The Arts-Muse Fair

Gimba’s third and fourth novels, Innocent Victims (1988) and Sunset For a Mandarin (1991) chronicle his civil service experiences. The novels are slickly written to conceal details of the experience. As a student of historicism these novels are curious to me and I longed to extract it from him the contexts which inform their production. The questions I phrased to him on this issue were not answered before his death. In any case, as can be seen in the novels, it is apparent that they are vistas unto his civil service years.  Innocent Victims is an exposé of cut-throat intrigues and machinations in the civil service culminating in the humiliation of Haj. Faruk Kolo. In the centre of this intrigue is Zaalim, the tribal bigot, who envies Haj. Faruk’s rise in the service and apparent uprightness as a thoroughbred and circumspective bureaucrat. Zaalim’s tribal bigotry manifests in his thought process. He is one who thinks from the particular to the general. He sees himself ...

              INTRODUCTION Abubakar Gimba wrote a total of sixteen books while he was alive including the one that was published posthumously. Nine of these are creative works, while seven are essays of which two are in letter form. The creative works are: Trail of Sacrifice (Novel,1985); Witnesses To Tears (Novel,1988); Innocent Victims (Novel,1988); Sunset for a Mandarin (Novel 1991); Sacred Apples (Novel 1996); Footprints (Novel,1998); Inner Rumblings (Poetry,2000); This Land of Ours (Poetry,2000); and A Toast in The Cemetery (Short Story,2003); The essays are : Once Upon A Reed (1999); Letter To The Muslim Fundamentalist   (2004); Why Am I Doing This? (2007); Thought of Yesterday, Letter to The Unborn Child, A Matter of Faith (2012); and Oh, Uhud Thy Haunting Spirit published posthumously in 2016 . Some of the essays like Letter to The Unborn Child and Oh , Uhud Thy Haunting Spirit are laced with fictiona...

Hajiya Aisha Abubakar Gimba is the eldest child of late writer, Abubakar Gimba. She holds a degree in English Language and currently works at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai after leaving the banking sector. On March 10, 2017, Abubakar Gimba's 65th post-humous birthday, she spoke to the Art-Muse Fair Birthday Intercourse about her late father and his books.   TAMF : You are the first child of the late writer, Abubakar Gimba. How would you describe your late father? Aisha Abubakar Gimba : He was a father, that was always there for the family, our friend and confidant irrespective of what one had to discuss with him. We all looked up to him. TAMF : What is the fondest memory you keep of him? Aisha Abubakar Gimba : A disciplinarian with a loving heart. Funny when he feels he has hurt your feelings but always tells you the truth. My fondest memory, well, his love for his children. We never had to Consult anyone outside the house because he w...