Bill. Post-Colonial Transformation. London: Rutledge, 2001.

Chanda, Ipshita. ―Feminst Theory in Perspective.‖ in Henry Schwarz and Sangeeta Ray (eds)

A Companion to Postcolonial Studies.Cornwall UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Guber Susan. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman

Writer and the Nineteenth Century s Literary Imagination. New Haven.

Yale University Press, 1979.

Hooks, Bell. Ain‟t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston, MA south

end Press, 1981.

Idris, Aishatu G. Rabiat , Kaduna Informart Publishers, 1998.

Macdonald, A. ―Women Writing Africa.‖ In Suleiman Adebowale (ed) Codesria Bullettin:

The African Woman. Numbers 1&2. Dakar, Senegal, 2006.

Mejiuni, Olutoyin. ―Some Women are Stuborn: Power, Violence Against Women and

Challenges of Religion.‖ In Suleiman Adebowale (ed) Codesria Bullettin: The

African Woman. Numbers 1&2. Dakar, Senegal, 2006.

Mudi, Mairo, M. When the Wall Cracks, 1997.

Newell, Stephanie (ed) Writing African Women: Gender, popular Culture and

Literature in West Africa. London Zed Books, 1997.

Oakley, Ann. Sex, Gender and Society. England, Gower publishing co. Ltd, 1985.

Rajan, Sunder Rajeswari & You-me park ―Postcolonial Feminism/Postcolonialism and

Feminism‖ in Schwarz, H. & Ray S. (eds) A Companion to Postcolonial Studies.

Cornwall UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2000.

Skinner, Neil. An Anthology of Hausa Literature. Zaria Nigeria, Northern

Nigerian Publishing Co., 1980.

Tiyambe, Paul Zeleza. ―Madam President: The Changing Gender Dynamics of

African Politics.‖ Codesria Bulletin, 2006.

MYTH OR REALITY: THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN CHARACTERS IN KUKAN

ZAKI (THE ROAR OF THE LION)

Dr. (Mrs). Asabe Kabir Usman,

Department of Modern European Languages and Linguistics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University,

Sokoto

asabekabir@yahoo.com

&

Aisha Umar Muhammed

Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aleru. Kebbi State

Ibome35@yahoo.com

________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

The position of Hausa women like other African women has been identified to be such that,

women cling to cultural norms obediently without question; irrespective of the rights,

recognition and identity accorded them. The literary genre has also been explored by many,

to compliment, confirm or criticize this fact via its numerous genres and sub- genres.

Nigerian movies have been used variously to portray women in different light as characters in

movies. This paper attempts to look at the portrayal of women in Kannywood movies as

opinionated by some producers through a review of the Hausa film ―Kukan Zaki.‖ It will look

at how the characters, the dialogues, the events and resolution of this piece of creative art

serve to either reinforce or challenge the representations of women. Are these representations

―Myth or Reality?‖

Introduction

Traditional Hausa women especially preliterate ones have contributed a great deal to non-

formal education, to folklore and to literature. Their art was verbal (oral) and their purpose

didactic and moralistic. Though the father is there to give the child logistic and psychological

supports like comfort and security, Palmer stresses that as child bearers, women are pivotal to

the literal survival of community and societal norms (40); it is the mother who takes care of

the child, moulds its character and ensures that the child conforms to societal norms and

values. The realistic fact is that male African artists had been in the literary scene long before

women started; as a consequence of the ―male-dominated literary tradition, many of the

depictions of African women are reductive-perpetuating popular myths of female

subordination‖ (Kumah 6), thus the portrayals of women characters in literary works have

been biased. It is a presentation of beings that have to conform to laid down societal norms

or be condemned for ever. They create female characters who are satisfied with the

subjugated roles assigned them by the society.

The theme of womanhood is a recurring one in Hausa movies popularly known as

Kannywood films, a medium which has taken the Nigerian media scene by storm in recent

times. Like every other cultural norm, Hausa movies are the creation of the society and

women are portrayed and depicted variously in these movies according to the role and

position they occupy or are expected to occupy in the society. It is a well-known fact that

these movies are today dominated by stereotyped portrayals of gender relations and negative

images of women. In these movies, women have been portrayed variously by producers and

directors as mothers, wives, girlfriends, goodtime girls, free women, prostitutes etc.

Alongside these portrayals they are either depicted as loose, wicked, jealous, envious, greedy

etc.; and sometime in a more positive light they are depicted as kind, caring and loving.

These portrayals of women may not be unconnected to the fact that Hausa society like other

African societies is male dominated. The men make the laws and take decisions on almost

every issue. A woman is supposed to be unseen and unheard. The woman is always at fault

when things go wrong. When she quarrels with her husband, her parents as well as his parents

blame her. When she quarrels with his relations or friends, she is blamed, because she is

viewed badly by the society.

The movie Kukan Zaki portrays the extent to which women can go to due to jealousy. The

Hausa family life being polygamous by nature tends to be characterized by problems

andmisunderstandings among co-wives. A senior wife tends to be hostile toward the junior

one or vice versa. Are these projections realities or only myths to conform to Hausa societal

values of the place of women in society? These issues we intend to address in the analysis of

the movie Kukan Zaki.

Theoretical Frame Work

This paper intends to use the New Historicism theory to explore the depiction of women

characters in the Hausa movie Kukan Zaki. The theory while acknowledging the significance

of a work of art in critical analysis also advocate that the critic should go an extra mile in

looking at the historical background against which the text is written. Therefore, the basic

significance of specific social context like the characters, events, time, place and language in

a piece of creative work should be central to the creative work and should not only be tied to

the cultural, traditional, political and economic practices or events from the time period in

which it was written, but should also be part of the interpretation process (Greenblatt, 1980;

Vessers, 1989; Montrose, 1992; Brannigan, 1998;). It is our belief that by analyzing the

Hausa movie Kukan Zaki in line with this theory, we will be able to either reinforce or

challenge the representations of women.

The Film: Kukan Zaki

The film Kukan Zaki is produced by Sani Musa Danja and directed by Yakubu Muhammad.

It is a 2007 production of class two productions. The film portrays a typical Hausa family

setting. It tells the story of a wealthy Alhaji (Kabiru Maikaba), his wives (Hajara Usman and

Amina Garba) and his two sons (Ali Nuhu and Sani Danja). It also tells the story of the

travails of polygamy and the danger of family rancour. Alhaji‘s desire to have a grandchild

makes him vow to give fifty million naira to the first grandson (not a daughter) to be born

into the family. This pledge he told his friend who visited him. Unfortunately, the first wife

over-heard the conversation and when the wife of the second son conceived, the first wife

contracted the services of a shaman to suppress the pregnancy so that her daughter-in-law

will give birth first. The plan worked and the first wife‘s daughter-in-law gave birth first and

to a baby boy. Alhaji kept to his promise and he gave the cheque of fifty million naira to the

father of the baby. Hell was let loose though, on the day of the naming ceremony when the

baby was stolen. The rest of the film shows the efforts made to locate the missing baby.

Analysing the Female Characters

Majority of the characters in the movie are females and they all contribute in their respective

ways to aggravate the crisis/conflict of the movie which is the issue of the missing child until

the resolution of the conflict and the discovery of the whereabouts of the missing child. None

of the women was presented in good light. They were quarrelsome, diabolic, hypocritical or

wicked.

Hajiya Kulu.

Hajiya Kulu (Amina Garba) is one of the wives of Alhaji. Though not specifically named as

the first wife, she is the mother of Ibrahim (Ali Nuhu), and grandmother to the stolen new-

born baby. On her way to the kitchen, she overheard her husband‘s discussion with a friend

about his resolve to give 50 million naira to the first grandson to be born into the family.

Upon hearing that she began her calculations. She is depicted as selfish and greedy. Her

greed made her think of how her son could be the beneficiary of the money. Selfishly, she

diabolically suppressed the pregnancy of her step son‘s wife. She even brags of her success to

her friends: ―I have dealt with them. Let me see how the money can get to them‖.

As a mother, she is displayed as one who fights for the interest of her son and grandson, but

this she does maliciously to the detriment of her step son‘s interest and at the expense of the

peace in that family.

Hajiya Kulu is also portrayed as inconsiderate. When she was told that invited guests to her

grandson‘s naming ceremony had not eaten, she spitefully said the door to the kitchen should

be locked and that ―no one will eat in this house until my grandson is found.‖

Hajiya Madinah

Hajiya Madinah, (Hajara Usman) is the other wife of Alhaji and the mother of Khalil (Sani

Danja). She was portrayed as an understanding and good character at the beginning of the

movie. She and her son are the victims of the evil doing of her co-wife and the crisis of the

missing baby. Even when Saratu hinted her about Hajiya Kulu‘s wicked acts towards her

daughter-in-law, her comment was; ―Leave me out of your scandals. I will not believe

anything you tell me. My belief is in Allah. He does and undo whatever He wills.‖ Even

when she was openly accused of stealing the missing baby by Hajiya Kulu and her friends,

she did not raise her voice against them. She only prayed to God to prove her innocence. Her

friends and relations did not take the accusation lightly and it resulted into physical fights

between them and the accusers.

Though Hajiya Madinah was portrayed at the beginning of the movie as both tolerant and

respectful, she was towards the end of the movie depicted as also greedy and inconsiderate

especially when she insisted that her grandson must also be given the fifty million naira after

he was born.

Hajiya Babba

She is Alhaji‘s mother who was depicted as fair in her judgment of happenings in the movie.

Against this backdrop, Hajiya Babba serves as the voice of reason; she scolds her son, for

pledging such a huge amount of money as reward for the birth of a grandson. She blames and

queries him over the crisis brewing in his family. She had the powers to do this because of

her role as a mother. In Hausa society women are respected as mothers. A mother stands for

traditional African society straining to uphold its standards against the corroding influence of

the west. In fact in Hausa society, motherhood is seen as the apex of womanhood.

Other Female Characters in the Movie.

Every other female character in the movie has pet names and no real names and they

epitomize one vice or the other. They all in different ways contributed to the crisis. They are

variously portrayed for example as gossips who gossiped about Kalil‘s wife‘s inability to

give birth just like Ibrahim‘s wife; liars because most of them testified to what they knew was

not the truth; rumour mongers who all helped in different ways to spread different stories

about the missing baby which all helped in aggravating the crisis. The movie also portrays

some of the women as gossips, as disrespectful, ungrateful, greedy, stupid, selfish, people

who lack priority, and wicked. They were all depicted as bad influences and company as

friends or relations to the two major female characters (Hajiya Kulu and Madina).

Saratu.

The character though a male is portrayed and dresses like a female in the movie. He/she was

depicted throughout the movie to have had negative influence on Alhaji‘s family as well as

on all other female characters.

Saratu is the Ungozoma, the mid wife. In Hausa society, the Ungozama plays a very vital

role. Apart from helping during births, the Ungozama is saddled with the task of cutting the

umbilical cord, bathing both the nursing mother and baby as well as preparing the special

gruel kunun kanwa which the nursing mother is to take for at least forty days after birth. This

very important task was given to Saratu. Saratu‘s role in the movie is a very interesting and

significant one. Saratu though a man, dresses, talks, walks and acts like women. He/she is

never seen conversing with men but is always found in the midst of women. Characters like

Saratu are known as Yandaudu. These men are categorized as neither male nor female but as

an ambiguous middle category. Salamone believes that

men who talk like women form a link between the old non-Muslim Hausa and the

Muslim Hausa, indicating where stress lines still exist between the old and new Hausa

identities, for the coming of Islam to West African societies necessitated a rethinking

of numerous cultural and social arrangements, not least of which were the relationship

between men and women and the organization of family life (49).

The ‗Yandaudu‟ occupy that marginal zone between old and new definitions of Hausa male

and female relations. As Gaudio (1994) notes, study of the Yandaudu sheds light on the

manner in which masculine and feminine identity are constructed in Hausa society, and the

ways people use language both to reproduce and to challenge those constructions. Saratu has

a negative impact on almost all the female characters in the movie.

First, Saratu is a talkative who talks even when not asked. Hajiya Kulu‘s friends even asked:

―where did you get such a talkative from?‖ Saratu was also depicted as a gossip. When he/she

heard Hajiya Kulu confiding in her friend her wicked act, he/she leaked it to Hajiya Madina

thus: ―you know gossips are of different kinds? There are those that bring about good tidings

while others deserve only to be heard. I will tell you the bit I have due to the care I have for

you. Though I belong to Hajiya Kulu, I just have to tell you to really be careful with her; she

used diabolical means to suppress your daughter- in-law‘s pregnancy.‖

Saratu is depicted all round as a hypocrite, pretender, mischief maker and above all a

betrayer. Though he/she pretended to be sad over the missing child and attempted suicide,

his/her actions lacked seriousness. The bad news of the missing child was announced to all by

him/ her but in a euphemistic manner. He/she was the one who revealed the secret of Hajiya

Ummu‘s plot to Hajiya Madinah; in fact, every bad or unpleasant story was spread by Saratu.

The Myth

Kukan Zaki is a movie which depicts certain stereotypes associated with women in Hausa

society. The film portrays the life of Hausa extended family setting where wives and their

children compete to satisfy the husband.

The African woman has been a very mysterious being from time immemorial. Her story and

experiences have been twisted and misrepresented because: it has always been told and

viewed through the eyes of men her assumed superiors. ―Women…are defined… by their

relations to men. They are someone‘s daughter, wife or mother, shadowy figures who hover

on the fringes‖ (Frank 14-15). Other mythical beliefs are that; women are inevitable and

disastrous rivals of each other; men are not to blame for wrongdoings against women because

they have been set up to do so by women‘s connivances; all women are divided into two

categories – good/worthy and bad/unworthy.

In Hausa society, a woman‘s honour and dignity is assessed through her strict observance to

romanticized norms of wifehood and motherhood. The Hausa woman like other African

women occupies a special but, undesirable place in the world; she is seen and treated as

inferior because of cultural and traditional constrains.

One impression that has remained constant in the depiction or portrayals of women either in

literary works or artistic endeavours is the belief that ―a woman is weak, naïve and negative.

These assumptions Danja like his contemporaries‘ addresses through his depictions of female

characters in the movie Kukan Zaki. For example, the first wife was portrayed as a greedy,

wicked, destructive, bitchy woman who solicited the services of a shaman to suppress the

pregnancy of her stepson‘s wife, so that her grandson will get the fifty million naira set aside

for the first grandchild. Her irrationality is also seen when she invited another shaman to her

house to identify the kidnapper of her grandson. The other wife who was portrayed as good at

the beginning of the movie, turned out to have undesirable traits towards the end of the

movie. All other female characters were depicted as social misfits and unworthy, just as they

are mythically seen by society.

The Realities

The movie Kukan Zaki like other literary pieces before it therefore reinforces cultural

stereotype of women in Hausa society. Polygamy is deeply rooted in Hausa land. A man in

Hausa traditions can have more than one wife and many children. The wives are expected to

live together in harmony. But like polygamy jealousy among the wives is evident. This

subsequently sometimes turns the house into a battle ground. Polygamy serves as an avenue

where women use the home front as a battle field and struggle for the husband‘s attention.

The movie portrays the man as the sole authority in marriage. According to Obiageli and

Otokunefor (1989), the true test of the woman continues to be the marriage institution. In this

closed-in arena, every married woman has to fight out her survival as an individual. The

marriage paradox lies in the fact that it is both sublimating and subsuming. Polygamy is

therefore presented as a way of establishing men‘s authority over women even if they are

architects to the unfortunate happenings in their households.

The depictions and portrayals of these female characters revolve round the house hold chores

assigned them traditionally and culturally. Traditional structures are a major stumbling block

militating against the African woman; a tradition which believes in the superiority of man

over woman (Omolara Ogundipe Leslie 1994).

Though about 95% of the characters in the movie are women, the reality is that, the conflict

in the movie is caused by the few male characters. Alhaji for example, is the root cause of the

entire crisis that happened in the movie Kukan Zaki. Alhaji‘s quest for a grandchild was not

for just any grandchild; the child must be a male child, and it was to a male grandchild that he

pledged the sum of fifty million naira. This pledge set the pace for the hatred and malice that

characterized the whole movie.

Saratu, the dandaudu, a man who acts and behaves like a woman in reality through his/her

hypocritical, deceitful and wily ways brought about confusion amongst all the female

characters in the movie.

When the baby got missing, accusing fingers were pointed at different female characters but

not for once was an accusing finger pointed at any male character. But what happened in the

end? The missing child‘s father Ibrahim was the one who actually took away his own son and

allowed the whole family, especially the women to be swallowed up by the crisis that came

about due to the missing baby.

At the end, the film failed to suggest any punishment for those who erred. Alhaji should have

been the first person to be punished, because he was responsible for creating the chaos by

giving fifty million naira to the first grandchild delivered. Saratu the dandaudu should have

been punished also for his/her role as a gossip, liar, hypocrite, betrayer and above all a

mischief maker. He/she it was who created the chaos between the co-wives in the movie.

Above all Ibrahim, who gave no reason for stealing his own child was left unpunished. All

these men went scot free.

The reality on ground that needs no argument is that, women generally are harassed by

tradition and culture, intimated by politics and subsumed in vulnerable patrilineal and

patriarchal structures which pamper the male ego. It is paradoxical that in such a male

dominated world, women characters in this movie are held up as the root cause of so much

destruction. Yet, these women have little powers, but are still brandished as responsible for

great wrongdoings. Kukan Zaki obscures these inconsistencies by portraying women as

caricatures of ―good or ―bad‖ according to patriarchal male attitudes. Bound in this situation,

women are isolated and prevented from utilizing their socialized traits such as compassion

and kindness to forge relationships with each other. Pitted against one another, attention is

turned away from men as culpable for staging and implementing criminal or heartless acts.

Viewing closely the episodes in the movie, it is evident that these women are entrapped in a

complex web of gender relations that divide and prevent them from uniting around common

issues of domination against them.

This can be seen from the title of the movie which is symbolic. The man is referred to as the

lion that roars while everyone runs or seeks for shelter or protection from it just as the women

and everyone else did in the movie in search for the missing baby.

Conclusion

From the paper one can see that though, women who were portrayed negatively as

quarrelsome, diabolical, hypocritical, selfish, greedy, gossips etc. constituted about 95% of

the characters in the movie; the entire conflict and crisis in the movie was caused by men.

These are either complete men like Alhaji and his sons or half men like Saratu who stood

aloof and left the women to dance to the music of the crisis.

In light of the portrayals we have seen in the movie Kukan Zaki we would no doubt support

Ezeigbo on the general portrayal of women in Nigerian movies when she argues:

as a whole the portrayal of female characters is unrealistic and

stereotypical because, major female characters in movies are

categorized into, those who are good and those who are evil.

The good women and they are few are docile, passive,

and extremely accommodating… the evil women are delineated

as vicious, diabolical and morally corrupt. They seem to have

no virtue at all:….men are more realistically portrayed, and none

of them is either totally good or completely evil. Their positive

and negative attributes are highlighted, making them complex

and more psychologically satisfying as characters (118-119).

Defending this action Taiwo believes: ―It is not because the male writers want to be biased,

but women are portrayed as they are because the writer wants to be faithful to the realities of

the world he represents‖ (11-12).

The reality is that women are negatively portrayed in order to appeal to the male-dominated

audience. Hausa filmmakers seem unaware of the shifting pattern in women's discourse

where women are seen as superior to men as well as performing roles that before now was

known to be in the domain of men only.

We believe that it is important for the media and literary artists to do something positive

about the portrayals of women in communication media since it is a very important and

powerful tool used for moulding public views or opinions which also determines people‘s

perceptions of social reality. We therefore agree with Chinweizu‘s claim that ―Africa‘s

literary culture should be de-colonized and liberated‖ (1) to the level achievable in a milieu of

cultural change. Despite these depictions or portrayals of women in movies, the most

important point is that, one cannot ignore the role/position of women in the society as seen

through these movies whether positive or negative.

Works Cited

Brannigan, John. New Historicism and Cultural Materialism. New York: St Martins Press,

1998.

Chinweizu, A. et al 1980. Toward the Decolonization of African Literature. Enugu: Fourth

Dimension.

Ezeigbo, Akachi (1996). Gender Issues in Nigeria: a Feminine Perspective.

Lagos: Vista Books.

Frank Katherine. ―Women without Men: The Feminist Novel in Africa‖ in Eldred Jones (ed.)

Women in African Literature Today. London: James Curry Publishers, 1983.

Gaudio, Rudolf. Male Lesbians and Other Queer Notions in Hausa. In R. Parker, R. Ide, &

Y. Sunaoshi (Eds.), SALSA iii: Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium about

Language and Society. Austin; Texas Linguistic Forum 36, 1995.

Greenblatt, Stephen. Renaissance Self Fashioning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1980.

Kumah, Carolyn. African Women and Literature. West Africa Review:2, 1. [iuicode: http:

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Montrose, Louis.‖ New Historicisms‖ Redrawing and Boundaries: The Transformation of

English and American Literary Studies. (Ed) Stephen Greenblatt and Giles Gunn.

New York: Modern Languages Association, 1992.

Ogundipe-Leslie, Molara. Re-creating Ourselves: African Women and Critical

Transformations. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1994.

Otokunefor Henrietta and Obiageli Nwodo. Nigerian Female Writers. A Critical Perspective.

Oxford, England: Malt house Press Limited, 1989.

Palmer, Eustace. The Feminine Point of View in Buchi Emecheta‘s The Joy of Motherhood.

African Literature Today.Ed. Eldred Durosimi Jones. New York: Holmes and Meier.

1983.

Salamone Frank A. Hausa Concepts of Masculinity and the ‗Yan Daudu‘ in Journal of Men,

Masculinities and Spirituality: www.jmmsweb.org. vol 1, No.1, January 2007 45-54.

Vessers, H. Arams.(ed). The New Historicism. New York: Routledge, 1989.

FROM STEREOTYPE TO INDIVIDUALITY: SELF IDENTITY IN ASABE

KABIR’S DESTINIES OF LIFE

AISHA UMAR M. KEBBI STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, ALIERO Email: ibome35@yahoo.com 07065744154, 08028409856. ABSTRACT

The social and cultural life of women in Northern Nigeria is viewed to be that of subjugation.

These women are traditionally not to be seen or heard, totally emasculated by the men around

them: father, brothers and husbands, as well as tradition. As a result, they have come to be

docile, un-ambitious and obedient, without question. Literary critics and writers have

presented the situation in different ways. These salient but disturbing issues of women‘s,

social and cultural subjugation, specifically in Northern Nigeria is addressed by Asabe Kabir

Usman in her novel; Destinies of Life. This paper intends to analyze the portrayal of the

advent of the new Northern Nigerian woman, who rises to face the challenges of life, by

taking bold and confident steps to live life to the fullest. It is a pro-portrayal of a woman who

actually knows what she wants in life and has the confidence to go for it.

INTRODUCTION

The question of Women‘s right, identity and recognition for African and black women

generally has come to be a major concern to writers and readers, actors and audience, males

and females, etc. In spite of the linguistic and cultural diversity in Africa, there is however

uniformity or similarities in issues or problems arising from these diverse societies such as

‗gender‘. It is not just for the sake of these common problems, that the African literary world

is passionate in its attempt to project ‗gender‘ issues, but also for the fact that,

It is important to acknowledge that gender is much more than a

psychological attribute. It involves a person‘s sexuality which has

both a private and public dimension and must always be

understood in the context of particular and changing social

relations between men and women (Graddol and Swann, 1993:8).

The struggle for progressive condition for women is not just in Africa but all over the world.

An attempt to define Feminism might not be relevant to this work, but one thing is clear:

―Feminism is not a crime for any one kind of sexual orientation and is not the reversal of

gender roles‖ (Leslie, 2009 P., 545).

THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN EARLY AFRICAN WRITINGS AND

CRITICISM

African literature both in English and other languages was in the earlier days championed by

male writers. But it did not take long for writers like Flora Nwapa, Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama

Ba, Efua Sutherland, etc, to come into the literary picture of championing their own cause

and that of other women in Africa; rather than let men do it for them. This arises because the

early male writers of African literature were never fair to women or rather, projected African

women if at all, as characters whose voices are generally ‗subsumed‘ under the massive

humming and bustling of their male counterparts. A look at Chinua Achebe‘s chain of novels,

(with the exception of Anthills of the Savannah) such as Things Fall Apart, No Longer at

Ease, Arrow of God and A Man of the People, can testify to the fact and one could be right to

say that his depiction of women lacks credibility, because, women are cast either as dumb

appendages of overbearing male protagonists or as bed hopping wives and courtesans.

As a pattern established by Achebe and his counterparts in early literature, the presentation of

female characters became similar to the extent that they became sites/signs that draw our

attention to the burning issues of the African society, as it relates to the position of women.

In Anthills of the Savannah however, the female characters created are substitutes for the

stereotyped ones evident in his early novels. They are self-actualized, focused, determined

and bold. This is shown in the female characters Beatrice and Elewa. Achebe is not alone in

this guilt because, in most early African novels, ―the female characters play almost no

significant part; if they are present, they are mere objects performing a function (Larson,

1971:149).

Ngugi, in his novel The River Between, presented women as ‗repositories‘ of ethnicity and as

―custodian of tradition and purity of the community‖ (Ogunde, 1999:108). Though here

womanhood acts as the buffer zone for ethnicity and the implied fixed identity, women had

no voice and have learnt to live in harmony within an obviously acrimonious polygamous

structure… they cling to the ways of the tribe passively and uphold the patriarchal structure

unchallenged (p. 110).In his later novels, Ngugi presented females with similar

features/experiences in various romantic relationships ―characterized by exploitation and

hypocrisy‖ where the rich men turn the poor women into sexual objects, commit themselves

to genuine relationships with the poor women.

The emergence of female writers, as mentioned above, changed the perception of females

both in literary works and gradually in individual social setting. But also worrisome was the

fact that: ―The discussion of African literature usually centers on the male writer and

character only. Lately has the role of women in fiction been of serious interest to the critic of

African literature. (Sagawa, 1984:164)

POSITION OF FEMALE IN AFRICAN WRITINGS

The female writers, have until recently been neglected, both in terms of publishing of their

works, recognition and criticism, while the male writers /critics portray women as

perpetrators of negative aspects of culture, confrontational behavior, aggressive, gossips,

docile. (Kassa, 1996:113), thus implying that women in those days occupied subsidiary

positions in the world of African writings. Whereas, women are supposed to be pivoted to

the literal survival of community and societal norms, the societal imposition on women

makes their self-will to become insignificant, even in issues of their individual interest. On

the long run, the entire female identity in the past and still in the present is based more upon

societal constraints rather than physiological realities.

Art is an instrument for modification of consciousness and organization of sensibility. But,

whether art is fully utilized by both genders in the production of culture remains a question to

be answered. The concern of the emerging women writers and critics, who are obviously not

amused by the voices of the male writers/critics, is that African women are socialized to

believe that suffering (emotional or physical) in silence constitutes virtue. There is therefore

the need to explode the mountain of negative silences that surrounds the life of the African

women. This can be done through writing whether fictional or non-fictional. Consequently,

the shame of humiliation and lack of identity will give way to the ―utterances of the liberating

words‖ (Finke, 1992:12). Women are portrayed not just as society perceives them, but as

society expects them to be (Fayemi, 1977:128). In addition,Finke summed it up: ―African

women writers are: ―the voices unheard, rarely discussed and seldom accorded space in the

repetitive anthologies and predictably male-oriented studies in the field‘‘(p10).

The early female writers all bemoan the plight of the African women, though they do so in

their respective ways. The few most established women writers: Flora Nwapa, Ama Ata

Aidoo, Efua Sutherland, Buchi Emecheta, Zainab Alkali, Zulu Sofola, Aminata Sow Fall and

a few others all air their views on the issues of gender and place of the African women both

in society and as replayed in African Literature. They all decry the plight of the African

woman in a male dominated society. Buchi Emecheta for example,

…bemoans, the ruthlessness of the traditional system in which a

women exist only to give pleasure to the man, bear his children,

wash his cloths and eventually receive his punches. She explores

this state of affairs which eventually corrodes the woman‘s ego,

depriving her of every human dignity and reducing her to the state

of utter hopelessness. This, she explores full in the Joys of

Motherhood and even succinctly in Second Class Citizen.

(Acholonu, 1998:220).

Zainab Alkali who came into the scene later and who is a lone (known) voice from Northern

Nigeria is ―conscious of and responsive to the fundamental conflicts and frustrations that

confront the emergent highly sophisticated Nigerian woman, whether she lives in the village

or not. Flora Nwapa, the first Nigerian female novelist whose works was published,

--- shows that women constitute an indispensible force in the social

and economic life of our society….. Above all, the works in

general underscore a fundamental necessity for the mental and

material liberation of women from male domination. This necessity

is the economic independence of women, (Mojola, 1998:127).

THE UNKNOWN FEMALE WRITERS

A lot has been said so far about the few privileged and popular female writers in Africa in

general and Nigeria in particular and their subject of concern in their fictional works. Hidden

in the background are emerging female writers who attempt to air their views whether of

personal experiences or observation about gender and its related issues. Unfortunately they

are not known and are hardly heard, as such, little or no critical works have been done on

their writings. It is against this background that this paper tends to study the fictional work

Destinies of Life (2005) by Asabe Kabir. An attempt not just to bring her to the limelight, but

to bring to the fore, her views about the plight of an African woman (Hausa) in the institution

of marriage in a typical Northern Nigerian setting.

Like Kabir, there are a host of others, whose works have not been studied, even if published.

An attempt at the study of these works will surely expand the scope of the theories available

on issues like Feminism, gender, women education, Identity and other related phenomena.

An Overview of Destinies of Life

In Destinies of Life, Kabir presents to us, an African woman that is intelligent, purposeful,

strong willed and at the same time, humble and considerate. ‗Aisha‘ as she is called is a

young girl who grows up with her father and hostile step-mother, she is obedient and well-

mannered. At a surprisingly early age, she is self-confident and focused, against the

background of her age and society (Hausa).

She stands up to Umma, her step-mother and her step-sisters‘ hostilities, and manages to

remain submissive and obedient to ‗Baaba‘ her father and other members of her family. At

the age of 16, Aisha already has the ambition of ―…becoming a lecturer with the fortune of

an understanding father as the only man around her, who is ready to support and encourage

her in her chosen career. The hostility she experiences is ironically not just from fate and the

chauvinist males around her but from fellow women such as her step mother and her

daughters on one hand, and Nafisah on the other hand.

Nevertheless, her determination to survive and her individualistic consciousness and

potentials serves as her propeller to succeed in life in every sphere of womanhood: daughter,

wife and mother; she displays an amazing standard of individual perfection and

responsibility. In line with societal and religious expectations, she gets married to Umar,

having recovered from the sudden death of Mukhtar (her first love) a day before their

wedding. But the bliss in her marriage to Umar ends years later when he starts to display

unexpected behaviors such as his marriage to Nafisa- his supposed cousin, which later

heralds other woes in the marriage. The death of her son and later her father only temporarily

devastates her but does not demoralize her or stop her from picking up the pieces of her life,

to continue towards her aspirations.

At this stage, it is necessary to acknowledge this new African woman created by the author

to pass the message of hope to every African woman enjoining them to explore themselves

to discover and utilize the hidden potentials in them .The author also does not condemn

marriage or submission to parents, as displayed by Aisha our protagonist as against the

docile, submissive, subjugated and dependent African woman who sees her husband as a

warlord or Ekwensi‘s female characters who are presented as prostitutes. Unlike her mother

(and indeed other African women) who was forced to marry Baba, her Cousin, ―--- had to

obey her … parent who had threatened to disown her if she refused to marry him‖, (pp. 12)

Aisha made her choices of husbands; no man was forced on her. Here, the author places her

above forced marriage. In addition, she does not get married until her ―-- second year in the

university‖ (pp. 27).

It is a known fact that “… the status of womanhood in Africa and in Nigeria in

particular, has been discussed in a number of ways to emphasize the discrimination, gender

inequalities, injustice, degradation, humiliation and dehumanization that women feel under‖

(Orabueze, 2010:85).But Kabir and her likes believe that ―--- after four decades of feminist

writings, the Nigerian women have made a giant stride in her socio-political and economic

standing in the society‖ (Orabueze, 2010:85). In line with this, Kabir justifies the need to

fictionalize the new African (Hausa) woman who is irposeful, confident, intelligent, focused

and stylishly independent; if only to inspire other Nigerian/African women towards self-

emancipation and rediscovery. Hence, she created the character ‗Aisha‘ in Destinies of Life.

The forces against her are both physical and abstractive (unforeseen), yet she survives.

Individuality is also one of the qualities epitomized in Kabir‘s heroine; she was lonely: she

‗… was deprived of a mother‘s love at a very tender age.‖ Her father was divorced from her

mother and Rekiya (Umma) her step mother hated Aisha … and nothing good or kind was

ever done to Aisha except when Baba was around‖ (p13). As a result of the ill treatments,

―Aisha became withdrawn and quiet especially because she had no one to complain to‖ (p.

13). But she was optimistic and assertive about the future that she:

…wrapped her loneliness around herself with an ease born of

familiarity. She forced herself not to think of what she was

missing, the love of a mother. She thought of what she could have

someday. She told herself she did not mind forfeiting adolescence

if it meant the freedom of adulthood, she alone will control in the

future (p.17–18).

This character is also very intelligent, smart and hardworking. She never took second position

in class but always came first. By her fifth year in primary school, she could memorize the

whole of the holy Qur‘an (p.13-14). She also passed her WAEC and JAMB examinations in

flying colours and later graduated with a first class honors degree in Sociology. She was

however, an introvert, and had no friends – she was never visited by anyone ―she was never

allowed the luxury of visiting her friends‖ (p.23). This loneliness was partly due to the ill

treatment of Umma, her step-mother and the after effect of the various traumatic experiences

she had in life. The only motivational companionship Aisha really had was from Baba. Every

other effort toward her success was solely hers borne out of the determination to succeed

against all odds.

She went into her marriage to Umar, believing that it was her ―final journey into marital

bliss‖ (p.43), with the resolve that ―– her marriage to Umar must be a success‖ (p 44). But the

odds of destiny worked against her and after some years of marital bliss, the abuse of the

processes of polygamy, rather than polygamy itself sets in to destabilize her home. Here, the

author bemoans the cultural interpretation of polygamy, rather than the religious

interpretation: a practice which ―humiliates the Nigerian woman, brings her heartache in her

incarceration‖ (Orabueze, 2010:87). However, in the situation, Umar did not see any

seriousness in the situation, that when Aisha returns from Jos unexpectedly to meet Nafisah

in her bedroom, Umar refuses to offer immediate explanation saying: ―I have told you to wait

till tomorrow. It is too late to bring up an argument. We will discuss it tomorrow.‖ (p. 69).

This is because he feels that: ―As a muslim, I can, so I want to marry Nafisah‖ (p.71), a

comment he made; ―--- casually as if he was telling her he had bought a new car (p.71).

Aisha did not deceive herself about the seriousness of the situation, neither did she wait to be

pushed around too long, before realizing that: ―Umar‘s behavior has shown that she could

never stay with him again and hope for happiness. With him, love is dead. He was doing his

best to kill her‖ (p.73). She however refused to be intimidated or made to feel guilty of

ending her marriage on account of a second wife and she explains: ―I am not leaving because

you are getting married. It is the way you are getting or going about the issue that gets on my

nerves. Why Nafisah? why not someone else?‖ (p.73). But Umar‘s reply was without feeling:

If you cannot accept my marriage to Nafisah, I think your father‘s

house is still open to you and am sure you will always be

welcomed there. You can move out whenever you are ready

because I will not tolerate your madness under my roof (p.79–80).

Her earlier decision to leave is thwarted by Baba, who believes that leaving her ―matrimonial

home at the slightest misunderstanding is a bad example a woman sets for her children. But

the events on the wedding day made her to realize that, ‗her relationship with Umar was over.

– Things could never be the same again ... without being told, she knew it. Umar‘s statement

has said it all; he did not need her any more (p.80–81). Aisha saw it as a personal

responsibility to take her own decision and leave Umar despite her friend; Jamila‘s advice.

And this time, she only informed Baba and did not give him room to stop her. She saw the

need to start a new life. When she was ready to leave, she asked for a divorce from Umar,

which he did not give.

Here, the author reflects on the enslavement of the Hausa woman on the issue of divorce. She

cannot just walk out when the marriage is no longer working, if the man does not grant the

divorce, the woman remains tied to that marriage and impliedly, cannot remarry. Here one

may question the justification of the fact that society expects the woman to solely shoulder

the responsibility of making a marriage work. In most cases, it is at the expense of her

happiness. In Aisha‘s case, ―she had sacrificed her life, her career, her everything for Umar

just to please Umar and to be a good wife‖ (p. 81). Moving out of her husband‘s house gives

Aisha, the freedom to live life to the fullest, the opportunity to be seen and appreciated as an

individual. With the help of Baba, she gets a job with Unijos which gives her the conviction

that ‗life would continue and no matter what, the future was certain‘ (p. 94).

