What led me to write first soyayya novel – Hafsat Abdulwaheed

You are being described as the pioneer soyayya novelist. Could you tell us how this achievement came about?

Well, first, I started writing as a very young girl. And then in 1970, there was a contest for prose by Northern Nigerian Publishing Company and I entered a book I had written. Initially I had written the book in English but when they made the call for the entries I translated the manuscript into Hausa, called it ‘So Aljannar Duniya’ and entered it for contest and I was fortunate  to come second. 

The book was first published in 1972 but after a fire incident, it was republished in 1980.

Now that you started the trend and it has caught on to the point that the entire world has recognized the soyayya novella genre, how does that make you feel?

I give praise to God. Whatever one is doing, it is always good to be sincere in your intentions. You know when we did these things, we didn’t have the liberties that women now enjoy. Whatever we did then, had to be done discreetly but then I realized that we needed women writers. I had conversations with my friends and discovered everyone was afraid to write, especially about love. It so happened that my elder sister had got married and had problems in the marriage, and this prompted me to write this book. 

I was in primary five at the time I wrote it. I thought why not try and see if I could encourage other women to write our stories. After some re-writing, I entered it for the competition. Even though I was accused at the time of bringing something inappropriate, I am pleased that many women have taken up the gauntlet.

When you wrote this book, and even though you wanted to inspire women to take up writing, did you envisage this level of acceptance?

Not at all. In those days, marriages were mostly arranged, sometimes the women never meet their husbands before the wedding. So the marriages were just done taking chances. And most of the time some of these marriages are filled with problems and marital discontent except where the couple happen to have plenty of patience with each other. So I thought books like that could highlight the dangers of forcing girls to marry men they neither love nor care for even though sometimes the parents make the right choice for their children. But I never anticipated the level of acceptance this type of books have received. Because not long after, several institutions adopted it as study text, including Bayero University. A young man decided to translate it into Arabic and my father did a Fulfulde translation which we never got round to publishing.

Are there still plans to publish the translations?

God willing. The Arabic version, we had submitted it for publication by the NNPC but the person in charge claimed he had misplaced the manuscript. We haven’t found another translator for the work yet. But I have asked for the original to be searched for in Sokoto, at the university there, because the young man had submitted it as his project work. If we find a copy we will publish it.

Now that soyayya novels have blossomed, do you feel that in some ways they have deviated from what you envisaged?

A lot of them have because a few years back, you will discover that most of the stories are adapted from Indian films where a woman would watch an Indian film and just write out the story in Hausa. But  now fortunately, we have a lot of brilliant women who write original stories that could be adopted for studies in institutions.

So some of the stories were not original?

No, they were not. They just adapted them from Indian films and presented them as Hausa stories. But for me someone who comes up with an original story and someone who adapts a story are not the same.

Indeed. A after So Aljannar Duniya, you are have published many books…

The ones I have published are six. Two of them are nonfiction. One is a novel in four parts. The first part has been published but the others haven’t been published because I am looking for a publisher but the manuscript is all complete. I have a collection of short stories as well, in English, which I want to publish. I have also published Ancient Dance, my collection of poetry in English.

I see you write poetry in English. I remember seeing you read from your poetry in English…

Poetry is something I have failed to write in Hausa. I have tried but couldn’t [Laugh]. You know it is a talent. I have tried because my father used to write Hausa poetry but I have failed to replicate that. So I just wrote them in English. Ancient Times is my first poetry collection and a second one is coming soon.

Would you say that writing about love is the main focus of your prose?

No. Apart from the first book, I have not written about love. The others are stories that deal with day to day living while the others are stories that could be read to children, stories that teach morals.

Women have for long been thought to use literature as a vehicle for advancing feminist causes or women rights issues. To what extent would you say this is true?

We do mix things up. And we do talk about those issues because they are essential. We have a society in which women are restricted in the number of things they could do, especially Hausa women. But when you look at the Fulani, the women are not subjected to such strictness and they have the freedom to move about. I remember when I was a young bride and someone heard my sister reciting Suratul Yasin from memory, he got really angry saying why should we allow a girl learn that much, that she is supposed to know only what will suffice her for prayers and not go deep into the Qur’an like that. 

