Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s debut novel Season of Crimson Blossoms has won this year’s Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Nigerian Prize for Literature. A multiple award winner and a Journalist, Ibrahim is unarguably one of Nigeria’s most promising young writers. In this encounter with Edozie Udeze he digs deep into his style, the thematic thrust of his story and what more to expect from him henceforth.
When you set out to write this book, did you expect it to take you this far?
When I was writing, my preoccupation was with the story, not about its potential mileage. I was focused on telling a good story, and because it is a complicated story with complicated and very sensitive background issues, it was very important to keep it real and focus on the story than on how far it could possibly take me as a writer. I think stories determine their own life span and their mileage and it would be foolhardy for a writer to focus on the possible outcome of a story at the expense of the craft itself.
The major issue you discussed is widowhood in the North.How has it really been handled by native laws and traditions?
The major focus was not widowhood in the north but the relationships between people with the different baggage that they bring along as a result of the varied backgrounds they have. It just so happens that a widow is the central character in the story and being a widow deprives her of certain considerations from people. They are judged more harshly, and some of their basic needs are taken for granted and if they make attempts to have these needs met, they are called names. The character of BintaZubairu was not treated badly because she is a widow but rather because she was adjudged to have strayed from societal expectations of her.
But speaking generally about the conditions of widows in the north, I suppose it is the same everywhere in Nigeria. Yes, they may not be subjected to vile cultural practices such as drinking the water their husbands’ corpses have been washed in or subjected to the rituals of having their hair cut, they are often cheated out of their inheritance by the people who should secure these rights for them. I think there needs to be a conscious effort to protect widows. A situation where police officers feel the need to sexually exploit with the widows of their colleagues with the promise of helping them pursue their husbands’ benefits and entitlements is an indictment on our collective consciousness as a people. There is an urgent need to do more to protect widows and other disadvantaged persons in society.
What is the position of a widow in the society in a Muslim setting?
In the Muslim setting there is generally more sympathy for the widow than there is in other parts of the country. They are generally treated better, they are not inherited, as widows in other parts tend to be, they are not often accused of being responsible for their husbands’ deaths and are not subjected to any vile traditional practices to prove their innocence. With regards to inheritance, Islamic law is very clear about the percentage of their husbands’ wealth they are entitled to as individuals and they are granted custody of the children by law up until a certain period and if certain considerations are met. But there are instances where family members cheat them out of their inheritance, where they are arm-twisted into forfeiting certain rights the law has given them. Where the husband has no wealth to be inherited, the widows often suffer neglect from relatives. But on the whole, there is generally more empathy for the widow in the Muslim setting with members of the community often chipping in to help. But at the same time there are societal expectations that the widow should remain chaste until such a time as when she remarries, which is something the character of BintaZubairu failed to do in the novel.
What other social problem of the North do you intend to handle next?
I don’t go about hunting for social problems to tackle in my novels. I just write stories and if these stories have anything to do with social issues, if these social issues happen to form a backdrop to the story because of the time or setting of the story, then I ensure I tackle it as objectively as possible. I think, for artists, the art should have prevalence than the message, where there is a message because principally, one is an artist not a propagandist. If I were a lecturer or public speaker or even an essayist, I would have had a ready answer for you. But I am a writer, which means I am an artist first and my first allegiance is to my art, not necessarily to identifying and projecting social problems. That is what journalists are charged with doing. Writers are better off examining the human condition that results from any of these issues when they wish to engage them.
What other influence[s] do you derive from Gabriel Garcia Marquez as a writer?
Marquez may have had an influence on my style, but so have so many other writers. A writer’s style is something that is shaped according to what appeals to him and how he chooses to express himself and inasmuch as Marquez’s magical realism fascinates me and it is something I sometimes dabble into, I am more grounded in realism. I am influenced by many other writers as well and I am also influenced by the peculiarities of where I am from, from our story telling traditions and my personality as well have all melded in shaping the style in which I write.
With this NLNG award have you really justified your inclusion as one of 39 most promising African writers as espoused in the Hay Festival Africa 39?
I had no idea I needed to justify my inclusion in the Africa39 list. But even if that were the case, I think it is not my place to say. The Africa39 list says it is a compilation of the most promising African Writers with the potential to define future trends in African Writing. I have just written a book, which so happens to have won an award, in terms of its influence and impact on “African writing”, which in itself is a rather broad and ambiguous term, I think that remains to be seen. Perhaps in a few years, critics might be able to look back and say this is the case. Regardless, my preoccupation when writing my novel was to tell a good story in a beautiful way, not necessarily to define any trends. I don’t think writers bother about defining trends, they just write.
Journalism is your first forte.How has it guided you as a novelist?
For me it has been the other way round. My fiction writing has had a greater influence on my journalism than vice versa. I was first a writer before becoming a journalist and I suppose I will always be a writer long after I have given up journalism.
Is NLNG prize justified in its winner take it all philosophy/How and why?
This question has been debated for long. I suppose it is the same principle that applies to other literary prizes such as the Booker Prize and the Pulitzer and even the Nobel, which is not really a competition but a conferment. In that regards, you could say that is the norm that the winner takes all. But when you have an incredible shortlist, such as the one that we had this year, when you have friends lumped into a shortlist for the same prize, you wonder if there could be alternatives to the formula. But people have always wondered if there would be alternatives, I mean the Nigeria Prize for Literature is one of the most Lucrative literature prizes not only in Africa but in the world. It pays higher than the Booker Prize, and ten times what the Pulitzer Prize is worth. With that kind of money going to one person you wonder if there could be alternatives, especially in climes where the focus tends to be more on the money than on the literary merits of the shortlisted books, where the publishing industry is in dire straits and is likely to collapse on its face. But I have heard NLNG officials explain that they are only concerned with rewarding excellence and are not keen on a sharing formula for the prize. I don’t think I am in a place now to say if this stand is justified because no matter how you look at it, my position is compromised by virtue of being announced the winner of the prize. But I believe the publishing industry needs all the support it can get, even if you want to argue that they are private businesses that should be able to stand on their feet, the truth is that they are rendering a very crucial service to our collective consciousness as publishers of works that interrogate and explore our reality. It may be a business, but right now, it is being driven by passion and a zeal for public service than any economic gains the publishers are making. There are avenues for the private sector and other agencies to come in and chip in.
