Maryam Din Manu: From reading to writing about soyayya

But Maryam emphatically believes that these books, rather than corrupt, actually correct societal ills. That, however, does not mean that she disobeyed her parents or went against their wishes; she insists that she never was recalcitrant. “These books can never corrupt a girl. Instead they correct and improve the character of their reader. They often […]

But Maryam emphatically believes that these books, rather than corrupt, actually correct societal ills. That, however, does not mean that she disobeyed her parents or went against their wishes; she insists that she never was recalcitrant.

“These books can never corrupt a girl. Instead they correct and improve the character of their reader. They often show the young girl or woman certain things she does that are wrong and how to correct them. If the books were capable of corrupting anybody, I would have been corrupted, but I wasn’t. There are many bad girls out there who cannot even read a single letter of the alphabet”.

She says as a writer, she sees her role primarily as that of a crusader charged with the responsibility of  showing people better ways of living. “At all times, my thinking is, if there is anything negative in society, to provide people with positive motifs with which to change for the better”, she says.

But, apparently, not only did Maryam disagree with her mother, she became so ‘versed’ in soyayya novellas that she graduated from a mere reader to one of the writers. Five years ago, she started entertaining the idea of writing her own books and, one night, she woke up in the middle of the night, fished for a pen and paper and penned the first words of Haka Allah Ya So.

“The writing bug bit me around 12 midnight. I woke up that night and, suddenly, the thought to start writing occurred and I just fished out a pen and a paper and started”, she said.

Although she suffered a lot before it reached the market, the publication of this first book convinced Maryam that she really could do it. The book, she says, was so popular with readers that she was bombarded with ’phone calls from all over. Surprised by the speed with which the book was grabbed off the shelves, the printers asked whether she was a well known author. She told them “that it was my very first attempt at writing books”.

Since then, Maryam has not stopped writing and, so far, she has at least 10 manuscripts, apart from her published books. Fortunately for her writing, her husband is a frequent traveller. As such, immediately she puts her five children to sleep, she picks up her pen and tries to write for two or more hours.

However, the moment her husband returns, Maryam suspends her writing until he goes on another trip. In this way, he hardly knows that she writes—unless, of course when he sees her books being sold or read in the many places he travels to.

The thoughts or ideas she puts down, she says, come to her at all times: while she is working in the house or even when she is on a taxi or bus. And although many women who have read and enjoyed her books frequently come to her with ideas they think she can possibly explore, she says she prefers to develop her own. She says she does not even try to adapt the styles of her favourite writers, preferring to use her own talents which, she insists, are the hallmark of her being a writer. The same fountain from which Haka Allah Ya So also gushed out other books she has written: Taken Kauna, Kamar Gaske, Tukwici Sadakin Soyayya, Izayar Uwar Miji, Jituwa, and so on.

As their appellation suggests, soyayya novellas have love (romance) or matters related to it as their main theme. Maryam says the books are like a school to women, many of whom do not know how to treat their husbands well. “But if a woman frequently reads [the soyayya novellas], she can hardly be found by her husband to be wanting”, she says. She also debunks the accusation that the books depict unseemly settings, saying: “If, for example, you’re writing about a brothel, you must tell the readers what people there do. Also, if you’re telling the story of a married couple, you must narrate how married people act. But, as for graphic illustrations of certain things, I believe they are no longer put into words”.

Maryam says she can write on other subjects besides soyayya and that, she is thinking about doing that as soon as she publishes the manuscripts she has. But love, according to her, is the backbone of human life and, therefore, it will not be possible to write without it: “Love is an integral part of life. Every living thing exudes love in one form or another. That is why the subject necessarily crops up in [our] stories. And, at times, it is infused to entertain the reader”.

Again, like many other writers of soyayya novels, Maryam self-publishes her books. She also divides the story into parts instead of narrating it at a go. This, she says, is necessary because she is not financially buoyant enough to publish the whole story at once. “I also read books, and I don’t like reading part one of a book and waiting for the next. But I can’t publish at once even though I’d like to do that because the amount you spend in printing is directly proportional to the number of pages”, she says.

Although she maintains that soyayya literature is developing (“everyday you go to the market, you see many new books and many new writers”), Maryam finds it difficult to imagine an advanced publishing industry that will lessen the suffering of the writer. “But who can bring about that change?” she wonders, adding: “We would be very happy if that could happen”.

Maryam told our reporter she was in the second year of junior secondary school when she got married, thereby unceremoniously ending her schooling. That is why, perhaps, it never occurs to her, when she is writing a story, to do research for it. “I just rely on what I see in my mind’s eye when I write”, she says. But, who else among writers like her conducts any research for the stories they write? A few, if any.

And here lies a real challenge for those who want to see improvement in the quality of soyayya literature.