Just as Aisha starts filling the gap of unhappiness created by her marital crises and life starts

to return to normal, destiny deals another blow on her, this time by the death of her son,

Ibrahim in an accident. But again this ‗flustered heroine‘ ―… resolved to face her destiny

with bravery … and never give up on her hope‖ (p.98). This is followed by her father‘s death;

the only man that had ever given her support and appreciated her. But though she feels the

pain of his loss, she says to herself ― whatever else the future has in store for me, I am never

going to allow myself to be defeated‖ (p.109).With this spirit, she survives and excells in her

career and is always there for her children and for Umar, even when Nafisah his young wife

leaves him.

Conclusion

The African woman is expected by society not to be heard or seen, she has no personality of

her own. African womanhood is one of imprisonment and enslavement, where the woman

has little or no status and no freedom of individuality. This is how it has been and how

literary writers have presented it, viewed it and the woman has been made to believe so.

Asabe Kabir and the likes of her, have taken the bold step of re-directing the personality and

consciousness of the African woman. This, she invariably achieved in the success of the

protagonist in Destinies of Life. She created a woman who is assertive, purposeful, bold,

intelligent and yet humble.

‗Aisha‘ rose to face the challenges of life by taking bold steps to discover the hidden/over

shadowed potentials in her, as well as achieve economic independence. The novel is a pro-

portrayal of an African woman who knows what she wants in life and has the confidence to

go for it. Despite the odds against her, she makes up her own mind with the support of her

father. The intention here is to inspire the African women to see beyond what the society says

of them, achieve social freedom and to realize their full potentials. It has become imperative

for the likes of Kabir (all unpopular writers) to be read, analyzed and criticized, so that they

can contribute their quota to the re-birth of the African woman and African literature.

REFERENCE

Acholonu, O. C. [1998] ―Buchi Emecheta‖ in Ogunbiyi. Y. [ed] Perspective on Nigeria

Literature: 1700 to the Present. Vol.Two. Nigeria: Guardian Books Nig. LFayemi, A.

B. [1977] “ Images of Women in Nigeria Television” in Karin B. (ed), Readings in

African popular culture. Indiana: Indiana Uni Press.

Finke, L. A. (1992) Feminist Theory Women‟s Writing. New York: Cornell University Press.

Graddol, D. and Swann J. (1993) Gender Voices. Oxford: Blackwell Pub.

Kassam, H. M. (1996), Some Aspects of Women‟s Voices from Northern Nigeria in African

Languages and Cultures.

Larson, C. (1971) The Emergence of African Fiction. London: Macmillan

Leslie, O. M. (2009), “Stiwanism: Feminism in African Context”. In Olaniyan, T and

Quayson, A. (ed). African Literature: An Anthology of Criticisms and Theory. USA:

Blackwell Pub.

Mojola, Y. (1998) ―Flora Nwapa‖ in Ogunbiyi; Y. (ed) Perspective on Nigeria

Literature:1700 to the Present. Vol. Two. Nigeria: Guardian Books Nig. Ltd.

Orabueze, F. (2010) “The Prison of Nigerian Women: Female Complicity in Sefi Atta

Everything Good Will Come” in Emenyonu, E. N. (ed) New Novels in African

Literature Today. Vol. 27. Ibadan: H. E. B. Publishers. Plc.

Kabir, U. A. (2005) Destinies of Life. Ibadan :Callop Publisher

IMAGES OF THE WOMAN IN OLU OBAFEMI‟S ILLUMINATIONS: SONGS, DANCES,

FROM THE BELLY OF TIME

ALIYU-IBRAHIM, FOLUKE RASHIDAT (MRS.)

DEPT. OF ENGLISH, FACULTY OF ARTS,

UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN, KWARA STATE, NIGERIA. rashifolu@yahoo.com folukealiyu.ai@unilorin.edu.ng 08033532259

ABSTRACT: Compared to the real and actual roles contemporary women have, and continue to play

in the public sphere, women in Nigerian literature have usually been portrayed as passive actors in the

criticism and reconstruction of society by the first products of first generation of male Nigerian

literary artists such as Soyinka and Achebe. There is however a marked difference in the portrayal of

women in the works of the second generation of Nigerian writers such as Olu Obafemi and Femi

Osofisan. This paper examined Olu Obafemi‘s Illuminations: Songs and Dances, from the Belly of

Time with the aim of investigating the images of women employed in the collection of poetry which

thematic focus is the positive transformation of society. The paper revealed that Obafemi, borrowing

from African oral tradition depicts women as active participants both in the destruction and re-

construction of society. The paper concluded that this depiction of women is in conformity with the

African conception of gender.

INTRODUCTION

The first generation of Nigerian male writers used their art to respond, first to the evils inherent in

colonialism and later those of the corrupt leadership that manifested after colonialism. Foremost

among such writers are Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe. For instance the role Segi plays in

Soyinka‘s Kongi‟s Harvest (2004 [first published in1967]) could have been more edifying but for the

fact that she is a prostitute. In Achebe‘s A Man of the People (1966), Eunice is the only female

character who is among the group that attempts to resist the ruling party. However, she is a minor

character who is given no major part to play. Eunice‘s shooting of Chief Koko could have been given

a significant social role but for the narrative‘s disparaging remark which made her action to be seen as

that of a woman who is hurt that her mate (husband) had been killed:

Then she opened her handbag as if to take out a handkerchief,

took out a pistol instead and fired two bullets into Chief Koko‘s

chest. Only then did she fall down on Max‘s body and begin to

weep like a woman… (160).

Such first generation of Nigerian male writings seemed not to have been inspired by real life female

characters in the resistance of oppressive regimes. This is in spite of the active roles which women

played in real life in the protests against perceived oppressive colonial and post colonial policies.

Such women included Gambo Sawaba, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti and Margaret Ekpo. Before them

had been the examples set by the women who fought the 1929 Aba Women‘s war in protest against

obnoxious taxation by the colonial administration and the 1947 Egba Women‘s Uprising in Abeokuta.

Therefore the first generation of Nigerian writers cannot lay claim to not having real-life models.

This is not to say that the writings of the first generation of Nigerian male literary artists were

populated by women who played active roles in maintaining these oppressive governments. Women

in such writings are portrayed largely as weak and silent either in maintaining the oppressive systems

or in resisting them. According to Okereke (1998) this voicelessness of women in literature is a

transposition of the myth that female vocality is subversive while silence is virtuous:

Paradoxically, women are stigmatized for being garrulous

and flippant, while men are assumed to be taciturn but pithy

in their speech. Vocality then signifies more than voicing and

means attention – compelling, ‗weighty‘ speech (connoting power).

And silence signifies more than voicelessness and means frivolous

speech (connoting powerlessness) (136).

However, the second generation of Nigerian male writers attempted to destroy this myth as they

depict women in active roles both in positive and negative light in their works. Although the emergent

concept was first used in reference to Nigerian drama/ theatre, today its application cuts across the

genres of drama, prose and poetry. The writers of this generation who began writing in the 1970s

include Femi Osofisan, Olu Obafemi, Bode Sowande and Kole Omotoso (qtd. in Obafemi 1982).

These writers have been referred to as Emergent. The paper attempts an exploration of the images of

women in the poetry collections of Olu Obafemi titled Illuminations: Songs, Dances, from the Belly of

Time (2009).

NIGERIAN EMERGENT WRITING

While Raymond Williams (1975 and 1978) may be credited with creating the concept ‗emergent‘ in

his theorizing on cultural materialism, Obafemi (1982 and1996) redesigned the concept to suit

Nigerian literature. Emergent writing is seen in opposition to the dominant culture which

characteristic is the maintenance of an oppressive status quo. Thus, the characteristics of emergent

writing among others include a negation and criticism of oppressive systems; the identification of the

people responsible for such systems and the creation of an alternative system which is perceived to be

liberating. The negation of the old order and the establishment of a new one are usually achieved

through collective action after a re-awakening and conscientization of the oppressed.

Several critics that have come after Obafemi have attempted to give new names to such a literature.

Akinwale (1993) calls it ‗protest‘; Gbilekaa (1997) refers to it as ‗radical‘ while Ododo (2004) prefers

the term ‗re-creative‘. Contributing to the debate on terminology is beyond the scope of this paper.

What is deemed important is the establishment of a difference between the works of the first and

second generations of Nigeria male writings on the basis of ideology. This ideology manifests in

various ways; one of these is in the depiction of the female. The portrayal of the female in Olu

Obafemi‘s Illuminations: Songs, Dances from the belly of Time (2009) who is an emergent writer is

similar to that which is discernible in the African concepts of gender and of feminism.

AFRICAN CONCEPT OF GENDER AND FEMINISM

African culture conceives of the relationship between the man and the woman in complementary

terms, rather than in terms of superiority and inferiority. In African culture, feminism does not preach

the hatred of the man and therefore is acommodationist (Acholonu, 1995; Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994;

Kolawole, 1997). One of the implications of these two features is that since the man is not regarded as

the enemy; it is the structures in the society that need to be changed. The African concept of feminism

thus perceives both the man and the woman as capable of being both beneficiaries and victims of any

oppressive structure.

The analysis of the selected text reveals that Obafemi conforms to these African concepts of gender

and feminism.

IMAGES OF THE WOMAN IN OLU OBAFEMI‟S ILLUMINATIONS

Woman as Muse

In ‗Homage to Ajon‘ (4), Obafemi adopts Ajon as his muse. In fact, the theatre group he founded in

the University of Ilorin in 1981 is called Ajon players. Ajon was the first wife of the first king of Kiri,

the hometown of Obafemi. Ajon is credited with beauty and for playing a crucial role in the creation

of the Olukiri dynasty. This act of hers earned her the honour of a festival that was begun after her

death. Her acts of courage and commitment to her husband are the essences which Obafemi, in an

interview with Ododo (2000), says have always fascinated him even as a child:

I always fancied watching an Ajon festival and it always gave

me some form of artistic inspiration. I see Ajon as a woman of

gallantry…The personality and presence of a woman of that stature

awes you. Whoever is incarnating Ajon at any point is somebody who

must wear that physiognomy of gallantry and valour (Ododo, 2000: 326).

Illuminations is a collection of poems which catalogue the ills of the society which the poet sees as

‗hideous darkness‘ (1). Therefore, just as some of the poems in the collection set out to show the

oppressed the way out of this darkness, some lambast those whom the poet considers are responsible

for some of these ills, namely the ruling class. Tackling the ruling class in this manner therefore needs

some courage, hence the poet affirms thus:

I borrow prologue melodies

Laden with the laughter of truth

Filled with the lurid lyrics of fertility

To tell the putrescent tales of the moment;

For only the light tones of Ajon‘s herald

Enable the arsenals and vituperation

That is my story (‗Homage to Ajon‘ 5).

The poem is incantatory and Obafemi seeks a re-incarnation of the Ajon‘s renowned beauty: ‗(Hail

Ajon!/ Avatar- Exquisite Beauty/‘ (‗Homage to Ajon‘ 4). Consequently Obafemi asserts: ‗But armed

with the witty wiles of your witty words/ I shall shatter mountainous myths built on dunes‘ (‗Homage

to Ajon‘ 4). The poet then attempts to do this in the collection through his use of imageries and other

literary devices that appeal to all the senses.

Obafemi also borrows from the song and dance aesthetics of the Ajon festival in his collection. In the

preface, the poet posits that the drums, the flutes, Agidigbo, the castanet along with the voice and

dance are the ‗essential implements for engaging‘ with the collection (Preface: vi). In ‗Homage to

Ajon‘, the poet acclaims:

I Strike/ The slender sticks

That summon the early morning melodies

On the wooden membranes of Agidigbo

Your rousing rhythm (4).

‗Homage to Ajon‘(4) begins and ends with a song which is celebratory and invocatory and re-enacts

the sounds made by the sticks used on the wooden musical instrument- Agidigbo. Aliyu-Ibrahim

(2010) asserts that the songs in the collection enhance the performance feature of the collection.

Woman as Activist

Obafemi in this collection presents the woman as an activist. Instances of these are in ‗Good Night,

Mother of Songs‘ (27) and ‗The Song Temopinni Left Behind‘ (95).

‗Good Night, Mother of Songs‘ (27) is a tribute to the late South African musician and anti-

apartheid activist Miriam Makeba at her death. The poem begins with a dirge to the departed singer.

As the living is urged to ‗raise a song/ For Mother of songs/ on a journey of no return‘ (27), the poem

moves on to describe the welcome being organized at the ‗Gates of Heaven‘ by earlier departed male

musicians who, in their lifetimes, had also used their music to seek for change. This serves as

assurance that Makeba would not be lonely in the land of the dead as she would be in the company of

other colleagues such as Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Orlando Owoh and Sunny Okosun. They are

mentioned as those awaiting her arrival with ‗Cee-Dees of the songs you sang/ Magical lyrics which

made/ Apartheid scamper for safety‘ (27). These lines change the tone from a mournful one, first to a

celebratory one and then to a tone of defiance. The poet achieves this by incorporating the lyrics of

some of the popular songs of Marley and the Black American group, Boney M, into the poem:

To emancipate themselves from mental slavery;

Crooning with your sisters

No Babylonians can stop the song

Of tomorrow‘s hope:

The Whalers wail not-

They shall wriggle with the wreaths on the tomb- side

They shall not blink at the boom of Atomic energy

As you soar with wings of a dove

Beyond the limits of the skies… (Good Night, Mother of Songs 28).

The poet praises Makeba‘s songs for having contributed to the release of Nelson Mandela who was

incarcerated in prison for twenty-seven years in South Africa for his anti-apartheid stance: ‗…your

voice… tore the walls of Robben Island/ And the madiba emerges‘(28). This is an allusion to the

tearing of the walls of Jericho by Joshua in the Bible (RSV Bible Joshua 6. 1-20).

Obafemi recalls Makeba‘s other notable achievements such as her impressive performance at the

Festival of Black Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in Lagos, Nigeria when he refers to her as ‗Festac

Mama‘ (28).

In spite of the fact that apartheid may have ended, a note of caution is introduced with the line: ‗It is

not yet Uhuru (28). This is however quickly tempered with another assuring note with the reference to

Makeba as ‗Mother of a thousand songsters/ Rising/ From the lonesome belly of Apart- hate,/

Building blocks moulded from your songs/ Of freedom. This recognizes that her activism has inspired

others in other struggles for freedom across the world. Hence the reference in the poem to another

activist, the African-American feminist, Alice Walker: Walker writes for your son Obama/ She writes

for you as well (29).

In the poem made up of thirteen stanza of different lengths, reference is made to Miriam Makeba as

‗Mother‘ (with Mama and Yeye being synonyms). The use of motherhood as a metaphor implies that

such a character possesses inner strength and is involved in the teaching, nurturing and creation of

humanity. Values associated with motherhood are ‗derived from ancient African philosophy and

cosmology that in the words of an Akan saying recognise that through the womb of the woman all

humanity passes‘ (Badejo: 1998). Thus the mother is perceived as teacher, nurse, and nurturer of

humanity.

In the poem ‗The Song Temopinni Left Behind‘ (95), Obafemi expands the picture of the woman

activist to include the non-educated woman of the older generation. In other words, women

(especially African women) of all ages and periods have always possessed the intellectual capacity to

protest, in various ways, against perceived oppression. The poem chronicles some of the evils of

colonialism. The colonialists had used the evangelizing mission as excuse to rob the African not only

of his name, but also of his/ her culture which to the African was his/ her identity. Consequently the

poem mourns that his grandmother who was named Temopinni was given a new name, Sarah:

The man of Mission,

After a fierce flung and fling

Dipped you in the shallow Arelu River

And with a sign of the cross,

Twisted your tongue, Grandma,

Draped you in a new garment and a new name:

Sarah (The Song Temopinni Left Behind 95).

The words and the alliteration achieved through the repetition of the voiceless fricative [f], suggests

some form of force on the part of the person carrying out the baptism and a consequent voiceless

resistance by the person being baptised. This imagery is emphasized through the use of the word

‗twisted‘ in the phrase ‗twisted your tongue‘.

Apart from this, the African, represented here by the poet‘s grandmother, Temopinni, is divested of

more aspects of his culture like his/ her job such as the mandatory circumcision ‗that carved manhood

into shape,/ Making men out of the generations of bare boys of Odo- Aofin‘(96). Temopinni was the

woman who performed this circumcision.

Stripping the African of his name and language and culture is seen by the poet as a way of colonizing

and totally subduing the African. Thus rather than the native language and songs which the African is

familiar with, ‗a Babel of adlibs/ Of Hymnals you could not sing/ murmurs and whispers of verses

you could not read,/ became their wily ways for your keeps‘. The allusion to the Biblical story of the

Tower of Babel (The RSV Bible, Genesis 11. 9) underscores the confusion that is wrought on the

African mentality by such a change.

The imagery of the silent resistance introduced early in the poem is foregrounded in the song which,

in an interview with this researcher, Obafemi (2010) says is a personal composition by his

grandmother:

Whiteman

Changed my tongue at Baptism

And named me Sarah

I ask you;

What part of my anatomy

Looks like Sarah? (The Song Temopinni Left Behind 97).

In this song, Temopinni rejects the new name because it is not reflective of her belief, her culture and

her history. The word anatomy (or body) is a translation of the word ‗ara‟. ‗Ara‘ goes beyond the

physical body or anatomy. It connotes the totality of generic man‘s being. The song is therefore

Temopinni‘s own way of rejecting some of the aspects of colonialism, especially the damaging part

which seeks to destroy a being in order to mold him/ her into another being‘s conception of

―beingness‖. This is a song which the poem claims helped those coming after to retrieve their lost

identities ‗from the clutches of strange verses and tedious hymns‘ (96) and the poem asserts that:

Many have found old ways,

Old garments and new names;

Adirehave crept back on our new- found loins-

(The Song Temopinni Left Behind 97).

However there are still those who have stuck to the new (colonised) ways. The poet mourns them and

calls them ‗new slaves to faith and to new lores‘. This can be gleaned from the insistence of such

people to change names that have relationship with African gods and other pantheons such as Ogun

and Ifa. The poet sees this as ‗All echoes of poor digestion/ Of foreign tongues (97). Obafemi

therefore appeals:

Go down the corridor of memories

And pick grandma‘s song

The whiteman dipped me in shallow rivers

Cleaned my tongue and clipped my name

And named me Dorcas

Yet,

No shred of my anatomy

Bears Dorcas (The Song Temopinni Left Behind 98).

Woman as Mother

‗A Word for Mama‘ (92) pays homage to the poet‘s mother and celebrates some of the qualities

associated with motherhood. Employing the imagery of a hunter in search of game, the poet says he

sought for an appropriate word that would capture the essence of motherhood. The inspiration for the

right word was finally got from Alice Walker‘s In search of our Mothers‟ Gardens (1983) some of the

words of which the poet borrows for the poem:

“How they know what we

Must know

Without knowing a page

Of it

Themselves” (A Word for Mama 93).

The poet commends his mother for imparting on him and her other children knowledge of their

double heritages (their Okun [African] culture and the Christian religion). Also borrowing Walker‘s

use of the pun on the word ‗know‘, Obafemi extols his mother‘s altruism in ensuring that they

received the Western education which she never had:

You knew that we

Must know;

You toiled that we

Must know;

You bled that we

Must know (A Word for Mama 93).

He realizes her love, selflessness and sacrifice for them and in urging: ‗Mama stay, Stay then‘ is

hopeful that she does not die before they can ‗show you a little from what you gave us‘ (A Word for

Mama 94).

Woman as God

„Sky plea to Mother‘ (90) is an allusion to an African folktale which seeks to explain the reason for

the rough back of the tortoise. The folktale recounts the story of the dog who tactfully puts his mother

in heaven rather than give her up to be killed and eaten as decided upon by all the other animals

during a time of famine. The mother dog at the request of her child which is rendered in a song would

send down a ladder which the dog-child would use to climb into heaven and be consequently fed.

Tortoise finds out dog‘s secret and in a betrayal, attempts to get to heaven for a meal without the dog.

He is thrown off and his shell is cracked.

However, in view of the purpose of the collection, Obafemi gives the folktale a revolutionary

interpretation. The first stanza gives a hint of the setting of hunger and want with the poet‘s use of

contrast in the dog- child‘s song to his mother: ‗Fatten your offspring / In the season of mass famine‘

(90). The second stanza strengthens this setting when the dog-child says:

I who have hidden you

In the skies

When others slaughter theirs

To calm the worms ravaging empty tummies

(Sky Plea to Mother 90).

The use of the word ‗worm‘ suggests decay and rottenness from the inside brought about by hunger.

This is a literary allusion to Ayi Kwei Armah‘s (1968) The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Bornwho had

employed the imagery of Rama Krishna who in spite of living a clean life, had maggots replacing his

vital organs. Armah uses this imagery of decay to show that fighting corruption in post-independent

Ghana was a fruitless venture. The imagery of decay in the collection of poetry under decay is fore

grounded in the third stanza when the dog-child is set against those responsible for this hunger that is

causing decay originating from the insides of the people. Obafemi calls them ‗scaly scavengers‘ (90).

In reference to the betrayal of the people‘s trust by a corrupt leadership, the poem warns:

Treacherous foes—

Tortoise of the grove

Have abused the merciful lead

Down mother‘s twine of plenty

A cracked back is his reward.

Let those who sow the wind

Reap the whirlpool (Sky Plea to Mother 90).

The poet then changes the song sung by the dog-child to: ‗(Mother,/ Coil your ropes/ Traitors are on

the prowl‘.

It is interesting to note that the rope of plenty in this poem is thrown down or coiled at the request of

the dog-child, and not at the whim of the mother in heaven. Thus the actions of the mother (or god)

are as directed by man on earth. This is representative of emergent writers‘ views of the relationship

between man and the gods (or God).

Woman as Wife

Obafemi dedicates one of the poems in the collection to his wife, Dupe. ‗You are the Poem of my life‘

(99) was written in the year 2008 to commemorate the fiftieth birthday anniversary of his wife; a

period which Obafemi calls ‗the Autumn season of life‘ (99). This poem recalls one of the qualities

which Obafemi admires in his muse, Ajon; namely dedication.

The poet contrasts different imageries to capture how life was for him before and after he married

Dupe:

Life, which now yields a bouquet of roses,

Was very like a forest of bastard weeds;

Life which is now a banquet of joy,

Was even like a bundle of pain

(You Are the poem of my Life 99).

The poet borrows the essence of her name in full and thanks her for the years of dedication:

Let me borrow your name then – Dupelola –

The wealth of gratitude –

To form the words of the song of affection

(You Are the poem of my Life 99).

Her love and affection for him are capped with the three children which she bore him. These make the

poet/ persona to burst into a song of her Oriki (praise name).

In spite of the fact of her being fifty years old, the poet asks for a dance to mark ‗the beginning of our

love‘ (101). This is however tempered by a little hint at death in the succeeding stanza through the use

of the word ‗eternal‘. Yet eternity can only be attained after death:

Let us dance

Into the dawn

Of this eternal wedlock (You Are the poem of my Life 101).

Woman as Artist

Strewn across some of the poems in the collection are references to the artistic prowess of some

female literary artists. These women are mentioned alongside their male counterparts. Obafemi thus

seems to be saying that these women are as great as the male artists.

In ‗The Elephant Went to Sleep‘ (20) which is a tribute to the Nigerian writer Cyprian Ekwensi at his

death, Obafemi mentions foremost Nigerian playwright, Zulu Sofola and the first Nigerian woman

writer to be published, Flora Nwapa alongside other great Nigerian artists who had all died before

Ekwensi:

Ogunde will sing the welcome song;

Ladipo will light the stage with Sango‘s fire

Fagunwa will summon the wondrous spirits to your side.

Tutuola will fetch the wine from the tapster

Sofola will wed you with the goddesses

Nwapa shall adorn the damsels with virtue and Camwood

Ogunyemi will hand you the boon from Langbodo

Rotimi arrange the movement

Munonye will fetch the Ekwe

Ogunmola will begin the dance ‗The Elephant Went to Sleep‘

(The Elephant Went to Sleep 21-22).

Earlier in ‗A Word for Mama‘ (92), we had noted the inspiration the poet/ persona admits he received

from Walker‘s seminal In Search of our Mothers‟ Gardens while searching for the appropriate words

to describe his mother‘s selflessness.

Walker‘s intellectual prowess is also mentioned in ‗Good Night, Mother of Songs‘ (27) when the poet

makes reference to her work: ‗Walker writes for Obama? She writes for you as well‘(29). This serves

to assure that although Miriam Makeba may be dead, there are others still alive continuing with her

activism.

In ‗Glow, Bonfire Glow‘ (30), the poem dedicated to another renowned Nigerian playwright, Wale

Ogunyemi, Obafemi makes reference to some of the female characters in some of Ogunyemi‘s plays.

Such characters, Obafemi assures, will perform the necessary rites of passage for Ogunyemi so he can

rest peacefully in the world of the dead.

Woman as Temptress

The images employed by Obafemi to portray women in his collection are not all positive. In ‗The

Mermaid Betrays‘ (72), employing the imagery of a mermaid living in the river, Obafemi casts

women in the image of the temptress of greed which lives in the belly of corrupt leaders (‗Big rivers‘).

He warns that this greed, if not checked, would eventually lead these corrupt men to doom:

Take heed then,

All ye Big Rivers

With seeming depths and unfathomable deeps

Take heed –

The mermaid in your belly

Shall drain you up to slits…

It is the Mermaid that dines in the river deeps

That belches up

The ignoble secrets of the River (The Mermaid Betrays 72).

To counter the darkness implied in the ‗seeming depths and unfathomable deeps‘ that habour this

greed, the poet advises the leaders to:

Open up then, can only be

When the sun‘s eye is lit up

In the bright skies,

The secret story of your reign,

And back it up with freedom

Right of access to the occult of your coded power

(The Mermaid Betrays 72).

Woman as Destroyer

„Mother with Feet of Paddle‘ (56) portrays the mother as one that is also capable of destroying

humanity.

Obafemi uses the lullaby that is used to rock a baby to sleep as introduction to the poem. Borrowing

from the oral tale of the caring mother Duck who leads her duck-lets from behind to protect them

from ‗black kites foraging the sky‘, the poem laments:

Who shall rescue the children of this land

From ravaging and rampaging mothers?

As the Ducks of this land

Ruin their Duck-lets from the front (Mother with Feet of Paddle 56).

Thus the mothers have lost the paddles on their feet which they could use to guide their children.

The use of the lullaby which calls to mind the image of a caring mother in the background added to

the image of a mother who has abandoned her children to become victims of ‗ravaging kites‘ (56) sets

the stage for the poet‘s call for the children to also abandon such uncaring mothers and take their

destinies in their hands:

But if the mothers of this land

Turn prodigal and cavalier

If they will not learn from the ducks and be wise

Then let the duck-lets rise

Let the chickens

Rally, gather their wings

And fly to safety

Then,

Tomorrow,

They shall return

To mark their fathers‘ homes

With a curved and index fingers

Pointing only at themselves (Mother with Feet of Paddle 56-57).

Conclusion

Obafemi in the selected text has depicted the woman both negatively and positively. This is in tandem

with the emergent ideology. This also conforms to the African concept of gender and feminism. The

fact that he borrows heavily from his Okun heritage- songs, proverbs, folktales in this collection may

be said to be responsible for this relationship between the emergent ideology and with African

feminism.

WORKS CITED

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(Nig.) Ltd, 1993. 12-36. Print.

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Songs,Dances from the Belly of Time‖.Special Issue of Us-China Foreign Language.

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Armah, Ayi Kwei.The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born: Oxford: Heinemann Educational

Publishers, 1968. Print.

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African Descent‖. Research in African Literatures Vol. 29, No. 2 (1998):94-111.

Print.

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(1982):118-136. Print.

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Bayreuth African Studies, 1996. Print.

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African Arts and Civilisation, 2000. 324-342. Print.

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Technical Aesthetics of Ebira Ekuechi Festival in Nigeria‖. Diss. University of

Ilorin, llorin, 2004. Print.

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Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc, 1994. Print.

Okereke, Grace. ―African Gender Myths of Vocality and Gender Dialogue in African Literature‖.

Gender Perceptions and Development in Africa: A Socio- Cultural Approach. Ed.

Mary Ebun Modupe Kolawole. Lagos: Arrabon Academic Publishers, 1998. 133-157. Print.

Osofisan, Femi. Morountodun and Other Plays. Ikeja, Lagos: Longman, 1982. Print.

Soyinka, Wole. Kongi‟s Harvest. Ibadan: University Press, 2004. Print.

The Bible: Revised Standard Version. Swindon, Great Britain: British and Foreign Bible Society,

1967. Print.

Walker, Alice. In Search of our Mothers‟ Gardens. New York: Harcourt, 1983. Print.

Williams, Raymond. Culture and Society 1780-1950. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1975. Print.

------------------ Marxism and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978. Print.

Gender Issues and Social Crossings in Maria Ajima‟s CyclesandThe Thri…ll

Afolayan, Kayode Niyi (Ph.D)

Department of English, University of Ilorin

kay4layan@yahoo.com

08023447073

Abstract

Frequently, the works of African women writers accentuate feminist impulses that showcase

the peculiarity of gender aberrations in a cultural milieu. The first generation of female poets

in Nigeria- like Mabel Segun, Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie and Catherine Acholonu- asserted

this trend showing a commitment predicated on the overall social interest. However, the

complexity of the social terrain has since given contemporary female poets more challenges

to handle. This paper,with Maria Ajima‘s Cycles (1996) and The Thri…ll (2007) as guide,

examines the current direction of social discourse by female poets in Nigeria. The writer,

using the subjective and objective paradigms, links the first generation with the former and

Ajima with the latter. The essayist‘s conclusion justifies this categorization with emphasis on

the thrust of critical self-appraisal which cuts across Ajima‘s discourse on political and

gender themes.

Introduction

Any serious critic who intends to consider the works of a female writer in contemporary

Nigeria will always be tempted to recall salient historical antecedents that have remained

motivational to the production and criticism of female writings in Africa. Basically, the

strands to be considered are thrown out between the late arrival of female writings on the

literary scene and the explanations that account for it. Lloyd Brown in Women Writers in

Black Africa (1981) identified with the former and noted that female writings had occupied

the back seat in African literature. But in Gender Issues in Nigeria: A Feminist Perspective

(1996) Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo attempted to provide explanations which resounded the

psychoanalytic perspective of Jon Stratton who argued in The Virgin Text: Fiction, Sexuality

and ideology (1987) that ―while both males and females are a part of a single system, it is in

fact males who are real realizers of society‖… (ix). One must expect that this deficiency will

account for the dearth of critical endeavors on female writings in Africa.

For poetry, Acholonu pioneered with The Spring‟s Last Drop and Nigeria in the year 1999.

When Maria Ajima came out with Cycles in 1996, it was another epoch because that was the

first book of poems by a female poet from northern Nigeria. This will not go without

explanations and in ―Season of Desert Flowers: Contemporary Women‘s Poetry from

Northern Nigeria‖ Aderemi Raji-Oyelade reasoned that:

In the context of modern Nigerian literary tradition, women‘s

writing from the north is subject to double invisibility and

double repression… the ‗absence‘ of women in the nation‘s

conventional history is only equaled by the lack of interest in works

produced by writers, whether male or female, from the north… works

produced by women from the north are overtly and unceremoniously

ignored and repressed by the conventional critical practice of earlier

male scholars ( African Literature Today 24: 4)

The impression of deliberate ‗neglect‘ and ‗repression‘ raised by Raji- Oyelade brings to

mind one of the arguments that punctured the repressive theory put forward by Sigmund

Freud in Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1977). Carl Gustav Jung audited the

factors that feed the cognition and proved in Memories, Dreams and Reflections (1967) the

indispensability of the experiential factor to the discourse of ‗repression‘ or ‗neglect‘.

Therefore, the dearth of materials, and not deliberate neglect, best explains the reason for the

less robust attention that poetry works by northern female poets in Nigeria received. This

phase, however, is changing because after the pioneer effort of Ajima, other prominent

female poets have continued to spring up from the northern axis of Nigeria. The question of

whether a poet becomes a northerner because she lives or works in that zone might not be

very important in this paper so we can cite as examples other works by female poets that have

since joined Ajima. These include: Nana A. Ahmed‘s Vision of the Jewel (1997) and Voice

from the Kitchen and Other Poems (1998), Hannatu T. Abdullahi‘s She Talks, He Talks

(1998), Binta S Mohammed Contours of Life (1999), Cecilia Kato‘s Victims of Love (1999)

and Desires (2000).

The Making and Content of Poetry

A decade of difference in the year of production notwithstanding, an overview of Ajima‘s

poetry under focus provides a common currency of discourse which connects to the making

and the content of poetry. The volume of poetry in the two collections is quite enormous with

sixty and ninety-four titles respectively. This, in itself, does not constitute a major problem

but for the poet‘s disinclination towards the use of title or sectional breaks which if deployed

could guide the reader into the themes and subjects of discourse. To fully understand the

poet, the reader or critic must first engage all the poems and attempt to join the thread in a

continuum that cohere. Perhaps, the interesting factor that will override this negative and

which gives a focus to the metaphorical designs that motivate the poet is captured in the title

indexes, therefore, the unbroken pattern of social re- occurrences could be seen as the catalyst

for Cycles (1996) whereas The Thri…ll (2007), ironically, projects a feeling of unfettered

exhilaration. The reasons adduced by the poet for this structure is also very important, in a

sense, this relives the spontaneity of association with romantic poets. Ajima hints at this

when she writes:

The poetry never ends

So keep waiting…

The symmetry of the poem

Never ends

So keep on weaving…

The story of a poem never ends

So keep on living… (Thri...ll: ix).

The focus here, apparently, is the spontaneity of poetry but unlike Romantic poets she alludes

to a ‗natural‘ force that inspires her writing in ―Under Compulsion to Write‖ where, with an

invitation to her readers, she says:

Under compulsion to write.

Compelled to put down

Thoughts, ideas

That travel through me.

There is a land aplenty

Do dwell here with me

And let‘s have a permanent company (Cycles: 5).

This camaraderie, necessarily, must be sustained by the mysterious allegiance to her muse

under which superintendence she weaves her lines. She rules out ambiguity and emphasizes

simplicity though poetry is, ―Exquisitely unravable/...has a beauty of its own‖… she vows to

…―be …Simple… (and to be) Understood by all‖ (Cycles: 6). This will however be the result

of a painstaking effort which she tries to hint at in ―The Muse‖:

It is easy to dip into the stream and fill the pot.

The path is strewn with thorns

The banks are slippery

Broken pots litter the pat …

But the pot is fragile.

Dig in your toes

Those slippery, steep slopes

Bend low

For the branches

Bare the teeth

Ferociously guarding the treasure laden (Cycles: 2).

Many expressions that apply to the laboriousness of poetry in these lines are quite

illuminating, the making of poetry, she concludes, is tasking though the product after

weathering through that process is quite rewarding. But her readers, whom she likens to

patients on the surgeon‘s slab, in ―Just a Surgeon‖, might not find some of the themes

interesting. She gives this warning ahead of the operation but, more importantly, the

emphasis here is in the healing process enthralled in the therapeutic nature of her poetry:

You‘ll feel a ―little‖ pain you see.

I have to cut here and there

In and out, but it‘ll soon be over you‘ll see

I do vivisection…

I got to snipe away…/ …cut away

…probe and probe…/ Deeper …/and cutting

Snipping way the rotten cells;

The poet‘s scalpel like the surgeon‘s knife

Could be quite sharp you know (Thri…ll: 5-6).

The sublimity engendered by Ajima‘s poetry rests basically on a blend of two literary

traditions; her intuitions on inspiration remind us of the classical notions on the muse whereas

her emphasis on the spontaneity, simplicity and therapeutic functions of poetry revitalizes the

key tenets of Romantic poets. She owes more allegiance to the latter than the former.

Poetry and the Social Impulse

The social commitment of Ajima in the collections under study oscillates between national or

cultural rebirth and political leadership. In a very unique dimension, the poet, with patriotic

zeal, inundates her readers with the cultural values of her country which extends from the

particular to the general; her encomiums are not without critical evaluations of those values

that need reevaluation and re assessment and this perhaps explain why some of her poems

with this bias have ambivalent postures. A typical example is in ―Doctor Crocodile at Wuse

Market‖ (The Thri..ll: 29), where the poet hangs between the efficacy of herbal medicine and

the gullibility of the people. The market setting of the poem provides the commercial

platform for therapy through traditional metaphysics, but this is in doubt because of the

methodical bases that lacks scientific validation.

In another dimension that accentuates plausibility the poet shows her ―attachment to roots‖

and the diverse culture of her people by exhibiting the flora and the fauna of her country. The

aesthetics produced by those of complexities are showcased in ―The Land of Ones Birth‖

(TheThri…ll: 33) where the poet lists tourist venues and traditional performances that dot

different parts of her country like ―Olumo rocks‖, ―Owu falls‖, ―Ogidi hills‖, ―Ogbiuke

caves‖, ―Argungu waters‖, Eyo and Oshun festivals to mention a few. The diversities, the

poet holds in ―Rains of Blood‖ (The Thri…ll: 78) can be harmonized to foster peaceful

coexistence, not necessarily throwing the nation into pogroms orchestrated by inter-tribal and

inter religious frictions. The poet sustains the tenor of discourse in ―Beguiled by Kano,

Charmed‖ (The Thri…ll: 35-37) and makes case for her fascination by reminding her

compatriots that:

Home is where

The soul is

Life is a fascinating romance

with a land we so much love

My heart beats

One with my homeland

All these are things

That bind a woman

To her homeland (The Thri…ll: 34).

