She has done it again. She first did it in 1974/80. In 2024 she repeated it. The feat that no female northern Nigerian has ever performed. Hajiya Hafsatu AbdulWaheed (b. 1952, Kano, northern Nigeria) was the first woman creative fiction writer from northern Nigeria to be published in any language, although hers was in Hausa. On 13th April 2024, she became the first female Muslim northern Nigerian to be honored with D.Litt. (Honoris Causa “for the sake of the honor”) doctorate degree from a no less institution than the biggest online university in Africa, the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). This was at the 13th Convocation Ceremony of the university held on 13th April, 2024 in Abuja, the main headquarters of the university.
In a way, Ms. AbdulWaheed represents a paradox. She is not Hausa or Hausa-Fulani. She is Fulani. Pure and simple. She learnt Hausa only outside her family home, in school; but at home, it was Fulfulde all the way. Yet her creative writing has always been in Hausa, with exception of one book of poetry in English and the recently published collection of short stories titled Sharo. Nothing in Fulfulde, though.
The common historical narrative on literary development in northern Nigeria was that a literary competition to encourage the reading culture among Hausa youth was organized by the Northern Nigerian Publishing Corporation (NNPC) in 1978. One of the entries, and which was also one of the winners, was “So Aljannar Duniya” by Hafsatu AbdulWaheed. It was in Hausa language. However, it would appear according to Hafsatu herself that she wrote the novel in 1972 and it was published in 1974.
It was, quite simply, the most radical novel in Hausa literary history. Even “Ƙarshen Alewa Ƙasa” by Bature Gagare (who died in 2002), an unconventional novel, , published in 1982 (as a result of a literary competition organized by the then Federal Department of Culture, Ministry of Social Welfare and Culture) did not come close. Curiously, they contrasted each other. Gagare’s novel is about the lost glory of ‘original’ Hausa people—the Maguzawa. Hafsatu’s novel is about breaking the Pulaaku—the Fulani code of behavior. Both Hafsatu and Gagare became spokespersons of their ethnicities.
So Aljannar Duniya is brash, bold, audacious, trenchant, unapologetic. It is a declaration of war against Pulaaku. It was unarguably the first Fulani feminist tract—written in Hausa. Hafsatu’s style and critique of tradition might beg comparison with those of Bilkisu Salisu Ahmed Funtuwa and Balaraba Ramat Yakubu. There are quite a few differences, however.
Despite its pioneering boldness, So Aljannar Duniya is difficult to read. Perhaps that was because the author started writing it while still in secondary school! Its narrative is often jumbled and non-linear. Understandable. It was written in anger, so words tend to wobble, but the message is clear. This is more so because it is ethnographic. Hafsatu wove a story around her sister, of course a Fulani, who had every intention of marrying an ‘alien’—an Arab from Libya. So Aljannar Duniya is therefore a true story, spiced up by fictional elements to convey a message. As I said before, it is a feminist tract.
Balaraba Rama Yakubu, however, writes in a deeply engaging mature and absorptive style with plenty of hooks. For instance, “Wa Zai Auri Jahila?”, which I consider her best novel, is dark and deeply disturbing narrative of what in contemporary feminist Woke world would be considered an injustice to women, especially young girls in a traditional African society.
Although Novian Whitsitt, who did his PhD on Balaraba’s novels, referred to it as ‘feminist’ I disagreed with him. I labelled her works ‘womanist’, after Alice Walker’s short story, ‘Coming Apart’ (1979). As explained elsewhere, “a womanist is committed to the survival of both males and females and desires a world where men and women can coexist, while maintaining their cultural distinctiveness.”
This inclusion of men provides women with an opportunity to address gender oppression without directly attacking men (Adamu 2003). Balaraba reflects this in her novels, especially “Alhaki Kwikuyo” (translated by Aliyu Kamal and published by Blaft Books in India). Can’t say much about Bilkisu Funtuwa’s books, though, as I have never read any.
But Hafsatu AbdulWaheed is a feminist—at least as portrayed in So Aljannar Duniya. The plot revolves around a Fulani young lady who wants to marry an ‘alien’ (Arab) from Libya. In real life, Hafsatu’s elder sister. Their parents rejected the idea.
The plot of the novel did away with the Fulani Pulaaku and introduces a brash, assertive, loud and anti-establishment heroine, Boɗaɗo who, armed with a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, comes back to her village to set up a drug store (called Chemists in Nigeria, a bit like Walgreens) and introduces her fiancé—all un-lady like behaviors in the Fulani mindset.
Thus, she discards the Fulani munyal (self-control), semteende (modesty) and hakkillo (wisdom)—central components of Pulaaku—and declares, openly, her love for an “alien” in her aunt’s presence! The opening dialogue from the novel sets the pace in which Boɗaɗo, speaking, informs her aunt:
(Hau) Aure! Inna ni fa na gaya muku ba zan auri kowa ba sai wanda nake so. Kun san zamani ya sake.
