Title: Naja
Author: Safiya Ismaila Yero
Number of pages: 186
Publisher: Malthouse Press Ltd
ISBN: 9789785657569
Reviewer: Ojo Olumide Emmanuel
Introduction
Novels such as Naja and others written with a loud undertone of feminist ideologies have become a tool and vehicle that female writers have wielded in redeeming their image from the patriarchal system peculiar to Africa, which has placed them in a crib of lurch and misrepresentation over the years. These voices (authors) have through the literary art fabricated new insights into fiction, rejecting the depiction of women as weak, compliant and uninvolved observer; one that cannot channel the course of their lives and all other sort of stereotypes.
The story is written by utilizing the “third person point of view.” The story opens on a startling note thus: “Naja watched in silence as her family made preparations to bury her alive.” (Pg.1). This opening bait the reader as the authors’ way of asking the reader to probe. It beckons on the reader to question if such practices still exist in the modern day but in another sense, it is a metaphor for ‘powerlessness to confront one’s immediate problems.’ Naja, a girl of sixteen years; although, mildly educated is to be shipped out for a marriage she is not interested in nor consulted about before a consensus was reached. To her utter disdain, the man she is to be married to is an old man. This was described thus:
“…she would be better-off lying alone six feet under, than in bed with a pot-bellied, grey-haired, bearded man, who was older than her father.”(Pg.1)
The wedding ceremony takes place and Naja is taken to Mallam Ilu’s house although Naja is in love with Nasir, a young man who is both her lover and teacher. When he went for his National Youth Service Corps, she was hopeful he will return but unfortunately Mallam Ilu a trader gave Naja’s Father, Mallam Jarmai, some cows to rear. Mallam Jarmai lost most of his cows due to a communal clash between Tarok and Wase Fulani clans in Jos. As a kind of propitiation for the loss, Mallam Ilu utilises that opportunity to ask for Naja’s hand in marriage. Although Mallam Ilu is a captain of four wives, one of which he divorced with Naja coming in as a kind of supplementary addition to his flock of wives. Naja’s father is placed in a limbo and even Daada her mother could not save her daughter from this marriage-slaught. So, they yielded although Mallam Ilu paid the customary bride money (price) and fulfilled other rites.
When Naja arrives at Mallam Ilu’s house, she is renamed Sodangi (lover of relatives), a kind of christening into the marriage-slaught by Murja, Mallam Ilu’s first wife. Murja as the mother of the home is by tradition empowered to unveil the bride to the perching eyes of on-lookers at the Nikkah (wedding ceremony) which takes place at the groom’s residence.
Issues began to unfold properly when Naja resolved not to allow her husband consummate with her, such a patient oldman who also vowed not to allow her provoke him to the point of divorcing her. She made a vow to keep her body for her fairy boyfriend Nasir. Later she gets the permission of her husband to open a Qur’anic centre for women. The place soon becomes a beehive for women to discuss their marital problems and chat a way forward. Naja utilizes this avenue in educating the women on their rights as married women including encouraging them to speak up to their husband if they are grieved. This didn’t come without backlash from men who feel their wives “should only be seen not heard” and so they took the report to Mallam Ilu. Although Naja was a faithful housewife, she did not allow intimidation from men. A kind of stubbornness her father suspected to be the offshoot of her little education. At some point, she later surrenders her body to her husband when she needed money for her sister’s treatment; she considered her husband’s slush as rape. The turning point of the story is when her husband physically abused her because she alighted from the car of a stranger without inquiry from her.
She escapes to Aunty Zahra’s house. Aunty Zahra came to the village at that time to empower women and Naja was introduced to her. Naja later appealed that she be taken to Abuja as a house help for a loan required as payment for her sister’s medical bill. In Abuja she meets another kind of life where women also face marital challenges like her. She adjusts to life in the city as a house help and confidant to Aunty Zahra. She soon hears of her sister’s wellness and her father’s ploy to marry her to Mallam Ilu. She makes up her mind to return but later due to a communal clash, Mallam Ilu is killed, a kind of deliberate attempt by the author. Her family comes to Live in Abuja and she becomes a gender activist. She finally realizes a meaning to her life that is beyond just being a woman and the marital life they consider women to be made for.
The book explores the theme of marital abuse, for instance it reveals that Daada hardly talks or smiles; she is always lurched in sorrow. Similarly, when women speak up or are accused, they’re not asked of their fault; rather, they are physically assaulted through slapping, kicking and flogging. Naja’s father slaps Naja for not consummating with her husband when he reported. Mallam Ilu also battered Naja when Aunty Zahra’s driver gave her a ride to Mallam Ilu’s house.
The theme of Ignorance and Illiteracy is also explored, for instance Naja’s father does not allow his family to seek medical attention in the hospital. Naja invited a doctor when her sister Kaamila a fourteen years old girl falls into protracted labour. Naja was blamed for the loss of the baby and later for the VVF-infection she had after long labour. Thus, she said ‘dying at home during labour would have been more honourable’ for her; at least she would die a martyr.
The theme of love is explored too, although true love was not painted in the story, there is a yearning for love, for marriages where love is the foundation not tradition and Naja typifies women with such desire. She sees this concept from the story Nasir reads to her and other books she has read, although most women including Iyatu were skeptical about such. They consider love as something one grows with in marriage rather than the trigger for marriage and so they stay submissive to the whims and caprices of a degrading culture/religious which gave the womenfolk second class citizen status. They (the men) appear not to use the ideologies of their religion in respect to women rather they rely on what their minds and values dictate to them. The theme of divorce as a way of emancipation from toxic relationship is also highlighted in the novel. We see Aunty Zarah later suing her husband for divorce due to lack of care on his part. Aunty Zarah’s friend Mariya committed suicide due to incessant beating and abuse from her husband. Also issue of poor health facilities, bad governance, communal clashes were subtly discussed in the book.
In conclusion, it is important to state that overtly, issues raised in this book are the daily realities of girls in Northern Nigeria particularly in areas where education has not laid foothold due to the skepticism of parents in those regions. Even those (girls) in school are withdrawn for the sake of marriage. The absurdity of this practice is that it lags the scale of development in the country. The more women educated, the more we have civilized families.
Bio
Ojo Olumide Emmanuel is a Nigerian poet and book editor. His works have appeared and forthcoming at Feral, Quills, Poets in Nigeria (PIN), WRR, The Nigeria Review (TNR) and elsewhere. He is an Assistant Editor at The Nigerian Review (Teens Section). He is an Alumnus of the SprinNG Writers Fellowship.