Those who will not join the poet in this campaign of cultural renaissance are warned in

―Kelly Oh Kelly‖ where the poet focuses on the evil of neo colonialism precipitated by loss

of heritage. The blame belongs to Africans who have decided to relegate their own culture by

embracing foreign values, unfortunately in their attempt to be less African they lose their

identity and belong neither here nor there:

Now you are neither

You rejected one

The other rejected you

We watch in sadness

for we fail to understand

How you have attempted to sell out

Our heritage so cheaply …

Turning your nose at us

To a heritage richly bequeathed? (Cycles: 52-53).

The political issues in the poetry of Ajima also constitutes an interesting discourse. Writing at

a time of military intervention on the political landscape of her country, the poet could not

but access a system that always prized itself as a better alternative to democratic governance.

The threnodic tone in ―Lady Nigbe‖ exposes the aberrations committed under military

regimes:

Everybody come, Everybody come

Come and hold me down

A snake has bitten me

And fire has burnt me…

My support has been broken down

And I am left hanging (Cycles: 13).

One will easily say that the calamities that warrant the hysterics in these lines bother on

tragic loss occasioned by extra judicial killing. But there are other configurations that depict

injustice. As an advocate for the oppressed, the poet castigates the military in the following

words:

Green belltops, murderers clothed in figurehead protectors

The lust has taken you.

And you have come to me.

Looking for meat,

Because

My children, my infants

Have protested at keeping them on the rack

I am mother nature

Crying for my children

My cry is furious.

The storm is heavy (Cycles: 15).

In fact in ―Death‖ we see an erosion of human sanctity through an organized wickedness that

thrives:

Man takes life at will

With impunity

Man‘s wickedness

surpasses imaginations

Without trace

In gruesome details

Has man dismembered

a fellow life (Cycles: 62).

For fear of writing in a vacuum, the poet gives an example of Dele Giwa who was a victim of

high profile political assassination under the military in ―The beautiful ones had sprouted‖.

The allusion to Armah‘s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) gives a cryptic

perspective to the subject of discourse. Armah, dwelling on the image of filth to criticize

corruption had indicted the military and civilian governments that took over the realms of

affairs in the newly independent African state. At the end of that novel, all the characters

have been smeared leaving a situation of melancholy and despondency. Unlike Armah,

however, Ajima refutes the dearth of progressive minded people but laments that such

people are always sacrificed ―at the alter of falsehood‖. In apparent allusion to the bible her

panegyric on Dele Giwa runs into allusive statements that explain the reason for

assassination:

That have been born

Lighted torch in the darkness

Showing the way

And did not like his light

For it was exposing (Cycles: 23).

A hopeless situation is enacted, though the land is endowed, the people are ―beautiful‖, of ―a

diverse culture‖ but ―everything is spoilt‖. Under the military dispensation, freedom, justice

and good governance become a mirage in a country that is so richly endowed. Unfortunately

complacency and indifference have crept in, majority of the people want it so ―to gratify self-

interest‖ (Cycles: 24). This disposition will not help the situation; the poet leans on the

retributive law of religion and encourages the fizzling out of indifference, still prodding over

the ordeal of Dele Giwa:

He was a vanguard of

His time

He led the way

Blazing a trail

Come with me

And lets set out

On the same path

Let this age of complacency

Be over!! (Cycles:26).

There is the plague of joblessness in ―Joblessness and Despair‖ (Cycles: 55) and ―Shattered

Dreams‖ (Cycles: 63). This has since foisted stoicism concretized by the desperation,

―depression, ―dimmed hopes‖, ―hopelessness‖ and ―frustrations‖ at the labor market, a lacuna

that supports the argument that life hangs, unnecessarily, on unfair imbalance is captured in

―Sometimes I Wonder‖ (Cycles: 69).But not only dictators are privy to power abuse, Wole

Soyinka made a pertinent point when in Interventions V (2007) he said:

…the conduct of democratically elected leaders distinctly cautions that

there is a common thread that runs through political leadership

mentality. The thread defies classification under political ideologies,

culture, race, religion and even duration …or the novelty of office (71-

72).

The Thri…ll (2007) captures a democratic dispensation that provides a similar social terrain

made manifest in poems like ―There‘s Disequilibria‖, ―For Now‖ ―This my Land‖, ―Aso

Rock‖ and ―The Rocks of Aso‖. However, ―Jungle Manifestoes‖ -the longest poem in The

Thri…ll (2007)- is the peak that criticizes neo colonialism, system, moral and infrastructural

failures. Ajima‘s audit of successive military administrations is a replication of the failures

associated with civilian administrations therefore she urges African political leaders to

change in ―Chiefs of Africa (1)‖ and ―Chiefs of Africa (11)‖. The call for change also goes to

the suffering masses that are presently submerged in complacency, there would be casualties

but the poet assures in ―And when the Battle is Over, Aluta!‖, that victims will be forever

remembered. ―Aluta! Speak Out‖ then offers a motivation that pre dates an action that alerts

recalcitrant leaders of impending revolution:

Thank you my people

For speaking out

Thank you for not keeping quiet

Over the ills of my country

Keep talking

Break those heavy silences

Of days past

When they kicked us like asses

Keep talking keep shouting

Very soon we‘ll move farther (The Thri…ll: 70).

The unpatriotic attitude of political office holders has since created apathy and in ―Dem Be‖

(The Thri…ll: 82), the poet calls politicians hypocrites and liars who have always betrayed

the confidence of the mandate given to them by the people. ―Introducing Barracudas‖ (82-

83) thickens the distrust as the poet likens politicians to Barracuda, ―a predatory sea fish with

a long body and protruding jaws and teeth‖. In ―Rods of Rehoboam‖, she alluded to King

Rehoboam, son and successor to King Solomon in the bible, whose kingdom fell apart due to

mediocrity and dearth of wisdom by leadership. The relevant lines below insightfully expose

the vices of corruption, money laundering wasteful spending, visionless leadership,

ostentatious living, and insensitivity of political leaders:

Like the rod of Rehoboam

Our rulers are undercutting us

They are creaming off the wealth of the land

Into their pockets

Into foreign accounts

They are building storey buildings

And telling us stories

They have refused to bridge the gaps

That cut us off from them

And there are yawning chasms

All around

Opening their jaws at us

Claiming their children

And our children

On pot-holed filled road traps

We still look forward

To a MESSIAH (The Thri…ll: 52-53).

The poet‘s longing for a rescuer in the last line of this excerpt is a mirage that negates logic

thrust. The antidote remains in the collective will which, in ―My People‖ (Cycles: 16), must

identify and zealously exterminate the cabal annihilating the people.

Gender Issues in Maria Ajima‘s Cycles (1996) and The Thri…ll (2007)

Frequently, African female writers have always been preoccupied with gender issues. Though

the trends represented today maintain the African versions of feminism, there is a linear

demarcation between the sentimental and the pragmatic dimensions in contemporary female

writings. The former portrays the helplessness of the African woman under the yoke of

patriarchy induced aberrations while the latter, that accommodates Ajima, identifies with

those subjects of injustice but with an inclination towards critical self-examination.

In The Thri…ll (2007), the womanist vision that clarifies the sacred institution of the home is

always re-enforced, love is the trunk that holds the home as the poet says in, ―Let me tell you

about Love‖ (36), ―Two Lovers Past‖ (37), ―Love‖ (38), and ―Your Eyes Refuse to

Understand‖ (39). However, a re awakening to the ideals of the African woman is enacted in

poems like ―The unknown Guest‖ (21), ―Three Old Ladies‖ (27), ―A Mother‘s Prayer‖ (29),

The Laurel of Life‖ (30) ―A Mother‘s Love‖ (31), ―She‘s majestic but does not Know‖ (32),

―Birth‖ (33), and ―The Infants Battle‖ (34).

The cinematic dramatic tone of ―My Sister‖ (48-50) sets up a critical examination of the

relationship among women. Through her metaphor of ―stream‖ and ―water‖, the poet overtly

lambastes betrayals in relationships. Without prejudice to ―Iconess‖ and ―Woman‖ (Cycles:

57),

―Sister What‖, ―Don‘t You?‖, ―The Persona‖, ―It can be so Sad‖, ―…Why, thie? Flower‖,

―The Sweet, Sweet Mistress‘ Tale‖, ―Loneliness‖, ―Feeling not to Feel‖, ―The Force‖,

―Sadiku‘s Song‖ and ―The Thri-ll ll ll ll ll ll‖ engages aborted relationship occasioned by

betrayal. The negative residue manifests in loneliness of victim who finds herself in a fix

occasioned by lust. The defiance of the beneficiary avidly asserts the injustice on a woman by

another woman, ―The Sweet, Sweet Mistress‘ Tale‖ gives credence to this:

I‘ll give him back one day,

When I‘m done with him

When he‘s gone

Gumless, powerless and such like

Then I‘ll have to pack him off

On you to have him nurse and love

‗Cos he‘ll be of no more use to me (The Thri…ll: 44).

But in ―The Force‖ (The Thri…ll: 48), the blame of infidelity is on man and woman, though

the woman victim bears the immediate consequence, man will always feel the long term

impact. The poet‘s ironic allusion to Soyinka‘s The Lion and the Jewel (1963) in ―Sadiku‘s

Song‖ rejoices at the loss of manhood fast tracked by infidelity:

The lion has lost its story!

And this time its real!

Ah, girls, the lion has lost its tail,

The whipping tail,

The tail that cowed us, crashed us,

The lion has lost it (The Thri…ll: 51).

In a cautionary tone the poet reminds men in ―Cargo-Wares‖:

Man is like cargo-wares

The more you shop around

The faster

The expiry date! (The Thri…ll: 111).

Lastly, the poet‘s Womanist vision does not exclude the welfare of children. The abuses

suffered by children on a general scale have been queried in ―Children Crying, Why?‖ (The

Thri…ll: 94-95) but in ―Hopefully Abandoned‖ women in the orgy of unwanted children are

challenged to take responsibilities:

Ah! but ah!

It was too late, too late for you!

You were seen too late as skeleton in rags

The skeleton the lens caught

And caught for display for her

For her eyes only to see on dailies

to weep and weep and weep (The Thri…ll: 98).

Conclusion

Ajima‘s poetry covers a wide spectrum of issues, her lure merges a penumbra of traditions

and influences to convey ―the truest notions in the easiest way‖ (Kaplan et al: 84). With a

sense of moralism and patriotism, her inquiry into social issues scrutinizes and challenges

both the leaders and the followers but her overbearing religious tones at the end of her

collections could puncture her robust commitment to change. Without prejudice, her critical

self-appraisals of issues on gender and politics, put the blames where they belong, the burden

remains on those that ought to do the needful.

Works Cited

Primary Sources

Ajima, Maria (1996). Cycles. London: Janus Publishing Company.

----------------- (2007). The Thri…ll. Lagos: Apex Books.

Secondary Sources

Acholonu, Catherine (1985). The Springs Last Drop. Owerri: Totan Publishers.

------------------------- (1985). Nigeria in the Year 1999. Owerri: Totan Publishers.

Abdullahi T. Hannatu (1998). She Talks, He Talks. Kaduna: Informat.

Adimora- Ezeigbo, Akachi (1996). Gender Issues in Nigeria: A feminine Perspective. Lagos:

Vista Books.

Ahmed, A.Nana (1997) Vision of the Jewel. Kaduna: Informat.

-------------------- (1998). Voice from the Kitchen and Other Poems. Kaduna: Informat.

Alkali, Zaynab (1985) The Stillborn. Lagos: Longman.

Armah, Ayi Kwei (1968). The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. London: Oxford University

Press.

Brown, Lloyd (1981). Women Writers in Black Africa. West Post CT: Careenwood Press.

Freud, Sigmund (1977). Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. London: W.W. Norton and

Company.

Jung, Carl Gustav (1967). Memories, Dreams and Reflections. Princeton:Princeton

University Press.

Kaplan, Charles, Anderson David Williams (2000). Major Statements. 4th

Edition

New York: Bedfort/ St. Martins Press.

Kato, Cecilia (1999). Victims of Love. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden.

----------------- (2000). Desires. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden.

Mohammed, S. Binta (1999). Contours of Life. Kaduna: Informat.

Raji-Oyelade, Aderemi. ―Season of Desert Flowers: Contemporary Women‘s Poetry From

Northern Nigeria‖ in Ernest Emenyonu ed. (2004). African Literature Today 24.

Ibadan:

HEBN Publishers Plc.

Soyinka, Wole (1963). The Lion and the Jewel. London: Oxford University Press.

------------------ (2007). Interventions V. Ibadan: Bookcraft,

Stratton, Jon (1987). The Virgin Text:Fiction, Sexuality and Ideology. Sussex: Harvester.

Defiant Women: Re-evaluatingGender Identity in Women‟s Writings as portrayed in

Nawal El Saadawi‟s Woman at Point Zero

Edward Oluwayomi

M.A Student

Department of English

University of Ibadan

Karonted01@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

One emerging reality in African literature, especially the African fiction is the redefinition

and/or re-presentation of women‘s identity and sensibility. This is painted against the

backdrop of various societal schisms that seek to perpetually keep the status quo of the

enslaved female and the lionized male in the continent‘s literature. Female characters in

African fiction have been portrayed as religious stooges, culturally handicapped against

certain social behaviour, subservient and as second fiddle to the dominant male. This is the

kind of picture we find in Chinua Achebe‘s Things Fall Apart, Elechi Amadi‘s The

Concubine, and Cyprian Ekwensi‘s Jagua Nana. However, the advent of serious women

writing and the influx of Western – oriented ideologies such like feminism, mark the

beginning of the redefinition of the personality and identity of women. In this paper, using

Nawal El Saadawi‘s Woman at Point Zero,we attempt to examine society‘s perception of

women as regard their socio-culturally destined roles, decisions in life, and their aspirations.

We conclude by asserting that the redefinition of the female gender in African fiction,

particularly in women‘s writings is a timely endeavour as women in real life experiences are

continually breaking out from their forgotten corners to contribute to society‘s development.

KEYWORDS: Gender Identity,Women‟s Identity, Redefinition and/or Re-presentation,

Women‟s Sensibility,and Society.

INTRODUCTION

One common feature of the African society, apart from the peculiarity of socio-

political abnormalities is patriarchy. Patriarchy is a form of sociological stratification that

exalts the male gender over the female. It ultimately seeks to delineate the society along

gender lines, thereby assigning certain roles and responsibilities to a particular gender.

Marginalization, suppression, discrimination, and injustice are but a few negative terms

associated with such a social order.

Gender is a socially constructed order. It is socially constructed because the

delineation of social roles and the way the two sexes – male and female are conceived attract

different levels of distinctions. According to Roger Webster (1990), ―gender is a socially

constructed difference which forms the basis of inequality, oppression and exploitation

between sexes...‖ (72). Suffice to state that the term ‗gender‘ is used to capture the

differential roles of sexes in the society. This has been the bane of societal development,

particularly in Africa where the aspirations, expectations, and desires of the sexes are

conditioned on the dictates of the socio-cultural and religious structures in the society. This

informs Emenyi‘s (citation?) position in her paper entitled, ―Women as Symbols of

Patriarchal Capitalism‖ where she states that:

…the male and female children are socialized differently,

the former is groomed to be a conqueror while the latter is

trained to meet his needs. The prominence given to male

traitas attributes that are positively valued has culminated in

the institutionalization of male dominance. The female is planted

in domesticspace as a wife and mother… (38).

The unparalleled pedestal on which the two genders – male and female is placed is the

ultimate cause of female marginalization, suppression, erasure of self – value and esteem.

Yemisi Akorede (2011) also notes that:

Gender stereotyping and gender discrimination are closely

tiedto the issue of sexuality. These are barriers to women‘s

positive senseof worth and achievement. They affect women‘s

progress and advancement,so that pre-designed roles assigned

by culture and tradition limit the woman from attaining possible

self-fulfilment (34).

Prior to this age of vibrant and pragmatic literary advocacy on the accurate and/or fair

projection of the identity of the African woman by male writers who have dominated the

literary scene, the depiction of the African woman in literary works typically reveals

discriminatory comments such as: the woman is like a ‗priceable‘ property that can be owned

and disowned at will; the woman is senseless and incapable of logical reasoning, and as such

cannot participate in decision making process in the home and in the society at large; the

woman is to be seen and not heard; the woman is pre-destined to live a devoted life of a

‗wife‘ to a faceless god; the place of women in the society is behind the burning firewood and

the cooking pots, and ultimately in the bedroom.

When we probe the reason for this stereotyped depiction, we discover that writing,

indeed, creative writing in Africa particularly from the pre-colonial age to the early colonial

era was dominated by male writers. Femi Ojo – Ade (1983) observes that: ―African literature

is male created, male orientedchauvinistic art.An honour roll of our literary giants clearly

proves that point…Man constitutes the majority and women the minority‖ (158-159). As it is

generally consented that a writer is a product of his/her society, the unpleasant images and/or

portraits of the African woman by male writers – products of a patriarchal society, is

informed by how women have been unreasonably suppressed and their voices and aspirations

muffled.

Nawal El Saadawi in her paper entitled, ―The Heroine in Arab Literature‖ observes

that:

Among the male authors I have read, both in the West and

in Arab world, irrespective of the language in which they have

written, or of the region from which they have come, not one

has been able to free himself from this age-old image of woman

handed down to us from an ancient past, no matter how famous

many of them have been for their passionate defence of human

rights, human values and justice, and their vigorous resistance to

the oppression and tyranny in any form. Arab literature is littered

with the image of the She-devil, possessed of many faces (520).

Saadawi‘s observation is true in every sense of the word. It is informed by the

disenfranchisement of some sort of the perfect picture of women, particularly in Africa who

are made objects of suppressive practices that tend to perpetually hold them down.

Early works of pioneer African novelists like Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, and

Cyprian Ekwensi have depicted the African woman in the light of the aforementioned status.

For instance, Achebe‘s Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart is condemned to take rash actions in

other to keep up with the standard set by the society‘s culture on the attainment of honour, or

bluntly put manliness. Okonkwo cannot afford to be taken for a woman when he tries to steer

his kinsmen to action against the white colonialists:

―Let's not reason like cowards", said Okonkwo."If a man comes

into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do Ido? Do I shut my

eyes?No! I take a stick and break his head. That is what a man does.

These people are pouring filth over us and Okeke pretends not to see".

Okonkwo made a sound full of disgust. ―This was a womanly clan",

he thought. Such a thing could never happen in his fatherland (113).

Here, weakness, indecision, and cowardice are attributed to women. Achebe goes on in the

novel to tell his reader about the lionized male as husband over numerous wives, as a dictator

- father, and as indomitable. This portrait of the lionized male in the novel also permeates into

other literary works of other writers who project the woman as a fated being whose destiny is

to serve and not to be heard or respected.

However, with the coming of age of the group of female writers that Tess Onwueme

describes as ‗literary foremothers‘, the resilience, inner beauty, radiating grace and energy,

and faithfulness of the African woman started to be projected. Omobolanle Sotunsa in her

book, Feminism and Gender Discourse notes:

The unfavourable portrayal of women by African male

writers igniteda literary outburst which culminated in female

writers attempt tocounter the impaired picture of African

womanhood by reversingthe roles of women in African

fiction written by men. African femalewriters began

to present female protagonists who are pitted against all

odds, yet emerge liberated and determined to exist with or

without theman (83-84).

Iniobong Uko in a paper entitled ―Transcending the Margins: New Directions in

Women‘s Writing‖, rightly observes that:

Clearly, societal constructs set motherhood and procreation

as thewoman‘s major sources of fulfillment, but contemporary

Africanwomen are seeking new avenues for self-fulfillment, arguing

that itis now untenable, obnoxious and unacceptable that womanhood

is validated only through motherhood and procreation, where procreation

implies the male-child principle (86).

Uko‘s position is right when we consider the dearth of literary works that have been produced

right from the commencement of the literary campaign of re-presentation and/or redefining

the image of the African woman in the African fiction.

Many women writers and critics have in desperate moves, come out with several

literary concepts and/or ideas. Ogundipe-Leslie propounds the concept of ―Stiwanism‖ – an

acronym meaning: Social Transformation in Africa including Women; Catherine Acholonu

came out with ―Motherism‖; and lately Modupe Ebun Kolawole, Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo

and a host of others are in the forefront of ―Womanism‖. These concepts and ideological

strands have been reflected in literary works especially by women. Flora Nwapa‘s Efuru in

Efuru is presented as a strong, resilient and noble woman; Buchi Emecheta‘s Nnu Ego in Joys

of Motherhood is industrious, brave, and highly intelligent. And as we argue in the present

discourse, Saadawi‘s Firdaus in Woman at Point of Zero,is not docile, passive, or subjective

as we have their fellow women projected in Achebe‘s Things Fall Apart.

In one sense, the era of projecting African women as lifeless or insensitive objects is

over. Over the years, more radical stands have been taken, and sometimes, re-taken, all in a

bid to redefining the face of feminist or womanist portrayal of women in the African fiction.

Saadawi‘s novel, Woman at Point Zero is the story of Firdaus, a resilient, defiant, and

strong woman whose audacious revolt at the oppressive socio-economic and religious forces

that has hitherto held her, and indeed her fellow women, leaves everyone around her in utter

bewilderment. Firdaus is a young Egyptian woman who suffers unjustly for two obvious

reasons – first, being a woman, and secondly, being born poor. Thus, Saadawi‘s intention in

this novel is not only to portray the plight of the Egyptian women, but also to expose the

unjust social order in the country.

Woman at Point Zero is a product of a medical research undertaken by Saadawi on

the effect on neurosis on female prisoners in Egypt. Set in the Arab land of Egypt under the

oppressive rule of Anwar Sadat, the novel presents its protagonist, Firdaus as a prostitute of a

high status. She has been arrested, tried, and sentenced to death after she murders one of her

‗customers‘. Firdaus is presented to the reader as a justifiedmurderer – justifiedin the

‗unpopular‘ court of the oppressed class in Egypt. Owning to the patriarchal set up of the

Egyptian society, Firdaus‘ misfortunes begin right from her home.

When Firdaus begins her story, she immediately declares her defiant antagonism to

the treatment of women in her society. She affirms that ―However, all the men I did get to

know, every single manof them, have filled me with but one desire: to lift my hand and bring

it smashing down on his face‖ (11).

When Firdaus mentions ―all the men‖, she means that to include her own father and uncle.

Theoppression and/or subjugation that women in the society are condemned to, start from

their home front. We get the picture clearer when Firdaus tells us about her father:

My father, a poor peasant farmer, who could neither read, nor write,

knew very few things in life. How to grow crops, how to sell a buffalo

poisoned by his enemy before it died, how to exchange his virgin

daughter for a dowry when there was still time…How to beat

his wife and make her bite the dust each night. (12)

Firdaus‘ father, as described above is not only an archetypal figure of the patriarchal society

of Egypt, but also justifies Saadawi‘s sub-theme of oppression among the oppressed class in

the country.

From childhood, the girl – child in the morally decayed and patriarchal society of

Egypt is unprotected against sexual assault and abuse. This is vividly depicted in how

Firdaus, from her young stage is sexually abused by her uncle who always pretend to be

reading while Firdaus is sweating over some dough. This abuse continues even while he gets

married and Firdaus goes to live with him in the city.

The brutality of men against women and girls in the Arab society of Egypt is at an

all-time high as Saadawi expresses in this novel. When we consider the over-killing domestic

chores assigned to women and female children in the family, we get a clear picture of the

devaluation and/or suppression of the female gender in the society. For instance, the tedious

dough kneading job that Firdaus is apportioned at her age is belabouring. When she reaches

her breaking point, Firdaus laments; ―Who was I? Who was my father? Was I going to spend

my lifesweeping the dung out from under the animals, carrying manureon my head, kneading

dough and baking bread?‖ (16). Firdaus‘ lament is informed by her desires to enjoy liberty,

recognition and attention, and also to be treated like other children in the family who are

male. Hence, the first male figure that Firdaus encounters in life does display naked brutality

and force against women. Her father‘s repressive hold on her mother go a long way in

showing Firdaus a tip of what awaits a female like her in the larger society.

Firdaus recalls how she is denied due attention and motherly care she ever needed

while growing up:

Our hut was cold, yet in winter my father used to shift

my straw matand my pillow to the small room facing north,

and occupy my cornerof the room. And instead of staying by

my side to keep me warm, mymother used to abandon me alone

and go to my father to keep him warm.In summer I would see her

sitting at his feet with a tin mug in her handas she washed his legs

with cold water. When I grew older my father put the mug in my hand

and taught me how to wash his legs with water.I had now replaced

my mother and did the things she used to do (17-18).

Such circle of enslavement of women in the Egyptian society is what emotionally matures

and ideologically inspires Firdaus to set out to find an end. The mother, who in respect of her

traditional role is expected to be closer to the child, especially the girl, has now been

handicapped to perform her role(s) as she devotes her attention more to a suppressive man

who only holds her as a common article or thing – one whose feelings, emotions and thoughts

do not count.

The devaluation and/or subjugation of the female gender in the Egyptian society

portrayed in this novel are also revealed in how the patriarchal society reacts to the birth

and/or death of a female child. Firdaus reveals that:

When one of his female children died, my father would eat his supper,

my mother would wash his legs, and then he would go to sleep, just as

he did every night. When the child that died was a boy, he would beat

my mother, then have his supper and lie down to sleep (18).

Above, it is clear the disadvantaged status of women in the society. Female children, and

indeed women are indifferently treated. Fathers pride themselves in the numbers of male

children they have and how well they fare. When Firdaus is kneading the dough and baking

cow dung, her uncle is busy reading. Thus, education is a luxury that the girl–child can not

enjoy in the Egyptian society portrayed in this novel.

When we probe further the attitude of men to their family – as husbands and fathers,

we find unpleasant adjectives such as: irresponsible, insensitive, callous, and wicked to

qualify them. Firdaus narrates an incident to affirm this fact:

Sometimes when there was no food at home we would all go to bed

with empty stomachs. But he would never fail to have a meal. My

mother would hide his food from us at the bottom of one of the holes

in the oven. He would sit eating alone while we watched him. One

evening I dared to stretch out my hand to his plate, but he struck me a sharp

blow over the back of my fingers...at the end of his meal my mother

would bring him a glass of water. He drank it, then belched loudly,

expelling the air from his mouth or belly with a prolonged noise (17-18).

With such an incident at this, we cannot help but picture what would be awaiting Firdaus

when she grows up and finds herself in the mainstream of the larger gender discriminative

schism that her society has to offer her. The portrait of the father as projected above is that of

the lionized male who takes all in the society as the female gender look on in misery and

abject neglect.

Also, female circumcision is portrayed in the novel as another repressive tool used to

diminish female pride and identity. As an advocate against female genital mutilation

otherwise referred to as ‗female circumcision‘, Saadawi uses Firdaus‘ experience to front her

campaign. Firdaus‘ experience is not a pleasant one to say the least; ―First, she beat me. Then

she brought a woman who was carrying a small knife or maybe a razor blade. They cut off a

piece of flesh from between my thighs. I cried all night. Next morning my motherdid not

send me to the fields‖ (13). What the woman cuts off from her is more than ―a piece of

flesh‖, it is indeed her sense of sexual feelings, excitements, and fulfillments which she has

found lately in her young lover, Mohammadain. Firdaus would later recount her sexual

experience after her circumcision:

Deep inside my body I could feel a strange trembling. At first it was

like Pleasure, a pleasure akin to pain, a pain which felt like pleasure.

It belonged to a distance past, had been with me somehow right from

the beginning. I had experienced it long ago, but forgotten it at the time.

Yet it seemed to go even further than my life, to some day before I was

born, like a thing arising out of an ancient wound, in an organ which had

ceased to be mine, on the body of a woman who was no longer me (56).

What circumcision has taken away from her are her identity, personality, and self-fulfilment.

What should give her pleasure and joy has been substituted with pain and deprivation.

Firdaus is no longer chanced to go to the field to savour the pleasures from her secret lover

boy, Mohammadain. These painful experiences go on to hunt her even when she becomes a

professional prostitute.

The use of education in the novel as a motif provides Firdaus a vintage position to

view her society as it is. School affords her the opportunity to develop her curious mind, and

ultimately sharpen her philosophical worldview. When she begins to read and study the

socio-economic and historical structures that make up the society, she is shocked to discover

that women oppression and class distinction are not only peculiar to her immediate society of

Egypt, but the world all over. She discovers that:

…all these rulers were men. What they had in common was an avaricious

and distorted personality, a never-ending appetite for money, sex and un-

limited power. They were men who sowed corruption on the earth, and

plundered their peoples, men endowed with loud voices, a capacity of

persuation, for choosing sweet words and shooting poisoned arrows. Thus,

the truth about them was revealed only after their death, and as a result I

discovered that history tended to repeat itself with a foolish obstinacy (27).

Firdaus‘ discovery is true in every sense of the word. The circle of oppression (against

women, and the lower class) keeps rotating with new players taking up roles and positions of

the old order; such a circle that limits and devaluates the essence and identity of a particular

class of people either as a result of their sex, race or class is what Firdaus finds out in her

deep study of world history. It is the ―foolish obstinacy‖ that she attempts to halt, thereby

recreating an order of fairness, equity and justice to all regardless of sex or class bias.

In school, Firdaus recovers the motherly care and affection she is denied in Miss

Iqbal, one of her teachers. Of the benevolent attention she gets from her short time with Miss

Iqbal, Firdaus recalls:

I held her eyes in mind, took her hand in mind, took her

handin mine. The feeling of our hands touching was

strange, sudden. It was a feeling that made my body tremble

with a deep distant pleasure,more distant than the age of my

remembered life, deeper than the consciousness I had carried with

me through out. I could feel it somewhere, likea part of my being

which had been bornwith me when I was born, but had not grown

with me when I had grown,like a part of my being that I had once

known, but left behind when I was born (30).

The psychobiological experience that Firdaus describes above is likened to the childhood

fulfilment she once enjoyed from her mother. Firdaus had earlier symbolically compared

Miss Iqbal‘s eyes with that of a protective mother – same feelings she can also trace to her

mother:

I could see her eyes looking at me, observing me, despite the darkness.

Every time I turned my head, they were after me, holding on to me,

refusing to let me go. Even when I covered my face with both hands,

they seemed to see through them into my eyes (28).

A mother‘s eyes are a protective pair of eyes. It seeks to hold the innocent child close and

away from danger. The presence of the mother‘s eyes on the child invokes a symbolic sense

of protection, care and guidance which the child cannot do without. Miss Iqbal seeks to

reassure Firdaus of the mother‘s love she has lost. They are intricately tied with each other.

However, when we go further in the exploration of the characterization of Miss Iqbal,

we discover that her life does not entirely portray that deep sense of sunshine and happiness

that Firdaus thought she has found. Firdaus is soon to discover that her ideal heroin is not

immune to pains:

I could see her black eyes wandering into the night, and the tears

welling up in them with a glistening light. She tightened her lips

and swallowed hard and suddenly the light in her eyes went out.

again and again they started to shine and after a moment went out,

like flames snuffed out in the night (29)

Here, what is glaring is that happiness, laughter and fulfilment are luxuries women in the

Egyptian society projected in the novel can never afford. Firdaus has to re-organize her life as

she has thought she has found a mentoring figure. When her Uncle and wife decide to

terminate her education upon finishing her secondary school education, Firdaus begins to see

the network of wider conspiracy against women in her society.

One striking, and rather bitter fact revealed in the novel is the involvement of women

in the persecution of their fellow women. This is a part of the wider and intricate conspiracy

against women. A woman performed the genital circumcision ‗rite‘ for Firdaus. Also, we

cannot neglect the role of her uncle‘s wife. Firdaus narrates her harsh experiences at her

uncle‘s house where she is enslaved by a fellow female. Here, we can see a clear case of

intra-gender antagonism – a trend that adversely impedes the course of absolute freedom for

the enslaved gender. Her uncle‘s wife manipulates her husband as he reneges on his initial

resolve to sponsor Firdaus up to her university education. She initiates the move for Firdaus‘

forced marriage to Sheikh Mahmoud, a man old enough to be her father. To her:

…Firdaus herself is not that young. Girls of her age have already

married years ago and borne children. An old but reliable man is

surely better than a young man who treats her in a humiliating way,

or beats her… (36).

Such an excuse is a decoy which society believes is a preventive measure against moral and

sexual exploitation of young unmarried women. As we go further in the novel, the marriage

arranged for Firduas is because of the financial benefit as Sheikh Mahmoud is a wealthy

widow who can afford as much as a hundred pounds as dowry. Firdaus‘ is practically sold

into marriage – just as every other young girl in the patriarchal African societies. Thus,

Firdaus‘ aspirations, self-worth and identity are thwarted as she begins her long night of

torture.

Firdaus‘ sufferings in Sheikh‘s house further resonates the daily occurrence of

domestic violence and brutality against women in the society. This phenomenon is not

peculiar to Egypt alone, it is indeed a universal phenomenon as it has now been regarded by

the United Nations (UN) as one of the threatening trends against the course of peaceful co-

existence among all peoples in the world. Firdaus recalls one of her painful experience; ―On

one occasion he hit me all over with his shoe. My faceand body became swollen and bruised.

So I left the houseand went to my uncle. But my uncle told me that all husbandsbeat their

wives, and my uncle‘s wife added that her husband oftenbeat her (44). From this, what we

find rather disturbing and painful is not the fact that men beat their wives because they are the

husbands – the head, but that women have come to accept it as a social and cultural code of

conduct, a justifiable act that needs no challenge or questioning. This is an indication of the

fact that society, through its culture, norms, and traditions have so much enslaved the total

being of women that they have been conditioned to accept whatever treatment meted out to

them as socially, and indeed morally justified.

It is not surprising, therefore when Firdaus discovers that such an inhumane act is

even backed up by religion:

I said my uncle was a Sheikh, well versed in the teachings of religion,

and he, therefore, could not possibly be in the habit of beating his wife.

She replied that it was precisely men well versed in their religion who

beat their wives. The precepts of religion permitted such punishments.

A virtuous woman was not supposed to complain about her husband.

her duty was perfect obedience (44).

Suffice to say here that religion has become a tool for exploiting women‘s sensibility and

identity. With such a repressive doctrine, the self-worth, dignity, identity, and pride of

women are exploited and mutilated. But, according to the socio-cultural and religious

‗unofficial‘ dictate, ―A virtuous woman is not supposed to complain about her husband. Her

duty is perfect obedience‖ (14). No woman under such an oppressive order can aspire to any

higher status other than the one she has been culturally and religiously conditioned to. This is

the height of gender discrimination.

The Arab world, to which Egypt belongs is notable for its stringent policies and

culture which are express orders backed by the dominant religion, Islam. However, while

some Islam followers have argued that the religion does not in its entirety preach the use of

force on the people, one fact that we cannot fail to mention is that political leaders in this part

of the world hide under the guise of religion to keep their subjects under their terror reign of

perpetual brutality and oppression. The Egyptian Islamic nation under terror leader, Sadat is

of no exemption.

Firdaus, being one of the most sought after prostitutes in Egypt is opportuned to relate

with the top political office holders in the country, and even top businessmen and other career

people. From her experiences, she discovers that the high level of corruption,

maladministration, and injustices in the country is attributed to the greedy politicians who

have stolen the wealth of the nation to a profusely bleeding point. They sabotage socio-

economic development of the country, and by extension keep widening the gap between the

rich and the poor. The rights and privileges of the common man on the street are continually

being denied them as they in turn begin to devise means, rather, dangerous means to survive

the harsh socio-economic conditions in the country.

When Firdaus is blindly castigated by one of her ‗customer‘, a journalist, for being a

prostitute and thereby a morally bankrupt woman, she attempts to seek redemption, honour

and dignity. Firdaus is employed by a company where she attempts to regain her lost self –

esteem and value. There again she is faced with the pressures of sexual harassment from her

male bosses. Even when she falls in love with Ibrahim, a radical leader of the company‘s

workers, her sense of fulfilment, love, worth and security is yet again thwarted as Ibrahim

later jilts her and marries the daughter of the company‘s chairman – the same man who is

responsible for the poverty of the workers that Ibrahim claims to be protecting. We cannot

help but agree with Firdaus when she observes:

Revolutionary men with principles were not really different

from the rest. They used their cleverness to get, in return for

principles, what other men buy with their money. Revolution

for them is like sex for us. Something to be abused. Something

to be sold (88).

What Firdaus‘s experience in the company brings to the fore is the fact that morality and/or

godliness do not reside in professional titles or dignified personalities. Everyone that has

crossed Firdaus‘s path, and also contributed to her miseries belong to one highly venerated

status or the other. She is an ‗uptown‘ prostitute whose ‗pimps‘ are sons of wealthy

Egyptians, politicians, and even career people. In all, Firdaus affirms:

I became aware of the fact that I hated men, but for long years

had hidden this secret carefully. The men I hated most of all were

those who tried to give me advice, or told me that they wanted to

rescue me from the life that I was leading. I used to hate them more

than the others because they thought they were better than I was and

could help me change my life (88).

As a result, Firdaus‘s resolve to quit the corporate world that offers nothing to her but further

self – devaluation is highly objective. She defiantly goes back to prostitution and tries to re-

assert her identity:

The fact that I rejected their noble attempts to save me, my insistence

on remaining a prostitute, proved to me this was my choice and that

I had some freedom, at least the freedom to live in a situation better

than that of other women (89).

