Hadiza Isma El-Rufai: A first lady’s first book

Hadiza Isma El-Rufai is the first lady of Kaduna State, and founder of Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation, a non-profit literary organization. With a BSc and MSc in Architecture, as well as a Masters in Creative Writing, she decided to write a novel, a lifelong dream of hers. ‘An Abundance of Scorpions’, published by Ouida Books, has […]

Hadiza Isma El-Rufai is the first lady of Kaduna State, and founder of Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation, a non-profit literary organization. With a BSc and MSc in Architecture, as well as a Masters in Creative Writing, she decided to write a novel, a lifelong dream of hers. ‘An Abundance of Scorpions’, published by Ouida Books, has been garnering rave reviews, and was launched at a star-studded event in Abuja last Thursday. We caught up with her for a chat, and herewith, are excerpts:

Daily Trust: Your book, ‘An Abundance of Scorpions,’ is told from the perspective of a young northern Nigerian woman. Why did you decide to go this route?

Hadiza Isma El-Rufai: I don’t know why you call her a young northern Nigerian woman. Really, where does ‘young’ end and ‘old’ start? When the story opens, she is like 40, so I guess you can say she’s a young woman (laughter). I decided to tell the story from her perspective because I think we need to tell more stories about northern Nigerian women. I don’t think we’ve had a lot of stories told from that perspective, so I felt it would be a good idea. 

DT: When did the spark of the idea first show up, and how long did it take you, from beginning to end? 

El-Rufai: It’s really a bit difficult for me to say, because this book that has now been published is actually not the first one I started writing. It came as a result of a story I was writing about a boy growing up in an orphanage, and I needed to tell the back story of the matron for people to understand why she did something she did. So I started writing the back story within the main story, and then I realized the back story was also interesting, and it took on a life of its own. 

Regarding the time span, I started writing that first story when I was doing my MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, in the UK. I had gone like maybe halfway into the story when I decided to start writing the back story, which is the one that turned out to be the story now. So it’s really difficult for me to say, but I’d say this novel, ‘An Abundance Of Scorpions’ took me five years to write, from the beginning to the end. 

DT: Are you working on your next book? 

El-Rufai: Yes, I am. The next book, of course being the first book I started writing. That’s what I’m working on now, and I just have about 10,000 words, so there’s still a lot of work to be done.

DT: Can you give us a hint on what it’s about?

El-Rufai: No, I’d rather not, because if I say this is what it’s about, in the process of writing, it could turn out to be about something else. You know how the writing process is, you can start writing something and as you go along, other ideas come up and you find you’re writing a totally different story. Of course, that’s the interesting part about it. 

But really, the best way, I think, is to have an open mind and let the story just flow. So the important thing is to have an open mind, and let it go from there.

DT: What books influenced you as a young reader? 

El-Rufai: As a young reader, the books that I read and my generation read were not Nigerian ones. Mostly, they’re the classics, written by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte or Charles Dickens. In secondary school, we studied those. But fortunately, we also studied some African writers, like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and so on. 

I’d say most of the books that I read when I was younger were by foreign writers. Not necessarily the ones that we studied in school, like James Hadley Chase, Mills & Boon, and Barbara Cartland; they’re all foreign writers. But I’m happy to say that these days, we’re beginning to have more Nigerian writers, and honestly, I find Nigerian writers so much more interesting. Some of my favorites include ‘Season of Crimson Blossoms’, ‘Stay With Me’, ‘Easy Motion Tourist’, and so many more. 

DT: What’s the best time of the day, for you to write?

El-Rufai: I’m a morning person. Usually, by 10:00pm, my brain starts to go into shutdown mode, so I sleep rather early because I’m an early riser. So I like to write very early in the morning. And if the writing is going well, I can go on and on. I’ve tried to get into a particular structure or habit. Like some writers say, ‘try and write a thousand words a day’. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do that, so I’m more flexible. It just all depends on whether that day the writing is flowing well, or not.

DT: Your book has been hailed for vivid narration. Have any moviemakers shown interest in doing a film version?

El-Rufai: No, not yet. It would be exciting and interesting though. Some people who have read the book say ‘Oh, this will make a good movie’. But I don’t know. I’m open to it if I can have a filmmaker who understands the material.  Sometimes, filmmakers change the whole thing; so, as much as I would like to see made into a film, I would like it to be faithful to the book.

DT: Have any of your children shown more than a passing interest in writing?

El-Rufai: My son Bashir writes, and my last born, Ibrahim, writes poetry which is quite good for his age. He has a book of poetry that he wrote like six years ago and he’s going to be 18 on the third of February. So, that’s like when he was 12, and it was quite interesting. I let him do his thing. I only tell him to drop the poetry and go and play football so that one day maybe he’ll become a David Beckham (laughter). 

DT: Speaking of family, between writing, and your work as the first lady of Kaduna State, how do you find time for family? 

El-Rufai: A long time ago, I realized that time is never enough. You want to do something and you keep saying you don’t have the time to do it, or when you finish this you’ll do it. You have to create the time for the things that interest you. So I’ve had to try to balance things. I don’t try too many activities, but of course, you know there are certain things you cannot run away from. But I am very jealous of my time and my privacy and I try to get as much time for myself as possible.

Writing and politics are two different things. Politics is about people, crowds, and noise. Writing, for me, is a key thing, and I need to be able to do it in solitude. And when you are really into politics, solitude is not one of the things you have.

DT: As the first lady of Kaduna State, what was the first thing you set out to achieve, and have you?

El-Rufai: Actually, it’s not just as first lady. I have this NGO, which is the Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation, which I named after my late daughter, and we’re doing two key things; trying to help young people with creativity, because what I’ve realized is that in the North, we don’t put much value to things like creative writing, theatre arts, painting, those kinds of things. It’s mostly just schoolwork, so I want to create that environment where young people can come and explore their creative abilities. So we have a Creative Writing Programme, and a host of other activities, as well. We also have the Women Literacy Programme which is targeted at young women, giving them a second chance for those who have dropped out of school and even those who have finished school, because you know  what the standard of education is like.

We’ve opened literacy centres in four communities in Kaduna, where we teach women. It’s not particularly for women who have never had an education, it’s like an enhancement. We’re not taking women who do not know the alphabet at all. We take those that have had an education and really take them through so that they can be very articulate in the use of English and also, to build their self confidence so that whatever they do, they can express themselves very well so that by the end of the programme, they can choose a skill. 

DT: Last year, there was the first Kaduna Book & Arts Festival (KABAFEST). Were you involved, and will there be another one this year? 

El-Rufai: Yes, I was involved, and I think it was very successful. The state government has decided that they’re going to do it every year. It’s going to be an annual thing, so very soon, you’ll hear about KABAFEST 2. There’s a need to look at ways to make it sustainable because you can have a government that’s interested, but then governments change and someone else can come and not be interested in it. We’re very much aware of that. So, toward that end, we’re trying to see how we can make it sustainable, that government does not have to be involved.