I wrote my novel to challenge misconceptions – Maryam Jokolo

Maryam Jokolo is a UK-trained architect who is debuting her first novel, Divine Love (Origami Books) this April. The novel centres around the love affair between the Muslim Heroine Khadija and her love interest Frank, an atheist. In this interview, Jokolo talks about her novel, the challenges of writing Islam-themed novels and more.  Bookshelf: Your […]

Maryam Jokolo is a UK-trained architect who is debuting her first novel, Divine Love (Origami Books) this April. The novel centres around the love affair between the Muslim Heroine Khadija and her love interest Frank, an atheist. In this interview, Jokolo talks about her novel, the challenges of writing Islam-themed novels and more. 

Maryam Jokolo: Divine Love is a novel written in response to the world’s most pressing issues. Issues like Islamaphobia, gender inequality, misuse of power, disregard for diversity and insurgency. It is a novel aimed at encouraging the readers to look beyond disunity and division among humanity and focus on what unites us; love and unity.

Bookshelf: You were consciously trying to project your heroine Khadija Ibrahim in a positive light to counter perceptions about Muslims in contemporary life. Was there any attempt to balance her character with the realities of life?

Jokolo: Yes! Khadijah’s faith, upbringing and relationship with people were what influenced her mindset and contributions in the contemporary settings. The two were projected to be in harmony.

Bookshelf: Your novel is essentially a love story and also a story about faith and religion. Being from the north of Nigeria where there has been a strong tradition of writing soyayya novels, would you say those books influenced your thematic focus?

Jokolo: No not at all. As a matter of fact, romance and love stories don’t appeal to me. So, I have never read the soyayya novels. Divine Love, unlike most love, stories is a spiritual love story between two individuals that had divine connections with their maker. They understood their love to be a tool for aiding in fulfilling their purpose, which are being the vicegerents of the Almighty on earth. So, whenever their services to their maker were called for, their love seemed insignificant.    

Bookshelf: Why did you feel it is necessary to use literature to counter perceptions about Muslims?

Jokolo: Because the same literature is used to spread misconceptions about Muslims. So, there is need for Muslims to counter their opinions using any media possible to avoid wrong perceptions of Islam in the minds of most, especially our youth and those outside the folds of Islam. Also, Literature as an educative tool has the potential to bring to light the truth about Islam and its teachings.

Bookshelf: Muslims have always been known to be sensitive about their portrayal in literature and art. And here at the heart of your story is a relationship between a Muslim woman and an atheist. What kind of reception do you anticipate for your novel?

Jokolo: I am so glad you used the term Muslims and not Islam. But the question here should be, does Islam permit the portrayal of Muslims in Literature? The term literature is often described as written work. So, how did the Islamic history come about if Muslims are not to be portrayed in literature?History came from documentations of the lives of the predecessors. Likewise, if time permits, our current stories would be the history of the later generations. On this basis, I see no harm in portraying Islamic values through Muslim characters in literature to educate and draw people closer to the religion.

The love story between a Muslim and an atheist shows how accommodating Islam is because in Islam, we believe good deeds are based on intentions and bad deeds are based on actions and as such, Islam does not put a barrier to any type of love you feel towards anybody or anything but it gave its conditions on how to act upon it. For instance, for an atheist to be in love with a Muslim is fine but for them to act upon their feelings, the atheist must [first] become a Muslim,which gives them automatic ticket to get married under Islamic law.

Bookshelf: How long did it take you to write this novel?

Jokolo: It took me two years to get to a point of being comfortable to share the story with the public.

Bookshelf: As a first time novelist, what challenges did you face while writing the novel?

Jokolo: Using an Islamic theme to write fiction was very challenging because I had to get validation from Islamic sources and references. Before starting the novel, I had to do research to know if fiction writing is allowed in the context of Islam.

Also, one of the challenges of writing fiction is not knowing the direction your story would take and so, you would be constantly looking for inspiration in almost everything.

Bookshelf: Your background is in architecture. What made you venture into writing?

Jokolo: Well, by nature I am not the very social type, so, you would find me most times in my room doing nothing but thinking; thinking about life and nature. In my early days in architecture, I began keeping a journal where I would record my thoughts whenever I would find time. And the recurring topics in my journal were mostly about life and its meanings. From there, I developed the habit of going over my days in my mind every night before going to bed. So, that turned me into a deep thinker. Architecture is a course that disciplines people to think critically, creatively and humanitarianly and this enabled my smooth transition from architecture to writing.    

Bookshelf: Is this novel the first in a series or is this just it?

Jokolo: Well, I would love to hear the opinions of my prospective readers before taking a decision.