This is true to a larger extent. Firdaus as an ‗independent‘ prostitute does not ‗work‘ only to

deliver proceeds to an owner, she states her fixed price which is non-negotiable, she dictates

the pace of the sex game, and she is not under obligation to any man:

A prostitute always says yes, and then names her price. If she

says no she ceases to be a prostitute. I was not a prostitute in the

full sense of the world, so from time to time I said no. As a result

my price kept going up (89).

This rather strange liberty that Firdaus enjoys in prostitution, according to Palmer (2008) is as

a result of the:

…combination of societal brutality and inhumanity, male chauvinism

and oppressiveness, female jealousy, and religious hyprocrisy (which)

has ensured that the only life in which she canenjoy a modicum of

comfort is a life of prostitution. (165)

Indeed, Firdaus‘s miseries are all rooted in the sins the society has committed against her and

the mass of voiceless, helpless and faceless women in her league.

CONCLUSION

So far, we have been able to examine how society with all its complex structures has

conspired to subjugate and marginalize women in the scheme of events and socio-economic

privileges. We established the fact that women in the society have been portrayed in early

African fiction as docile, insensible and weak figures whose destiny is decided by a lionized

head, the male, who in most cases assumes the position of influence and authority not mainly

on any other merit other than being male. But with the emergence of women writers on the

scene, African women have been positively projected. This is because in Flora Nwapa‘s

assertion:

The woman writer cannot fail to see the woman‘s power in

her home and society. She sees her economic importance both

as mother, farmer, and trader. She writes stories that affirm the

woman, thus challenging the male writers and making them aware

of woman‘s inherent vitality, independence of views, courage,

self-confidence, and of course, her desire for gain and high social status (526).

It is pertinent to note that the African woman in the real world is also being re-conscientised

to take her own destiny in her own hands, thereby attempt to break into the bounded

territories assigned to men in the societies. In recent years, Firdaus‘s defiant act have inspired

a lot of women in the Arab world to rise up and break the chain of socio-cultural and

religious limitations and are now doing great in all spheres of endeavour. A very interesting

example is the recent revolution of Saudi Arabian women who rose up in campaign for the

right to drive their cars on the street just as their male counterparts. This defiant act by the

women has also won them the right to vote during elections in the country.

REFERENCES

Primary Source:

Saadawi, Nawal. Womanatpointzero. London: Zed Books Ltd, 1983

Secondary Sources:

Achebe, Chinua. ThingsFallApart. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd,1958.

Akorede, Yetunde. FeminismandLiterature:WomanismandTheIntra-GenderConflictTheory.

Porto-Novo: Festus Lyette Books, 2011.

Amadi, Elechi. TheConcubine. London: Heinemann, 1966.

Ekwensi, Cyprian. Jagua Nana. London: Hutchinson, 1961.

Emecheta, Buchi. TheJoysofMotherhood. New York: George Braziller, 1979.

Nwapa, Flora. Efuru. London: Heinemann, 1966.

____________ ―Women and Creative Writing in Africa.‖ African Literature, An Anthology

of Criticism and Theory. Olaniyan and Quayson. Ed. Australia: Blackwell

Publishers, 2007. 526-532.

Ojo-Ade, Femi. ―Female Writers, Male Critics‖. RecentTrendsinTheNigerianNovel.

AfricanLiteratureToday, Jones, E. Ed. London: Heinemann, 1983. 158-159.

Palmer, Eustace. OfWarandWomen, OppressionandOptimism.

NewEssaysonTheAfricanNovel. New Jersey: African World Press, Inc, 2008.

Saadawi, Nawal. ―The Heroin in Arab Literature‖. African Literature, An Anthology Of

Criticism And Theory. Olaniyan and Quayson. Ed. Australia: Blackwell

Publishers, 2007. 520-525.

Sotunsa, Modupe. FeminismandGenderDiscourse.TheAfricanExperience. Sagamu: Asaba

Publishers, 2008.

Uko, Iniobong. ―Transcending the Margins: New Directions in Women‘s Writing‖.

NewDirectionsinAfricanLiterature. Emenyonu, E. Ed. Ibadan: Heinemann

Educational Books Ltd, 2006.

Webster, Rogers. StudyingLiteraryTheory: AnIntroduction. London: Edward Arnold, 1990.

1

MUSIC AND DANCE AS EMOTICONS OF BRIDAL PROCESSIONS:

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE OBITUN PERFORMANCE OF THE IJUMU

PEOPLE OF KOGI STATE

TUME, OLUWATOSIN KOOSHIMA

School of Visual and Performing Arts

Kwara State University, Malete.

ABSTRACT

Marriage is the formal union of a man and a woman as husband and wife. In African

societies, it is usually an event of much pomp and pageantry with a special focus on the bride.

The occasion triples as a celebration of love for the couple, a rite of passage into womanhood

for the bride, and also a welcome party for her by the female members of the groom‘s family.

Over generations, dance and music art forms have lent flavour to the theatrics of traditional

marriage ceremonies. Obitun dance of the Ijumu people is a product of these theatrics.

Hitherto, Obitun has been popularly identified with the Ondo people of South-Western

Nigeria, but in the course of research, it was discovered that the Ijumu people of the North-

Central also have a dance called Obitun. The focus of this paper is to examine the importance

and significance of dance and music to the marriage ceremonies in Ijumuland using Obitun

dance as a premise. This paper also intends to find if the music and dance which accompanies

the bridal processions have any bearing whatsoever on the psychology of the bride in

particular and the other women in general. This paper collates its data through interviews

with some Ijumu indigenes and consultation of relevant documents.

The study finds that the Obitun dance of the Ijumu people is a fusion of songs, dance,

proverbs and other components of their oral tradition. We also make bold to say that without

the Obitun performance, a typical Ijumu traditional marriage is incomplete. We submit that

music and dance which are vehicles of our oral tradition are essential condiments of any

African traditional marriage ceremony.

INTRODUCTION

Music has been defined as the combination or arrangement of sounds that are pleasant to the

ears, while dance is referred to as the rhythmic movement of the body in time and space to

communicate a message. In the African worldview, both are considered as Siamese twins

because they complement each other. Culturally speaking, neither music nor dance can exist

on its own for they both go hand-in-hand. There has been a lot of controversy generated as to

which supersedes the other. In the opinion of this researcher, none is superior to the other

rather; they serve as embellishments to each other. Music is the rhythmic accompaniment for

dance while dance is the interpretation of music through body movements.

In Africa, every event attracts one form of music and dance. The music and dance art forms

serve several purposes in the African community, ranging from celebration during events

such as birth, marriage, mourning during calamities, burial, and motivation during

professional occupations and house chores. According to Walter Sorrel (1967:9), dance is as

old as man and his desire to express himself, to communicate his joys and sorrows, to

celebrate and mourn with the most immediate instrument: his body. However, Peggy Harper

captures the very essence of music and dance when she says:

A child becomes a member of a community at its naming ceremony;

an adolescent is initiated into the responsibilities of adult life; a woman

moves from her paternal home to that of her husband‘s family; an elder

receives a recognition for his services in the form of a title; a member

of the community joins the world of the spirits; at none of these times is

an individual left alone to bear the emotions which accompany these

critical changes. The members of the community carry him through the

crisis with appropriate ceremonies which contain the emotions of the

moment in music, song and dance (1976:16).

Music and dance as perceived in the African milieu, transcend beyond the purview of

entertainment, they are essential condiments for information dissemination, didacticism and

spiritual supplications. Marriage ceremony is one of such events wheremusic and dance come

in handy. The lyrics of the songs and the dance movements employed, all have in them

allusions to places, events, symbolism, personification inherent in the community. Music has

the power to set moods, evoke emotions and achieve cohesiveness in any gathering. In a way,

these art forms are more functional for women for it affords them the opportunity to express

themselves without any inhibitions in a patriarchal society like Africa where they are

expected to be seen only and never heard.

The word ‗emoticon‘ is a popular internet slang which is used to describe the representation

of facial expressions by the combination of keyboard characters. They are used in electronic

communication to convey the writer‘s tone and mood. The Advanced Learners‘ Dictionary

defines it as a short set of keyboard symbols that represents the expression on somebody‘s

face. However, for the purpose of this study, the word ‗emoticon‘ shall be used as a coinage

of the two words ‗emotion‘ and ‗icon‘. Emoticon, in this context, refers to the duo of music

and dance as message carriers of inner feelings during bridal processions. Over the

generations, music and dance have proved to be invaluable emotion icons for women, for

they serve as channels through which their feelings, desires and aspirations can be expressed

without fear. King (2006:157) observes that, women have always wanted to say what they

feel and not what they should feel, so they indulge in these art forms in order to translate their

experiences, perspectives and circumstances by creating rhythmic songs to accompany

domestic activities. She further explains that using their ideological and socio-cultural

environment, African women evolve many actions which are usually heavily laden with

imagery and symbols of girlhood, womanhood and motherhood.

It is often said that there are three major events in a man‘s life: the naming ceremony,

marriage ceremony and the burial ceremony. During the naming ceremony, the child is too

young to understand and appreciate the importance of the event. Same goes for the burial

ceremony; the celebrant is already in the world beyond and as a result cannot participate in

his own burial. This leaves the marriage ceremony as the most important of these events as it

is the only event in which the celebrant can plan meticulously, actively participate in and

enjoy to the fullest.

To anAfrican woman, marriage in plain terms is about a woman‘s transition from her

father‘s house to her husband‘s house. In Africa, the female child is raised such that right

from infanthood she is aware of her expected roles as a daughter, a wife and a mother. She is

trained to know how to cater for her husband, cook for her family, rear children and see to the

up-keep of her home. Marriage in any African community is believed to be a great

achievement especially on the woman‘s part. In a patriarchal continent such as Africa, it is

widely believed that for a woman to earn respect in the society, she must be placed under the

pinions and authority of a man. Para – Mallam (2011:208) posits that, in the context of a

gendered social hierarchy ―...a woman‘s ultimate socially ascribed status is achieved by being

in a ‗husband‘s house‘. Thus, it is the ultimate ambition of the typical African maiden to end

up in a ‗husband‘s house.‘‖

In African communities, the girl-child is raised to accept the indoctrinations of marriage as

dictated by the society. As she grows, it is instilled in her subconscious that the place of a

worthy woman is in her husband‘s house. Para-Mallam (2011:211) corroborates this by

saying, ―African traditional society locate women as daughters, sisters, wives and co-wives,

mothers, cousins, nieces, aunts with deferential levels of power within male-headed

households and wider kinship relationships‖. Given this background, one can appreciate why

women hold marriage in high esteem more.

Marriage is a major life event which affects women more deeply. It is popularly said that

marriage ceremonies afford brides the opportunity to be special at least for a day. A lot has

been said about how brides are always happy on their wedding day, it is even said that the

true beauty of a woman fully comes out on her wedding day. This is attributed to the

happiness she feels from within. Little or nothing is directly said about the worry, anxiety and

trepidation that the bride must feel under the surface of the bubbling joy and excitement.

Apart from the expected joy, the truth is that most brides become a bundle of nerves on their

wedding day. Though the womenfolk may not say it outright, they know, understand and

empathise with the bride. The bride is besieged with conflicting emotions ranging from joy,

happiness, self worthiness to nervousness, fear and uncertainty. There have been cases of

reluctant or runaway brides who develop cold-feet as the realization hits them that they are to

leave the cocoon and comfort of their parents‘ homes for the uncertainty of a husband‘s

house. In most cases when the bride is a virgin, the prospect of sexual intercourse thrills and

scares her at the same time. Marriage ceremonies are usually very emotionally-engaging for

the bride, thus music and dance serve as morale boosters as well as outlets for the conflicting

emotions she may feel.

In Ijumuland, the word ‗Obitun‘ is synonymous with bridal processions. A bridal procession

refers to the line-up of maidens/peer group which accompany the bride on her wedding day.

In contemporary times, it is also known as the bridal train. The job of the train is to provide

moral and emotional support for the bride through the journey to her husband‘s house. The

word Obitun is coined from the Ijumu dialect which simply means ‗new wife‘, ‗young bride‘

or ‗bethrothed maiden‘. Thus, the Obitun performance refers to the music and dance

performed for the bride during the traditional marriage ceremony. Just like in Ijumuland,

Obitun is the Ondo word for ‗bride‘. Obitun dance (in Ondoland), therefore, is a bridal dance

done to celebrate and initiate maidens before they marry. It is the belief of the people that if

the ceremony is not performed for an eligible maiden, she could die prematurely or remain

barren (Bakare, 2006: 31).

Obitun dance is more popularly linked with the Ondo people of South-West Nigeria. In the

course of this research however, it is discovered that the Ijumu people of the North-Central

Nigeria also have a dance called Obitun. The Ijumu people are found among the Okun ethnic

group in Kogi State. The Okun group constitutes of Yagba, Ijumu, Owe, Abunu and Oworo

dialectical groups. Their language is very similar to Yoruba and they are often referred to as

the Yoruba speaking part of the North. As one of the main ethnic groups, they constitute a

sizeable portion of Kogi State.

The Obitun dance of the Ondo people has ritualistic origins. It is a transition ritual which is

meant to prepare maidens towards a hitch-free marriage. Before it became celebrative in

nature, Obitun of the Ondo people was originally done as rites performed to ward off death

and sicknesses among young girls who had reached puberty. The equivalent of these rites in

Ijumuland is known as ―Oromodundan‖. On the other hand, the Obitun dance of the Ijumu

people is purely celebrative in nature and is performed on the wedding day by the bride and

her peer group. The Obitun dance in focus is that which is unique to the Ijumu people of Kogi

state.

Using Obitun dance as a yardstick, this paper will examine how music and dance reflect the

psychology of the bride in particular and women in general, during marriage ceremonies in

Ijumuland. We will also attempt to delve into the symbiotic relationship between music and

dance and how the combination of these two add to the aesthetics of traditional marriages in

Ijumuland.

TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE IN IJUMULAND

Previously in Ijumuland, the ideal age for young maidens to get married was from15 - 18

years of age. If a maiden fails to get married within this stipulated age, she is considered to be

a left-over and tagged as ill-fated. According to tradition, every marriage in Ijumuland is

preceded by what is known as ―Oromodundan‖ rites. This is a coming-of-age rite which

prepares young maidens for their potential matrimonial homes. Any maiden who has not

undergone these rites is not eligible for marriage. Once a maiden has passed through the

―Oromodundan‖ rites, she is ripe for courtship. The Ijumu tradition forbids pre-marital sex,

thus, defiled maidens are exempted from this exercise as they are said to be rejected by the

gods. In the olden days, it was a thing of shame for any maiden to be discovered as already

‗deflowered‘ before marriage. Such a maiden brought untold ridicule and humiliation to

herself and her family. This was a sure way of curtailing promiscuity in the community, as

parents in a bid to protect and maintain their family honour drum into the ears of their

daughters the consequences of being rejected for the Oromodundan rites. However, this is not

the case with the male children who are encouraged to sow their ‗wild oats‘.

Traditionally, courtships are often initiated by the men. When a man is interested in a maiden,

he doesn‘t go directly to her, instead he chooses a go-between who is familiar with the

maiden‘s family. It is the duty of this go-between referred to as the ―Alarinna‖ to carry out

proper investigations into the maiden‘s family background to make sure there is no history of

shameful or criminal acts such as murder, stealing, or even diseases such as epilepsy or

mental illness. Once the investigation result is positive, the next step is known as ―Dida emu‖

which literally means ―pouring of wine‖. It is so named because the prospective groom‘s

family approaches the family of the prospective bride bearing gifts of kola-nut and palm-

wine‖. In these modern times it is called ―Introduction‖. Here, marriage talks between the

two families are initiated, and after successful deliberations, a date for the wedding proper is

fixed by the bride‘s family. From that day henceforth, the maiden must not be seen in the

company of any other man as she is already spoken for.

Usually, marriage festivities in Ijumuland last for three days during which various colourful

and interesting activities take place. On the morning of the first day, the bride sets out with

her peer group for the woods in order to supply all the firewood needed for the cooking. They

also all go to the river and fetch water for all the members of both the bride and the groom‘s

family. On the second day, the bride in company of her peer group gather dirty clothes from

both her own family house and that of her intending-husband, and they head for the river

where they wash all these dirty clothes. After this is done, beautiful clothes and jewelleries

belonging to the bride are displayed in front of her father‘s house for all to see. This is a

traditional way of notifying the community that a wedding ceremony is to take place in that

family the next day. It is also done to show off the affluence of the bride‘s parents. The third

day is the grand-finale; the wedding ceremony proper where the bride and groom are

formally joined as man and wife.

MUSIC AND DANCE: EMOTICONS IN OBITUN BRIDAL PROCESSION

The marriage ceremony is usually hosted by the bride‘s parents, thus, it takes place in the

bride‘s family house. The crowd at the event includes family and friends of the bride and

groom, neighbours and well-wishers in general. The occasion starts with a mock-introduction

and statement of mission by the groom‘s family which is done in a dramatic manner to spice

up the celebration. Once this is established, the bride is brought out amid much fanfare. One

of the most meaningful and memorable aspect of a marriage ceremony is the moment when

the bridal train makes an entrance. The bridal train makes a grand entrance while the air is

heavy with anticipation. The bride is placed at the apex of an angle formed by the bridal train.

This floor pattern suggests protection and security for the bride. The bridal train includes:

―Orumo‖; the little bride, the bride‘s peer group and the wives from the bride‘s family. The

bride is dressed in ‗iro‘ and ‗buba‘ sewn with expensive ‗aso-oke‘ material. Her head and

face is covered with a veil. Her neck, wrists and ankles are adorned with colourful beads. The

bride‘s peer group is also dressed in ‗aso-oke‘ material which is divided into two; one part

covering the bust area, while the other covers from below the navel to the knees leaving the

midriff to be adorned with layers of colourful beads. They also wear long beads on their

necks slanting across both shoulders such that the beads drop down to the waist level. A

velvet or expensive traditional ‗aso-oke‘ material is spread on the floor for the bride to walk

on. The bridal train escorts the bride with music and dance into the ceremony arena, as it is

almost impossible for a bride to make an appearance without the accompaniment of music

and dance. The lone musical instrument played in Obitun performance is known as ‗Dundun‘

drum. It is strategically placed on the chest and hand-played by one or two of the maidens.

The maidens‘ intro-movement which is also the motif of the Obitun dance, is a foot-shuffle

done in double four counts forward and backward, while their arms make sideways sweeping

gestures to the rhythmic sound of Dundun. This particular movement signifies hesitation and

it is done to heighten the anxiety of the groom and the curiosity of the crowd in general. The

bride, who is placed at the centre of the bridal train, maintains a dignifying and regal pose

and only glides to the music. The bridal train explores various floor patterns which are of

significance to the ceremony. At some point, they form a circle and dance round the bride in

solidarity, giving her a sense of affinity. Obitun dance steps require little or no energy but a

lot of grace and elegance for the bride and her train are treated as royalty throughout the

ceremony.

SONG:

Call: Omi mo kun

Response: E yan ni n gha ko‘gha

Call: Igbo mo di

Response: E yan ni n ngha ko ‗gha

TRANSLATION

Call: The road is flooded

Response: Send help to get us, please

Call: The road is bushy

Response: Send help to get us, please

This song is an exaggerated attempt at extorting money from the groom, implying that if he

doesn‘t give them money his heartthrob will not be brought to him. The bridal train pose a

mock-barrier in order to extort money from the anxious groom‘s family. It usually works, for

at this point they grant the groom‘s family members and friends, an opportunity to

conspicuously display their wealth and support for their son.

After the bride takes her rightful place beside the groom, other monies in various categories

are paid by the groom and his family. Namely: ―Owo alarinna‖ – monetary compensation for

the middle-man who acted as a go-between for both families when the courtship was

initiated. ―Owo idegiri‖ – fine paid for the couple‘s numerous nocturnal meetings by the

walls of her father‘s house during courtship. ―Owo irinna‖ – transport fare with which the

bride is brought, ―Owo isiju‖ – money to be paid before the groom can unveil the bride,

―Owo okunrin ile‖ – money for the male members of the bride‘s family, ―Owo obirin ile‖ –

money for the female members of the bride‘s family, and then ―Owo ori‖ – the dowry. Next

is the presentation of the engagement items which include: kolanuts, palm-wine, palm-oil, a

bag of salt, dried fish, bitter kola and tubers of yam. All these items have positive qualities

and significance which are alluded to when praying for the couple.

Both parents are then called upon to join the bride and groom and also pray for a successful

marriage for them. While this is going on, it is not unusual for a female relative of the bride

to chant her ancestral praise. An example of which is:

CHANT

Okun iye‘mote

Ote‘mala

Omo Akinjobi

Ewa ewa meta adapo re s‘ogbon

Okun omo arigbor‘eye

Omo olope kekere ejeluse

Oniba luse, gogo a gun lowo

Omo olope kekere asan emu garawa lojojo

Omo arenijo alakuro f‘ajuro

o ba wo f‘ajuro n f‘ajuro

tori agha ko ni isu gha

gha gha egbe hun gha

TRANSLATION

Greetings to you, favoured daughter of the Ote lineage

Ote lineage, famous for integrity and honesty

Descendant of great warrior Akinjobi

Ten in three places make 30- a perfect number

We greet you daughter of a highly successful farmer

Your family palm tree though short, cannot be underrated

Whoever dares will have to contend with its thorny bark

Your success makes other farmers green with envy

Let them envy and frown all they like

For our yams are ours, and we borrow from no one

Above is an excerpt from the ancestral praise chant of the Ale family of the Ote clan in Iyara-

Ijumu, as given to this researcher by Madam Metiyun Ale (a member of the clan).

This chant congratulates the bride and at the same time praises her ancestry. It alludes to the

strength and bravery of the bride‘s lineage at war, their wealth and integrity. This is to

emphasise to all present; especially the groom and his family members, the worth of the

woman they have come to marry and that she should not be made to go through any hardship

in her husband‘s home. In occasions like this, ancestral praise chants evoke overwhelming

emotions and mixed feelings, as a result; almost always, the bride and her mother break down

in tears. A lot of things which cannot be said openly there and then are expressed in the tears.

The mother may feel a mixture of joy, relief, anxiety and hope. Joy, because the ceremony

itself is a joyous one; relief, because at last her daughter is being married off and there is no

more fear of her turning into an old maid; anxiety, because she habours fears of

unpleasantness for her daughter in her husband‘s home; and hope for the best for her

daughter.

The bride on the other hand may be highly emotional habouring feelings of satisfaction,

trepidation, nervousness and hope. Deep sense of satisfaction because she is happy about

finally living her dream of being married; trepidation due to the uncertainty of what the future

holds for her in her matrimonial home; nervousness because she is leaving the cocoon and

warmth of her parents‘ home to step into the strange waters of marital life; and hope because

all she can do is hope for a pleasant marital life. At this point, some women may also join in

the tears while songs are rendered to soothe the bride and also advise her:

SONG:

Iyawo, ekun atoran

A b‘oko re lo ile o

Iyawo, ile oko ejo‘le baba

A rora a mehin te‘le

A mo enii binu oni

Iyawo, ile oko dun

M‘ori lo ma m‘ewa lo o

TRANSLATION

Dear bride, weep not

Go home with your husband

Dear bride, a matrimonial home is not the same with a father‘s house

Please behave well and watch your steps

For no one knows who the enemy is

Dear wife, marital life is interesting

Go with good character and not beauty alone

After the union is blessed by parents of both the bride and groom, there is much rejoicing

among the crowd, the bride is particularly celebrated and this ushers in more singing and

dancing. Here, the women from the groom‘s family practically take over, for now the bride

wholly belongs to them. They rejoice and appreciate her with songs:

SONG:

Omo kan ghan ghun gha

O sebi gha kolu gh‘ode

Omo kan ghan ghun gha

Ojoge ojoge sewele

TRANSLATION:

The beautiful damsel given to us

She dazzles us so much that

We just cannot but celebrate

Her intoxicating beauty

SONG:

Iyawo gha mo ghunwa lete

Gha ghogba bi eja ogbalata

TRANSLATION:

Our new wife is so beautiful

Full-figured like the river goddess

These songs appreciate and celebrate the bride‘s beauty. The message is to make her feel

elated, proud and self-worthy. The women continue to sing, dance, ululate and chant the

bride‘s ancestral praise while food and drinks are served to the guests and there is much

merriment. Here, the bride‘s peer group dance about in the arena in an asymmetric floor

pattern, darting in and out the crowd in frenzied excitement. Their dance movement at this

point comprises of hands swinging freely forward and backward while they shuffle their feet

on heels forward and backward. Their body patterns and footwork blend harmoniously.

In the evening, the bride is escorted to her new home by her bridal train amidst more singing

and dancing. By now the bridal train must have reduced drastically in size remaining only the

bride‘s peer group and the little bride who will move with the bride to her husband‘s house.

The bride is flanked on both sides by her train in a symmetrical floor pattern. This floor

design in dance expresses rest, meaning the bride‘s mind should be at rest and fear nothing as

she heads to her husband‘s house. The dance movement here features arced elbows, arms

rocking sideways across the bust area while the feet are shuffled forward on toes. As they

sing and dance gracefully to the groom‘s house, the bride is showered with encomiums,

ululations, ancestral praise chants and goodwill messages by everyone they pass by.

SONG:

Ema pa‘ghulele e ru gege

Omo‘leja mei rele oko

TRANSLATION:

Let ululations bulge out our veins

For a worthy daughter is married today

SONG:

Call: Iyawo rora a rin iwo k‘oju gbogbo iwo o

Response: O mo rora rin iwo k‘oju gbogbo iwo

TRANSLATION:

Call: Our new wife tread gently, all eyes are on you

Response: Relax and tread gently, all eyes are on you

The message of this song is ambiguous. Apart from the obvious advice for the bride to walk

gently and carefully so she doesn‘t step on stones or fall down because it is her day and

everyone has come to watch her, there is a coded message of caution for her to be careful and

tread warily so as not to step on toes in her new home.

SONG:

O itorin itorin

E rora a torin

O iroko iromi

E rora a torin

‗Wo ba dele s‘oyun kere

E rora a torin

‗Wo d‘awodi gb‘omo p‘ayin

E rora a torin

TRANSLATION

Now you are on the move

Tread gently my beloved

On your way to the farm and the stream

Tread gently my beloved

May you be fruitful in your new home

Tread gently my beloved

May you back your children with pride

Tread gently my beloved

SONG:

Kerikerikege

Wa gb‘omo pon r‘ele

Kerikerikege o

TRANSLATION:

With boisterous energy

May you carry children on your back

With boisterous energy

These songs are used to further advise the bride on how to go about having a happy home.

She is advised to be industrious and hardworking. They also pray for her to have healthy

children because they are the fruits of any marriage.

At the groom‘s house, they are received by the female members of his family. One of the

women pour cool water on the bride‘s feet, to wish her ease and peace in her new home. This

is highly symbolic for it means the female members of groom‘s family accept the bride and

wish her well in her marital life. The bride is taken into a specially prepared and decorated

room where her husband is waiting for her. A piece of white cloth is spread on the bed to

ascertain the virginity of the bride. The bridal train; though waiting anxiously, continue with

their music and dance performance outside while the marriage is consummated inside.

SONG:

Aduduyemi mei ba ro‘ran

Oju re i pa mi o

Eleyinju ege mei ba ro‘ran

Oju re i pa mi o

TRANSLATION:

My beautifully dark-skinned friend on my mind

Missing her sorely already

My sexy-eyed friend on my mind

Missing her sorely already

Through this song, the bride‘s peer group express how much they will miss their friend.

SONG:

A ni soro se o

A de wo‘ara gbeje

Gbeje a de wo‘ara

TRANSLATION:

May it not be difficult for you

Easy is the way of the doves

May it be easy for you

The bride‘s peer group further prays for her to be fortunate in her new home. The ambiguity

of the message of this song lies in the fact that the peer group is secretly hoping for a positive

outcome of the marriage consummation, so they don‘t go back to the bride‘s parents in

shame; which will be the case if she is ―not met at home‖.

After some time, the groom comes out with the piece of cloth. If it is stained with blood, then

it is said that the bride is ―met at home‖, meaning her virginity was met intact. If this is the

case the groom hands over the stained cloth to the bridal train and sends them off with gifts

for the bride‘s parents in order to appreciate them for a job well-done in the upbringing of

their daughter. This naturally calls for another round of celebration.

SONG:

Oni ‗un gba ‗un re

Oun ko ni ‗un re

TRANSLATION:

The rightful owner has taken possession of his property

Yes, he is the rightful owner

This song affirms that the bride hasn‘t defiled her body, and that her husband who deflowered

her has rightfully staked his claim on her.

SONG:

Mo wa wo oloriire

Iye‘ mote a gbeyo

Erin yi a g‘oke lo

Kerikerikege

TRANSLATION:

Greetings, fortunate one

The daughter of Ote has made her clan proud

This particular elephant has climbed

Celebrations galore

This song congratulates the bride for making her parents and clan as a whole proud of her

chastity. The elephant is metaphorically used to describe the feat which she has achieved.

On the other hand, if the white cloth remains white, it simply means the bride had been

deflowered before marriage. The bridal train collects the piece of white cloth and disperse in

shame and embarrassment. They wear their clothes inside out to announce their shame, and

once again, they sing.

SONG:

Oni a ba pon bi Om‘oba

Oni a ba ge bi Olori

A m‘eeru bo gha lo‘oju

TRANSLATION:

She should have been praised like a Princess

She should have been cherished like a Queen

But instead she rubs ashes on our faces

CONCLUSION

Rhythm is at the core of the African existence. It is central to their very being.

Coincidentally, rhythm is an element shared by both music and dance. It is the element which

makes them inseparable twins. In Ijumuland, music and dance are essential elements of

traditional marriage ceremony. The music and dance performed during the marriage

ceremonies add aesthetic value to the occasion as a whole. Each stage of the marriage

proceeding is punctuated by music and dance. The floor patterns of the dance movements at

each point are of positive significance to the ceremony. Also, the ‗call and response‘ format

of the songs in which the lead-singer and chorus interchange verses, affirms communalism

and solidarity.

In the Ijumuland experience, Obitun performance is a combination of the songs, rhythm

produced by the Dundun, rhythmic clap of hands, chants and dances, in which codified

messages for the bride are embedded. These vital art forms extol the virtues of the bride,

praise her beauty and manners, assuage the internal fears she may feel, offer words of advice

as to how to be a dutiful wife and a perfect home-keeper, and also wish her well in her

marital life.The Obitun bridal performance also stresses the importance of communal living.

We observe with dismay however, that due to the advent of the new religions, traditional

marriage songs with codified meanings are gradually fading away. More songs from the

foreign religions are beginning to take centre-stage thereby displacing the original traditional

songs.

WORKS CITED

Bakare, Ojo-Rasaki (2006) ―The Twinning Tale: Convergences and Divergences in Obitun

and Aje Dances‖ in The Performer: Ilorin Journal of the Performing Arts. Vol. 8.

Harper, Peggy (1976) Dance, The Living Culture of Nigeria, Biobaku, S.O (ed), Lagos:

Thomas Nelson.

King, Nancy (2006) ―Aesthetics in Female Oral Performance‖ in Irene Salami-

Agunloye (ed) Women, Theatre and Politics: Contemporary Perspectives,

Ibadan: Saniez Publishers.

Para-Mallam, Olufunmilayo (2011) ―No Woman Wrapper in a Husband‘s House‖ in Olu

Obafemi and Ahmed Yerima (eds) Cultural Studies: Theories, Concepts and Practice,

Ilorin: Haytee Press

Sorrel, Walter (1967) Dance Through the Ages, USA:Groset and Dunlap.

ORAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Interview with Madam Metiyun Ale, 16th

April, 2011

Interview with Madam Osasola Ibikunle, 17th

April, 2011

Interview with Mrs Ebe Olumodeji, 28th

December, 2011

REVOLUTIONARY AESTHETICS IN NIGERIAN FEMINIST DRAMA: WALE

OGUNYEMI‟S QUEEN AMINA OF ZAZZAU AND AKINWUMI ISHOLA‟S MADAM

TINUBU AS FOCUS

OKE OLUFEMI

08085768509; 08033811961

femironaldo@yahoo.com

DEPARTMENT OF CREATIVE ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS

AKOKA, YABA, LAGOS, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study examines the development and state of the aesthetics of feminist drama/theatre in

Nigeria with a critical study of the resultant products of the various plays written by feminist

writers in Nigeria. The researcher believes that various works of feminist writers over the

years in Africa have helped not just the female folk but also the men folk to change their

notion of the entity called, ―the woman‖. However, this paper focuses on the aesthetics of

creating feminist themes and plays in the Nigerian theatre. Every dramatic work thrives on

the effective juxtaposition and combination of various artistic forms and elements that come

together to create the final piece of dramatic work. This lays the foundation in this study for

the examination of the beauty inherent in the artistic creation and discourse of feminist

theatre in Nigeria. The manner in which the playwrights managed to create their thematic

concerns and messages is the concern of this paper. The creative nerve of feminist writers in

birthing their themes and plays is the focus of this study. The reason for choosing the selected

primary data is because they have both contrasting and comparing grounds in the creation of

the feminist characters. This paper tries to show that, no matter the content and intent of a

dramatic work, the technique, style, way, and manner in which it is constructed is essential to

its functionality. Having noted that the major cry of feminist plays is the emancipation of the

female gender from male dominance; this paper therefore focuses on the aesthetic nature of

creating diverse feminists plays for different societies.

Introduction

This study examines the revolutionary development and evolvement of aesthetics in African

feminist theatre using the selected case studies. The researcher intends to look at this topic

from the angle of aesthetics and its use in feminist drama. The fact that feminism in Africa is

not almost the same as that in Europe also necessitates the researcher‘s interest in the topic

and the case studies selected for the purpose of the study. Aesthetics is a branch of

philosophy concerned with the essence and perception of beauty and ugliness. Aesthetics also

deals with the question of whether such qualities are objectively present in the things they

appear to qualify, or whether they exist only in the mind of the individual. It also concerns

itself with the way objects are perceived in a particular mode or whether the objects have, in

themselves, special aesthetic qualities. Philosophy also asks if there is a difference between

the beautiful and the sublime. The term aesthetics according to G. W. F. Hegel was

introduced in 1753 by the German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, but the study

of the nature of beauty had been pursued for centuries. In the past it was chiefly a subject for

philosophers however, since the 19th century, artists have also contributed their views on this

subject.

Feminism, a gender theory came to the forefront of the theoretical scene first as feminist

theory but has subsequently come to include the investigation of all gender and sexual

categories and identities. Feminist gender theory followed slightly behind the re-emergence

of political feminism in the United States and Western Europe during the 1960s. Political

feminism of the so-called ―second wave‖ had as its emphasis practical concerns with the

rights of women in contemporary societies, women‘s identity, and the representation of

women in media and culture. Feminist gender theory is postmodern in that it challenges the

paradigms and intellectual premises of western thought, but also takes an activist stance by

proposing frequent interventions and alternative epistemological positions meant to change

the social order. In the context of postmodernism, gender theorists, led by the work of Judith

Butler, initially viewed the category of ―gender‖ as a human construct enacted by a vast

repetition of social performance. The biological distinction between man and woman

eventually came under the same scrutiny by theorists who reached a similar conclusion: the

sexual categories are products of culture and as such help create social reality rather than

simply reflect it. Gender theory achieved a wide readership and acquired much of its initial

theoretical rigor through the work of a group of French feminist theorists. This shall also be

further enumerated on in this study.

Theatre is one of the oldest and most popular forms of entertainment, in which actors perform

live for an audience on a stage or in any other space designated for the performance. The

space set aside for performances, either permanently or temporarily, is also known as a

theatre. The theatre is also the most objective of the arts and according to Oscar Brockett (3)

this is so because it characteristically ―presents both outer and inner experience through

speech and action‖. The paper sees theatre as the performance of drama on a stage for

audience enjoyment, relaxation and education. Even though theatre could also be a structure

where performances are done, for the purpose of this discuss, it is considered to be the

actualization of a dramatic work on stage. The inter-relationship of these terms and the

revolutionary process they have taken in theatre will be further examined in this study.

Feminist Drama: A Critical Analysis

Male dominance in literary works can be seen in the significant roles assigned to male

characters to the detriment of their female counterpart. The Holy Bible also exalts men to be

superior over women. This domination of male over female is clearly seen in its frequent use

of the pronouns ―He‖ and ―His‖ to refer to God. Women are regarded as an extract of men-

the prototype. This may be due to the fact that woman is from the rib of a man. Eve was

extracted from the ribs of Adam, as is found in the book of Genesis 2:7; 18; 21; 22. A rib was

taken from him while he was asleep, which was then covered with flesh to produce woman

for God said, ―It is not good for man to be alone‖. The above may mean that women are

dependent on men for survival.

Back to the secular world, in a male dominated society, the place of women is given virtually

no recognition in the essential aspects of social life. Nevertheless, whether hemmed in or not,

the African woman is not totally dependent on the man. She engages, among other affairs, in

economic, social, political responsibilities that grant her some degree of independence. A

woman like this, in text and context, may assert her will, refusing to allow socio-

psychological limitations to hinder or relegate her. Through the two images above, docile and

active women can be found in drama, a combination of both could lead to the balanced

portrayal of the African woman, her place, role and image in her society. In this present

century, where so many ideas and theories are formulated on a daily basis to enhance and

advance the lives of humans, women on critical evaluation are not in the right places. They

are segregated, marginalized, abused and oppressed. Due to their gender and sex differences,

women are regarded as being of the weaker sex.

