Open Wound, Hidden Shame. A review of Born on a Tuesday.

Elnathan John is a Nigerian novelist writer and satirists. He has twice been shortlisted for the prestigious Caine prize for African writing (2013&2015). His writing has been published in Per Contra, Evergreen Review and Chimurenga’s The Chronic. He is a Civitella Ranieri Fellow and lives in Abuja, Nigeria. The book was published by Cassava Republic.

The themes of the book are love, trust, betrayal and religious schism. The religious schism in this book, raised questions but provided no answers, this perhaps is the reason why the author succeeded in writing a book about religion.

The only answer I can offer is that we need to try hard on dialogues and reintegrating different sects in to the society. 

The life of Dantala is an open wound and hidden shame to Northern Nigeria. The book is a bildungsroman as Dantala starts out as an Almajiri and ends up as a student of a Salafi Mallam. Almajiranci is child abuse but it started out as a beautiful tenet of religion, it was coined from the word al muhajiroon which means emigrant.

 The author’s decision to write about religion is unconventional, but it moved the plot forward. The author brought the Dantala to life with irony. The book was written in the first person point of view and Dantala has different goals at each section of the book, in the beginning it was to escape from the police in Bayan layi, in doggon icce it was to see his mother, in Sokoto it was to marry Aisha and at the end it was to save Jibril. It is disheartening because Dantala had no real desire for himself.

The life of Dantala and other former Almajiris like him end up as tools in election violence or as thugs and miscreants. Almajiranci is an open wound in our society and it is time we treat the wound with brotherly love.       

Treating Ageism In Literature, A Review Of Season Of Crimson Blossoms.

Season of Crimson Blossoms.

By Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.

Parresia Books, 347 pp.

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s season of crimson blossom is a novel that portrayed the life of Hajiya Binta Zubairu. The author used the third person omniscient point of view, the characterizations and the themes of relationships, ageism, forced marriage and the custom of not showing affection to the first born child.   

The Omniscient point of view represents freedom - it prevented the author from being limited to the inner life of one character. The omniscient point of view worked for this novel because the author was able to travel to the past and present at will. The choice of point of view helped to link the relationship between Binta and Hassan, Binta and Yaro, Hassan and Maimuna.

The omniscient point of view helped us to visit Kibiya, Jos and Marraba. The setting of the book brought the characters to life, the protagonist Hajiya Binta is not a type and she has lived through her share of tragedies and pain.

 The themes ageism, relationships forced marriage, abandonment, and the customs lead to a greater theme of life.

 Ageism is stereotyping and discriminating against individuals or groups on the basis of their age.

The Love affair of Hajia Binta and Hassan was fleeting but it had far reaching consequence. It helped us to see clearly that northern Nigeria society will not readily accept the relationship between an older woman and a younger man but thinks nothing about the relationship between an older man and a younger woman like in the case of Hassan's parents.

The themes of forced marriage, bereavement , abandonment and custom of not showing affection to your first child had an intense effect on the characters like in the case of Yaro who could not stand the lack of affection shown to him by his mother Hajiya Binta. She called his name only once in his life term.

The abandonment of children by their mothers after the loss of a spouse or divorce also has an adverse on the growth and development of children.

The book is contemporary realistic fiction and even though the author has some realistic fiction in The Whispering Trees, the stories that were written with magical realism had caught the attention of literary enthusiasts. The modern realistic fiction is also good but with the northern Nigerian society it’s unrealistic to expect that people will be favourable towards a younger man, older woman relationship.