The Sun News Online | How I write

As the leading voice for female writing in the Northern part of Nigeria, Zynab Alkali, teacher, mother, activist and scholar said she became a writer by accident. She was only discovered by an Englishman in the early 1980s and her first novel, The Stillborn became an instant success. Daily Sun cornered her recently at a writers’ meet in Minna, Niger State.

Excerpts:
Becoming a writer
I started creative writing in 1980. But naturally, I was a very quiet person and I discovered that writing is another formidable way of communicating to people. So, I started putting thoughts on paper in 1980 when I was in the university. I never had the intention of getting published. I was only trying to express myself on paper since I am not so eloquent when it comes to talking. Now, it was by sheer accident that The Stillborn came to limelight, because at Bayero University, Kano, we had a gentleman who is now a professor, Steward Brown. He was head of English Department where I was a staff.

We started a journal called Kakaaki. Brown asked for articles for that particular journal on creative writing and I had written about four literary works which I kept under my bed. So, it occurred to me that I could show Dr Brown what I had. But I had no idea it was going to make waves. He took the first four chapters and when he returned to England, he aired the four chapters on BBC. I was taken by surprise because people kept on calling me on phone asking me if I wrote a book of that nature and I said I did and they told me my work was aired on BBC.

I told them I remembered giving some writings to Kakaaki, so he published the four chapters in Kakaaki and got them reviewed. The stories, he thought, stood a chance of publishing and that was how out of the blues, a freelancer from the Longman Publishing company came to Maiduguri to ask me to complete the book saying that Longman UK would like to publish it.

By the time the freelancer returned, I had moved to the University of Maiduguri and that was in 1982. So I completed the book, handed it over to Longman UK, and got it published. So my first book was by accident.

Passion for writing
The Stillborn encouraged me to keep on writing. Perhaps if The Stillborn had not succeeded as a novel, I would have forgotten about writing because I did not go into writing with the intention of getting published. Immediately after the publication of The Stillborn, I started the Virtuous Woman which was published by Longman in 1987. In fact, The Stillborn was published in 1984, it was equally successful because it won the ANA prize.

Womanhood and writing
I have never felt marginalized as a writer. Of course, I should celebrate womanhood. I am a woman. But that is not to say that my focus is just on women alone. If you have read The Initiates, you would have seen that the major characters are men.

Inferiority complex
I have never had the occasion of feeling inferior to male writers. It would be wrong for me to say I feel marginalized. I really don’t. After all, how many of us women write in English? There are quite a lot of women writing in Hausa and I don’t know how they feel among their male colleagues that those of us writing in English are not many. I don’t feel conscious of being a writer. In fact, a lot of these things come from our perception of things.

Challenges faced by women writers
I don’t know the problems encountered by women writers. I am not conversant with their position, so I cannot talk on their behalf. In the North, few women are writing in English but a lot write in Hausa. Unfortunately, I do not know the challenges being faced by women writing in Hausa. If the impression was that I was not celebrated, I was far far celebrated. In fact, I was over-celebrated to the extent that some of the critics went as far as saying that it was because I was almost the only person, a woman writing in the North and that my work did not deserve to be so celebrated. I want to believe the celebration was because I was kind of a pioneer. I also want to add that I really got celebrated especially with my first few books.

I have written a number of new books but I have not seen the result yet. I don’t know why; but it may be that the books have not been well circulated or probably, I need to wait for a year or two before feeling the impact. The Stillborn became an instant success because the story came from a woman from the North who had written about the problems of women but I have noticed that people are not really interested in the subsequent books.

How easy do you find writing?
Writing is my way of relaxing. I am a very busy person. I started writing when I was raising children. I started very early because I got married very early. I was a student when I got married, I was raising children, I was reading for my first degree and I was writing. When I graduated, I took up a Masters degree on part-time. I was teaching, looking after my husband and combining house work, I was having children and was writing. So I discovered that the only way I could relax was to write. Whenever I wanted to rest, I would just go and write. As a writer, I usually get into a world of my own, shut the door and pour my thoughts on paper. I don’t even have a social life. I am rarely seen at outings.

Inspiration
Writing comes to me naturally and we all know this as artistes. I am one of those who believe that artistes are born. From my mother’s background, I am a descendant of writers. My maternal grand-father and maternal grand-mother are both artistes. My grand-mother was a dancer and singer. My grand-father too was a drummer and a singer. I have always told this funny story of how my paternal grand-mother and grand-father got married at the arena. These things I believe run in the blood because when you have artistes in the family, the lineage continues. If I were born a generation ago, I would have ended up as a storyteller. I have nephews who are now singers, some of them are Christians and they have inherited something from the past.