Feminism can be defined as a movement that supports the belief that women should have the

same rights and opportunities as men in all sphere of life, from decision making in the home

to holding a political post. According to Ezenwanebe (186): ―feminism is the political label

for both the awareness of women marginalized, the secondary position as a form of socio-

political oppression, and the quest for freedom‖. Drama on the other hand can be defined as

the presentation of human conducts and conditions in literary form. Therefore, feminist

drama can be defined as the drama that presents the issue of the equality of women and men

in a scripted form. Feminist drama is all about representing and educating women, and also

enlightening the society on the rights of a woman through drama. Women often suffer from a

slave mentality and believe that since their own mothers in time past endured whatever

unfavorable cultural rites, it is also their own duty to endure and refuse to oppose. Igbinovia

H. A. (107) stresses that:

Despite constitutional provisions, widowhood practices are very

rife in villages, rural and even urban areas in Nigeria… The

amazing thing is that these cruel acts are often perpetrated on

widows by their fellow women who perform these rites with

Sadism.

Despite all, Nigerian feminism or womanism addresses oppressive societal structure and

patriarchy.It is about the fundamental human rights in all areas of public life and private life.

Chukukere (144), says that; ―It also recognizes that education of the woman is important in

the creation of the consciousness of their rights‖. Chukukere further asserts that when men

and women genuinely meet to discuss and cooperate, then there would be transformation. To

sum it up, it is concluded that the brand of feminism in Nigeria is socio-political for they

believe that when their input to economic, political, religious and traditional affairs matter,

they would cooperate with men.

Feminism in Nigeria even though not fully rooted to the ground because of the traditional and

cultural values and beliefs is slowly becoming known, with the help of different feminist

writers like Zulu Sofola, Tess Onwueme, Stella Dia Oyedepo, Osita Ezenwanebe etc.

Feminism took off from the Western world and it has since then spread its wings to other

parts of the world. Akachi Ezeigbo (45) says that:

Feminism is a phenomenon of the 20th

century, although its root

could be traced to 18th

century Europe. Feminism as an ideology

insists that society should recognize claims of women for rights

(legal, political, social and economic) equal to those possessed

by men.

Ezeigbo admitsthat the countless stories she heard from women in her locality have helped

structure her vision as an artist and critic and has also helped in the understanding of her

culture and tradition. Even her vast knowledge of folktale, the art of storytelling, power to

create and structure tales; she owes to this women. In many parts of Nigeria, women in

traditional society were able to survive the psychological trauma of sexism by firmly

entrenching themselves in the economic sector of their communities. The one striking factor

that differentiated the state of Nigeria from that of Europe especially in the colonial times,

was the power they possessed in their participation in economic activities. While men were in

full possession of political and economic power, the African woman may not have found

herself in a position to head a clan, lineage or household in the patriarchy, but she certainly

did wield economic power by engaging in gainful occupation like the distributive trades and

other income-generating activities.

Feminist issues in Nigerian drama was first introduced by the first generation of Nigerian

playwrights like Ola Rotimi, J P Clark, Wole Soyinka in such plays as Our Husband has

Gone Mad Again, Wives Revolt and Death and the King‟sHorseman.Even though the

Nigerian woman is somewhat ridiculed in the play, Our Husband has GoneMadAgain as

being uninformed, and totally bowing to the whims of the man, Liza in the play is a symbol

of independence. A Kenyan who schooled abroad coming to liberate the women from their

―marital bondage‖, Liza is used to portray a woman who has independence and a mind of her

own. Her teaching is the reason Mama Rashida could decide her future, and also letting

Sikirat know that even though she is a woman she could dab into politics.

Also, compared to the achievements of male playwrights in Nigeria, female writers have little

to show for their dramatic works over time. The literatures of the likes of Wole Soyinka, Ben

Okri have come to be appreciated and acknowledged all over the world, with Wole Soyinka

winning the ―Nobel Prize‖ in 1986, the ―Booker Prize‖ being awarded to Ben Okri in 1991

and other lesser literary prizes gained by Nigerian male writers. The eminence of Nigerian

writers such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka is felt all over the world, as even some of

their works have been translated into different languages worldwide. This however, does not

diminish the efforts, scholarship, dedication, commitment, and exemplary works churned out

by female writers in the country.

For so many years, the feminist point of view was absent from the corpus of writing

emanating from this part of the world and the rest of the world. It was not until 1966 that

Flora Nwapa‘s Efuru was published by Heinemann. She then became the only woman

novelist writing amongst the male dominated writing world. Even though for a while she

remained the only female writer with time, other female writers started to spring up. Most

Nigerian feminist drama show the strength of women when they come together as a strong

force, rather than an individual standing alone to fight all patriarchal rules and forces. In

Nigeria, women have not been given a just representation either in real life or in drama, the

male playwrights especially, are not helping matters. As Ezenwanebe (45) opines:

In the first generation plays of Wole Soyinka, J. P Clark, Zulu

Sofola and others, the social status of women are de-emphasized

as the playwrights are pre-occupied with dignifying African

culture and reconstructing her battered image. Soyinka‘s women

are contended with the socio-economic status offered to them in

a traditional society.

Feminist drama in Nigeria mostly has the docile woman to be uneducated therefore

sometimes still putting cultural beliefs into consideration, at other times the audience the play

is being staged for, end up arguing in support of the culture. There are rarely cases of women

coming out to report a case of rape their husband meted on them because they are not only

scared of their family members but also of what the society would say. Not only would the

woman be condemned but she would be looked at as strange and mentally unbalanced

because to them, the woman‘s body is her husband‘s right anytime, so even if he batters her,

he‘s just keeping her ―under control‖ and even the law enforcement agency would term it as

―private family matter‖. Even though some playwrights are making efforts by ensuring that

the female characters in their plays are a representation of social reform, it is having little or

no effect in changing the patriarchal mindset of the average society. Despite the surge of

feminist drama, women in Nigeria are still subjected to different kinds of unfair abuse from

the girl child mutilation, wife and child pawning, infibulations, battery, incest etc. This is an

issue many shy away from under the umbrella of cultural dictates because it is rampant in

every tribe and ethnic group.

Chukukere (81) however explains that in time past, women have enjoyed political and

economic independence. In Africa for example, agriculturally, women cultivated and

disposed crops while some owned land and cattle. Politically, the Igbo women association of

Mitiri group composed of widows, fought for the interests of its members. Political, ritual and

religious powers of Yoruba women chiefs are also seen, for example Iyalode of Ibadan

(Efunsetan Aniwura). However, Africa has had few brave women who, undaunted by their

respective continuing circumstances, fought for the liberation of the masses against the force

of extinction. Toril Moi (26) recognizes that women like these are exceptional as they

managed to forestall patriarchal ideas. Some of these women are Queen Amina of Zaria,

Moremi of Ile Ife, Emotan of Benin, Mme Kathilili of Kenya, Yaa Asantewa of Ghana etc

who projected the history of their various societies where female emancipation was

concerned. Gisela Geisler, (66) in addition to this, states that:

…South African women had been involved in the struggle

against apartheid politics since the early part of the century when

they took up the protest against pass law in the Orange Free State

in 1913.

All these are the early forms of women‘s movement and activism in the continent. Despite

these significant contributions, the status of African women remains considerably lower than

that of her male counterparts. Beyond the African worldview, women have suffered

extensively in the hands of men, but efforts are being made to empower women from the

NGOs, the academic quarters, aspiring women meetings etc. Such efforts by women in

particular are geared towards the alleviation of the suffering of women and such efforts thus

lead to our present study. There are efforts to liberate women from the dominance of men and

the oppression of particular cultures. Nigerian feminists adopt the ―womanism‖ approach,

also referred to as African feminism which is milder and less gender centered, where the

point can still be driven without totally ignoring the African culture and tradition, According

to Ezenwanebe (185):

They therefore focus on the plight of African women within the

African cultural milieu and on the acceptable ways of

emancipation that do not negate the essence of African life.

Feminist dramatists in Nigeria use both the formal and informal learning of education as a

means of impacting knowledge and skills, thereby giving enlightenment to women and the

society. This paper however, focuses on the aesthetic revolutions that have happened in the

manner of writing adopted by feminist writers in order to be heard and appreciated in present

time. The way feminist writers use characters, language, symbols, and other techniques to

pass across their thematic concerns is the main focus of the paper.

Character Creation in Feminist Plays

Different playwrights use different styles and techniques in creating characters in feminist

plays to achieve their thematic concern. Style can be defined as the repetitive pattern a

particular playwright uses. Character creation undermines a particular way or style a

playwright uses in creating his characters in his plays. It shows how a playwright represents

and portrays his characters. Some Nigerian playwrights over the years have created for

themselves peculiar styles known to them. Some of them are:

Zulu Sofola

Zulu Sofola‘s characters are mostly always centered on the traditional society in a way that

they always try to defy culture. For example the character Ogwoma in Wedlock of theGods,

ends up tragically and the issue is also not resolved. As opined by Olu Obafemi (61):

Generally she counter poises the old against the young, new

ideas versus old tales. Her attitude seems to favor a preservation

of the old even when this is untoward.

Her female characters are made to be housewives and the husbands being the head, which is

against feminism because the issue of ‗head‘ is under patriarchal society which is unaccepted

in feminism. Even though Zulu‘s characters want to go against patriarchal rule, they do not

mind being under a man, they mostly want to fight over a particular issue, win and then go

back to how things have always been. Ezenwanebe (190) rightly puts it:

Sofola deliberately sidetracks the gruesome reality of women

oppression in the play as if they are not worthy subjects for

drama. Maybe the playwrights are trying to be patriotic to the

culture they labour to prove dignified to the world.

Sofola keeps letting tradition triumph over her female characters; this goes to show her strong

belief in the supremacy of traditional culture. Sofola‘s heroes usually display a kind of

insensitivity to the voices around them. The character‘s fate are always already concluded

and sealed, they are ignorant to the dangers that lie ahead of their stubbornness. Sofola‘s

characters ironically pay a huge price whenever they go against the tradition. Her plays are

always in a traditional setting and usually woven around rituals and myths. As asserted by

Obafemi (7); ―Sofola‘s plays show an uncanny propensity for the magical, the mythical, the

legendary and the traditional‖. She believes so much in tradition and it reflects in her

characterization because no matter how good the protagonist maybe, he will always be caught

in the web of tradition and ends up paying dearly for it, most times with his life. Even if the

character is educated and enlightened he still pays for it. As opined by Ayo Akinwale (70):

Sofola‘s belief in the traditional esteem in which wives in

Nigeria, irrespective of the fact the experience of the black

American woman is not the same as that of her Nigerian

counterpart living in a predominantly black society. Rather than

be a celebration of the traditionally held supremacy of the male

as claimed in most recent criticism of Sofola‘s works in the

guardian of Saturday 18 1986, by Olu Obafemi, and is

reproduced in the preceding chapter, the play is saying in its

under meaning that our women should understand the culture in

which we operate and should not juxtapose the canons of another

culture in which we all wrongly imbibe and prefer over ours.

This shows the manner and style in which Sofola addresses the issues relating to the feminine

gender in her society. She gets the attention of her audience by expressing the radicalism a

woman can exude when oppressed or subjugated while still letting the woman understand the

place of the African culture and tradition in such cases. She therefore has been able to create

a peculiar style of addressing feminine issues without as much tampering at length with the

norms of the patriarchal rule dominant especially in Africa.

Tess Onwueme

Tess Onwueme‘s characters are sometimes allegorical; she uses animals to represent humans,

which then pass the message across satirically. Her early characters were women in a

patriarchal society, and the female characters refuse violently tradition, and are educationally

empowered. Ezenwanebe (192) says that; ―The plays show that education is the tool that

charts the women‘s emergence from the tradition of private life to liberated, public sphere as

seen in the life of the protagonist‖. Chidi Amuta (54); also posits that what Onwueme brings

to this theme is a certain sense of contemporary which pitches the conflict in the context of

present day Africa with its universities and other modern institutions. For example, Gladys in

A Hen too Soon, Ona in The Broken Calabash and Wazobia in Wazobia. She brings on stage

day to day activities in relation to her theme; her characters are modern and fairly exposed to

the western world through the window of education. Tess‘ characters in her plays propagate

the need for women to be educated. Her belief is that once a woman has gotten any form of

formal education then that would be the end of ignorance and enslavement, because

education would open their eyes of understanding. This will enable them know that the

‗traditions‘ they stay rooted in are enslavements and a way of brainwashing them to feel that

they are responsible by following it. Even though it is said that education and money can

open doors, Tess believes that education is a better form of liberation for women. This

approach is peculiar to Onwueme‘s writing and it is a subtle way of emancipating women

from the shackles of uneducated life which further confounds the issue of gender disparity

especially in Africa.

J. P. Clark

J.P Clark‘s female characters are usually not docile and are proactive. His female characters

are usually outspoken and can express themselves, they are usually not caged in the web of

tradition.

Wole Soyinka

His female characters are usually outspoken and fearless but they always hold tradition in

high regard; for example, Iyaloja in Death and the King‟s Horseman and Sidi in The Lion

and the Jewel. Ezenwanebe (192) asserts that: ―They are represented as agents of cultural

preservation and sustenance‖. Soyinka has a way of making his female characters have so

much wisdom that would surprise the men around them. The wisdom however is always of

rich tradition, the type that can stand side by side and compete with any western element. His

female characters are usually ironical in the sense that regardless of the fact that his female

characters are fearless, bold and full of wisdom, they never challenge their tradition, not even

the ones with oppressive nature as regards to women. His female characters are is usually out

to preserve culture.

Owing to the fact that the plays selected for this paper are legends and historical accounts, the

playwrights were able to creatively address feminist issues with justifications and believable

sources. Apart from writing on gender issues, the manner, technique, style, elements used,

features, and approaches employed by the playwrights are the main points of evaluation in

this paper. The plays are selected because the writers used characterization, symbols,

language, and particular actions to justify their thematic concerns and issues in the plays.

These techniques and style are examined under aesthetic considerations in the plays below.

Aesthetic Considerations in Ogunyemi‟s Queen Amina of Zazzau

When a woman takes on the role believed to be the reserve of men, the society becomes

curious and inquisitive as people will want to know whether she will be successful or not.

The story of Queen Amina of Zauzau is that which shows the strength of a woman who many

thought was even stronger than many men put together. She became the ruler of present-day

Zaria and led her warriors to many battles that gave her fame and brought Zaria to the peak of

her glory. She chose to remain unmarried to allow her devote all her attention to building a

strong and respectable kingdom. Queen Amina was a formidable woman credited with many

spectacular feats romantically woven into legends. She is believed to have fought many wars

and won them all. Through her conquest, she expanded her area of jurisdiction as far as the

River Niger, Idah and Nupeland to the south, Bauchi, Jukun, Kwararafa empires, and Kano,

to the north. She ruled for thirty-four years and during this period, whatever was done in

Zazzau became a vogue in the surrounding districts. She did this successfully until a flaw

created by her success led her to a final battle which she never won.

Queen Amina in the play is used to establish the fact that what men can do, women have

done even in the past, and hence they can still do if only they will. Ogunyemi uses the

character of Queen Amina to establish the level at which a woman can lead a people

including the men folk with success in almost all sectors of the economy. The fact that she

was an only child to a mother who wanted a male child also goes a long way to raise the

discussion of the importance of gender to a family. Even the male dominated society could

not but extol and eulogize her personality in the society:

Galadima: When you were appointed heir apparent by your

mother, we were all happy. She wanted a son, but you came as a

woman- an only child… we watched you grow into womanhood.

We watched you undergo your tutelage under great warriors in

spite of your gender. Your love for horses and the use of

weapons of war is beyond imagination… (7).

These words are used by the playwright not only to tell the audience about Amina, but also to

examine the qualities believed to be the preserve of men inherent in her right from her

childhood. The fact that she could do what a prince would do is stressed not only with words

but with actions and symbolist description of her growth. After her coronation, her language

also exudes that of a dictator who does what she wants without fear or favour to anyone. For

example, her speeches before her battles are manly and brave:

Amina: …This campaign is not Amina‘s campaign alone, it is

our campaign. You fight alone, you lose. We fight together, we

win and share the glory of victory… And if we must kiss the

dust, we do it together in the service of our beloved Zazzau…

There will be deaths, I assure you. It is normal in warfare… I

promise you slaves in great numbers. I promise you wealth, but

God owns our lives… (29).

These words are words of bravery, confidence, leadership, and zeal for success but behind

these words is a strong willed woman who does not want anyone to challenge her authority:

Waziri: we cannot keep expanding our empire at the expense of

our able-bodied men, my Queen. We have seen deaths and there

seems no end to dying.

(Amina dismounts…)

Amina: Did I promise you cosy nights on the bosoms of your

wives? I promised you hardship. I promised you slaves…

Waziri: I pray you. There is no wisdom in building a house with

a thousand rooms we cannot maintain…

Amina: Doubting my wisdom?

Waziri: If we continue in this manner, the empire of Zazzau will

be too large. If there is an uprising, we may not be able to

contain it…

Amina: There will be no end to expansion!

Waziri: Not when the warriors are weary.

Amina: Disobedience!

Waziri: Obedience to our collective wish; that enough is

enough.

Amina: I am in command... (34).

This dialogue shows the level at which her dream is the only concern she has as against the

welfare or well being of her warriors. This is a show of the selfish part of her nature and rule.

She only cares about her success and kingdom expansion and not how she achieves it. Queen

Amina‘s actions are also used to show her flaws along the line as she decides to use men as a

means of satisfying her pleasure as against how it is normally perceived. She uses both slaves

and warriors to satisfy her urge for sex at different times and places. For example after a

battle:

(Warriors jubilate. Amina goes to one of the recently captured

slaves. She feels his muscles).

Amina: … I see you are still strong, slave. I will investigate you

yet. Danladi, bring him to me unbound. (37).

Amina: Be blank to the world, Aliyu, and let our bodies radiate

with love from that distance…

Aliyu: I am spent, my queen.

Amina: …I shall give you strength… Get up and take this. Your

strength will come back anew… hand him over to the Lady of

the Chambers. He must get to his house as quickly as he came…

(65).

These events and many others actually led to the death of many able-bodied men, both slaves

and warriors as reported in the play. Her belief that any man who sleeps with her must not

feel like a conqueror or sleep with another woman again, made her eliminate everyone of

them after intercourse. This flaw eventually leads to the coming together of many of her

subjects to eliminate her before she eliminates them all. Though their ploy was discovered

and they are punished, her quest to capture and end the life of Aliyu who is saved by Mairo

eventually leads to her death in Atagara. Ogunyemi uses multiple characterizations to

actualize the character of Queen Amina in this play and this is an aesthetic technique in

presenting her to any society in different ways. This will enable different people to accept her

character in different ways suitable or justifiable to them. Other women were also established

in this play and manipulated differently by the playwright in passing across his message.

Some of them are Mairo, Uwa and Bakwa.

Mairo is portrayed as a woman who though loyal and subject to authority still finds the place

to do what she feels right especially against Queen Amina‘s excesses. For example, she

advices Aliyu against going in to the queen in order not to lose his life, then she gives him the

antidote for Queen Amina‘s poison. Mairo‘s characterization presents her to the society in

more than one way in order for the audience to decide the kind of person they think she is.

This is a technique that helps in driving home the thematic concerns and issues in a play. Her

loyalty, love, patriotism, human-nature, and other attributes are put to test in her character

development.

Uwa is also portrayed as a loyal servant of the queen but one with a heart also for the people.

She is not happy with the queen‘s execution of her subjects but she still has to carry out her

duties as the Lady of the Chamber diligently. This character creation, and development

technique is well utilized by Wale Ogunyemi in actualizing the thematic concerns and

messages of the play, Queen Amina of Zazzau.

Aesthetic Considerations in Ishola‟s Madam Tinubu

The play Madam Tinubu examines the dynamism of a woman as a gigantic force in averting

the cession of her homeland to foreign expatriates. The character of madam Tinubu exercises

the ―feminine strength‖ often overlooked by the masculine gender. King Dosunmu of Lagos

who was the ruler of Lagos at the time of madam Tinubu‘s reign in history; in a bid to protect

his reign as the Oba heeded the advice of the white expatriates without fully understanding

the motive of the consul and his people. However, the intervention of madam Tinubu as the

aunt to king Dosumu foils their plans incessantly as she deploys the philosophy of Karl Marx

that ‗those who make peaceful change inevitable make violent change evitable‘. Howbeit,

Dosunmu announced to the shock of Lagosians that madam Tinubu had to leave Lagos to

Abeokuta which was an advice he received from the consul. However he, in an attempt to

revoke the banishment order could not, as madam Tinubu agreed to leave Lagos for

Abeokuta as her position in the affairs of Lagos has once again been made clear.

Madam Tinubu the main protagonist of the play is a goal getter, she is also fearless and she

knows what she wants for herself and sets out to get it without the approval or permission of

anybody. Madam Tinubu is seen as a threat in the play despite her illiteracy. She is feared

and even the so called ‗exposed‘ and literate men are cautious of her presence even though

they may not attest to it. She holds tradition and her cultural belief higher than any other thing

and is not influenced by the western way of life, she doesn‘t see the way of life of her people

as archaic or inferior to that of the whites but rather sees it as rich and full of grace. She

commands respect among all and sundry, and she is virtually always part of every decision

taken in Lagos, her aura exudes strength and valor. She is confident and sure of her

capabilities. Her anger can make Lagos stand or break Lagos apart, she knows she has a

strong influence on Lagosians and that becomes an added advantage for her. In the face of

her strength and capabilities, she comes across as a respectful and submissive wife, who

treats her husband in the way that is expected of the typical African woman. She kneels down

at almost every conversation. She allows her husband head the family and apologizes when

she errs.

(Someone enters without knocking. It‟s BADA, the husband of

MADAM TINUBU. He is wearing a big blue aso-oke. He retains

his cap on his head. As he enters...)

Madam Tinubu: Welcome home, my lord (TINUBU kneels on

one knee and bows her head. BADA walks near her, places his

hand on her shoulder saying…)

Bada: Thank you, Abeke, my beautiful throne. Is all well at

home?

Tinubu: All is well, my lord.

Tinubu: Oyin, Please, get my husband‘s food ready. Tela, get up

and let me know what I have in my store after a good check.

Gentlemen, you have to excuse me now, I have to attend to my

husband. I‘ll come over in the evening, so we can finalize all

arrangements.

She is also portrayed as a woman who has respect for her elders; her whole decision not to

leave Lagos changed after the old woman paid her a visit, which shows that she is also

obedient. The other female characters in the play are used as symbolic representations of

different women in the society and how the playwright believes they should behave and be

treated. Some of them are portrayed as examined below. The old woman represents peace

and wisdom. She wisely tackled issues and calmed both the Oba and Madam Tinubu without

any of the parties feeling hurt and cheated. In the African society, the words of an elder is

held with so much magnitude and believed to be the words of the gods. She was the one that

was sent to soothe Madam Tinubu‘s anger because it was believed that she would be listened

to. She also stands as a motherly figure who foresaw the path of doom the Oba was treading.

Like a mother would, she was ready to face the whites she felt was threatening the harmony

between her children. She also spoke to both Madam Tinubu and Oba Dosumu in a motherly

way, making them see reasons why they cannot wage war against each other. The old woman

is portrayed to have a strong love for tradition and cultural belief.

Mrs. Adeyeye is a white woman who married a Lagosian, Mr. Adeyeye. She loves

everything about the African culture and tradition so much so that she has imbibed the

African way of life. She is portrayed in the play as a woman that can easily adapt to a new

way of life, she doesn‘t see the African way as unfit and barbaric like Mr. Vikiansony sees

and portrays it. She sees the richness of the culture and decides she wants to be a part of it.

VIKIANSONY: No, no, no, it isn‘t the outfit really, but to think

you can change so soon. You were so bright in your class!

Having been born in Brazil, and brought up in Sierra Leone. You

were so smart and beautiful in your gowns. I just can‘t see…

MRS ADE: Mr. Vikiansony, aren‘t you being ridiculous? What

is the relevance of all this?

VIAKANSONY: But you are now like the others. How can we

know that you are not one of them?

MRS. ADE: But I‘m one of them, I surely am…(45).

From her conversation with Mr. Vikiansony, it is quite obvious that she is a submissive wife,

who does not try to change her husband ways to fit into hers but rather she is quick to adapt

and these are qualities expected of a woman in the African society. Other women are

portrayed in different forms in this play in order to have a universal feel of the personalities

of different people in the society.

Responsibility of Contemporary Feminist Writers

From the above analysis, it is obvious that the writers and the plays examined used their

female characters not only to make statements about female emancipation but the overall

strength of a woman in difficult situations. The onus lies on feminist writers to doggedly

examine, evaluate, analyze, and appraise different contemporary situations and events that

will not only border on gender equality but on making the society a better place on the long

run. The creation of their characters and thematic concerns should not only banter on the

status quo but on universal and peculiar issues that will move their societies forward. The

aesthetic revolution presented in this paper is a function of the effective and new ways in

which feminist writers should address and present their thematic concerns in order to not only

be heard but be listened to and taken seriously. If people do not get to hear something that

will make a lasting impression on them, then they may not even listen at all. This therefore

means that, feminist writers should face the challenges in the style, technique, art, and mode

of writing thereby making their creative writings attractive and a challenge to not only other

women but also the men.

Conclusion

Feminism has made tangible impact in Nigeria such as the growing injection of women into

political cabinets, the establishment of government organizations such as the better life

program chaired by the then first lady of Nigeria, Mariam Babangida. This move had the

intention of catering for women in health, agriculture, education, social welfare, and so on;

yet, problems that face Nigerian women still persist. Some of these problems are

unemployment, politics, some written laws that favor men, government grants (especially for

rural women who are largely farmers) all of which have also resulted in poverty, diseases,

child marriage, traditional norms and conventions such as absurd funeral rites and female

circumcision. However, in modern Nigeria society, more and more women are gradually

beginning to have a voice against all cultural bound laws and also are able to stand

undefeated in a patriarchal society, like madam Tinubu and Queen Amina. This paper has

been able to expose the diverse ways in which feminist writers have been able to address

gender issues in peculiar ways and techniques in order to be heard. Feminist writers should

not only address traditional and historical issues but also try to depict the pictures of the

current trend in the society; issues like armed robbery, kidnapping, money making rituals,

political trends, money laundering and other issues, using unique styles to introduce them.

Feminist writers therefore should be creative enough to make their characters, language,

style, technique, and thematic concern attractive enough for people to grab the message they

intend to send. The fact that the playwrights examined in this paper attempt to portray their

women as those who though perturbed about the situation in their society still respect the

traditional beliefs of their people is a plus. This will not only play on the emotions of the

male folk but will also show the female folk that they can fight for their rights without

necessarily ignoring their culture and tradition.

Works Cited

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Writers: A Critical Perspective. Otokunefor H. and Nwodo O. (eds). Lagos:

Malthouse Press, 1989.

Amuta, Chidi. The Theory of African Literature. London: Zed Books Limited, 1989.

Brockett, Oscar. The Theatre. U.S.A: Allen & Bacon, Viascom Company, 1979.

Chukukere Gloria, Gender Voices and Choices: Redefining Women in Contemporary African

Fiction. Enugu: Forth Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd, 1995.

Ezeigbo, Akachi. ―Striving to be Heard: Women and Publishing in Nigeria Today‖ in

Literature, Language and National Consiousness: A Festchrift in Honour of Theo

Vincent. Akachi Ezeigbo, King Aribisala (eds) Lagos. University of Lagos Press,

2006.

Ezenwanebe, Osita. ―Gender and the Politics of Representation‖in Africa Journal of Cultural

Studies. Lagos: Jas Publishers, 1999.

Gisela, Geisler. Women and the Remaking of politics in Southern Africa: Negotiating

Autonomy, Incorporation and Representation. Sweden: Nordic Africa Institute, 2004.

Igbonovia, H. ―Women and Widowhood: Women Behold Thyself‖in Theatre Arts Studies- A

Book of Readings, Ibadan: Amplified Books 2001.

Ishola, Akinwunmi. Madam Tinubu. 1981. Henimann Frontiers: Ibadan

Moi, Toril. What is a Woman?: and Other Essays. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Obafemi, Olu, Politics and Aesthetics: Essays on Drama, Theatre and Performance. Ilorin,

Nigeria. Haytee Press and Publishing Co Ltd, 2008.

Ogunyemi, Wale. Queen Amina of Zazzau. Ibadan: University Press Plc, 1999l.

The Holy Bible, (KJV) Cambridge University Press.

THE QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF WOMEN AS CONTAINED IN NANA

ASMAU‟S POEMS OF ELEGY

DR. HAMZAT ABDULRAHEEM

&

MALL. JAMIU, YUNUSA MUHAMMAD

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND LITERARY STUDIES,

KWARA STATE UNIVERSITY, MALETE

INTRODUCTION

Until very recently, women were not accorded enviable status in the society. This assertion

was not peculiar to Africa or developing societies alone but, even the most advanced

communities of the world. Women were considered to be not suitable for any position of

responsibility even in the most civilized communities. In some cultures, women were allowed

to engage in domestic chores alone and deemed not fit to pursuit anything outside this

traditional role. This conception of unsuitability of women for any high endeavour was very

common place.

After a lengthy period of non-recognition, however, things started changing. History is

replete with many successful women in virtually every field of human endeavours. With the

eye-catching status women etched for themselves in the annals of time, none is comparable to

the enviable intellectual height attained by Nana Asmau bint Uthman bin Fodio.

This paper does not intend to go into details of Nana Asmau‘s life or her inputs to

intectuallism. The concern is only to present her depiction of quality features of women in her

own time as contained in some of her elegies.

ELEGY (RITHAU‟)

It is the same thing as panegyric (madhu) poems except that elegy is praise of the dead. It is a

very old theme in the poetry; it is as old as the art of poetry itself. In elegy, a poet reminisces

on the virtues and legacies of the deceased beloved ones in addition to lamenting on their

loss. (1)

This brand of poetry is always resorted to when a leader, warrior or an important

personality passes on.

Elegy, as a theme, has been very popular in Arabic literature since the earliest period. It is a

branch of poetry that requires the poet to be focused and selective in choosing his or her

words in order to convey his or her true feelings of the person about whom the poem is being

written. Owing to the fact that it is a very emotional art piece, it enjoys tremendous

popularity.

The popularity of this theme cuts across the periods of Arabic literature from jahiliyyah (pre-

Islamic period) to the modern era. Rithãu (elegy) traverses not only periods but also places

where Arabic literature had thrived and is still thriving.

Of the poets that deftly applied elegy in conveying their emotional feelings, Tumadir bint

‗Amru bin Shareed popularly known as Khansã‘ remains the most renown. She was so good

in the art of composing elegy that even the leaders of pre-Islamic poets like Nãbighah, Bashãr

and Jareer all attested to her leading prowess in the field.(2)

Although born in jahiliyyah (pre-

Islamic period), she lived to later embrace Islam. When she went to declare her Islam to the

prophet, she composed and sang a poem after which the prophet demanded for more.(3)

Her

elegic ability blossomed, when she lost her two brothers Şakhr and Mu‗awiyyah(4)

who died

in their prime. It is therefore not surprising that Nana Asmau took after this elegic giant many

centuries afterwards. It is very glaring that Nana Asmau was influenced, in her elegic and war

poems, by as-sayyidat al-Khansa‘ Tumadir bint ‗Amru.

Nana Asmau made extensive use of elegy not only in Arabic, but also in both languages of

Hausa and Fulfude.(5)

This paper limits itself to only two of her many elegies written in

Arabic Language; and they were composed in respect of her friend ‗Aishat. We aim to

understand the attributes of women in the society as contained in the poems.

NANA ASMAU

Notwithstanding the assertion not to dwell so much on her life in entirety, it will be of great

import to know a little about this great woman of virtue.

Nana Asmau was born in 1792 (1208A.H.) in Degel, the administrative and political capital

of Gobir. Her parents, Shaykh Uthman bin Fodio bin Uthman bin Şalih and Maimunat bint

Muhammad bin Hijau; are both descendants of popular Musa Jokolo.(6)

The origin of this

renowned family was Torodbe; they were from Fulani origin of Futa Toro and Nana Asmau

was the twin sister of Hasan who died much earlier; they were both the last of the children

given birth to by their mother.

It is said that Nana Asmau was born while her father was in a spiritual retreat. It is also

believed that the spiritual state of Shaykh at the time of her birth had tremendous effect in her

blessedness. (6)

As the normal tradition of her family, she started education very early and at the age of about

ten, she had memorized the Qur‘an. (7)

She acquired necessary branches of knowledge under

the guidance and tutelage of many prominent scholars of the time. Among her tutors are her

father; Shaykh Uthman himself, her elder brother Muhammad Bello, and later her husband

Gidado bin Lema. (8)

The deep-rooted knowledge she had put her at a vintage leadership role with enormous

responsibility in the caliphate. She discharged her duties excellently as she became ―an active

member of the intelligentsia that was the driving force behind the jihad.‖(9)

Nana Asmau

ventured into many fields of literary writings, most especially poetry. The genre is the most

popular with the scholars of her time. The intention of this paper, is to look into two of her

elegies.

TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION

Employing transliteration and translation, this paper will analyse two of Nana Asmau‘s

elegies. The transliteration of the poems is presented so as to afford the non-Arabic text

readers opportunity to share in the musical quality of the poems.

Nana Asmau composed the following elegy elegies in memory of Aishat bint ‗Umar, wife of

her brother Muhammad Bello.

POEM 1

1. Ilal-llahi ashkuu min şunūfil balābili

ghalat fi suwaedāi qalbiya dākhili

2. lifaqdi Shuyūkhin qādatid-dīni sādatun

wa ikhwatina akhadānu khaerin wa naili

3. wa dhakkarani maotul habēbati man madā

minal akhwātis-Sālihati „aqāili

4. fazādat humūmi wan firādi wa wahshati

wa sakbu dumu„ī faoqa khadiyya hātili

5. minal qānitātil „ābid ً ati li – Rabbihim

minal-hāfizātil ghaebi zāti nawāfili

6. lifaqdī li „Āishatil karēmati yā lahā

minimra`atin hāzat şunūfa fadāili

7. minadh-dhikiri waş-şadaqāti thumma tilāwati

wa dhabi limazlūmi wa hamlil mathāqili

8. kafēlati `aetāmin ghiyāthi `arāmili

.

.

. .

. .

.

. .

wacumdati hayyin bil-habā watawāşili

9. tawahashtu min faqdī lahā wahya şafwatii

wa maodi„u sirrī min „usūri awaili

10. wala „ajaba falhubbu fīna muwarathun

minashiyākhina min qablu laesa bizāili

11. jazāha Ilahul „arshi bil „afwi war-ridaa

wa taosīc qabri fī diyāi muwāşili

12. wa`ammanaha yaomal qiyāmati kulla mā

yukhāfu bidhākal yaomi min kulli hāili

13. wa askanaha fi jannatin maca shaykhina

wa wālidina maca zaojiha fil manāzili

14. wa yahfazu man tarakat minan-nasli kullihim

shirāral `acādī min „aduwin wa şāili

15. şalātu wa taslīmu „ala khaer man sacā

yubalighu min Rabbī jamīcar-rasāili

16. macal `āli wal ashābi wat-tabi

cīna min

`a„immatina mā şākha `udhnu liqāili

TRANSLATION

1. To Allah I lay different anxieties

that reside in the deepest part of my heart

2. for the loss of our elders, leaders in religion, masters

.

.

.

. .

.

and our brothers, associates in kindness and achievement

3. The death of the beloved (‗Aishat) brought back to me the memory of those who have

gone from among pious and intelligent sisters

4. My sorrow, loneliness and sadness all increased

and torrents of tears flow on my cheeks

5. At the loss of pious, devout women to their lord

(women) who guard their chastity even in hidden, observers of extra prayers

6. (I grieve) at the loss of ‗Aishat, the noble, oh, what a woman!

She had all qualities of virtue.

7. In supplication, charity, and recitation of Qur‘an

and defending victims of injustice and shouldering burdens of responsibilities

8. She was protector of orphans, helper of widows

She was a pillar of the community, ensuring love and smooth relationship

9. I am saddened over her loss, because she was my bosom friend

She was my confidante since earliest periods.

10. This is no surprise; the love between us was bequeathed to us,

from our parents long time ago and can not short-live.

11. May Lord of the throne reward her with forgiveness and acceptance,

and widen her grave in everlasting light

12. May (He) give her peace on the day of judgement from all that;

is feared and everything that is frightening on that day.

13. May (He) place her in paradise with our Shaykh

and her children in the heavenly abode

14. May (He) protect all her descendants from

evils of collective and individual enemies.

15. Blessing and peace on the best (Muhammad) who hastened

to deliver, from my Lord, all the messages.

16. And upon his family, companions and followers

from among our leaders anytime ears listen to a speaker.

