Novel
The Stillborn
Zaynab Alkali · 1984
Synopsis
Li is thirteen and lives under the rule of a father who decides everything. She slips out through a hole in the fence to go dancing in the square, and there meets Habu Adams, a smooth talker who sees himself as a doctor in the city. They decide to leave together. Her two companions dream too: one marries the school headmaster and swears that the city will come to them, the other follows a man to the city and ends up there as a second wife. Li, married, waits in the village for her husband to come and fetch her.
Context
The book was published by Longman, in the Drumbeat series, and was the first by a woman from the country's Muslim north. Its author, born in Borno to a father who had converted to Christianity late in life, was then teaching English at the university. The title comes from a phrase of the heroine's grandfather: dreams are conceived like children, but not all are born alive, some are lost along the way, others come stillborn. A French version by Étienne Galle appeared from Dapper in 1998, two hundred and twenty-six pages.
Who it is for
Short, in simple language, and readable in French. It is worth knowing that marriage could precede by several years the start of life together, the wife remaining with her own family.
Prizes and reception
Prose fiction prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors for the year 1985. The book is regarded as the first novel written by a Nigerian woman of Muslim culture.