I see my writing as something I have inherited. Ever since I was a kid, I used to listen to my grand-mother tell stories and after she was done with her story-telling, she would ask us young ones to retell the story and I used to excel because I have the knack of adding what we call salt and pepper. When I was in primary and secondary schools, whenever we were asked to write composition, I used to get A, as I was a Literature student. I realized that my strongest point then was Literature. I used to read Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Chinua Achebe and I used to tell myself that one day, I would be able to write like these great writers.

The Stillborn and my experience
All I can say is that in early writing, the reader can discover a little bit of the author in his or her writing. The Stillborn is not an autobiography. There are some experiences I may have incorporated into the novel. Those could be my own or that of neighbours, but we always say that whatever a writer writes, is drawn from some experiences, part of which could be the writer’s own or those by people who are close to him/her.

Female writers in the North
As far as I am concerned, whatever applies to the male writers should apply to the female writers. We are facing the same problems one of which is the attempt to make a distinction between the male and female writers. Except when we talk about the theme of our writings, the same obstacles faced by male writers, are also faced by women writers.

Cobwebs and other Stories (House of Dust)
It is not just a fictional work. It happens often and this is happening not just in a certain part of the country, but all over. There are cases such as when a man suddenly loses his life and the family is in mourning and the next thing would be to see a woman coming up with some children claiming the man who died is also her husband.

Feminism
I studied feminism but if you ask me, am I a feminist? I would say, no. This is because a lot of people do not understand what feminism is all about. Here in Nigeria, the moment you say you are a feminist, you are identified with a certain group of women who are rebellious, radical and who hate men or advocate certain kinds of lifestyles such as single motherhood, lesbianism and other negative connotations. When you see a writer who has some respect, that writer will say, I am not a feminist.

Flora Nwakpa denied being a feminist, Buchi Emecheta said she is a feminist with a small eye. Zaynab Alkali too has not said she is not a feminist. I know that there are three categories of feminism, when I studied feminism, I took it from the 16th Century up to date and I know that feminism underwent transformation. It began as an advocacy for female rights and it would educate you about how feminism was practised from the 16th to the 18th Century, in the west.

Women in the south were not allowed to vote. When they work in the mines or anywhere in the factories, they were paid less even though the jobs they did were the same with men. Women were not allowed contraceptives. So a woman who marries at the age of 20 by the time she is 40 or 45 could have about 15 children even at the risk of a failing health. Women were not allowed to study Medicine, Engineering and Law. They were only allowed to study Nursing, Teaching, House keeping, Sewing, among others, so that they can serve the men. Women at this stage have genuine cause, then as the struggle moved to the 18th Century and by the time it moved to the 20th Century, women were able to acquire all those rights. They came on the same path with men. As far as I am concerned, feminism should have stopped at the 20th Century but it did not.

Now that women are on the same level, they want the control of their bodies - that was the birth of radical feminism in which women decided that they are so independent and they don’t need to marry. It even affected the way they dress, they are wearing trousers now. There was this era in which women decided to have their children without men. They got to the stage of getting married to women and not men. At that stage, feminism became ridiculous and I see it as even more than ridiculous, it’s no longer self-respecting. So if you ask me if am a feminist? I would say no. I am not a feminist from the 20 and 21 centuries. I have no objection to human rights and socialist feminism. Here in Nigeria or in Africa, the problems that have been outlined for the 16th to 20th Century feminism are not applicable to us. I have never worked in a place where a man was paid N20,000 and I was paid N10,000 for the same job. I have never been denied my voting rights. I have never been denied studying professional courses.
So what are we talking about? Even religion has given women the rights. The problem we have is just the implementation of these rights. When I talk like this, the feminists would say Zaynab has thrown sand into the feminist garri.

Reward for writing
Money is not coming in as expected. I haven’t said that money is not coming at all but it is not coming the way it should. Honestly speaking, some of the publishers are not really being fair. But I now have one publishing company; although I have just started with it. The company is trying.

Secrets of youthful look
If you say I am looking young, thank you very much. I am always in the gym and I am very careful about my diet and I rest a lot. I generally keep myself very happy.