These were the issues we had to deal with in our time. But we grew up in a house were learning was emphasized, where our mothers and uncles and everyone could open the Qur’an and read. So for us, it is perfectly normal for a woman to know the Qur’an and explore other forms of learning.

I notice you are passionate about learning and education and I understand this was what made you want to go into politics at some point. What happened then?

At that time, (early 2000s) I had set up my NGO and I was working with a women NGO, Baobab, which assisted women suffering domestic violence and other such issues. There was a girl who was impregnated by some men in Zamfara and our NGO decided to investigate the issue and see what can be done to help her. She had been sentenced to lashing for getting pregnant out of wedlock and accusing the men who had impregnated her without evidence. 

Our leaders came from Lagos and visited the governor. I decided not to go with them because I am quite outspoken and didn’t want to mar the discussions. They went to intervene on her behalf since she had just had a child. Governor Yarima at the time promised that she would be spared the punishment until she had recovered her health. But unfortunately, she was flogged the day after the delegation’s visit. They asked him why there are no females in his cabinet and his response was that there was no woman educated enough to be included in his cabinet.

I felt that that was  an insult because in my house alone, all my daughters have been educated and I know other families who have educated their female children. So I said, well, we don’t even want a cabinet seat, we want the governor’s seat. And that was why I went into politics. But my party, the PDP denied me the ticket.

On what grounds?

They said the malams said women are not supposed to lead so the party adhered to that and denied me the ticket. That was where we ended that venture.

Have you thought of going back to politics since then or was that just it for you?

The politics now is very different from what played out then. There is no principle or public interest, it is just money politics. It is so violent now and I don’t want to cause problems for my children. We will assist were we can [laughs]. Sadly we do not yet have the political maturity for issues-based politics and money remains the ultimate factor in politics for now.

As an accomplished writer, is there a role that you think writers can play in changing this scenario?

Absolutely. Writers are the ones most qualified to bring about changes. The change engendered by the pen is more enduring that the one engendered by the sword. We speak every day, we raise awareness about things that are wrong in the society and someday we will succeed in provoking a reaction. Those who can’t read can hear it on the radio, we can use the media to raise awareness. There is no sword greater than the pen. All the conflicts we have today, if we pay attention to what our writers write, we won’t get to that stage.

Despite the role you played in inspiring women writer from the north, it is still widely believed that the female voice in the north is still not being heard loud enough because of the small number of northern women writing in English…

I do not agree that there are few women writing in English. I know a lot of them. You see, in Birning Kebbi, there are about four women I know who write in English. One of them is Maimuna Bala. She was even an adviser to the governor once. She has written about 10 books in English. In Katisna we have lots of them, like Talatu Wada. She writes well. In Kano we have them. We have leagues of writers. They are just not known because here in the north, we are not as pushy as women elsewhere. Elsewhere they promote their works and don’t sit in the dark. But here we have lots of writers who write in English, just that they are not as many as those who write in Hausa.

How do we get to know these women writers?

If they published and their works are promoted in newspapers and radios. It is not enough to write and leave the books in Sabon Gari, but we need to promote them in the media. If we have traditional publishers, who will take up this manuscripts and pay royalties on them, that would be a huge step. But here, people don’t care much about earning a living from writing. They just write. I have never sold my books. I give them out. Even when I launched, I didn’t sell any. The money I made from the launch, I invested in publishing other books. Many of us are like that. But if we have a company that will take up these manuscripts and publish them, it would go a long way.

When you published your book in 1970, the situation of women was different as their have been progress in certain aspects while in others not so much. In the next 10 years, how do you envisage the situation of women?

We have progressed in some aspects and have retrogressed in others. In terms of knowledge, women have advanced and in some aspect are doing better than men. In terms of discipline and morality, we have retrogressed. Some say this is as a result of learning and western education but I don’t agree with this. I think what brings about this is the kind of people one interacts with. I will call on our young people to stick to their morals and honour their elders. They should also turn away from worldly things because these are things that don’t last. People do. Hausas say that if someone has more wealth than you, you should have more people than him because wealth finishes but people do not. We should also be mindful of our rights in relation to others.

So do you have plans to continue writing?

Even now before you called, I was writing. This is something of a tradition to me. I met my father writing and have been doing this since I was five or six. I don’t know if it is possible to stop until my last breath.