POEM 2

1. A „aenāya jūdā wabkiyā lī habēbatī

wasalwata ‟ahzāni wa ‟unsa liwahshati

2. wa jūdā bisakbid-damci min faqdi „Aishah

karēmati ‟ahbābi ladayya şadēqati

3. wa ‟uthni „alaeha bis-samāhati walhaya‟

wa dīni wa ‟ankhlāqin hisāni radiyyati

4. wa dhikrin wa ‟aorādin watasbīhina kadha

qira‟atu Qur‟āni fanicma habēbati

5. wakatbin-nazāim lam yakul‟āna mithluha

ladayya minal ikhwāni yā ţūla fikrati

6. Wakam ‟ānasatni min tuwahushi khātirī

wakam khadamat cindī bi ‟ahsani khidmati

7. Fayā ţūla huznī bacadahā wa tafarudī

.

. .

.

.

. .

.

.

.

wa kathrata ‟ashjāni wa yā ţūla wahshati

8. Alam ta‟alamū ‟annal mahabbata lam takun

liyubcidaha shaeun idhā mas-taqarrati

9. wala waladun yuslil muhibba wala ‟akhun

wala maskanun zāhin wala jam„u qinyati

10. Fa min ajli dhā amsā fuwādii mubalbilan

Shajiyyan yu‟āni zafrata ba‟ada zafrati

11. wazallat dumūcul „aeni fis-sakbi dāiman

walao ‟annaha lā tanqadi lastaqallati

12. wa ‟innī bi hukmi-llāhi rādin wa ‟innamā

‟urācī bimā qad qultu haqqa ukhwati

13. wala ithma haqqan lir-rithāi waqad rathā

Nabiyya Abu Sufyāni bacadalwaqē

cati

14. wa abkī „alaeha bid-dumūci tarahhuman

washaoqan watihnānan lisidqil mahabbati

15. walam yanha „an hādha Nabiyyu wa‟innamā

nahā „an şurakhāti bi ‟āhin wa‟āhati

16. wa ad„u ilāhī an yu‟ammina khaofaha

wayarzuqahar-Rahmānu husnal mathūbati

17. wa yaghfira „an zallātiha wa yuthībaha,

bima ‟ahsanat lī bir-ridā wa bi nicmati

18. wayarzuqaha luqyan Nabiyyi wa shaekhina

.

.

.

.

.

.

. .

.

.

.

.

.

waqudwatihil mashūri „aenil ‟ahibbati

19. wa yūsica ma‟wāhā wa yudkhilaha idha

‟atal bucathu fi „alal jinānil aliyyati

20. Bijāhin Nabiyyil Mustapha Sayyidil warā

„alaehi şalātullahi fī kulli lamhati

TRANSLATION

1. Oh my eyes, weep generously for my beloved,

to console my grief and accompany my loneliness.

2. Shed large tears for the loss of ‗Aishat,

The noblest from among my dear ones, my friend

3. I praise her for her kindness and shyness;

for her religiousness and virtuous pleasant morals

4. For her way of dhikr, aorād and her mode of glorifying (Allah);

as well as her reciting the Qur‘an, what a beloved friend!

5. These verses were written because there is none, now like her;

Among the brethren, what a long moment I spent dwelling on her.

6. How many a time she kept me company in my own solitary grief!

How often she served me most kindly!

7. What a long moment of sorrow for me after her death and my loneliness!

And a multiple period of sadness and lengthy loneliness!

8. Do you not know that, a family-established love

.

can never be severed nor uprooted?

9. No child or brother could make me forget that beloved friend

nor fashionable mansion or all sort of riches.

10. Therefore, my heart withers from worrying;

sigh after sigh rises up from my grief.

11. Tears have, constantly, continued to flow;

As if they will never cease or reduce.

12. Sure, I am contented by Allah‘s judgement,

I stand by what I said in fulfillment of brotherhood rights.

13. There is no sin in writing elegy, for surely

Abu Sufyan elegized the Prophet after his departure.

14. I weep for her with tears to seek mercy;

and to demonstrate longing and love for the beloved friend.

15 The Prophet did not forbid this;

all he forbad is wailing with nasty comments

16 I beseech my Lord to allay her fears;

and that Merciful God grant her beautiful reward.

17 He should pardon her lapses and reward her for her being good

to me, with acceptance and comfort

18 He should bless her with meeting the Prophet and our shaykh

his exemplary model, the most beloved ones.

19 He should widen her abode and make her enter, when

The resurrection comes, the noblest paradise.

20 By the esteem of the chosen Prophet leader of mankind

on him be peace of Allah every moment.

LITERARY APPRECIATION AND COMMENTS

Despite the fact that this paper aims at unearthing the attributes of women as contained in the

two Arabic poems chosen; it is, however, relevant to touch albeit briefly on some features

embedded in the pieces.

(I) STRUCTURE OF THE POEM

Each of the poems is on long metre (bahru ţaweel) although with different rhyme (qāfiyah).

The choice of the metre for this sorrowful theme may be because it was very popular with

almost every writer in the period under study.

In the two poems, Nana Asmau kept, religiously, to the prosodic rules as it affects long metre

poem throughout her composition as they are both devoid of breach in last foot of their first

hemistiches and rhymes.They are also free from unnecessary insertions (hashwu) that weaken

the quality of poems which are very common in poems composed by non-Arabs.

The first poem which is ―lamiyat‖ (based on lam rhyme)and the second that has ―ta‖ as its

rhyme flowed very naturally with the writer not forcing on herself choice of any particular

word.

(II) THEME OF THE POEMS

It is very obvious that the poems are on elegiac.

OPENING:

The first poem opens with the popular style among the scholars of that period who were

mostly clerics writing poems to either teach, warn, or for any other religions purpose.(11)

Therefore, it is most fitting to open poems with thanks to Allah as in this first poem. The

second poem opens much more directly and straight to the theme; this could be attributed to

the place of the deceased and the heat of the sorrow in the heart of the writer rather than

anything else. Giving the overwhelming Sufi antics surrounding the environment, it was quite

in order to open with such a clear statement of spiritual submission.

TONE OF THE POEMS:

The tone and words used in the poems are Islamic. The virtues for which the loss of the

deceased was more painful are Islamic virtues of religiousity, humility, honesty, brotherliness

and other good characters. It had to be in that form because the environment was a religious

one.

CONCLUSION OF THE POEMS

The two poems have similar ending of seeking heavenly comfort and forgiveness for the lost

ones. This is clearly a feature of poems written by Muslim scholars most especially in those

ancient times.(12)

They both also concluded with seeking blessing and peace upon the holy

Prophet Muhammad. Mention is also made about the Sufi leaders who were beacons of

spiritual guidance and success.

QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF WOMEN AS CONTAINED IN THE POEMS

Elegy is one of the most popular objectives for which poems were written in West Africa. (13)

It is the branch of poetry that has, as its theme, eulogizing the dead and lamenting the grief

that befall the society from their loss.

In the two poems being looked into, one can see the extent of Asmau‘s close touch with

virtues of the society. It was an Islamic society, thus it is only natural that the works of

literature mirror the real nature, culture, values and norms of the milieu. We are, in these

poems, face-to-face with the women of that generation.

The first poem which started with reminiscence about the earliest leaders and scholars

brought upon her by the demise of her beloved bosom friend Aishat highlighted the noble

qualities of women of the period. This can be clearly seen in lines 3 – 5:

3. wa dhakkarani maotul habēbati man madā

minal akhwātis-Sālihati „aqāili

4. fazādat humūmi wan firādi wa wahshati

wa sakbu dumu„ī faoqa khadiyya hātili

5. minal qānitātil „ābid ً ati li – Rabbihim

minal-hāfizātil ghaebi zāti nawāfili

Meaning:

3. The death of the beloved (‗Aishat) brought back to me the memory of those who have

gone from among pious and intelligent sisters

4. My sorrow, loneliness and sadness all increased

and torrents of tears flow on my cheeks

5. At the loss of pious, devout women to their lord

(women) who guard their chastity even in hidden, observers of extra prayers

Being a product of Fodio era of Islamic caliphate, the influence of Islam is very manifest in

virtually everything scholarly. The attributes considered as quality values for women in the

above lines are directly in consonance with Qur‘an chapter 23 verse 35 (Suratul ‗ahzāb).

Religiousity, total submission to the will of Allah, chastity and honesty; were the qualities of

virtue among women in those days.

For a woman to be regarded as virtuous and involved, not only being a possessor of the above

attributes, it also included being obedient to the husband and embarking on charity deeds of

assisting the orphans and the widows. All these are in tune with the prophetic teachings that

―when a wife is obedient to her husband, she has fulfilled half of her religious obligations and

should strive on the remaining half‖. (14)

It was even reported that absolute obedience by wife

to her husband is an act of jihād (strive for the cause of Allah). (15)

She then moved (6 – 9) to mentioning ‗Aishat and her attributes:

.

.

. .

6. lifaqdī li „Āishatil karēmati yā lahā

minimra`atin hāzat şunūfa fadāili

7. minadh-dhikiri waş-şadaqāti thumma tilāwati

wa dhabi limazlūmi wa hamlil mathāqili

8. kafēlati `aetāmin ghiyāthi `arāmili

wacumdati hayyin bil-habā watawāşili

9. tawahashtu min faqdī lahā wahya şafwatii

wa maodi„u sirrī min „usūri awaili

Meaning:

6. (I grieve) at the loss of Aishat, the noble, oh, what a woman!

She had all qualities of virtue.

7. In supplication, charity, and recitation of Qur‘an

and defending victims of injustice and shouldering burdens of responsibilities

8. She was protector of orphans, helper of widows

She was a pillar of the community, ensuring love and smooth relationship

9. I am saddened over her loss, because she was my bosom friend

She was my confidante since earliest periods.

These attributes are in other women as well but Aishat stood out for her scholarly attributes

(line 8)and social responsibilities. No wonder, Asmau became so lonely and was always in a

melancholic mood after her demise because of the vacuum her loss created.

The first poem ends with prayer to Allah on forgiveness for ‗Aishat and bestow on her al-

jannat (paradise). It rounded off with seeking peace and blessing upon the Prophet.

. .

.

The second poem is more focused on ‗Aishat than the previous one. This is more like

Khansā‘s elegy on her brother Şakhr(16)

as the tone depicts how deep the hurt is in the heart of

both poets.

Nana Asmau started head-on into mourning by demanding from her two eyes to benevolently

shed tears to mourn her departed partner. She feels no amount of tears will be too much to

shed on the virtuous ‗Aishat. She afterwards goes on to state the attributes of ‗Aishat which

also are qualities of women of her era. The preponderance of Sufism in that period makes the

poem a true mirror of the then society in terms of value. The attributes of kindness, constant

remembrance of Allah, glorification of Allah, religiousity, good moral and other good

attitudes are as well shared by other women.

Wa innī bi hukmillahi rādin wa‟innamā

„urā‟ī bimā qad qultu haqqa „ukhwati

Meaning:

Sure, I am contented by Allah‘s judgment,

I stand by what I said in fulfillment of brotherhood rights;

Submission to the will of Allah (line 12) on sorrowful experience is among the qualities of

women. Literary pieces of this era based their creativity on themes justifiable in Islam. This

can be understood in Asmau‘s justification of her composing elegy (line 13 – 15) as not been

forbidden by the Prophet.

13. wala ithma haqqan lir-rithāi waqad rathā

Nabiyya Abu Sufyāni bacadalwaqē

cati

14. wa abkī „alaeha bid-dumūci tarahhuman

washaoqan watihnānan lisidqil mahabbati

15. walam yanha „an hādha Nabiyyu wa‟innamā

. .

.

.

nahā „an şurakhāti bi ‟āhin wa‟āhati

Meaning:

13. There is no sin in writing elegy, for surely

Abu Sufyan elegized the Prophet after his departure

14. I weep for her with tears to seek mercy;

and to demonstrate longing and love for the beloved friend.

15 The Prophet did not forbid this;

all he forbade is wailing with nasty comments

Like the practice then, she concluded the poem with prayer for her deceased friend and

blessed the Prophet.

It can, however, be argued that these are attributes of the educated or elite women of that era.

This is true, but it is also true that the educated women were at the vanguard of social

activities and were real models to the remaining members of the folk. The enlightened

women were more participatory and as a result carried along their peers.

CONCLUSION

This paper has attempted to remind us of glorious past that accorded women enviable status

equal to that of their male counterparts. The status they impartially enjoyed by dint of hard

work in pursuance of knowledge and being socially responsible. The lot of women as

progressive players in the development of society had been well established long before the

coming of modern campaigners and their sponsors.

Nana Asmau was able to capture the qualities and virtuous attributes of women in her own

society in her two poems chosen for this paper. The society she depicted to us is that in which

gender matters only very little but attributes matter the most. The society we see in the poem

is the one where women do not need to hawk themselves in the name of modernization,

women liberation or delusive freedom. It is a society in which righteousness, honesty,

chastity, religiousity, kindness and other good characters tell much about a virtuous woman.

It is a society in which a woman is free to rise in defense of the oppressed and against any

intimidation.

All the above was recorded in literary art of elegant Arabic language. This says a lot about

the parts of Northern Nigerian women locked in our heritage of Arabic language. Discovery

of our true identity as noble people lies very much in going back to our noble heritage as

bequeathed to us by our virtuous mothers of the past. That Arabic language is the key to

unlocking this shining heritage is not an overstatement.

It can also be seen that true determinant of status, as contained in these poems, is knowledge

and positive application. It is therefore of paramount importance that our women should put

more effort on knowledge acquisition and learning more about Arabic language and literature

in order to have direct unfettered access to our glorious past.

REFERENCES AND NOTES

1. al Fākhūri, Hanā: Tārikh al Adabil ‗Arabi; 8th

edition, n.d.,

al-maţba‗atul baoleesiyah, Beirut, Lubnān. p. 61

2. al-Zayyāt, Ahmad Hasan: Tārikh al-Adabil ‗Arabi; 12th

edition, 2009,

Dar Al marefah, Beirut-Lebanon. P:110

3. Ibid; P:109

4. al-Fākhūri; opt cit: p 189

5. See Boyd, Jean & Mark Beverly: The collected works of NANA ASMAU

DAUGHTER OF USMAN DAN FODIO n.d.

Sam Bookman Publishers, Ibadan

6. Ibidi: P 5

7. Dr. Sa‗ad, Muhammad ar-Rābicu Awwal: Asmāu bint Uthmān bin Fōdiyo Wa intājātiha al

‗arabiyyat, 2010,

Gidan Dabino Publishers, Kano, Nigeria. p : 33

8. Ibi: p 32

9. Boyd & Mack opt. p. 6

10. See al-Hāshimiyy, al-Sayyid Ahmad: Meezānudh-dhuhabi fi sina‘ash

Shi‘r al- Arab n.d.

It will help to know more about prosodic rules.

11. Dr. Muhammad, ‗Abduş-Şamad ‗Abdullah: ‗Adwā‘u ‗Ala sh-shicir

Al-cArabi fī gharbi l friqiya

1st edition, 2001, Makhtabatu Wa- Habiyah, Cairo. P. 60

12. Because the poet were mostly scholars and preachers; This types of ending is

common as it could be found in the works of Shaykh Uthman and Abdullah bin

Fodio, and scholars of that generation.

13. Dr. Muhammad, Abdus- Samad Abdullah opt cit p 61.

14. Sabiq Sayyid; Fqhus- sunnah; new edition, 2008, Darul- Fikr P. 554-55

15. Ibid: p. 555

16. Al-Zayyat, Ahmad Hassan: opt cit 109.

Western Education: It‟s Influence on Northern Nigerian Literature

AbdulGaniyu Abolore Issa

Assistant Director

Centre for Innovation and International Studies

Kwara State University Malete

and

Akinfenwa Oluwaseun Stephen

Department of Sociology

University of Ilorin

Ilorin.

ABSTRACT

Northern Nigeria is predominantly a Muslim region resisting any attempt at westernization.

The suspicion with which northern Nigeria gazed at western intentions in subverting the

doggedness and convictions of Islamic faithful prevented the west from bequeathing a

befitting heritage of western intellectual legacy with a negative impact of northern literary

backwardness. The liberating instinct in western education has not been maximally explored

by northern Nigeria and potentials have not been fully tapped into. The role of education in

shaping our world view and how abstract concepts are grasped cannot be overemphasized.

There are few literary works emanating from northern Nigerian writers because of the dearth

of publishing companies and where available , their unwillingness to publish the few authors

who ignore the challenges posed by portraying the role of culture and religion as conservative

tools that fervently oppose dynamism. Northern Nigerian conservatism has led to literary

growth differentials when the unit of analysis dwells on comparison. Serious steps on mass

literacy for Northerners is a positive step in the right direction as Western education liberates

the mind, inspires thought and influence creativity of individuals.

INTRODUCTION

Northern Nigeria‘s overall literary performance before and after Independence has been

arguably unimpressive. According to popular remarks, less than 21 percent of Nigeria‘s

literary works spring from northern minds, a condition that has gained dominance since the

incursion of the West into the political economy of Nigeria. Western education no doubt has

imposed itself as a decider and an essential take off point for any successful literary career

while dictating the pace and spread of inspiration to be attained by writers. The conservative

nature of northern culture and religion has portrayed the north as latecomers to the literary

world and the fear of developing critical minds that may question the social structure and

strip rulers of their autocratic and monarchical control has been a de-motivating factor to

embrace western education in its entirety. Western education cannot be said to have had a far

reaching impact on northern minds, because its extent of influence is very weak as the

general school enrollment statistics for the north still displays a disappointing figure even

amidst the much touted media hype of mass literacy.

The north has failed to maximize the gains of Western education. Moreover, the skepticism

with which missionaries were treated prevented the easy passage of western mode of

reasoning, western ways of calculating and manipulating numbers.

Northern Nigeria was one in which the combination of politico-religious power and authority

made cult and personality worship an integral part of the political landscape. The leaders

were conceptualized as never making any mistake, and their public policy decisions were not

publicly scrutinized out of utmost respect. To question the validity or legitimacy of the

actions of the leaders or to dispute their position on anything was the same as revolting

against one‘s religion or the will of GOD. There is even a saying in Hausa that we were

taught when we were young: ―Bin Na Gaba, Bin Allah‖ i.e., obeying your superior is

synonymous to obeying God. This kind of reasoning is similar to that espoused by St.

Thomas Aquinas in the medieval period to provide religious legitimacy to the oppressive

feudal social structure in Europe. Though there have been some changes, the situation by and

large remains the same for most ordinary people in Northern Nigeria even presently. In this

respect, the Islamic religion becomes central to any program aimed at promoting social

change and development in Northern Nigeria because it has a strong influence over the

methods used to legitimize the existing social structure and resist any desirable program of

social change. The leaders were totally against western education because of its perceived

potential to corrupt the faith of Muslims which will result into enervating their theocratic

stronghold. This protectionism has affected literary works in the north which births a

situation of disproportionate growth in literary maturity.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this paper is to make an appraisal of the influence of western education on

northern literature

The objectives are

(1) To study and determine how northern literature is affected by western education and the

role of cultural assimilation and association in influencing world view.

(ii)To ascertain the extent to which religious and cultural values are shaped by western

education with an overall impact on permissiveness to explore the literary world.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The paper attempts to discuss the role of western education in shaping the literature of

northern Nigeria, the data used in this research work includes information from journals,

textbooks, paper publications and annual reports.

CONCEPTUAL ISSUES

Literature- literally translated, the word literature means acquaintance with letters. The two

major classification of literature are poetry and prose. Literature is sometimes differentiated

from popular and ephemeral classes of writing. Terms such as literary fiction and literary

merit are used to distinguish individual works as art-literature rather than vernacular writing.

literary works are not limited to works of literature, but include all works expressed in print

or writing other than dramatic or musical work.

WESTERN EDUCATION: pedantic or instructive teaching with origin from the Western

world with the aim of imparting ideas, philosophies, ways of life and culture. in a

systematized format done within the confines of structures alternatively referred to as

classrooms. It intends to capture the mind and infiltrate reasoning and it can be passed from

one generation to another through structured curriculum.

HISTORY OF WESTERN EDUCATION

The Western-type of education began seriously in Nigeria with the arrival of the Wesleyan

Christian Missionaries at Badagry in 1842. It has obviously been the most successful in

meeting the overall formal educational needs of the consumers for the present and the future.

Between 1842 and 1914, about ten different Christian missions had arrived and begun

intensive missionary and educational work in Nigeria. Schools were built and the missions

struggled for pupils/members such that there was a proliferation of primary schools

established by different missions. Although literary education in the 4Rs (reading, writing,

arithmetic and religion) was predominant, this new missionary education prepared the

recipients for new job opportunities, as teachers, church evangelists or pastors, clerks and

interpreters. Emphasis was also on character training. Most of the missions established

primary schools and, initially, little emphasis was laid on secondary and higher education.

But following agitations by influential church members, rich merchants and emigrants living

in Lagos, the CMS Grammar School Lagos, for example, was established in 1857. The

Western-type education developed faster in the South than in the North of Nigeria because of

the skepticism of the Muslims about the impact of Christian missionary education. By 1914,

it was estimated that about 25,000 Quranic schools were already in existence all over

Northern Nigeria. Thus, the arrival of Christian Western education met stiff opposition.

However, in some parts of Northern Nigeria, the Christian missionaries did succeed in

establishing schools, at times, in collaboration with the Government.

Much of the educational work in Southern Nigerian, prior to 1882, was done by the

missionaries almost without government assistance. However, from 1882, the Government

began a bold intervention by promulgating codes and regulations, guidelines and policies on

organization and management of schools. Government also began to appoint inspectors and

to make grants to schools to ensure quality. Thus, between 1882 and 1950, many codes and

regulations were issued by Government to regulate the quality of education in various parts of

the country. Between 1952 and 1960, each of the then three regions enacted and operated

new education laws (the West in 1955, both the East and North in 1956). The initial

experiment at Universal Primary Education Programme was started in the West and East in

1955 and 1957 respectively.

The impact of western education on northern Nigeria literature cannot be overemphasized, it

has been regarded in most quarters that northerners are latecomers in history. Furthermore, in

1959, the Federal Government set up the Sir Eric Ashby Commission to identify the high-

level manpower needs of the country for the future. The Ashby Report prescribed that

education was indeed the tool for achieving national economic expansion and the social

emancipation of the individual (Aliu, 1997).

It recommended the establishment of four Federal Universities in the country, and presented

some vital courses for them. Five universities, instead of four, were subsequently opened as

follows: University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1960), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1962),

University of lfe, lle-Ife (1962), University of Lagos, Lagos (1962), and University of lbadan,

first established as University College, lbadan in 1948. University of Benin was later

established (1972). As of 1999, Nigeria had forty-one universities made up of twenty-five

Federal, twelve State and four Private-owned. Among them are specialised universities,

including three Universities of Agriculture, seven Universities of Technology, as well as a

military university, the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.

These have been established in a bid to address specific areas of national needs. Other tertiary

educational institutions such as Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Colleges of

Technology were also set up during the years. The National Universities Commission (NUC),

established in 1962, has the task of coordinating the orderly development of the Nigerian

university system and maintaining its academic standards. In 1977, the Joint Admission and

Matriculations Board (JAMB) were created to regulate the admission of students into the

universities, taking cognizance of available spaces and federal character. Student enrolment

in universities has risen from a mere 1,395 in 1960 to over 250,000 by 1998/9 session.

THE EFFECTS OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION ON NORTHERN NIGERIAN

LITERATUREIN ENGLISH

Islam was first accepted by a ‗Kanem ruler‘, Umme Jilmi (1085 - 1097). Subsequent rulers,

Dunama 1 (1097-1150) and Dunama II (1221 - 59), continued the tradition of Islamic

learning such that by the end of the 13th Century, Kanern had become a centre of Islamic

learning (Fafunwa, 1974:53).

In the early 14th Century, Islam was brought into Hausa land by traders and scholars who

came from Wangarawa to Kano in the reign of Ali Yaji (1349 1385). Before long, most of

what later became Northern Nigeria was Islamized. Islamic education brought along with it

Arabic learning since Arabic is the language of the Quran and was therefore perceived as

having great spiritual value. Arabic and Islam were taught simultaneously in primary schools.

As a result of the political and social influence which Islam and Quranic learning conferred

on those who possessed it, many rulers employed Islamic scholars as administrators.

The Jihad by Uthman Dan Fodio helped to revive, spread and consolidate Islamic studies and

extend access to education also to women. Thus, before the arrival in Nigeria of the Western

type education in the 19th Century, Islamic learning had been established. Islamic studies had

also penetrated the Western parts of Nigeria before the arrival of the Jihadists; but the Jihad

strengthened the religion where it was weak. Support for Islamic education came from some

Northern Nigerian leaders, especially Abdullahi Bayero, (Emir of Kano), who, on his return

from Mecca in 1934, introduced new ideas by building a Law School for training teachers of

Islamic subjects, and Arabic as well as English and Arithmetic.

The school continued to grow and expand in scope such that before long, and with the

support of the then Northern Region Ministry of Education, it had grown into the popular

Bayero College, Kano, which became a part of Ahmadu Bello University and later the

present Bayero University, Kano. The institution helped to expand the scope of Islamic

studies in Nigeria. Many institutions have sprung up over the years, in many parts of the

country, for the purpose of teaching Islamic ideas and practices. However, one major problem

of this educational tradition is the focus on Arabic which, in many parts of Nigeria, is not the

language of literature, instruction and correspondence.

MODERNITY AND NORTHERN NIGERIAN LITERATURE

The first issue to be reflected on is the ambivalent legacy of 1804 Sokoto jihad. The jihad

can be studied from so many perspectives. But the essential focus in this paper is related to

its legacy in terms of Northern Nigerian development, social change and its impact on

northern literature. Religious ideas have social, cultural and institutional consequences, apart

from any claim they make for eternity. The emphasis is in its social, cultural, and institutional

consequences.

Although Islam had the upper hand in terms of getting converts in West Africa vis-a-vis

Christianity, it lost its momentum as a reformist and liberating religion under colonial

rule. The main explanation for this was the policy of indirect rule in Northern Nigeria, which

sought to shield native authorities from agents of social change during the colonial

period. Michael Crowder's critical reflections on the decline of Islamic influence in the 20th

century in West Africa as a whole, including Nigeria, are contained in the following

quotation:

Islam under colonial rule became a force of conservatism rather than change, as it had

been in the 19th century... Administrators supported established Islam in the form of

emirs and marabouts of whose loyalty, they were sure, and saw in them a dam

harnessing Western ideas to African society whilst holding back what they considered its

disruptive influences. Christianity, which gained only a tenth of the converts Islam did,

nevertheless made a much greater impact on African society, far from trying to control

the flow of ideas from the West, the missionaries positively pumped them into West

Africa (Crowder, Michael. 1968. West Africa Under Colonial Rule. London: Huchinson

University Library).

There were two other jihads in West Africa in the 19th

century after that of Sokoto but Sekou

Ahmadu‘s was more progressive and egalitarian than that of Sokoto and Alhaji Umar‘s. The

profound lesson of the Sokoto jihad from the point of view of development and social change

is the fact that a group of scholars inspired by reading the Holy Scriptures from the

perspective of the oppressed in Hausaland appropriated liberator discourses and used it to

mobilize the ―Talakawas‖ to revolt against injustice and oppression. In the 20th

century much

about Islam in West Africa according to Michael Crowder was domesticating rather than

liberating. Although our context in the 21st century is different, we can be inspired by the

idea of reading Scriptures from the perspective of the oppressed rather than the perspective of

the elites and the powerful. The Hausa Habe rulers who were Muslims did not necessarily

agree with the interpretation by Shehu Othman Dan Fodio because it threatened their

legitimacy. This was what led to the hijra from Degel to Gudu, which preceded the

jihad. From this we can draw the lesson that Scriptures can either be read from an

establishmentarian position or from the point of view of those at the social margins of

society. The Shehu chose to read it from the point of view of those at the social margins of

the then Hausa land. This is an important historical lesson that we can learn and adapt to our

own context, which is now different.

The other side of the jihad that is problematic is that even though it happened in the 19th

century, a period when modernity was taking roots after the scientific revolution, the

orientation and vision of the jihadists was not to usher Northern Nigeria into the modern

world. They were inspired by the past as an ideal and model for the future. This is a major

issue with Northern Nigerian social structure and orientation that exists to this day. The

failure of the Northern Nigerian modern elite was the inability to critically and constructively

appreciate the achievements and limitations of the caliphate which is part of the region‘s past,

and on that basis reconfigure the region and launch it fully into the modern world. As Fanon

(year) articulated, each generation needs to discover the task that has been assigned to it by

history and once they have done that, they have to decide whether to carry it out or not. The

leaders of the jihad did what they thought they could do to change the social order that they

believed was oppressive and decadent.

Being part of the modern world does not mean embracing everything in it hook, line, and

sinker, but creatively finding a way to fit in it and be a player in it. As Manuel Castells (year)

argues, Sub-Saharan African countries run the risk of becoming Fourth World nations in the

21st century because of their lackluster performance. They are increasingly irrelevant as

players with regard to the major issues of our time. He thought that it would be better for a

country to be dependent than to be irrelevant in the contemporary world. Whether we like it

or not, by the 19th

century the dominant influence in the world was modernity. For some

reasons, Islamic civilization lost its predominant influence. For instance, at one point,

Baghdad was the center of world civilization, and the city to go if you are a sophisticated

intellectual.

The faithful must look for guidance from the teachings of the Quran and 'Hadith' in the present

context. Islam is not meant only for 7th Century Arabs. It is for all times and for every part of

the world. If Muslims understand this, then there will be less misunderstandings among

Muslims. If the non-Muslims appreciate the problems that the Muslims have in trying to adjust

to modern changes, then they will not misunderstand Islam and the Muslims as much as they do

now. And the world will be a better place if all these misunderstandings are removed.

Northern Nigeria decided that the safest thing to do was to resist change or allow as much

social change as would not disrupt the traditional social structure which is built on the

legacies of the caliphate.

NORTHERN SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND WESTERN EDUCATION

Northern Nigerian elites were at best ambivalent about development and modernization for

the most part in the first half of the 20th

century and indeed this fact can be argued in many

parts of the North, even today. Because of the heritage from the past, often the great majority

were more concerned about maintaining the status quo, which was considered an ideal that

was fought for. This implies in many respects, attempting to uncritically conserve traditional

institutions, opposing Western education without creating a profound and viable alternative,

and by attempting to exonerate political elites from serious scrutiny and accountability to the

general public.

The political elites of Northern Nigeria by and large collaborated with conservative colonial

officers to resist Western education, primarily because they believed it would produce many

people with critical minds who would question the legitimacy of the traditional social

structure. It must be clarified here that pointing this issue out does not mean any disrespect to

our traditional institutions in the North. Rather, it is saying that as the leaders they could

have done better to spearhead development in the region especially given that for anyone

with foresight, the 20th

century was one where modernity was spreading and one could not

remain dynamic and relevant without finding a way to creatively excel in it.

Northern Nigeria has a social structure that is very hierarchical, such that if change did not

come from above, the typical conservatism of peasants reigns supreme.

Although the general situation in the emirates of Northern Nigeria was one of conservatism

and resistance to change, there were a few emirs such as those of Kano, and Muhammadu

Dikko of Katsina who were open to Western education. If the colonial residents had

exploited such opportunities, they could have used the influence and authority of the emirs to

introduce Western education and in that way prepare Northern Nigeria for the future. The

following is an extract from a letter written in 1930 by the emir of Kano to the Lieutenant

Governor of the Northern provinces of Nigeria. The main theme of the letter was to explain

why people in the North had a carefree attitude to Western education. Yet the letter also

expressed the emir's openness to the idea of Western education: Part of the letter reads:

The reason that pupils do not of their own accord enter the schools under

discussion and the reason that parents will not send their children to these

schools to the same extent as their own, which they are accustomed, is simply

that they are not used to them. Their fathers and grandfathers did not know them

nor did they inherit them from their fathers and grandfathers. In this respect man

is a creature of habit....

...There is yet another reason. The Hausas do not care for any type of

literature other than religious or educational works--or what is closely

connected with religion: such as the Unity of God, Sufism, jurisprudence and

the law as Almighty God Himself said in His Book.

Also the Hausa do not look ahead. They do not think of the future, of what will

benefit their children and grandchildren. And this is especially true of those in

the Sudan: for it is commonly said of him of the Sudan: he cares for naught but

his belly and his wife.

Furthermore let it be said that the best policy of all is for a man to learn as much as God wills of

our knowledge and also to learn in the English schools what cannot be learnt save therein. It is

evident that tradition and Islamic religion as perceived then by many people of Northern

Nigeria) stood as obstacles to the process of change.

PROBLEMS FACING NORTHERN LITERATURE IN NIGERIA

Writing, of the creative category is a lonely, lonesome, hazardous and a challenging vocation,

given the socio-economic and socio-political ambience in our country, and in which the

business of creative writing is carried on.

Northern literature has not explored the rich fields where insights can be drawn and creativity

extracted due to the conservative culture of non-permissiveness. We are slaves to history

today is a product of yesterday and tomorrow will be shaped by the events of today. So many

fine points in literary argument have escaped the radar of northern literary interest, and

religion dominates literary works with little or no room for improvement to accommodate

other literary genre distinct from religion.

The dire case of literary decay is worsened by the tradition of grossly inadequate publishing

outlets for the manuscripts produced with blood and sweat. It has been observed that nearly

all the multinational publishers in Nigeria are based in Southern Nigeria. They hardly

establish branches to promote literature in the North. Having made their names and gains on

the bleeding creative backs of Achebe, Soyinka, Clark, Ekwensi and so on, they turn their

backs on literature from the north and obey the economic law of demand and supply of

publishing commercially viable curriculum text books for primary and secondary schools

The writers in the north were therefore never really patronized by these multi-nationals. The

writers either had to approach relatively unknown foreign publishers or to self-publish. The

consequence of either practice is unsavoury for the writers and their environment as poor

distribution and poor quality production is the result. Most of the writers in the North are

hardly on the curriculum in educational institutions in the South. Even in the North, self-

publishing authors, if they are not lecturers who can carry their works in ‗Ghana-Must-Go

bags‘ and parade institutions where they go examining or conferencing, they do not get read.

Writers who can afford to get their initial works published overseas could hardly be read in

Nigeria—when there are hardly opportunities for local production rights or domestic

distribution of their texts. As Sani Abba (year) graphically expressed, most of those writers

who opt for self-publishing suffer a similar fate; their works are ‗poorly publicized,

inadequately reviewed, and rarely available in the book stores‘.

Will these disadvantages hinder or eliminate self-publishing? Hardly possible given the

prevailing sociology of writing and publishing in the country presently. Young writers are in

a hurry to bear the name of authors, there is the publishing hunger even when there is need

for a surgical re-work of the text. Some writers—young or old, or both, labour under the sad

illusion that being an author is a passport to instant wealth. In any case, there are hungry

publishers as there are hungry authors in a mutual self -seeking game, so when the anticipated

money is not forthcoming writers tend to become disillusioned and discouraged. When this

happens, the dearth of publishing companies is amplified.

In spite of all these, and the inevitable proliferation of self-publishing, the nurturing of our

literature is a factor, largely of its quality, of aesthetics of production, technical finish and

content. Creative works must benefit from editing, objective assessment on published ability.

Publishers, not printers, must do the job of book production, if our literature is to be sustained

with enduring values.

OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Our epicenter of focus has been the influence of western education on northern literature.

Western education no doubt is the torch bearer that illuminates the dark hollows of literature,

it affords literary minds the luxury of creativity , modernity and the rewarding effect of

globalization manifested in their ability for peer review and trans boarder sales of published

books. Western education is yet to fully maximize its potentials in the north as the north is

being left behind by other geo-political zones of the country. The literacy statistics reveal a

hug gap between the educationally advanced western Nigeria and the educationally

disadvantaged north, and the literacy disparities have impacted on the quality of literature

being written by northern biros.

The recommendations proffered are:

There is the need to stimulate and enhance literary creativity, literary competitions and

contests, which used to be the practice in the colonial era. The colonialists did it in the 1930s.

It should involve all departments of creativity in indigenous and foreign languages—drama,

prose, poetry, short stories, film and video, etc. Attractive material rewards should be

attached to winning texts. The successful texts should be distributed.

Government and corporate bodies must embark on wide distribution of the winning texts in

schools and public libraries. The texts must be toured and read in many public institutions. If

the colonialists did it with the result of an appreciable growth in the writing and reading

culture of the time, there is even a greater need for our governments here in the North and the

country generally to do so. Journals, magazines, newspapers should show greater interest in

the publication and serialization of literary texts.

The growth of a literary and reading culture in the South benefitted tremendously from the

spaces which literary journals and newspapers devoted to works of literature. Black Orpheus,

The Horn, Nigeria Magazine, Okike and so on, consciously helped to nurture literature. These

spaces should be revived. The defunct New Nigerian Newspaper used to give focus to

literature and to book reviews—especially under Abubakar Rasheed. Existing Newspapers

like Daily Trust should be more vigorous in serving the course of literature.

Governments, voluntary agencies and organizations should endow writers‘ fellowships and

offer literary prizes to motivate writers to train and write in a sustained and enduring manner.

The fellowships should cater for writers‘ needs—feeding, accommodation, and honoraria that

will enable northern writers complete creative works in progress with ease.