(trans) Marriage! Aunty, I have told you that I will only marry the man I love. You know times have changed.
Such direct confrontation in a Fulani village was uncommon, and reflects the author’s autobiographical rebellion against tradition. Her aunt—delegated to mediate in these matters on behalf of the protagonist’s mother—is shocked. As she laments:
(Hau) Mhm! Wannan zamani, Allah Ya saukaka. Yarinya ki zauna kina zancen auren ki, sai ka ce hirar nono da mai. Don haka fa ba ma son sa ɗiyar mu makarantar boko. In kun yi karatu sai ku ce kun fi kowa. Me kuka ɗauke mu ne?
(trans) Mhm. These times of ours. May Allah save us. Listen to you talking about your marriage, as if you are talking about milk and butter. That is why we don’t want to send our daughters to school. After you finish you feel you are superior to everyone. What do you take us for?
A battle ground and the rules of engagement have been established—female empowerment through education; and Hafsatu chose the most conservative arena: a Fulani settlement, considered generally more trenchant about Pulaaku than urban Fulani. Additionally, the novel’s subtext of rebellion against arranged and forced marriage underscores Hafsatu’s acerbic demand for personal choice in marital affairs by women. It was a template for rebellion.
Another contrast between Hafsatu’s So Aljannar Duniya and Balaraba’s Wai Zai Auri Jahila? is in the choice of careers. Hafsatu chose Pharmacy for her protagonist, while Balaraba made her own a nurse. Pharmacy was a male profession in the period, and by making her character a pharmacist, she thrusts Boɗaɗo into a man’s world to compete equally with men. Balaraba, on the other hand, by making her character a nurse, instead of a doctor, maintains the womanist ethos of an achieving woman in a male-dominated society, fitting in with career stereotypes of women in caring professions.
The success of So Aljannar Duniya sent a message to the budding Hausa literati to pick up their pens and set to work—thus spawning a genre which revolutionized the Hausa literary landscape in contemporary times.
Furthermore, the combined effects of harsh economic realities of the 1980s (the decade of military coups and counter-coups in Nigeria) ensured reduced parental responsibility in the marital affairs of their children.
Therefore, fantasy, media parenting from especially Hindi films, anti-authority and a loud persistent message from bursting testosterones in a conservative society that sees strict gender separation, combined to present Hausa youth with soyayya (romance) as the central template for creative fiction. It was a safety valve to repressed sexuality.
Hafsatu’s radicalism, however, did not end at rebellion against arranged or forced marriage for women. At one stage she declared to run for the office of the Governor of Zamfara State. This was provoked by a statement by the sitting governor that there were no educated women in the state. To prove him wrong, she decided to campaign for his chair! She even made posters, but was asked by her father to stop. At least, she had made a statement.
Furthermore, her real life echoes Boɗaɗo’s—she was also married to an ‘alien’ from Yemen. Incidentally, her husband got a job in Gusau and they relocated there for years. I had the pleasure of meeting her late husband, Malam Ahmad AbdulWaheed, during a British Council “Intensities in Ten Cities” Islamophobia tour on 9th July 2003. Both Hafsatu and her husband were born and raised in Kano. It was his career that took them to Gusau.
In literary circles she also has a voice. For one, she used to assiduously attend every single literary convention anywhere it was held. As part of ANA Kano activities, we were together in Niamey and Maraɗi in Niger Republic at various times to attend international conventions of Hausa writers.
She never tired of attending and actively participating. Wonderful enough, she often went with her children and grandchildren, showing them the way. It is little wonder that some of these children became well-celebrated in their chosen professions—for they had a strong role-model at home. A good example is her eldest daughter, Kadaria Ahmad, the award-winning journalist who owns and runs the Radio Now FM radio station in Lagos.
Thus, the recognition of the pioneering efforts of Hafsatu AbdulWaheed by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) on 13th April, 2024 during the university’s 13th Convocation was a salute not only to the resilience of feminist women, but also all Hausa language writers of both genders. As far as I know, she was the first female Muslim Fulani (or Hausa) writer to be so honored by any university in Nigeria. She has therefore entered the history books. She is truly a woman of substance.
References
Adamu, Abdalla Uba. “Parallel Worlds: Reflective Womanism in Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s Ina Son Sa Haka.” JENDA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, no. 4 (2003). https://bit.ly/3Q2gNlY.
Whitsitt, Novian. Kano Market Literature and the Construction of Hausa-Islamic Feminism A Contrast in Feminist Perspectives of Balaraba Ramat Yakubu and Bilkisu Ahmed Funtuwa. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 2000.
* Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu is a former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria.
