LITERATORS' CORNER

                                 — Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy It has been a while since I read a play or wrote a review on one. So, you could say that I was a bit excited to have found Umaru Ladan and Dexter Lyndersay’s Shaihu Umar on my shelf. It is a play adapted from a novel of same title by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Albeit the excitement of seeing the acts come alive on stage is incomparable, I derive pleasure in visualising the scenes and recreating the stage in my mind eyes. In this play set at the period of early establishment of Islam in what is today known as northern Nigeria, the eponymous character; Shaihu Umar; is a young orphan born just a day after the death of his father. Fatimah, his mother, soon remarries into the household of Makau, the Chief warrior of the Village Chief. However, Kwatau; the Chief's younger brother; is envious of Makau's closeness to the Chief, so he frames Makau ...

                                      - Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy The French  were forerunners in defining the concept of universal modern human liberty. With thinkers like Rousseau, Voltaire, and Montesquieu, the French stood far ahead of others in advocating human rights and freedom, but one wonders exactly what they were doing trying to make French men of Africans in their colonies. It is easier to talk about universal justice and human freedom and put them down in black and white, but the practical aspect is always a huge challenge. The American Declaration of Independence written as far back as 1776, for instance, foregrounds the equality of all men: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness.’ (Declaration of Inde...

I abhor writing drama reviews. And this is not because dramas do not find much favour with me, it is just that I have been hit by the realisation that our modern world is devoid of play acting and theatres have become antiques, yet the best place to encounter a play is not on the pages of a book, but in a theatre! How does one get the electrifying and thrilling experience of seeing a play come alive on stage if it can only be seen in a book? Surely, no review of any work belonging to the drama genre can be complete without the actual performance experience. Well, given little or no option, I am compelled to meet drama pieces in black ink and white papers while using my imagination to fill out the missing gaps. Today, I bring to you Wale Ogunyemi's Kiriji . Kiriji is a historical drama bordering around the Ibadan and Ekiti Parapo decade long Kiriji war. The Ekiti country had invited the Ibadan warriors to come stop the Fulani military campaign; started in Ilorin after the death of ...

  Of Memories, Motherhood and Love: A review of Nkosiyazi Kan Kanjiri's Looking for Mother by Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy Indeed, the bond between a mother and her offspring is as strong as the anchor of a ship. Many a poem have I read about motherhood, but only a few have nearly bled my eyes as Kanjiri's does. Kanjiri writes with such depth of emotion and effortless surface simplicity that he easily calls us into his emotions. 'Looking for Mother' is the poet's rite de passage into the authorship world. In the anthology, the poet goes back in time to trace events from his days of innocence to a present state of experience. Nkosiyazi poems may be terse and not as lengthy as the classical types we are wont to encounter in literature classes; meanwhile, they are nonetheless quite profound. Some are in fact quite memorable and I AM certain every reader would have mastered at least one poem by the time they finish perusing the collection. Here is one for exampl...

At a time when the Somali society held tenaciously to beliefs that a good woman's place was in her home and that she had no business engaging in public life or seeking education; as either path would only soil the honour of such a woman's family; 'crazy' Edna was born into the prestigious household of Doctor Adan Ismail and she was determined to change the narrative; not only for herself, but for every Somali female child. The story in her memoir, A Woman of First , is a testament to this very fact.  From a very young age, Edna was quite conscious of the fact that she was different from other girls, for example, she sought the company of boys, participated in their games, attended classes with them, and joined her father on his daily rounds as the first Somali medical doctor. Her father's love for his profession, devotion to treating the sick among his people, and the awful experience of losing two siblings at infancy would inspire Edna's life-long dreams: to pu...

If there were one review I would rather not write, it would be this one. I remember that I once found it amusing hearing a professor of mine lamenting his inability to complete Buchi Emecheta's Joys of Motherhood due to the outburst of emotions welled up by the events in the story. Well, it appears nemesis has come for me in form of Nuruddin Farah's Maps ; the fictional novel is such a powerful and grief-stricken one that leaves one feeling sad every time it is recalled. More than anything, it demonstrates the power of words on paper by showing how a writer can manipulate our emotions through words and force us to empathise with their characters. If this were all there was to the novel, it would still be a powerful one, but there is more. Nuruddin Farah's Maps tells the tale of Misra, an Ethiopian-Amhara divorcee, who comes to live among the Somalis before the Ethio-Somali war of 1977-78. Misra had been abducted as a young girl by a Somali warrior following a tribal raid ...

Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives is humorous tale which revolves around a paterfamilias; Baba Segi; and his four wives—Iya Segi, Iya Femi, Iya Tope, and Bolanle. It so happens that while illiterate Baba Segi goes around bragging about his conquests as an accomplished polygamist (his fourth and latest being a university graduate to boot) and how he dominates his household, it is revealed that our proud man is just a soldier without ammunition, or a paper tiger. Worried about his fourth wife's infertility, Baba Segi comes to discover that he is actually the one afflicted with sterility and that his purported children from his first three wives were actually fathered by other men. We also come to see that his idea of control over his household is a figment of his imagination as his home is actually run by his first wife, Iya Segi. The story is told using the voice of the characters alongside that of the narrator. By allowing the characters tell their own sides...

                                                                                                            - - Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy An ill child left in a shrine to be healed by the shrine god (while the father goes in search of herbs) is found by a White Christian priest who believes the child was kept there as a sacrifice to the idol, especially as it was left there unattended. The priest supposedly rescues this child and takes him to Rome where he grows up to become a priest. The young priest hears extraterrestrial voices ordering him to seek out his roots and interprets this as God asking him to return and show the 'light' to his father and people. Me...

The Mind of the Child: Nilanjana Haldar's Quiet Screams to the Quiet Healer                                                                         --Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy Most parents often make the terrible mistake of thinking their children have no mind of their own and care less about their feelings, but this is far from the truth. Children do have a mind of their own and form opinions based on their experiences and the things they see. But should this amaze parents considering that they (parents) were also once children? You will be amazed at what you, as a parent, would discover if you pry into the mind of your child. This aspect that parents often fail to examine—the mind of the child—is the focal point of Nilanjana Haldar's Quiet Screams to the Quiet Hea...