Associations related to literature—writing and reading—should enhance their activities of

promotion and nurturing. ANA has created many literary prizes and is collaborating with

government and corporate citizens on workshops, prize endowments and seminars. Others,

like Readers Association of Nigeria (RAN), the Literary Society of Nigeria LSN) and the

Association of Non-Fiction Authors of Nigeria (ANFAAN) should work more

conscientiously to promote literary awareness, help build a reading and writing culture.

There are only very few public libraries in the north. There are fewer reading rooms around.

Government should adopt a policy of acquiring at least 1000 copies of one successful creative

text of every Northern author, registered with ANA and distribute them in libraries and

reading rooms, which should be rehabilitated, or re-built, as the case may be.

The electronic media have been of tremendous help to the growth of creativity in the north in

the past. The role of the FRCN should be re-invented. The radio audience, of the Hausa

programmes, for instance, is in millions. This could be replicated in the other languages like

Tiv, Fulfulde, Kanuri, Idoma, Okun, Ebira, Nupe, Igala and so on. Radio Kaduna encouraged

literary development by regularly broadcasting poems, short stories, drama sketches and

story-telling sessions. The broadcast of their creative works have availed the northern

authors‘ access to wide audiences.

Literature is the soul of the society and no subsidy to develop, sustain and nurture it would be

excessive. All stakeholders who are directly or indirectly involved in energizing the literary

spring of the north should immensely invest in the literature of this region and grant generous

subsidies to literary institutions and literary people in these domains.

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A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of Gender as Thematic

Preoccupation of Selected Nigerian Female Writers

By

Moshood ZAKARIYAH

Zakariyah2009@yahoo.com

Department of Languages, Linguistics & Literary Studies, College of Humanities, Management & Social Sciences,

Kwara State University, Malete.

Being a text of Paper Presented at a National Conference on Literature

in Northern Nigeria, Kwara State University, Malete. From 29th

November to 2nd December, 2011

Abstract

The improvement in the level of female writers‘ contribution to Nigerian Literature has been

very impressive over the last few decades. This is evident in the popular classification of

these writers into three distinct groups namely: the first, the second and the contemporary

generations of writers. It is however observed that Nigerian female writers are usually

concerned with issues that negatively affect the female gender in their literary works. Gender

issues as the thematic concern of these writers are influenced by societal forces, particularly

the cultural practices that support male chauvinism at the expense of the female gender. It is

against this backdrop that this paper examines gender imbalance in Zainab Alkali‘s The

Stillborn and Stella ‗Dia Oyedepo‘s Brain Has No Gender. Using sociolinguistics as a

theoretical framework, the paper posits that Nigerian female writers‘ works are symbolic

responses to the hostile cultural stimuli against women, and that the trend will continue as

long as the obnoxious cultural practices against women are not addressed.

Introduction

The impact(s) that the society has on human interaction cannot be over-emphasized. This is

particularly true of literature which is often described as a mirror of the society as it is often a

product of human experience. According to Kehinde and Mbipom(2011), it is a creative

activity that projects those deeply ingrained and relatively enduring patterns of thought,

feeling and behaviour of the society from which it is drawn. Demeterio (2001) quoted in

Kehinde and Mbpom (2011), views literature as ‗a social institution: it is created by the

writer, who is a member of the society. Its medium is language, which is a social creation. It

represents life, which is a social reality. It is addressed to men who form a social body. It is

centrally conditioned by social and other forces and, in turn, exerts social influence.‘

From the above, it is obvious that all issues that are connected to human interaction can be

said to fall within the search light of literature. These include issues that affect different

people in the society. On account of language use, social variables such as age, sex,

occupation, gender and a host of others are included. The gender structure of African nations

(Nigeria inclusive) is a phenomenon that has attracted the research interest of scholars over

the years. Some of the earlier researchers on gender and literature addressed issues like

disabusing the minds of the people who erroneously believed that gender roles are

biologically determined. Other scholars have focused their search-light on social variables

that influence gender imbalance in the society, and the effects of gender bias against women.

Different parts of Nigeria experience different degrees of degrees cultural practices against

the female gender. In Northern Nigeria for instance, the impact of patriarchal structure seems

to be enormous because of low level of education attained by the vast majority of people,

coupled with the greater influence of religious practices. Also, the absence of secularism in

the North is often used as oppressive tools to subjugate the female gender. It is this social

reality that determines the thoughts, and influences the central theme of many Nigerian

female writers. In the opinion of Utoh-Ezeajugh (2010), it is not surprising that these

experiences have gradually culminated in giving a radical edge to the plays from the pens of

Nigeria female playwrights.

This paper is therefore, an attempt to examine the thematic preoccupation of Nigerian female

writers against the background of the effect of the society on the literary scholars. The paper

specifically selected two works namely: The Stillborn by Zainab Alkali, Brain Has No

Gender by Stella ‗Dia Oyedepo. The selection of these two female writers is because of the

fact that the writers are of Northern extraction in Nigeria and the geographical location which

the writers have in common provides a sound basis to have a reflection of gender reality in

the Northern part of the country. In addition, their texts are published literary works of

different ages, that is, there is a wide gap between the periods of publishing the two texts.

Also, their works belong to different genres of literature. While The Stillborn is a prose,

Brain Has No Gender is a play. The basis of selecting a prose and a play is to affirm the fact

that gender related issues which preoccupy the minds of Nigerian female writers cut across

different genres of literature.

Literature Review

Sex is differentiated from gender in terms of its biological determinism. Put differently,

sexual differences between men and women are biologically dependent while gendered

differences are clearly social constructions that have been knit together to serve various

purposes in human society. A considerable number of other works account for social

variables that influence gender roles of men and women, using different relevant theoretical

framework. Some traditional values, according to some scholars have been largely

responsible for the differences between men and women in terms of social roles that are

assigned to each gender. In most African societies, superior roles such as giving orders,

supervising domestic tasks, determining family structure, etc. are birth right of men; while

cooking; fetching water, taking orders and general house keep are exclusively reserved for

women.

This trend of gendered responsibility continues from one generation to another as the younger

generation takes it up from where the older generation stops. In most textbooks, the mother is

typically portrayed as cooking for her family, the female child is seen as helping her mother

in the kitchen, whereas the father is depicted as sitting in a comfortable armchair, reading the

newspaper, and the male child is seen as busy playing with other male siblings (Al-Ghafari,

2007).In the view of many scholars, this early childhood assigned gender roles usually

determine the mind set or worldview of both male and female. Therefore, the impact of

literature in constructing gender roles cannot be over emphasized. Through literature, the

image of the girl is presented as a woman and the boy as a man that has different social roles.

These socially constructed gender roles often determine the kind of social discourse that men

and women are concerned with and also the perspective of each gender on societal issues.

Since men are made to give orders, engage in power struggle, preserve the existing social

structure, authority among others often pervades their discourse.

Women have always been described in literature as a tool of manipulation by men. This is

because women are the products of a culture that values the activities and achievements of

men; hence they are usually contented with minor positions in society. Women are to support

men‘s position and not to initiate discussion, to accept verdicts and not to reject, etc. The

inferior gender roles assigned to women make most women do next to nothing in improving

their domestic, economic and political position in society. It is therefore not surprising that

female, more often than not, are given inferior roles even when they are managed to be

employed (Al-Ghafari: 2007).

Contemporary Nigerian female writers are concerned with issues that principally appear to

deal with female gender. Gone are the days, when women were not interested in writing

because the male dominated society had no interest in what they (the women) would write or

say. They have made their impacts felt, particularly in addressing the issues that are mostly

feminine in nature. So, to understand the underlying social variables that influence Nigerian

female writers; the search light should be on the gender imbalance in male dominated African

societies.

Sociolinguistics and Nigerian Female Writers

Sociolinguistics as a branch of language study is devoted to the pressure that the society

exerts on language. In line with the above definition, the pressure affects both content and

form of literary productions, which is, how a language is used and the message that the

language conveys. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to its socio-cultural

context. It also means all effects of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms,

expectations and contexts on the way language is used. In the same way, it is the study of

language and linguistic behaviour as influenced by social and cultural factors. It is obvious

from the above definitions that the concept of culture is prominent in any definition of

sociolinguistics. Downes (2010 (no pagination)) defines sociolinguistics as the ―that branch

of linguistics which studies just those properties of language and languages which require

reference to social, including contextual factors in their explanation. Oloruntoba-oju

(1999:123) views sociolinguistics as the influence that the society exerts on language.

Yule (1996: 239) views sociolinguistics as a branch of language study that deals with the

inter-relationships between language and culture. Sociolinguistics often reflects the realities

of human speech in connection with age, social status, gender and attitude of the language

users. Human behaviours generally are social issue, so the obvious gender imbalance in our

policy is within the search light of sociolinguistics. The primary concern of sociolinguistics is

to study correlations between social structure and language, including what language is used

to communicate; such as gender concern of the Nigerian female writers. According to Sapir

(1933) quoted in Downes (2010), it is difficult to see adequately the functions of language,

because it is so deeply rooted in the whole of human behaviour that it may be suspected that

there is little in the functional side of our conscious behaviour in which language does not

play a part. Here, language is used to mean a tool for communication and the content of what

is communicated.

Having reviewed sociolinguistics, the thrust of this paper is an attempt to reflect how societal

factors influence the thematic preoccupation of Nigerian female writers. Nigerian female

writers are products of their social background and cannot be divorced from their social

realities. Gender imbalance is a critical issue that has remained unresolved for long and

hundreds of thousands women have been victims of this social injustice. Utoh-Ezeajugh

(2000:2), opines that Nigerian female playwrights emerged at the point in Nigeria‘s history

that it had become imperative to examine Nigerian drama from a gendered perspective given

the oppressive socio-cultural conditions under which African women have had to function.

The oppressive socio-cultural condition is responsible for gender imbalance which mostly

negatively affects the female gender. The women are also at the receiving end in any social

problem. For example, women are always the victims in domestic abuse, not only because

they are conditioned to respect their husbands; but also because men are perceived to be

physically stronger than women.

The need to address the obnoxious cultural practices against women was a wake-up call for

Nigerian female writers, and it is not a surprise that Nigerian female writers such as Zulu

Sofola and Zainab Alkali took up the challenge. Many decades later, the echo of gender

imbalance remains very loud as the thematic preoccupations of the subsequent generations of

these writers have not experienced considerable changes, although, quite a number of

Nigerian female writers have delved into political discourses. Chimamada Adichie for

example addresses the highly contentious purported cessation of the people of South-East

Nigeria.

In line with the above submission, Aliyu-Ibrahim (2011) opines that the emerging female

writing has however become more politically relevant as the works of writers like Adichie,

Okekwe, Atta, Nengi- Ilagha, Agary, Adewale, Adimora-Ezeigbo and Ajima show how the

political and economic settings impact, in various degrees, on themes and other aspects of

style. However, it can be mentioned that the involvement of these writers in politico-

economic issues is mainly to expose the bad treatment and unwholesome portraiture that

women received at the hands of the early male writers. While this paper does not attempt a

critique of the individual works of Nigerian female writers, it accounts for overall general

issue(s) that appear to affect the female gender more than the male in the society. Women

generally discuss their personal feelings more than men. Men appear to prefer non-personal

topics such as sports and news. Men tend to respond to an expression of feelings or problems

by giving advice on solutions while women are more likely to mention personal experiences

that match or connect with the other women‘s… men are more competitive and concerned

with power via language (Yule, G. 1997:340).

The reason for gender consciousness as the thematic preoccupation of Nigerian female

writers might be due to the insensitivity of the earlier male writers to address some of the

issues that affect women, or because the story is better told by the people who have had or

understood the experiences of the gendered issues that are usually discussed by the female

writers. Even, when early male writers are concerned with themes like child bearing,

marriage and domestic abuse, the stories are usually presented in a way that lack gender

consciousness – a reflection of male dominated African social system. Some Nigerian male

writers (Ola Rotim, J.P. Clark and Ahmed Yerima) have attempted to positively project the

image of women in their works, some of these works mostly ignore some of the pertinent

issues crucial to women empowerment (Utoh-Ezeajugh, 2010:3). This obvious societal

influence on gender consciousness as the major preoccupation of Nigerian female writers is

the thrust of this paper.

Gender Issues in The Stillborn

Zainab Alkali cleverly takes us round the journey of the inter-connectivity between the

simple village life and the quest for migration to the city. The novel is set in Northern Nigeria

and explores challenges facing young Nigerian women as they try to balance their family

lives and their own need for economic and emotional independence. The novel reveals a

fierce struggle of women against cultural tradition and class privileges, a typical condition of

African women in patriarchal Africa.

Thirteen years old Li, the symbol of women‘s‘ struggle against the obnoxious cultural

practices had finished grade seven, the highest grade girls are allowed to complete in the

neighbouring village. In an over-loaded truck with other kids, Li was absorbed in different

thoughts. Unlike other children who were cheering the driver on, she was taking note of the

recklessness of the driver. As children, she, her elder sister Awa, and their friend Faku each

nurture dreams of a happy future characterized by marriage and many children, a token of

women‘s success in society. But Li has dreams beyond marriage; she also wants an education

and wants to become a teacher. In addition, she wants to live in a paradise called ‗city‘.

Alkali with her literary elegance takes us to the heart of an African village, into huts and

down to the stream to collect water and fire wood, to the cultural night dances, as we follow

the progression of Li from her teenage years to adulthood. At the end of the novel, the three

girls are married but none is fulfilled with the ideal mental picture of marriage which they

had kept alive in their dreams for years.

The novel addresses different but inter-related themes but one cannot ignore the harsh

patriarchal rules imposed on women in this society. Women are meant to stay at home and

wait for proposals, or for their husbands to come home. Women wait while men go out in

search of their (women) destinies. They live a regimented lifestyle as there are limitations to

every aspect of their existence. Li protests to Awa: ―Let me be a heathen; Li said more

seriously. I‘d be much happier. At least, I could go ease myself without having someone

breathing down my neck, demanding to know where I have been to‖ (p.3).

Women have no chance to determine the kind of life they want to live. Every aspect of their

existence including emotional issues such as marriage is solely determined by men. Li‘s

mother was only fourteen years old when she was brought to Baba (Li‘s father) as a wife.

Although, it cannot be established whether the marriage was of mutual consent but the next to

prison lifestyle of women speaks volumes of gender imbalance in the society. In another

instance in the novel, Sule says to Awa:

Look at you, eighteen years old still at home, single. Not allowed

to go out at all except to the market, the riverside, the prayer

house and then the school. Even then you are always watched. I

tell you, if this continues, ten years from now you will be here

performing the chores; fetching water and teaching a group of

dirty children (p.34).

The painful emotional experience that often characterize marriage in a patriarchal society,

particularly in the hands of men who are insensitive to the suffering of women is another tool

employed in the novel to reflect the bad emotional condition in which women usually find

themselves. Not only do men some men are insensitive to their wives emotional feelings but

some turn their wives to punching bags and always ready to pounce at them at any slight

provocation. This practice id aptly captured in Alkali‘s work. Lamenting the marital ordeal of

Li, Alkali writes:

For four years she had yearned to be in her husband‘s house

She had dreamt of the moments when she would cook his

meals, wash his clothes, and cuddle him to her breasts.

Such moments were rare now. The meals she cooked

remained uneaten as his homecoming became later and rarer.

And when he was at home, the formal lion of the village was

as unapproachable as an angry god (p.63).

The emotional derivational condition under which women live is largely responsible for

changes in their personality. Li like, other women learnt bitter emotional lessons and became

soft over the years. In the process of her transformation from being a girl to a woman, she had

come across other women whose cases were for worse than hers. A good example is her

landlady in the city. Even Awa affirmed the obvious change in Li‘s character; ―I do not

understand you, daughter -of- my mother.You have grown incredibly soft‖ (p.93).

Having learnt so much in life and becoming soft in handling personal issues, Li contends that

not all dreams are born alive: some are aborted while some are stillborn. The Stillborn is the

symbolic representation of the hopes and aspirations of women that are often dashed as a

result of intimidation and unfavourable or gender biased cultural practices. Since literature is

an avenue through which the society‘s is mirrored, Alkali successfully project shows the

social trauma of countless Nigerian women.

Gender Issues in Brain Has No Gender

The story is of a society with the odds of traditional values, beliefs and negative cultural

practices against the feminine gender. Alani, one of the leading characters in the play believes

that a female child is of no use in the society. He considers his inability to have a male child a

curse placed on him by the witches who envy his large farm and fortune. Things take a

further negative turn for him when his wife (Awele) gives birth to a set of female triplets; in

spite of Ifalami‘s prophesy that the baby would be male.Osomo, the heroine of the play and

Alani‘s eldest child faces difficulty in her education as her father considers investing in the

education of female children a waste of resources. Without mincing words, Oyedepo, like

Alkali has demonstrated the extent to which women are downgraded in our community. It is

not a news that so many people, up till now do not see any justification for women‘s

education. Such a venture to them is a waste of time, energy and resources. As a replica of

the social reality, Alani, one of the leading characters in the text says thus:

Once you educate a woman, she can no longer be a good wife.

She only becomes swollen headed. I have seen examples even

in this village. Look at teacher‘s wife. She is very arrogant just

because she ―knows small book‖ …. I‘ve stopped Osomo from

going to school. It won‘t do her any good (p.31).

The practice is similar to Alkali‘s The Stillborn where grade seven is the highest academic

grade that women are allowed to complete. As a mark of the highest disregard for the

emotions of the female gender, Alani gives his daughter (Osomo) to Kelani, an old unhealthy

man as a wife, and in a show of pride which typified patrichal African society; Alani boasts:

Look Kelani, as a father, I am worth my salt. (pounding his chest)

no daughter of mine dare oppose my wishes or decision…I want

to marry them off as soon as they see their first period (p.24).

Alani‘s attitude towards his family members shows the extent to which people discriminate

against women. Alani so is engrossed in the obsession of having a male child that he goes to

the hospital with drums and jubilation, even when the wife is still going through the pains of

labour. It is not the life of the wife that matters but that of the expected male child. It takes

him no time to send his wife away for failing to give him the much awaited male child.

Meanwhile, Osomo through the assistance of her teacher escaped from her marital bondage

and puts her education back on track as she becomes a medical doctor with record-breaking

researches with several prizes to prove that intelligence does not have anything to do with

gender. Consequently, Alani regrets his actions and vows to withdraw all his daughters from

their husbands‘ houses and send them back to school. Like in real situations, many people

live to regret their wrong impression and negative cultural practices against women.

However, the consequence effects of such practices are often too costly and traumatic on the

part of women who are always at the receiving end of the societal offensive negative

practices. It is in reaction to this social reality that Nigerian female writers‘ thematic concern

is influenced towards gender imbalance in the society.

Conclusion

The social-cultural forces that influence the thematic preoccupation of Nigerian female

writers have been established and it is not a surprise that ever since Zulu Sofola championed

the battle of gender consciousness, there has been non-stop approach to it. Other female

writers such as Ama Ata Aidoo, Tess Onwueme, Tracie Utoh Ezeajugh, Irene Salami

Agunloye, Stella Oyedepo, Julie Okoh, Halima Sekula, and a host of others have contributed

in one way or the other towards the struggle. This pattern of thought which has greatly

influenced the emerging Nigerian female writers has also contributed to different feminist

theories, particularly African feminism; a kind of feminist theory that does not call for equal

right between men and women but advocates for politico-economic empowerment and the

recognition of the rights of women in the society.

References

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Utoh-Ezeajugh, T. C. (2010). Nigerian Playwrights and the Evolution of a literary Style:

Gender Discourse in the Plays Onwuene, Salami-Agunloye, and Utoh-Ezeajugh. A

Lead Paper Presented at the International on Nigerian literature, Held at Gombe

State University, Gombe-Nigeria.

Yule, G. (1996). The study of Language: Second Edition. United Kingdom: Cambridge

University Press.

Stereotypical Depiction of the Mother-in-law in Hausa society: An Appraisal of Zama

Da Surukai (Living with In-Laws).

Dr. (Mrs). Asabe Kabir Usman,

Department of Modern European Languages and Linguistics,

Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto

asabekabir@yahoo.com

Abstract

Contemporary Hausa popular prose fiction, otherwise known as the Soyayya novel/novella or

Kano market literature, is a distinct indigenous romantic genre in Hausa language which in

recent times has defied all criticisms and has remained a form of entertainment for the public

in northern Nigeria. This literary genre has developed at a very rapid rate getting more and

more popular especially among women writers and readers and without any doubt it ranks as

one of the largest concentration of indigenous fiction in Nigeria. Like other women the world

over, Hausa women's writing arose out of the desire to introduce a female angle to the various

portrayals or depictions of women by male writers and to address issues relative to female

subjectivity in a male dominated society where cultural and traditional impediments affect the

identity of women. Hausa women writers have treated a wide range of themes from love to

courtship and marriage; the position and role of women as mothers and daughters within the

institution of marriage especially polygamy, and about the societal or traditional roles

prescribed for women etc. This paper seeks to appraise the stereotypical depiction of women

as mother-in-laws in recent contemporary Hausa fictional writings using the new historicism

theory. We attempt a contextual analysis into the centrality of the character of the mother-in-

law and other issues addressed in Tela‘s Zama da Surukai and how the mother-in-law‘s

defined role is linked to traditional and patriarchal conceptions.

Introduction

Recently, interest in Hausa fictional writings is on the increase, and there is every reason to

believe that the Hausa fictional writer will be researched upon for a long time to come, as

artist, social analyst, and literary critic. This is because contemporary Hausa popular prose

fiction, otherwise known as the Soyayya novel/novella or Kano market literature, a romantic

genre in Hausa popular prose fiction which has defied all criticisms in recent times has

remained a form of entertainment for the public in northern Nigeria (Adamu 2002); and

without any doubt it ranks as one of the largest concentration of indigenous literary works in

Nigeria. Based upon the plot, style, language, characterization, setting and cover design,

romance forms the frame work upon which most of these novels are based; they also largely

transmit societal values which are treasured by the folk.

But in all of these, Hausa Literature like other forms of African literature has to be

understood as a literature by men, for interest in African literature has, with very rare

exceptions, excluded women writers. The women writers are the other voices, the unheard

voices, rarely discussed and seldom accorded space in the repetitive anthologies and the

predictably male-oriented studies in the field. Like other women the world over, Hausa

women's writing arose out of the desire to introduce a female angle to the image of women

portrayed by male writers and to address issues relative to female subjectivity in order to

expose the cultural impediments to female members of the society. Not surprisingly, it has

been suggested that ―the self-assertive and self-reliant aspect of the woman‘s role in Africa‖

has only become visible due to the collective efforts of African women writers (Ogundipe-

Leslie 52). According to Lloyd Brown, they ―offer self-images, patterns of analysis, and

general insights into the woman‘s situation which are ignored by, or are inaccessible to the

male writer‖ (Nfah-Abbenyi 6).

From 1793 when Nana Asmau the daughter of Sheik Uthman Danfodiyo started writing to

date, women from northern Nigeria have authored literary works in both the English and

Hausa languages. There are writers like Zaynab Alkali(1987), Hauwa Ali(1988), Hajara

Abubakar (2001), Aishatu Gidado Idris (2002), Asabe Kabir Usman(2005) and Balkisu

Abubakar (2007) to mention just a few of those who have written in the English Language.

Most of these writers‘s thematic thrust range from societal and family life, the girl-child

dilemma, patriarchal holds over women, education, to general cultural and traditional

impediments.

When Hausa women started writing in the Hausa Language in the 1980‘s they also addressed

themes like, the issues of forced marriage, polygamy, childbearing, motherhood and other

domestic issues. They represent themselves in depth and write on issues, which continue to

be important to them.

Although recent research has tried to give scholarly attention to Nigerian women's writings,

especially those of Hausa women, their writings like those of other African women, have

received little critical attention, and as such their works are hardly given the serious scholarly

consideration or the critical study they deserve. This is because the tools by which literary

excellence is measured are often both Euro and andocentric- excluding any work that is

created within the framework of African feminism. In the same vein, it is believed that

literary criticism rest solely in the domain of male critics and these critics decide who is and

who should be called an important author (Schipper, 1989). Adversely this suggests that the

fate of any/a writer depends on their assessment. Unfortunately, critical regard of African

women‘s literature is still negligible; their texts denied ―canonical status,‖ and in most cases,

excluded from the mainstream publications that examine African literature (Stratton, 3).

Despite this negligible acknowledgment of their works, it would be misleading to say that

Hausa women writers have not received some level of recognition over the last decade.

Theoretical Framework

Since, in Hausa society, submission to the tradition, the culture and the dominant religion is

established in the minds of the writers as well as the society by an accepted set of laws or

imperceptible hand of self control, the development of these popular literatures by women

brought about outcry and criticisms from various interest groups. Larkin, discusses the

origins and nature of the debate sparked off by Ibrahim Malumfashi and others in 1991 (430-

2).

Whitsitt though was quick to point out that, ―much of the response is based on hearsay, as

most people have familiarized themselves with the literature only through word of mouth‖

(140).

We therefore propose to appraise the stereotypical depiction of the mother-in-law in Zama da

Surukai using the New Historicist approach to literary studies in order to sufficiently

elucidate Tela‘s representation of women as mother-in-laws in contemporary Hausa society.

To understand her work, one must understand the Hausa society as it affects women because

her writing is heavily grounded in Hausa culture and traditions. It therefore provides the

fabric, theoretical foundation and frame work on which her fictional texts are built. For New

Historicists, a piece of literature is shaped by the time, period in which it was written and thus

must be examined and interpreted in the context of that time and period. This theory attempts

to tie the characters, events and language in a piece of literature to events from the time and

period in which it was written. New Historicists also take into consideration political and

cultural events that the author lived through. All of these, along with the time the piece of

literature is set, are part of the interpretation process for New Historicists (Murfin, Rose and

Supryia, Ray, 1977; Vessers, 1989; Louis Montrose and Stephen Greenblatt,1992).

Women as Mothers/ Mothers-in-law in Hausa Society: A Review

First and foremost, the woman is part and parcel of the society. As a daughter, the Hausa

woman is expected to obey the societal expectations set down for her by her father first

because, in Hausa society children derive their ethnic origin from their father. When she gets

married she is to take instructions and obey her husband first, and in his absence, members of

his family.

As a wife she seems to rely on her husband for everything because the system sees the

woman as answerable to the man. The Hausa woman is respected and seen positively as a

mother; as such she is upheld and recognized as a life giver. The society sees her role in the

upbringing of the child as inevitable and uncompromising. Most times, she is viewed as

good, responsible, loving, caring and affectionate. Most importantly, emphasis is laid on the

role of mothers in contributing to the continuity of the Hausa society. The position of the

mother is thus very crucial because:

In all African family arrangements, the most important ties within the family

Flowfrom the mother, whatever the norms of marriage residence. These ties

link the mother to the child and connect the children of the same mother in

bonds that are conceived as natural and unbreakable. The idea that

mothers are powerful is very much a defining characteristic of the institution

and its place in society (Oyewùmí, 1097).

The most important and vital role that women play in Hausa traditional society is that of

mother, because motherhood is central to all other roles. Depictions of motherhood can be

explored alongside presentations of women as daughters or wives in fictional writings.

Women are important as wives and mothers since their reproductive capacity is crucial to the

maintenance of the husband's lineage and it is because of women that men can have a

patrilineage at all (Steady, 1981).

In the Hausa society though, the general belief is the mother-in- law is devilish and wicked; it

is therefore normal to find mothers-in-law at loggerheads with daughters-in-law. The belief is

based on the premise that the average mother-in-law often considers her son-in-law to be

unsuitable for her daughter (or daughter-in-law unsuitable for her son), and the portrayals

usually include the stereotype that mothers-in-law are generally overbearing, obnoxious, or

unattractive. Most mothers-in-law in Hausa society, especially the mother of the man who is

also the head of the family is depicted stereotypically as a difficult, inconsiderate, nagging,

overprotective, manipulative, controlling, smothering, and an overbearing figure, one who

persists in interfering in her children's lives long after they have become adults. In literature,

stereotypes are commonly held public belief about specific social groups, or types of

individuals. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups, based on

some prior assumptions. They are predictable characters used to connect immediate situations

with what is accepted or held as a belief in society.

The Author

Zama da Surukai was written by Rabi Garba Tela Potiskum. She hails from Patiskum in north

central Nigeria. She graduated from one of the several unity schools in Nigeria, FGGC

Potiskum Yobe state. She is married and has children. She is a full time house wife who

whiles away her time with the art of creative writing. Tela tells her story using the first person

point of view

Zama da Surukai (2009)

Zama da Surukai is Tela‘s second novel tells her story in the first person narrative style where

Ikram the protagonist is the narrator of all that happens in the story.

Married at a very young age with only a secondary school education, and no skill for any

profession, Ikram was ill prepared for the task before her. The intensity of marriage in the

sociology of African life is heralded by Oriaku (1996). He posits ―… marriage both in real

life and fiction, is perhaps, the most circumscribing factor in the life of an African woman‖.

Ikram, Usman‘s wife was brought up in a traditional home and her father, like all other

fathers believed marriage was more important than going to school and so, as soon as Usman

showed his interest of marrying her the father gave the go ahead.

Usman‘s father was relatively poor and the only education he could give his children was the

local Arabic education, but his mother Mama Hajiya was introduced at the beginning of the

novel as a loving mother who went an extra mile to make sure Usman went to a modern

school as against the traditional one his father believed in. Thus, her image and conception as

a mother are positive. She is portrayed as good, responsible, loving, caring and affectionate.

After his youth service he raised enough money to start a business which prospered. With the

proceeds he built a befitting house and moved his parents into it. From then on his mother

became a celebrity. This new status of hers made her arrogant and pompous. She became the

lord over her household daring even her husband.

Mama Hajiya welded so much authority in her son‘s life that she even boasted to her friends

about her wicked acts towards her daughter-in-law.

Mama Hajiya not only harassed Ikram but also constantly urged Usman to send his wife

packing out of their matrimonial home. She was wholly supported by Usman‘s father, Jamila,

(Usman‘s sister) and Amina the mischievous tenant.

Appraising the Stereotypical Portrait of the Mother-in-Law in Zama da Surukai

If ―Literature though imaginative could be used as a systematic study of society, the status of

women‘s authorship and nature of their depictions within the African literary tradition are

certainly issues of great relevance‖ (Ogundipe-Leslie, 44).

The fear of daughters-in-law "taking away" sons is expressed through Mama Hajiya‘s hostile

behaviour towards Ikram throughout the novel. Ikram‘s arrival into the family therefore

threatened Mama Hajiya‘s hold over her son. She saw Ikram as a slave who must relieve her

of her domestic duties as a way of rewarding her for her numerous years of motherhood and

childrearing. And thus barely two weeks after the wedding, she summoned Ikram out early

one morning and orders, ―you will start cooking the family meals from today‖ (Tela, 85).

Ikram went on to tell the readers:

from that day; I became the cook; I was always busy from morning till night.

I also became an object of scorn to my mother-in-law and Jamila, my sister-in-

law who always and daily dictate to me the kind of meal to cook for the family,

my husband‘s opinion did not matter (Tela, 88) .

In traditional Hausa society, a bride knows and accepts the mother-in-law's rights. She enters

the home with the aim of relieving the older woman. The daughter-in-law is expected to

pamper her husband's mother with respect and obedience. She is expected to obey all her

mother-in-law‘s orders and demands. The first terrible experience Ikram had with her

mother-in-law was two days after she had taken over the cooking of all meals. Usman

requested for a delicious meal for the friends he had invited over to the house. He bought

everything needed for cooking the meal including ten chickens. When she had almost

completed the cooking; Mama Hajiya unexpectedly met her in the kitchen and requested for

the fried chickens. She took away all the juicy parts and left the bony ones which she asked

Ikram to use for the visitors. This action so much overwhelmed her that when Mama Hajiya

left she wondered; ―I wondered what to tell Usman had happened to the meat he had brought

for his special guests and full of apprehension and against my wish, I served them the bones

Mama Hajiya had left‖ (Tela, 87). To Ikram‘s surprise, Usman did not comment on what he

saw.

When Ikram became pregnant, there was no one to guide her on ways of overcoming the

early morning sickness, tiredness, weakness and restlessness she was experiencing. To the

mother in-law, Ikram was only feigning sickness and the pathetic condition she met her did

not melt her heart. When Ikram was admitted in hospital, instead of pity, Mama Hajiya retort

angrily at Usman; ―I hope you do not expect any member of this household to go and take

care of your wife in hospital?‖ (Tela,106) Dejected, Usman took what he needed and left

alone to care for his sick wife. Only Usman‘s friends, business associates and their family

members visited her. No member of his family went to see her

The knowledge of Ikram‘s pregnancy did not change things and she continued slaving for the

family. Mama Hajiya meanwhile was not happy about the pregnancy and she devised

different diabolical means until she succeeded in making Ikram lose the pregnancy at six

months. That done the mother-in-law was still not satisfied; she wanted Ikram out of her

son‘s life by all means.

Mama Hajiya always found reasons to interfere in the couple‘s private life; and one day,

when she pushed Usman too far, he threatened:

Mama Hajiya, let me give you the very last warning. If you dare push me to the wall,

I will not think twice before packing my things and leaving you for good and for ever.

You have not been fair to me nor to my wife since I got married about two years ago.

As a mother I assume you should be the first to wish me happy matrimony and to see

to that realization. But alas! You happen to be the architect of all my problems. I have

been away for weeks on a business trip all in a bid to get us what will provide our

comfort. You have not even given my wife the opportunity to welcome me or for me

to show her how much I have missed her and here you are making one allegation after

the other. Are your actions justified? Are you really being fair to me? In God‘s holy

name where do you want me to find peace and comfort? Believe me! If you force me

to divorce my wife all for unjustified reasons, I swear I will do so and leave the

country and you will never see me again (Tela, 130-131).

That said he walked out of the room in anger without a backward look. The threat worked

wonders. It frightened her and for a few days peace reigned in the home front. This was the

only time Usman reacted to any of his mother‘s actions. Maybe if he had acted earlier, he

would have brought her to order. Being a practicing Muslim, his actions might not be

unconnected to the teachings of Islam which enjoins a practicing Muslim to obey his parents

especially the mother no matter the odds as long as what she wants from him does not go

against his faith.

Ikram remained in her matrimonial home and was not allowed to socialize or visit anyone.

When she met a neighbor who became her friend, her mother in-law did all she could to stop

the relationship but, she failed and the relationship between Ikram and Rufaida waxed

stronger by the day. Rufaida is characterized as sensitive, sensible and practical. When Ikram

sought her advice about leaving Usman, she advises her against leaving her home.

Furthermore, when Ikram breaks down emotionally and took ill, it is Rufaida and her

husband who took her into their home and cared for her.

When Ikram realized she was pregnant again, she confided only in Rufaida. Her husband

and members of his family only got know her condition when she was seven months gone.

Mama Hajiya almost fainted out of disbelief when she heard the news because she had been

assured that Ikram will never be pregnant. All plans to abort the pregnancy failed. When

Ikram felt the pangs of labour she did not even allow her husband to know. She quietly stole

out of the house and escaped to Rufaida‘s house where she was safely delivered of a

bouncing baby boy even before she was taken to hospital. Mama Hajiya was furious at

Ikram‘s actions. When Ikram got home after her safe delivery, the wicked mother-in-law did

all she could to hurt the baby and when cutting the umbilical cord; ―Mama Hajiya not only

cut off the string from the cord but also cut off a large proportion of the baby‘s flesh. She

then gave the bleeding baby to us but neither Rufaida nor I uttered a word‖ (Tela, 183). That

same evening when giving the baby the evening bathe, Ikram went on to say; ―I was shocked

when Rufaida told me that my mother-in-law was bathing the baby with iced water in the

garden behind the house. I could not comment. It then dawned on me that she was really out

to kill my little baby‖ (Tela, 184). Ikram continued her narration thus;

No one bothered to give me food to eat. Thanks to Rufaida who got me hot

water and made hot choco beverage for me. At night supper was also not

brought to us. My aunty was so angry that when Usman came to bid us

goodnight she chided him and threatened to take me with her to Gombe the

next day. Usman was surprised to learn that we had been given nothing to eat.

He went out and came back with three grilled chickens, carton of indomie,

beverages and many other edibles. At night the baby could not breathe well

and he became restless and cried all through the night. He was reacting to the

cold bath he had been given by his grandmother. I told my aunty all that had

transpired. The next day when Mama Hajiya requested to be given the child to

enable her bathe him, my aunty refused and insisted that Mama Hajiya should

bathe him in the room. She did against her wish. The way she did it will

entails another story entirely. All her actions pointed to the fact that she

wanted the baby dead (Tela, 187-8).

The final crisis that engulfed everyone happened on the day of the naming ceremony. Mama

Hajiya could not hide her hatred for her daughter-in-law. Her actions led to a terrible fight

between members of Ikram‘s family and Mama Hajiya. That day Ikram‘s relations got to

know what Ikram had been hiding from them and they unanimously agreed that Ikram will

never live with her in-laws again.

Unlike other female writers, Tela does not make any attempt to excuse Mama Hajiya or her

accomplices; this authenticates her work as realistic because between men and women, there

are always the good and the bad. Mama Hajiya is one of the characters who represent the

ugly among the female characters.

African critics now generally agree that African women writers offer more dynamic

representations of women than the images often presented by their male counterparts.

