The singular feminist trust of this novel is the heroine’s quest for emancipation, selfhood and identity through education. Sa’adatu who was in love with Junaid for several years was denied the realization of her dreams of being his life partner due to a long standing misunderstanding between their grandparents. In desperation Junaid felt the only way out was for them to elope. Though educated, Sa’adatu did not defy societal expectations and remained focused and refused to be moved by Junaid’s pleas. Sa’adatu was subsequently forced on her father’s mentor’s son Habib. Her protests against the marriage failed. And as expected, tradition and culture gained the upper hand and she had to obey her father and marry Habib.
Though the marriage was not an ideal one, she remained in it to obey tradition. Her early pregnancy in Habib’s house and her father’s sudden death from a fatal auto crash disrupted her dream of earning a university degree. After three years in a forced marriage, Habib divorced Sa’adatu irrevocably after an insignificant disagreement. With the freedom she got from her divorce, Sa’adatu braced up to the challenges ahead of her and went back to the university to complete her education. After her university degree, she got a job with a communication company where she rose to one of the most sought after positions. Through education Sa’adatu liberated herself and became a force to reckon with in her community as a journalist.
In Sa’adatu Sa’ar Mata (Sa’adatu the Shinning Female Star 1997), Ahmad creates a new vision of a Hausa woman character who seeks self-identity by defining herself, doing what she wants, and seeking how best she can achieve her dreams without necessarily defying the religious, traditional and cultural roles assigned her first as daughter, later as wife and finally as mother. In general, Ahmad’s female characters are portrayed as hardworking, industrious, business-like and economically independent. When Sa’adatu went for a course in the United Kingdom, she used the little money she was earning in her spare time to start a business. This business later became a partnership with a colleague Cinvia. When the business became too big for them to handle, Cinvia suggested that Sa’adatu should invite her brother Buhari from Nigeria to help out in the business which was named: Lucky Women Shopping Center. Within four months, the business had bloomed to become a huge success.
Sa’adatu’s success and rise to fame were not without serious challenges. Upon her arrival back to Nigeria after a successful career mission in London, traditional pressures mounted on her to get married. When she thought she had found the right man, tradition and culture again became stumbling blocks. Like in other African societies, in Hausa society a woman could be successful in life only if she rises through her father, brother, husband or son; otherwise she is labeled a prostitute and a disgrace to her society. Therefore, Abubakar, her fiancé’s request to marry Sa’adatu was not granted him by his mother. His mother refused to give her blessings to the marriage because according to her she will not allow her son to marry a woman who has lived alone with no male guardian outside the country for years. This pronunciation by his mother ended the dream and hopes he had of making Sa’adatu his wife. Sa’adatu never saw him again.
So great and serious is this tradition that no matter how educated the Hausa woman is, she cannot shift the powers of religion and tradition. After several years of separation, Junaid and Sa’adatu met again and their love was rekindled once again. When Junaid became very possessive and wanted answers to some questions from Sa’adatu, especially when he said: “I want to know what you did to Habib to deserve an irrevocable divorce” (42). Sa’adatu became pissed off because she considered her past life none of his business. Looking at him dejectedly she aptly replied: “Let me get this right Junaid. What do you want to arrive at by getting my answers to your series of questions? I believe you want to force out answers from me because you feel you have done me a great favour by proposing marriage to me Ko? Then this is my answer. I want to pronounce out rightly that I am no longer interested in the relationship and I will not marry you. Please, get out of my house right now” (42). Upon realizing that this was a new Sa’adatu, one that would not allow herself to be manipulated any longer, he succumbed to her terms and married her thereby fulfilling their age long wish of becoming husband and wife.
Like other women writers from Africa: Nwapa, Emecheta, Sofola,El-Sadaawi, Alkali among others, Ahmad has done the special task of presenting the position of her society from all angles. Though, there is still much to be said, writers like Ahmad have continuously tried through literary creativity to pay special attention to women’s problems and discussing ways of overcoming them without going off target. The major ways out according to many writers Ahmad inclusive can be found in education and economic empowerment.
Thus the new woman depicted by Ahmad as we see in Sa’adatu’s character is the assertive traditional woman who is educated; one who breaks out of the domineering stereotype. She is radical in her quest for new and different ideas. Her radicalism though is not as extreme as that of the western feminists, hers is more of the positive and accommodating kind; one that makes the woman assertive and hoping to have full freedom from male subjugation, economic dependence and societal injustice.
Professor Asabe Kabir Usman is a professor of Oral and African Literatures with the Department of Modern European Languages and Linguistics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. Her several research efforts and academic experiences has established her as an authority in: Oral literature/Folklore; African literature, Popular Culture (with passion in film studies and Hausa popular fictional writings); Creative Writing as well as Women Studies. She is so passionate about the plight of women and women empowerment and focuses her intellectual prowess in the study of the place of women in Literature in relation to their Socio-Cultural background and history. Professor Asabe, however teaches in the domain of not just literature but also English language, whenever the need arises. She is a member of various national and international academic associations. She is the author of Destinies of Life, a novel and a critical text Studies in Hausa Folklore: A Selective Appraisal.
