Husufin Farin Ciki is a collection of 21 short stories, infused with elements of tradition and modernity. The cllection sits between radical thoughts, rebellion and conformity. However, there is tension and complementarity between opposite ideals one wonders where the writer stands.
The stories come as fresh air; they do not follow the tired pattern of popular Hausa fiction writing. Stories in the collection do not aspire for a simple denouement or end on a predictable note. This sets Ado Bala apart from other Hausa writers. And as a genre, Hausa short story writing is relatively new and experimental form. Ado is contributing to this body of growing form.
Bala’s work is a serious work, devoid of comical melodrama, adrenaline shock and awe as well as sensationalism that characterized contemporary Hausa writing. “Nijeriya, Yammacin Afirka”, for instance, raises important questions about progress, tradition, conservatism and modernity. The protagonist, Bala, does the unthinkable against the overwhelming wishes of his society. He chooses Western education over the age-old, revered farming occupation. This tension highlights not only the importance tradition holds in Hausa society but also offers a moment to reflect on the society’s approach to issues in life.
Farming occupies an important place in the hearts and minds of the populace. Obviously, Western education lifts much more people out of poverty and offers easier path to prosperity and upward social mobility than farming. But farming is too important to ignore. The society does need it. Practices in agriculture however remain traditional and pre-modern. What Bala’s society should do? Bala shows the way. His action is his way of thinking out of the box at the level of his own small village. Everyone believes that farming is better than Western education and so when Bala deviates from the norm, the whole village rises against him, not only the people but the elements and the entire universe as well! Nonetheless, he dared to fail in non-conventional way.
As a writer, Bala is an acute observer of the tiny details of life. He can let a reader on a terrible secret. He can bring to the surface what the society buries. He can transport the past to the present. He can also be neutral to a disapproved behavior or practice. This is because Bala’s work is realist in its orientation, which is why we are jolted by its shocking revelations. We are able to recognize ourselves in the stories. We see ourselves truthfully and be able to see the reality of our own dark secrets and desires. This is true in “Tangaraho”, the love story of Ramatu and Imran, a loving couple separated by death. Imran died; only once Ramatu engaged in an affair with another man. We do not blame her; the writer does not paint her negatively nor incites reader’s harsh judgment. He invites us to show empathy, instead of blame, for her action. We are sad, though, guided by our sense of Hausa cultural norms and Islamic morals. However, humans cannot stop being humans. Bala is not there to pacify nor consider reader’s emotions. His work is realist, brutal and tragic. His stories carry a touch of sadness or melancholia.
It is difficult sometimes to discern the position of the writer towards certain behavior or action. Bala goes against the predominant and acceptable, though of course, he at times appears moralist and preaches traditional middle-class values. Is he for modernity and its new ways like the individualistic lifestyle of Ya Gumsu and Alhaji Njidda, the people in the eponymous story, or is he for tradition and conservatism like we encountered in Nijeriya, Yammacin Afirka? Sometimes I suspect it is my cultural sensibility lurking in the shadow, imposing my own interpretations on the writer.
Bala is writing within a larger literary tradition. His narrative can be distinctly local, but his inspiration and style are not narrowed. He brings into Hausa writing concepts scarcely utilized in contemporary Hausa writing. Within these philosophical concepts we encounter solitude and aloneness, introversion, sexuality, the self and its consciousness, concepts that were not traditionally embraced in Hausa cultural norms. They do not hold much significance in larger social setting. They are denied their secularist elements and social functions and are majorly discussed in the context of spiritual realms. Religious moralism aside, Bala allows his character to fully explore the facility of life and its social function.
“Keken Ɗinki” is about the friendship of women, the social function of gossip, the place of individual against the societal collectivism. Aunty Yarinye is one of those women who runs with the wolves. Her life is revealed to the reader through her association with Sa’adatu. Sa’adatu comes on a visit and tells Yarinye her imminent marriage. Yarinye dampens her enthusiasm. A career woman, Yarinye chooses her sewing machine over marriage because men in her society are terrible. The society is limiting, people are not defined as individuals by their own merits but as an extension of their family and traditions. This is why we encounter so much conflict and resistance from Hamman when his sister Jummai decides to marry Usman Shehu Abdullahi, a man from Christian background. In the same vein there is a hierarchy between men and women. What Anti Yarinye cannot get way with, her ex-husband Salisu is allowed to go off scot-free on account of his family pedigree.
