A REVIEW OF ZAYNAB ALKALI'S The Stillborn

A

REVIEW

 OF

ZAYNAB ALKALI'S The Stillborn











Zaynab Alkali is a writer, a teacher and a mother. She is the author of The Stillborn (1984), The Virtuous Woman(1986) and The Cobwebs (1989). She is the first female novelist from the Muslim North. She represents the emerging vision of the Northern Nigerian woman who for so many decades has lived under restrictive Islamic Laws, prior to Western Education which changed things.

The Stillborn which is her first novel focuses on the life of three girls who grew up to be powerful independent women; Li, Awa and Faku. The novel is a feminist oriented novel, it centres on sisterhood, female friendship and female bonding. Li, Awa and Sule are siblings brought up by a strict, unloving and controlling father. They strive daily to survive. But Li being a stubborn child do sneak out of the house to watch dances and funerals despite her father's warning and punishment. Sule escapes from home after impregnating a girl in the village. He abandoned the child and the mother and starts his life afresh in Niger Republic where his wife and children lives. He vowed never to return home except as a visitor due to the abuses his father made them pass through. However Li marries Habu but the marriage failed when Habu went to the city to study Medicine. He abandons Li for four years in the village and takes a second wife in the city. This saddens Li, she returns back to her father's house, she goes back to school to pursue her dream of being a Grade 1 teacher. On the other hand, Faku deserted her husband and joined the gang of thousands of free women all over the country. Awa plays the role of a father and mother to her children and the brother's abandoned child, because of the heavy burden she could hardly think of going back to school to read in order to improve her educational status but she is independent. Apart from female bonding, there is also a theme of women abandonment by their husbands. Li, Awa and Faku were all abandoned by their husbands.

The novel is a good text, though it consist of some difficult English words. The author make use of proverbs and words like; Daughter-of-my-mother, brother-of-my-mother etc. I wish all literature student can get a copy of the novel, especially the women. It is really educative and deals with the world we live in.

Happy reading!