Although some of these creative works by women are still inscribed in traditional or

secondary roles centered on motherhood and the family; these same roles have also been

sharply problematized by some of the women writers who have sought to "subvert and

demythologize indigenous male writings and traditions which seek to label [them]," (Nasta,

xv) and by so doing have claimed the right not only to name themselves but also to identify

themselves from the point of view of what they have and do with their lives, rather than the

point of view of what they lack or must not do ( Busia, 1988). This way, one can say that they

have inscribed in literary discourse an invaluable "generational and cultural continuity" of

and for African women (Wilentz, xiv). Such enthusiasm is attributable to the fact that women

are now writing about women and bringing not only their points of view but lived

experiences as women to their writing.

For instance, while acknowledging the multiple ways in which patriarchal institutions do

oppress women, these writers also often reject allegations of absolute male power and

control, of which women's networking is seen as a concrete refutation. These women writers

portray women's identities and subjectivities as not only shaped by male control but by

women as well who take part in the control/oppression of other women and, consequently, in

the construction of the behavioral ways of women.

Culture and tradition are so visible in the marital institution in Hausa society. These powers

are so intense that one has to side with Oriaku (1996) who posits that ―… marriage both in

real life and fiction, is perhaps, the most restricting factor in the life of an African woman‖.

Marriage acts as an avenue for violence and a plethora of injustice against women, which

could best be described as ―the intersection of multiple oppression‖ (Judith Newton and

Deborah Rosenfelt 1985)

Even though Tela portrays positive and admirable female characters through Ikram and

Rufaida; she deconstructs the idea that all women are good. In the characterization of Mama

Hajiya, Amina and Jamila, Tela presents to the readers, the despicable, wicked and repulsive

characteristics that some women possess. In fact they are the architects of other women‘s

sorrows. Tela through Ikram portrays a powerful and determined woman who devises

different ways to get what she is refused.

Mama Hajiya thinks first of herself and her position as the mother of the son; and these

selfish feelings blind her from developing any constructive or meaningful relationship with

Ikram. Instead, Ikram‘s silence and respect becomes fertile ground for disagreement and

unashamed troublesome behavior. For example, Mama Hajiya intrudes on the couple's

privacy by walking straight into their bedroom without knocking and without offering any

apologies. There is no written rule or unspoken principle that gives mothers-in-law the right

to walk into their married son's bedroom.

Mama Hajiya is depicted generally as a difficult, inconsiderate, nagging, overprotective,

manipulative, controlling, smothering, and overbearing figure, one who persists in interfering

in her child‘s life long after he has become an adult. Even after maltreating Ikram at the

matrimonial front, she still deemed it fit to attempt killing her bundle of joy. But they paid for

their negative character. Even though no one came out to reveal what had happened, ―God‖

revealed the truth through Mama Hajiya‘s sickness. Her suffering and subsequent death in

disgrace and dishonor goes on to show that no wrong deed goes unpunished in the Hausa

society. Amina on the other hand epitomizes all that is ugly in females. She is a schemer,

manipulator and a gold digger. She takes advantage of Ikram‘s age, respect and obedience to

wreck havoc in the house.

Through the episodes in the novel, we believe in Obiageli and Otokunefor‘s (1989) claim that

the true test of the woman continues to be the marriage institution. In this closed-in arena,

every married woman has to fight out her survival as an individual. The marriage paradox,

lies in the fact that it is both sublimating and subsuming. The happenings in her matrimonial

home, made Ikram becomes conscious of the need to change her cultural and traditional

situation which had entrapped her. She therefore concluded that, women must not

automatically give in to the dictates of tradition but must themselves be active agents in the

process of change. Therefore Ikram says:

I ignored members of Usman‘s family; after finishing the house hold chores I always

remain secluded in my sitting room minding my business and doing as I wished…..

Two weeks after that Ibrahim brought home my admission letter into the college of

Education. I was excited. It took a tough battle for Mama Hajiya to accept the fact that

I would spend half of every day away from home. Usman had to invite Mama

Hajiya‘s elder sister to intercede before I was allowed to attend lectures (Tela, 52-53).

Tela epitomizes through this novel that most women are enslaved not only by their gender

but also by the tradition as well. One therefore wonders how different Ikram the heroine is

from all other women portrayed by male authors that feminist critics have been condemning

since her suffering was designed solely by women (Mama Hajiya, Amina and Jamila). The

difference lies not only in the fact that women are the major characters in the story, but also

that we are led into their thoughts as they struggle with forces and contradictions inherent in

their lives coupled with the multiple demands that these same contradictions make of them as

daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and above all, as mothers of sons. The reader is led

through a journey of the complex ways in which patriarchal discursive practices are inscribed

in women's minds and bodies, right from the beginning through the end of the novel.

Conclusion

After reading these texts, both as ―fictionalized theory‖ and as ―theorized fiction,‖ I will

conclude that Tela has used her writing as a weapon to delve into the Hausa woman‘s

question. And by bringing into sharp focus the dilemma of modern Hausa women in

contemporary Northern Nigeria. Tela like other contemporary Hausa women writers, in

reality, draws the reader and the critic into reading their novels as their contributions to the

ongoing debate over a number of very important issues that pose as challenges to

contemporary Hausa women and the marriage institution within the cultural, historical, and

social contexts of a traditional society that has nonetheless undergone tremendous social

changes.

Presently, Hausa women in fictional writings have made several attempts to dismantle

stereotypes and reorder experiences; however, despite all their efforts, a woman in

contemporary Hausa society whose voice is "too strong" or attempts to put aside culture and

tradition is often identified as "uncultured and irresponsible. Hausa women writers today still

need to rise against existing stereotypes and to readdress culturally enforced women's

experiences in order to recreate characteristics meaningful to Hausa women. It hardly needs

to be said that highlighting this deeply problematic aspect of traditional Hausa culture

represented in the actions of Mama Hajiya towards not only Ikram but her son is a way of

crying out for help by helpless wives who have to dance to the possessive tunes of

overbearing mothers-in-law who have no regard for other people‘s feelings.

This paper confirms that these women have used their writings to voice out the various

challenges they face in the marriage institution. This write up not only confirms the fact that

these female writers deserve attention, it also shows that their various write ups ought to have

greater critical attention because of their distinctive viewpoints. These women are also from

the traditional and conservative northern part of the country, with most writing from their

matrimonial homes where in most cases they go through the rigors of patriarchal

subordination that have through time characterized most African societies. They have used

their writings to voice out their experiences and join in the attempt of women throughout the

world, particularly in Africa to redefine their situations. The creative writings of Hausa

women novelists have attempted to give expression to voices that have not always been heard

as loudly and as clearly as they should have been. No wonder Mariama Ba one of the first

female African writers says: we cannot go forward without culture, without saying what we

believe, without communicating with others, without making people think about things.

Books are a weapon, a peaceful weapon perhaps, but they are a weapon. (Ba‘s interview with

Harrell-Bond, 214)

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Routledge, 1994.

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Ahmed Yerima‟s Attahiru: Lack of the Use of Women in Re-telling History

Ewejobi Dorcas Iranwo-oluwa

ABSTRACT

History is the source of life, the fuel of our future. It has served as a cogent tool in

documenting the Nigerian Past; which seems to be fast moving into the shadows. This paper

takes a critical look at Ahmed Yerima‘s Attahiru and its reasons for the zero use of women in

representating history.

It seeks to unveil the mirror reflection of women in history as portrayed in Attahiru. This

paper, examines the crucial nature of religion and tradition as it relates to Attahiru and

Yerima‘s negligence in utilizing the power of the playwright to have women represented. It

concludes by analyzing the belief that the inclusion of women waters down the seriousness of

the context and the major theme in the play (war in history).

A river that forgets its source will one day dry up; a people who presently have forgotten

their history, will obviously have no future. History is a way of studying the past to lay

reference to the future. A playwright therefore, who uses history as a tool in his play helps in

laying a strong foundation for a better tomorrow. History in itself is so powerful; sometimes

it chokes the one who attempts to re-tell it.

INTRODUCTION

Women are trapped in the web of culture, tradition, religion and history. Like, the spider, they

have in bits and pieces helped to build the web and now want out. From the moment dogs

started barking and Lions started roaring, attention has been placed on women more than

their male counterparts. They seem to be unique in nature and creation; that everything

appears to be moulded around them. The Holy Books accretion confirms this. Prov.31 talks

about a virtuous woman and Sura xxiv.31 talks of how a woman should be modest and not

display her beauty. Women are special and so have occupied a special position even in

history. As the stories passed down from generations to generations, the involvement of

women in the war stories told reduced until the point when women were no longer

represented in history. This is not to say that women who did exceptional things are not part

of history. Queen Amina of Zaria, Erelu Kuti of Lagos, Efunsetan Aniwura, Madam Tinubu

and many others cannot be removed from history and still have the story purely told. My

argument however, is that on neutral grounds; history, culture, religion and tradition make

women present but silent. Women who aspire to have their names printed on the pages of

history have to break the norms, largely because it seems that having their names in history is

also a broken norm.

Melina Mercouri once said, ―When you are born they tell you 'what a pity that you are so

clever, so intelligent, so beautiful but you are not a man.‖ Everything about the male folk

becomes a yard stick to qualify women. Can a woman be an engineer? Can a woman be a

doctor? Can a woman fly a plane? Can a woman build the roads? Can a woman rule a

country? Can a woman be the bread winner of a home? The society keeps asking questions in

order to compare both the male and female folk. Interestingly, when the answer to these

questions becomes a ―Yes‖; the society asks, ―Can a woman make babies by herself?‖ It‘s all

a funny game, which interestingly is played by both the male and the female.

History, religion, culture and tradition have been said to be serious areas and it was believed

that the importation of woman into such areas makes them less serious. How true is this? This

paper intends to find an unbiased answer. In doing this, Yerima‘s negligence in creating a

female character in the play Attahiru will be examined. Factors within his power and out of

his power that contributed to this will be analyzed.

HISTORY AND FICTION

History has no meaning though this is not to say that it is absurd or incoherent.

On the contrary, it is intelligent and should be susceptible of analysis down to

the smallest detail- but this is in accordance with the intelligibility of struggles,

of strategies and tactics. Neither the dialectic, as logic of contradictions, nor

semiotics, as the structure of communication, can account for the intrinsic

intelligibility of conflicts. (Foucault 1980:115)

For centuries now, philosophers have sought to broaden the line between history and fiction.

Hamilton in his book, Historicism explains Aristotle‘s view on history. He relayed that

Aristotle is of the opinion that the different balance of probability and possibility proper to

history and poetry, is what distinguishes them and not greater seriousness of purpose. Fiction

is more philosophical than history in the sense that it has wide liberty in communicating the

overall understanding required by philosophy. Fiction is completely open to criticism, unlike

history. While fiction can be based on possibility, history requires more than that, according

to Aristotle.

Philip Sidney sees the playwright as a creator. He sees the playwright‘s talent from his ability

to create a new thing from history (pre-existing idea) which he called ‗fore-conceit‘. Sidney

understands literature (poetry) to be the link between the ideal (realism worlds) and history

(normalism). He therefore postulates that Poets (playwrights) take part in the divine act of

creation.

He goes further to say that ―Poetry therefore is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle terms it in

the word of mimesis—that is to say a representation, counterfeit, or figuring forth to speak

metaphorically, a speaking picture with this end, to teach and delight.‖

Sidney remarks that since poetry (literature- drama) is of all human learnings, the most

ancient, and of most fatherly antiquity, a form from which other learnings take their

beginnings, since neither its description nor its end contains no evil, then the things it

describes (subject matter and theme) cannot be evil. He declares that literature ―does not

learn a conceit out of a matter, but makes matter for a conceit.‖

In comparing history with fiction, Sidney affirms that history teaches and so does philosophy,

but the poet (playwright) is superior to both. Since history is concerned with facts and records

and the philosopher concentrates on abstractions that usually does not relate to the world the

way people understand it; the unrivalled (playwright) poet performs both. He functions as an

historian and a philosopher. The poet (playwright) unlike the philosopher, according to

Sidney, affects feelings and does not just give examples. Sidney says, the poet (playwright) is

a better philosopher.

Sidney expounds that Poetry (drama) is more philosophical than history, as the historian is

trapped with facts. The poet (playwright), Sidney explains, although uses the facts of the

historian, makes them magnificent by employing imagination during a creative process. He

spreads the idea that the poet (playwright) can teach virtue, one of the central functions of

tragedy and he is also capable of making men desire to do good; which is greater than the

desire for knowledge.

HISTORY IN DRAMA

All through generations, history remains a consistent material for dramatic creation in the

hands of playwrights. A playwright who writes fiction has a bigger room for creativity, unlike

one who coins a play from history. A writer who re-tells history with a large amount of

creativity is at risk of losing the main substance of the historical facts. It is therefore crucial

for writers who intend to use historical materials as the sole vehicle of their works to be

conscious of the rigid nature of history.

History has served as a very useful tool in the hands of playwrights. Wole Soyinka‘s Death

and the Kings Horseman is based on a true life incident which took place during the British

Colonial rule. It highlights the ritual suicide of the King‘s Horseman. The story is moulded

according to the Yoruba tradition where the death of the King preceeds the King‘s

Horseman‘s suicide. The Horseman‘s spirit is believed to help the King‘s spirit ascend to the

afterlife. Soyinka questions the Elesin‘s suicidal convinctions through the british colonial

ruler, Simon Pilkings. This poses problem for the society and leads it into mayhem.

Soyinka uses Iyaloja, young women and dancers to serve as the custodian of the culture.

Soyinka looks at the woman figure from a more positive angle and so uses Iyalode to as a

bridge. Through the confusion, Iyalode remains calm and collected. She mediates between

Elesin and his confused thoughts, Mr Pilkings and his mis-understood views, Elesin‘s new

bride and her fears.

Ola Rotimi‘s tragedy, The Gods Are Not to Blame, which extends and transforms Sophocles‘

Oedipus into a traditional drama is built on a Yoruba folklore. Ola Rotimi uses Gbonka, the

King‘s ward as a Deux-ex-machina, who instead of acting on instructions to kill King

Adetugba‘s new born baby, had compassion on him. The single act, turns the story around

and becomes the point on which the argument, conflict and suspense was built.

Ola Rotimi brings out the delicate and significant role women play in the traditional African

setting. Ojuola becomes an ally and close confidant to Olawale. He affirms the general

thoughts that women are the weak points of men.

Using history as tool in drama is of great significance to the theatre, the audience or readers

and the society at large. For the theatre, the playwright has more materials to work with.

Because he is dealing with reality as against abstract ideas, it becomes easier to brainstorm

with colleagues while working on the play draft. For the audience, a play built from history is

not only entertaining, it is educating and informing. It refreshes the brain of those who had

been born when the incident happened and provides a platform of a close to life experience

for those who did not witness the incident.

History as a tool in the theatre helps in foregrounding the richness of our culture and

tradition. It helps to resurrect the long dead ways of life which civilization and colonialism

has pushed to the rear. It helps the younger generations to appreciate the times in which their

parents lived and in a way, relate with it. Although historical plays appear to be a great

derivation in the theatre, it has its own sidelines. Historical plays are more expensive to stage;

they require a higher level of discipline from the playwright rather than creativity. They are

more open to criticism. They require in-depth research and study.

The African continent has a strong history. A history embedded in faith, hope, strength,

belief, long-suffering, war and achievement. From history, we learn that the both the French

and the English coveted Africa and sought to capture her for their glory.

WILLOCK: My major worry is the French. They are moving closer to Sokoto

through the north of Katsina.

LUGARD: I have studied the situation myself. It means that we either fight

and take Sokoto now, or the French would cross the Niger and join

Sokoto and thereby cutting us off totally. This must never be

allowed.

MORLAND: Details Sir, I am hoping that if we have to take Sokoto, it will be

swift and quick. We can‘t allow a long war or a defeat.

LUGARD: Defeat? Never! Right now the morale of our men is high. With the

spoils of Zaria and Kano, they will fight even their fathers for the

glory of Britain. (Yerima 1998:35)

From history, we learn that our fathers stood bold and declared war.

To this effect, the Waziri must write to him this reply. Tell the

infidel that we did not invite him to interfere with our problems. He

has his religion and we have ours. (Rises. The whole court rises.) As

my predecessor Caliph Abdul-Rahman had earlier said, the only

relationship that can exist between a believer and an infidel is ...

war! (1998:33)

From history, we learnt that women do not partake in wars. They are hidden in caves and

places of high security with the children.

You spoke well Sarkin Kwanni. I now decree. As with my earlier

letter to the Whiteman, war is our only answer to his threats. We

shall meet him, however, to avoid too much danger to the wives and

children, outside the walls of the city. (1998:47)

NIGERIA AS A PATRIACHAL SOCIETY

Patriarchy in a society points to the male or father‘s authority. In such societies, men create

and accede to a social order where they govern all ranks of authority and have all glory

attributed to them. A society can also be said to be patriarchal, when the breadwinners of the

families or rulers of the country are made up of conventionally accepted male attributes, such

as bodily muscle or vigour, to secure and hold their positions.

The population census of 1991 indicates that more than half of the Nigerian population

consist of women. Although high in number, women are still marginalized and oppressed,

just as it happens everywhere. The patriarchal society puts in place, the yard-sticks for

women‘s operational unbalanced position in and out of the home. They do this, by giving

room for gender biased positions on inheritance. Our founding fathers believed that male

dominance was natural and that it was God-given to the society.

In Nigeria, based on statistics, over 78% of women are in the informal sector. Nigerian

women appear not to be receiving a fair share in the labour market. Although equal power

has been given to both men and women in the 1999 Constitution (S.40), to vote and be voted

for in a democratic government; the current political leadership of the country gives a

different picture.

Regardless of the fact that Nigeria is a patriarchal society, she has a rich history of women

breaking out of the entrapped position they have been kept, majorly to participate in politics.

Before the advent of the British to Nigeira, we had several records of women taking the bull

by the horn. A worthy example is Queen Amina of Zaria, who led armies to drive out

invaders from Zaria, and Moremi of Ile-Ife, whose wise sacrificial life speaks volume on

altruistic leadership for our present day political rule. In our not too present history Our

recent past speaks of prominent women leaders like Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, a crusader and

the scourge of despotic leaders, who led Egba women on a protest against taxation; Margaret

Ekpo, a prominent civil rights activist; and Hajia Gambo Sawaba, who championed the cause

of the oppressed in northern Nigeria. Iyalode Tinubu of Lagos exemplifies the rich

participation of women on the economic scene.

ATTAHIRU AND HISTORY

The play Attahiru is no doubt a function of history and creativity. It cups the writer‘s

onsciousness of the subject matter. The play looks at Nigeria and its shaky years, years filled

with fear, worry, instability, war, blood-shed, division and unity. The playwright points this

out with the Caliph‘s lines.

I am becoming the Caliph at a time when the history of our lives is at a

delicate balance. At a time when the Whiteman is determined to upset the

peace of our lives. But it is too early to dare enemies, or look for one. I shall

await their moves. But let us pray for Allah‘s hand in the matter. Let us pray

for peace. Let us pray for our children. Let us pray for the growth of our lives

and position in the Islamic world. Thank you all. (pg. 21)

The play centres around the Sokoto Caliphate which at the time stretched across the whole of

northern Nigeria and was considered the largest West African state since the 16th

century

Songhai. The Caliphate was built and governed on the premises of the Islamic faith.

Sultan Attahiru was one of the great heroes who fought to hold back the whitemen from

desecrating the sanctity of the sacred Sokoto Empire, culture and religion of the people. He

was the12th and the last Sultan to rule over Sokoto before the victory of the whites and the

amalgamation of Nigeria by Lord Lugard.

SARKIN FATAKE: Yes, your Highness. My son, Abdul-Gafar had informed

me of his intentions to marry Saudatu, my brother‘s daughter. I sent my friends

and family elders to Sarkin Zango, but he refused on the basis of the

differences we had over the land matter. This saddened my household. I beg

the Caliph to implore my brother here, to leave our children out of this matter

(25)

The playwright knits the Hausa tradition and culture into the lines of the characters. The

above excerpt demonstrates the way disputes and quarrels are solved by the Caliph. He

presides as the judge as well as the king over the people. He is seen as a small god who all

reverence must be accorded to. He is the up-holder of the flag and religion. His word is

authority. According to history and tradition, it is believed that the Caliph is appointed by

God and so, it is not an ancestral right. As is seen when the Caliph tells his son

Promise me two things for as the blood of Shehu Dan Fodio flows in your veins that

you will never allow the infidels capture the flag of Islam and therefore extinguish the

light of the life of our people (39).

...

Second, that you will never attempt to make yourself by force the Sarkin Musulmi

after me. Allah chooses the Caliph. If Allah chooses you then, may your reign be a

peaceful one, if not, hold on only to the light (39).

The play Attahiru is written in such a way that a member of the Hausa community or the

Muslim faith can easily relate with the hero, who is also seen as a religious martyr. The

audience gets a glimpse of the tradition, culture and religion of the subject matter. The

creative input of the blind Abbas, the eloquent Yakubu and the funny Ahmed serves as the

spectacle in the play. The playwright created Abbas as a challenging personality; although

handicapped, he sought to join Attahiru in the death for his faith-the jihad.

The playwright in an attempt to emphasize the human nature of Attahiru relays his inner fears

when the Caliph talks to his son Mai Wurno. This makes it easier for the audience to relate

with the great hero and while they see him as great, fearless and powerful, they also gets an

insight into his weakness. The audience therefore, feels a tragic empathy for the hero.

CALIPH: Always, it starts in the early hours of the morning. There is smoke,

heavy smoke. It is at the battle field. Dead warriors littered everywhere. Then

images of my ancestors appear in a circle round me. They pass the flag from

one hand to another. As they chant, la llaha Illalah, I watch them helplessly

stretching my hands to collect the flag. I watch helplessly as Caliph Atiku

gives it to Mazu, then to Caliph Umoru, then to Abdul-Rahman, and as he

passes it to me, the flag falls, dripping blood. In all this smoky confusion, Dan

Magaji tries to help me pick it up, but he is trapped by a white pebble, he too;

falling on his sword. The dream subsumes me in thought... oh wise Mallam

(41).

The words of the Caliph can also be said to be a forecast of what is to happen in the nearest

future. The play ends with the heroic capture of Sultan Attahiru as it is told by Yakubu.

Yet, the greatest moment was when the Caliph fell. As the bullet struck him, he raised

up his sword and screamed Allahu-akbar! Allahu-akbar! He was a great man indeed.

With the bullets he still cut down two more soldiers, then his Rawani loosened, and

his cap fell. He twisted in pain. Holding on to nothing but his guts. Slowly, he started

to fall. And as he fell, the Madawaki noticed him, he covered him with his shield, the

Ubandoma, all forming a human shield. But the Caliph had fallen, and with his last

breath, he screamed again. Amidst the noise of the guns, and dying men, a gentle

breeze blew, and as if we all knew... the Caliph had gone with the passing breeze.

That was when the thunderous call came... (In one loud chant, all actors on and off

stage.)

ALL: Allahu-akbar! Allahu-akbar!

Although, not seen on stage; the words of Yakubu are loaded and sufficient enough to birth

strong imaginary scenes in the minds of the audience. This image becomes permanently fixed

in their memory, even as the final light fades. These words and the actions they infer give a

final attestation that Sultan Attahiru is indeed the great, the hero, the martyr and in no small

ways, the history maker.

YERIMA AND THE PLAY ATTAHIRU

Yerima did well in re-telling history with his play Attahiru, but did not do too well in refusing

to utilize his power as playwright in creating female characters. The only times we have the

females referred to in Attahiru were in pages 15, 16, 25, 37, 40 and 41. Yerima gave women

actions in page 48 but through-out the entire play refused to give a single line to a woman.

What could be his reasons? Of the six times women were referred to in the play, only one

was in a good light and the only time women appeared on Yerima‘s stage in Attahiru was to

show pandemonium.

In Pages 15 & 16, Yerima uses women as an instrument of ridicule, spectacle, wit, humour

and fun. As portrayed in his play he sees women as less serious entities and should be used in

less serious sense.

AHMED: So tell us the joke Abbas, was the fat woman really a boy?

...

AHMED: Always, I warned you about women. Especially fat ones. (The men

laugh.)

ABBAS: I thought that she was a friend of one of my sisters, and that she

needed help. I could not bear to see a poor innocent... woman... Kai, I swear, if

only I had my sight... I would have... and to think I thought she was a...

AHMED: Fat woman... (Laughing)... in distress?

ABBAS: Yes... er... I mean no. A friend of my sisters, travelling alone on that

dangerous road. I heard her speak with them. And he had a female voice and

all the mannerisms of a woman. When I spoke with her, he even pretended to

cry, and I took pity on her while listening to her tales of woe. She told me that

she was a widow and she was running from her wicked uncle-in-law. Safiyatu

my sister took her immediately and I felt she was her friend. But it was when

we got to Gusau, that we discovered. It must have been some sleeping charm,

because we all slept like children. A very unusual thing to do only after a short

distance into a long journey. He allowed me to sleep and cut my money bag. A

thousand curses on his young soul. Allah that boy was smart (15&16).

Here, Yerima infers that the women folk elicits pity and compassion. Safiyatu taking in

immediately to the woman indicates the open minds of women to each other and strangers. It

also indicates that the woman is an emotional being. ―Fat‖ women here is used to ridicule a

part of the women folk and this is seen in Ahmed‘s lines when he warns Abbas about women,

most especially, fat ones. This I feel, is not fair although it gets the audience to laugh and

achieves the aim of the playwright.

In page 25, Yerima brings in the woman to emphasize culture and the authority of the Caliph

in solving issues. The Hausa culture, requires the father of the woman to accept or refuse

proposals on her behalf. It foregrounds the fact that a woman‘s fate is in the hands of the men

around her. She is subject to her father and later, her husband‘s wish.

SARKIN FATAKE: Yes, your Highness. My son, Abdul-Gafar had informed

me of his intentions to marry Saudatu, my brother‘s daughter. I sent my

friends and family elders to Sarkin Zango, but he refused on the basis of the

differences we had over the land matter. This saddened my household. I beg

the Caliph to implore my brother here, to leave our children out of this matter

(25).

In the above excerpt, Yerima did not present the women in a negative light compared to what

he did in the others.

In pages 37,38, 40 & 41, Yerima indicates that women are over-bearing, especially with

children and grand-children. It can however, be deduced from the words of Caliph and Mai

Wurno that Yerima believes that the words of women shouldn‘t be taken to heart. It can also

be derived that he sees women as objects of stagnation and that they are a set of gullible

beings, who are easily deceived. He implies that the women folk prefer to suffer in silence,

rather than oppose their husband‘s decision. Yerima portrays women as a group who speak

louder in silence and have the people around them understand them.

MAI WURNO: They are fine Baba. They insist on coming to stay in the

Palace but their mother is too quiet, when she is that way, I allow matters to

remain as they are for a while.

CALIPH: (Chuckles) Women, you take them seriously, left to them nothing

will happen to their children. There is always a reason to delay it. I remember,

my mother gave twenty reasons why I was too young to start Koranic school,

even when all my mates had gone to school.

MAI WURNO: What did you do Baba?

CALIPH: She knew I was close to my grandmother, so I would tell her I was

going to stay with my grandmother to play there. She never knew until one

sallah, my grandfather Caliph Abubakar Atiku had heard of my gift of reading

the Al-Quran by heart, and he made me recite it in front of the crowd of the

Mosque of Shehu. That was when she knew, and no woman could talk about

her son near her for days. (Chuckles) Women... (Pg 37&38)

As deduced from the excerpt above, the playwright foregrounds the opinion that women think

with their heart and emotions, therefore their decisions are not always logical. The playwright

through the lines of Caliph is of the opinion that women are sentimental beings.

In Page 48, Yerima goes to the extreme in portraying women through negative lenses. It

should be noted that this is the only scene where women are physically seen on Yerima‘s

stage in Attahiru; yet he seems not to have done full justice to the image of the opposite sex.

Through the stage directions, one is made to believe that women are the best for a vivid

representation of what the playwright intends to portray- chaos, pandemonium, confusion,

disorder and commotion. As far as Yerima‘s thought in Attahiru is concerned, this is the only

point where female characters become indispensable. The playwright‘s creativity does not

appear to provide an alternative to women as the right tools of re-enacting anarchy in the

community. Probably if it has, then women would not have been seen at all in Attahiru.

Bare stage. Abbas the blind beggar wanders in with his small bag tied behind

his back. As light become brighter on stage we see people running out

carrying their loads. Women are running in opposite direction calling on their

children. There is total pandemonium (48).

From history, however we learn that when men go to war, their women are sometimes

hidden. Why then did Yerima have women ―running in opposite directions‖ in his play?

Probably because, he sought for a way to correct his errors which he noticed towards the tail

end of the play and decided to slot in women. It could also be because he needed the

representation of disarray on stage and women seem to be the best props for this.

It should be noted however, that the above allusion is solely for the purpose of academic

argument and not aimed at depicting the playwright in a bad light, nor is it what the

playwright stands for.

YERIMA‟S ASSUMED REASONS FOR THE ZERO REPRESENTATION OF

WOMEN IN ATTAHIRU

Ahmed Yerima had the task of bringing back the hero and martyr, Sultan Attahiru of the

Sokoto Caliphate, and in the honour of the gallant and noble African leader, had to write a

play to reflect his patriotism, selfless service, liberty, justice and sacrifice. He is able to

achieve this by writing a sixty-three paged play, twelve scenes and twenty-two characters

with lines. In all this, Yerima did not include a female character with lines. The main

argument therefore unfolds, why has Yerima decided to take this stance in Attahiru?

The Theme of the play - Attahiru

In his play, Erelu-Kuti, Yerima replays the history of Lagos between 1760 and 1805, at the

time when Oba Akinsemoyin and Oba Ologunkutere reigned. The play is an historical

artifact. It visits history and its significance in his enthroning Erelu-Kuti as the regent of the

Lagos region. Although, Erelu-Kuti‘s reign was short, her noteworthy impact cannot be over-

emphasized. She appeared at the nick of time to salvage the throne and the royal battle

between the King and the palace chiefs. In this play, Yerima illustrates gender equality in a

patriarchal society. He showcases the significant role of women in the traditional African

society.

Yerima, having studied other historical figures in other plays, could have deliberately decided

to avoid including women as characters in Attahiru because of the seriousness of the theme –

War. Women as seen as lighter characters; they are used by playwrights to reduce the tempo

of plays when they get too serious. They are the ones who perform the ritual dances, they are

the ones who get possessed and go into trances. Playwrights from Soyinka, through Osofisan

have imbibed the culture of using women as tools for wit in their plays. Yerima‘s intention,

therefore to hold on strictly to the use of men as both main and minor characters could be to

keep the tempo of the play. Yerima believed that using women in some way would have

affected the delivery of the message he intends to pass across.

Historically, women do not appear in war. From research, it has been seen that the Hausa

culture do not give room for women to go war, so the way the women of Owu protested and

participated in the Owu War, has no similar occurrence for any Hausa society. Instead, where

we find Hausa women during wars are in caves and bushes, providing for the children,

treating wounded soldiers and ensuring that the soldiers at war do not lack the locally made

ammunitions and necessary things. Yerima, however failed in portraying this in his play.

What we have instead is ―Women are running in opposite direction calling on their children.

There is total pandemonium.‖ (Pg 48). One will be right therefore to argue that Yerima

having lived in several parts of the country did not really have a first hand experience of the

Hausa culture.

Notably, in Greek drama, women‘s roles were seen as insignificant when compared to that of

the Greek men. Yet, women were often written as major characters in tragedies. Most of the

popular Greek plays have female characters taking up the role of villains, victims and

heroines. Some of these great female characters include: Clytemnestra, Cassandra, Antigone

and Medea,

Attahiru As An Historical Play

In his paper, Historicism, Sultan Attahiru, the European Conquest and Dramaturgy, presented

in March 2003, Yerima proposes that ― when the dramatist sits down to write, despite the

historical facts before him, all other influences: language, culture, religion, come to bear on

the mind‘s creative imagination‖. This he says, allows the history to come to life. Yerima,

ibid, relays that a work of art has to communicate with its society and audience. This it must,

by portraying the people the history is concerned about.

The Religiousity In Attahiru

It is estimated that 50 percent of Nigerians are Muslim, 40 percent are Christian, and that the

remaining 10 percent practice various indigenous religions.

While Muslims can be found in all parts of Nigeria, their strongest footholds are among the

Hausa and the Yoruba. Islam in Nigeria is similar to Islam throughout the world. It is based

on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, which are outlined in the Qur'an.

Yerima (ibid) affirms that the play, Attahiru is premised on the Islamic religion. He states,

―The first heritage, which I used to situate the play, is religious. This is because the essence

of the Sokoto Caliphate is religious. The Caliphate was born on the premise of Islam. I

therefore built the society presented in the play with characters,... on the Islamic references of

Al-Qur‘an, the Hadith, and the symbolic images of the Caliphate itself.‖

The Hausa (Fulani) Culture

The Hausa Culture is entwined with the Islamic religion, it is therefore difficult to

differentiate what the culture states and what tradition requires. More than half of the Hausa

man‘s language is borrowed from Arabic, half of his culture and way of dressing is not native

to Hausa but originated from Senegal and Middle East.

Based on the July 2000, population census; with regards to ethnic breakdown, the Hausa-

Fulani make up 29 percent of the Nigerian population, making them the largest ethnic group

in Nigeria. ―Unofficially, the country's second language is Hausa. In northern Nigeria many

people who are not ethnic Hausas speak both Hausa and their own tribal language. Hausa is

the oldest known written language in West Africa, dating back to before 1000 C.E.‖

The architectural designs in the north have a high inspiration from the Muslim culture.

Houses are built in a typically geometric mud-walled structures style, which often has

religious signs and symbols. They have large walls built around small huts. The entrance into

the compound is through a large hut built into the wall of the compound; which is usually the

hut of the breadwinner, father or head male figure in the family.

According to old customs, women did not have much choice of whom they married, though

the numbers of arranged marriages are declining. It is also not uncommon for women to

marry in their teens, often to a much older man. In instances where there are already one or

more wives, it is the first wife's responsibility to look after the newest wife and help her

integrate into the family.

For the Fulani, if a man dies, his brother inherits his property and his wife. The wife usually

returns to live with her family, but she may move in with her husband's brother and become

his wife.

For the Hausa, however, there is not much wide-ranging kinship. Hausa society is based on

the nuclear family. There is a sense of a larger extended family, including married siblings

and their families, but there is little kinship beyond that. However, the idea of blood being

thicker than water is very strong in Hausa society. For this reason, many Hausas will try to

stretch familial relationships to the broader idea of clan or tribe to diffuse tensions between or

among neighbours.

Yerima (ibid) says of Attahiru:

it is the cultural and traditional heritage within which environment I was

able to situate the play. In the script, I applied the rules of dramaturgy.

The description of scenes, the stage direction, the content of the dialogue

and my expansion of the dialogue to create characterisation helped in the

realisation of the cultural and traditional heritage.

Yerima states further that the characters in the play text, had to be either Fulani or white

men; in order to have the play appropriate for the years of the Sokoto Caliphate.

Yerima‟s Pre-Supposed Stand

From his other plays, Yerima has been proven to be neither a male chauvinist, nor a biased

playwright. In his play, The Sisters, Taiwo takes the lead role; she is the vibrant, passionate,

strong willed one of the three sisters; later to be discovered in the play as four. The vivid

representation of a typical Nigerian family comes to live on Yerima‘s stage. Although,

without a male character, the play still goes on with a strong force and power, leaving the

audience gasping for more.

In his play, The Wives, we see Sistami taking the lead role.

Yerima‘s thought provoking Little Drops centres around women and their being at the

receiving end of wars. The play is a carving from history with its attendant happenings in the

Niger Delta. It becomes a documentation of history, and a play in dramatic form.

His play Idemili looks at the concerns of a woman. Her desires are towards her husband, her

hopes for her children and her fears for the future. The main character is torn between the

worlds of following Jesus in order to have her husband rescued from the coal mine and

worshipping the river goddess, who she believes gave her a son.

CONCLUSION

After all said and done, history and drama have been proven to be two sides of a coin. Just as

life is full of realities; history is reality and drama is the mirror of life. Philosophically, drama

is a function of history. History is the wings on which the eagle of playwrights soar.

Although, they are still faced with the storm of subjectivity and objectivity; how well the

dramatist can be objective in playwriting determines on how high they soar in the storms of

the theatre. Yerima‘s deliberate attempt to achieve this point in Attahiru failed. Largely

because there is no reason big enough for a playwright to represent women negatively in his

or her play or not represent them at all.

The socio-reality of the time in which Sultan Attahiru lived is lacking in the play Attahiru.

Yerima‘s refusal in giving a true representation of the socio-realty of the existence of men

and women of the Sokoto people at the time shows that he allowed bigotry to dominate his

belief in the use and importance of history.

Although a few playwrights refuse to do justice to women in their writings, we cannot

however say that it is a common practice. Writers who do this should be corrected. In this

light, I will like to say that Ahmed Yerima is guilty of not portraying women characters in his

play, Attahiru.

Oh woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee

To temper man: we had been brutes without you;

Angels are painted fair, to look like you;

There's in you all that we believe of heav'n,

Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,

Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

Thomas Otway (1652 - 1685)

English playwright and poet.

Venice Preserved

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