Interestingly, NYSC narrative finds its way into the collection, a modestly large but unheeded writing genre, laying bare the distrust and suspicion of the North against the South. Very few prospective corps members are willing to venture to the South for fear of the unknown. A Northerner in the South is sure to face unique, difficult life situations and strange experiences. Prospective corps members and their families seek dubious ways to avoid being posted to distant lands. Corruption comes in handy, for “yadda za ai” that Alhaji Njidda suggested to his son means a privileged way of redeploying Abdul’aziz to a Northern state via undue advantage and favoritism. Husufin Farin Ciki is a searing critique of NYSC’s inability to ensure safety of corps members. Bad roads and insecurity expose the lives of Nigerians to great dangers, insecurity and death.
Husufin Farin Ciki is true to its words. It delivers on its promise, supplying stories of disease, sickness and death, which we are constantly confronted with, directly or just few degrees away. Abdul’aziz died on his way to the national service. His parents are thrown into grief and lamentation, questioning the future of their life and its purpose. In this, Bala nudges at the concept of death and genealogy. Alhaji Njidda “…na jin tausayin mutanen da ba su haihu ba, domin ya taɓa ɗanɗanar ɗacin rashin haihuwa, yana jin tausayin mutanen da basa haihuwa, waɗanda tsokar jikinsu ba ta bar wata tsokar ba, waɗanda mutuwarsu ta ke zama tabbatacciyar mutuwa ta din-din-din. Har abada” (84).
Another interesting story is “Akwatin Gidan Waya”. We meet a curious child who ponders about basic concepts of how things work in everyday life. Walking with his aunt, the 10-year-old repeats after Anti A’i “Menene ɗaga ƙafa kuma?” This reminds me of my own experience, asking the women in my family “menene idon matambayi”? Through experiences, trials and tribulations the boy comes to understand the basics of things. The boy gets to learn and uses letter writing obsessively. Epistolary practices were very fun in the 90s, the era in which the story is set, used by family and friends across cities and towns and across boarding schools among siblings and lovers.
We followed the young Auwal Idris Sadauki from his struggle with and awe of simple technology like the workings of post office to the advent of more sophisticated system like mobile phone when he enrolled in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria for university education – obviously Ado Bala himself. Each new technology appears first as a wonder and renders the previous one obsolete. “Na cika da mamakin wannan fasahar zamani. Allah ya kawo mu zamanin da za ka aika da wasiƙa kana kwance, ba tare da ka je gidan waya ba, ko ka sayi kan sarki ka liƙa ba…” (119).
For Ado Bala, not only marriage and other social malaises can be valid material for fiction writing. Light issues as obsession and fascination with post office technology and mystery of childhood is a subject of fiction writing, which is great considering these are the things many Hausa writers ignored. In this, his writing gains a lot in aesthetic values and depths.
Bala writes about the Kano City with considerable spatial sensitivity and awareness. As a Kano man, you can have a vivid mental picture of the settings, whether it is Yakasai Masallacin Jalli or Durumin Iya or Dandalin Turawa or the time in which the events are set. These evoke fond memories for anyone living in Kano City in the 90s, calling up the picture of the Post Office in Jakara and the stamp buying experience.
Bala is fond of the disappeared practices of the era, like kids on errands weaving different hairstyle with corn silk and husks. Or singing the old Hausa songs. Bala uses the surrounding landscape to support the narrative. Dates seller and a random sweet vendor get featured in the story. Further, his treatment of the setting reveals the inter-relationships between the many Northern cities and towns and neighboring places like Cameroon not only in terms of shared values but also how marriage, trade and civil service brought these communities together. In Northen states and the Sahel, so it seems, everybody is related to everybody.
Bala’s work retains elements of African oral tradition, tapping into the golden age and the age of creation. “Labarin Wasu Yan Biyu” for instance follows the opening pattern of oral storytelling. So also the story of Yusuf Ɗansambo in “Abin da Baka da Maganinsa”, the man who is rumored to be the richest young man ever in the history of Kano. In the olden days, words of mouth are the most potent news dispatcher, hence the spread of rumor and hearsay about the unmatched fortune of Ɗansambo.
Bala proves to be a master of his craft, bringing modernity and tradition side by side. However, it is not everything that is under his total control. The story of Laila and Bashir in “Kiran Jama’a” is too good to be real. It is a telling fantasy, a mere propaganda campaign. This is one of the lapses of the collection, in addition to the absence of clinical, water-tight proofreading and publishing standards.
