The Arts-Muse Fair

Aderemi Raji-Oyelade in his equally pioneering 2008 bibliography of Nigerian Women poetry entitled, ‘Notes toward the Bibliography of Nigerian Women’s Poetry (1985-2006)’supposes that women’s poetry in Nigeria is just about thirty five years old. Raji-Oyelade submits that Nigerian Women’s poetry has come of age and deserves serious critical attention from critics who appear to have been paid less attention to it. He asserts that, Interestingly, the increasing publication of poetry by Nigerian women authors has not been met with a commensurate critical study of the emergent works. It might well be repeated that the available poetry collections by Nigerian as well as African women writers in general have been rarely engaged as subjects of analytic discourse in contemporary literary criticism. Raji-Oyelade comments on women’s poetry in Northern Nigeria thus, “it is also useful to point to the relatively new tradition of anglophone poetry by women from the northern part of t...

Northern Nigerian literature has for a long time been defined by its well celebrated Hausa texts. For several decades, writing in the Hausa language thrived to global acclaim with legends like Abubakar Imam (1911-1981) winning international acknowledgment as far as back the 1930s for his distinction as a creative writer of Hausa expression. The unprecedented growth of the Hausa literary tradition is linked to the Arabic-Fulani-Hausa culture occasioned by the existence of an Arab-Islamic epistemology which predates the advent of European colonialism in the demography that is today called Nigeria. In other words, the region had an already established knowledge system which accounted for its civilization as is manifest in its people’s high sense and fixation with their culture, which has survived several centuries to this day. A people that were already advanced and in touch with other external realities would have proven a hard nut to crack as it were, for the British colonialist...

Saka Aliyu PhD, (Sakky Jojo), published his first play Afonja in the year 2018. He had published a Prose earlier (Altine) in 2003 and he is into Poetry as well. We took him up with questions relating to his current work –Afonja- a historical play. First his biography, his goal of writing, the controversy surrounding the dramatic narrative of the play, the canons and the unique approach to them and the attention Afonja received in terms of performance and its use as a pedagogical drama text in tertiary institutions. Enjoy the interview:  UJ: Can we know who the playwright is? SJ: My name is Saka Aliyu, as I like to be simply referred to. Sakky Jojo is the pen name I have been using since my undergraduate days at Usman Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto. I grew up in Ilorin where I was born and thereafter in Sokoto. I trained as a historian, with a terminal degree from Leiden University. I worked briefly in Benin, then Kaduna before joining Bayero University in 2008 as a lectur...

Photo credit: Aminu S Muhammad BY ADESINA AJALA He writhes violently on the bed like a dying fowl slithered in the throat, blood spurts from a ragged hole in his chest. He starts to gasp, mumbling unknown words before he goes drowsy. She feels the edge of the knife again and rubs the sticky blood between her fingers. Her heart speeds, as if it were crashing into the side rails, as if it were about to tumble into the sea. She takes a glimpse at him again. He's drooling thick saliva now. She saunters to the bathroom and kneels under the pouring shower. She washes her guilt into the cesspool. Like Pontius Pilate. She inches to the side of the bathroom; the mirror reflects her demons back to her. She bites her lips. The crown of her wedding ring carries a stain of his blood. She moans and whimpers, then let her voice starts to climb high, a coarse cry breaks from her throat. Sweat, blood and tears. Grief overwhelms her now. Her conscience stings her. She runs downs...

In April, 2020, at a time the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown was biting harder on Nigerians and many organizations were responding with donations of food, hand sanitizers and facemasks, the Next Page Bookstore came differently and announced a donation of books to Nigerians. In this interview, Aliyu Bashir Almusawi, the Sales and Marketing Manager of Next Page Bookstore, explained the reason for the book donation and spoke on other issues including book publishing and sales in Nigeria. Read on.   Could you please let us know who Aliyu Bashir Almusawi is? Well, you can describe Aliyu Bashir Almusawi as a bookworm and bookseller who is deeply in love with books and those who read them. I was born in Bauchi to a polygamous family, and as you know, growing up in such kind of tumultuous household is often full of hardship and futuristic uncertainty. So, I learnt to hustle at very young by eking out a living in order to keep my body and soul together. But that did no...