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

III. S ynopsis of the N ovel, S omewhere S omehow Somewhere Somehow (2019) is a novel that discusses the issue of skin bleaching and its attendant risks. Encouraged by her confidant Jiniya, Habi Habibu, the heroine of the novel is fooled into believing that boys nowadays pine after light-skinned girl. As a dark-skinned girl who comes from a very poor family, Habi stays without any boyfriend after the marriage of her beloved Umar with another girl. Despite his sincere love for Habi, Umar accepts his elder sister’s choice of marrying her best friend’s daughter. Having no money to buy the original lightening cream, Habi starts using lemon, the local one. And lucky her, Hamisu Abubakar, an English Lecturer falls for her and starts dating her. She then uses the money she receives from him as ‘toshi’ gift and secretly buys the original cream and lotion. After their marriage, Habi tries to maintain her secret passion and for that she asks Hamisu for money anyhow. Failure to get the money, she retaliates by refusing to cook meal for him or cooks very late, yet she utterly fails to achieve her desires. She eventually steals money from his pocket and also deserts his house to pay a secret visit to hospital to meet her best friend Jiniya, who suffers from cancer (Leukaemia) as a result of the top lightening creams she uses. On the D-Day, Hamisu comes back home only to find out that Habi deserts his house without seeking for his permission and leaves no food for him to eat. He phones her and finds out that she pays a visit to Jiniya and for that he divorces her. Ultimately, Jiniya dies. Later on, Hamisu allows Habi to come back to his house telling her that if she comes back before his wedding with Hadiyya (a dark-skinned lady), she remains the senior wife but if she delays her return until after the up-shot, then Hadiyya will be the senior wife. IV. A n A nalysis of the N ovel This paper analytically examines the dilemma of young girls in contemporary northern Nigerian society, who are psychologically affected by ‘colonial mentality’ so much that they regard their black skin as old fashioned which prevents them from getting responsible suitors like Mrs. Bennet’s daughters in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice . In other words, the novel narrates the story of three ladies: Habi, Jiniya and Hadiyya. Each of them plays a major role in developing the two central themes of the story-conflict between the traditional and the modern and the theme of the place of women in the two worlds. The traditional and the modern are the worlds the Nigerian, and specifically, Hausa society in which the novel is set has to contend with. Every other sub-theme (abject poverty, divorce and parental irresponsibility, among others) gravitates around these two themes and the central character, Habi. V. H abi and J iniya: T he B lack- W hite L adies As trusted confidants, Habi and Jiniya share each other’s secret especially concerning boy-friends. Both of them are secondary school leavers, who cannot go to university as they come from a terribly poor family background. Their hopes totally lay in getting responsible husbands who will bail them out of the abject poverty that seems to permanently reside in their respective families. To achieve this, they resort to bleaching as a viable option because boys in Kano pine after light-skinned girls and they are dark-skinned. Initially, Habi has no idea of bleaching. After her graduation from secondary school, she rarely comes out as her father is conservative and disciplinarian typical of Baba, Li’s father in Alkali’s The Stillborn (1984). Jiniya, being more sociable and wiser, sells the idea to her when Habi secretly visits her. Jiniya says to Habi “Boys are very choosy. They hanker after light-skinned girls – and most of us are not endowed with light skins” (p.17). In appearance, Habi is more beautiful than Jiniya. Jiniya, too, recognizes this. In a flattering remark, she says to Habi: Actually, the light skin doesn’t suit all kinds of faces. The long face with a good nose and mouth matches a light- skinned face very well like that of the Fulani. That is why a girl who has a different kind of face that best suits the black skin easily gives herself away by bleaching. Someone with a pretty face like yours that people will identify as Fulani will easily attract boys, who will absolutely say as you are a naturally light-skinned young woman (p.18). Yet still, Habi is not convinced as she has no boy friend again since after the marriage of her beloved Umar with another girl. She thinks that the only way to attract another boy friend is by lightening her skin, the more. And going by Jiniya’s deft choice of a Hausa axiom “You can enhance your beauty by having a bath” (p.63), Habi finds a duty to instantly begin bleaching. She secretly indulges in it without letting any of her family members (even her mother) know about it. She lies to her brother, Abdullahi to give her money to buy cosmetics but she uses the money and buys the local cream. When her mother asks her about what she hides in her hijab, Habi says to her “It is cosmetics me and Jiniya bought at the market” (p.60). By chance, as contained in the blurb of the novel, “Hamisu Abubakar – an English lecturer falls for her”. Habi is obviously very happy when she realizes it. She soliloquizes that: She was sure Hamisu had found her very attractive for her to catch him looking intently and unabashedly at her in admiration. The beauty treatment must have what Jiniya had said it would be. It had apparently given her immediate results (p.70). Thus, she wastes no time in using the toshi (gift of money) which Hamisu gives her whenever he visits © 2021 Global Journals Volume XXI Issue IV Version I 66 ( G ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2021 Literature, Modernity and Cultural Atavism in Aliyu Kamal’s Somewhere Somehow