Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 21 Issue 4

Literature, Modernity and Cultural Atavism in Aliyu Kamal’s Somewhere Somehow Umar Saje α & Mal. Inuwa Mahmud σ Abstract- In Africa, especially in Nigeria, the issue of cultural clash and the dilemma involved in the process is one of the predominant themes largely treated by renowned writers such as Chinua Achebe (1958), Cyprian Ekwensi (1963), Elechi Amadi (1966), Wole Soyinka (1975) and Labo Yari (1978), to mention a few. Using postcolonial theory as a potent analytical tool, attempt is made in this paper to critically examine Aliyu Kamal’s latest novel – Somewhere Somehow (2019) and portray how he employs it to interrogate the tragic social and psychological effect of modernization/colonialism. The story elaborately discusses the issue of skin bleaching – a corollary of colonialism which has become very pervasive among the uneducated ladies with dark skin in northern Nigeria. Habi and Jiniya, the heroines, who blindly believe that boys, particularly in Kano – where the novel is set, pine after light-skinned girls even if they were to appear as witches, engage in bleaching that ultimately makes their skins like “wankan tarwada” a Hausa terminology that suggests an undefined colour. The paper also depicts how marital peace eludes the bleachers’ homes in addition to the tragedy that befalls on them all as a result of aping western culture. Jiniya dies due to skin cancer (leukaemia) and Habi suffers double tragedy: divorce and miscarriage. At the end, the paper, in a preachy tone, brings to the fore that, the money ladies like Habi and Jiniya extravagantly spend to buy the creams and lotions to beautify their faces, is enough for them to engage in petty businesses common to many Hausa women like selling of soup ingredients, groundnuts (boiled, salted or roasted), zobo (the rose-coloured water of calyx), kosai (bean-cakes) or dubulan (dumplings) which not only enable them to give a helping hand in the family budget but equally boost national economy. Keywords: literature, culture, africa, womanhood, modernity. I. I ntroduction university teacher, novelist, essayist, social transformer and poet, Aliyu Kamal is now considered the foremost writer from northern Nigerian region. He was provoked into becoming a writer for two obvious reasons: first, to contest the claim that little is known about northern Nigerian writers in English. Secondly, to react to the misconception of many European philosophers and scholars, notably Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Hugh Trevor-Roper, who opined that Africa is a continent without history and a people without culture before European exploration and colonization of the continent as well as literary writers such as Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness (1902) and Carey in Mr Johnson (1962), who equally propagated the notion that Africa does not have a culture of its own. Differently put, the colonialists regarded Africa as inferior to the white devoid of consideration. The black were the ‘Other’ and by implication, everyone who is not white becomes ‘black’. It is precisely this developing Manichean dichotomy that compels Loomba (1998) to observe that the colonialists regarded Africans as inferior to the Whites. Anything black is associated with pre-history, savagery, cannibalism, unconsciousness, silence and darkness. Thus, Kamal’s attempt at re-creating history, a history that underscores’ the sophistication of Hausa, by extension Africa’s civilization before the advent of the colonizers in his novels like Hausaland (2001) and King of the Boys (2015), provides a contrary view to the Whiteman’s myth of bringing culture and light to the dark places of the earth like Africa. This points to the fact that literature, as Ojaide (2014:10) argues, “is a cultural production and any literary work should make the most meaning in the cultural tradition that inspired its creation.” Significantly, the novels – Hausaland and King of the Boys artistically portray African harmonious and communal life as well as various African cultural activities, particularly those of the Northern and Southern Nigerian regions. However, the advent of colonialism does not only lead to a change in culture but equally affects the age-long harmonious relationship between men and women in Africa as Ada (2020:225) expressly laments: The colonialists introduced certain rules and regulations, which weakened the enjoyment of social, political and economic rights of women. This is not surprising because it aligns with the white man’s patriarchal patterns of thought and behaviour in his homeland, which led to the agitation for liberation and equal rights by white women. Men were integrated into the new political, religious and educational institutions. The exclusion of women from these institutions led to their disempowerment and the destruction of traditional women’s organizations. According to this critic, things began to change and turned upside down in African society after the arrival of the colonial masters. A Volume XXI Issue IV Version I 63 ( G ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - © 2021 Global Journals Year 2021 Author α : (Ph.D.), Department of Languages (English Unit), Sule Lamido University, Kafin-Hausa, Jigawa State, Nigeria. e-mail: sajeumar@yahoo.com Author σ : Kano State College of Education and Preliminary Studies (Part-time). e-mail: Ibnmahmud00@gmail.com