‘What moved me to write about the almajiri’

How long did it take you to write your book, My Life as an Almajiri? The first draft of the book took one week to write, it was in early 2014.  I had written a short story about Almajiri children and submitted it to a newspaper on 21st June, 2009   under the pen name […]

How long did it take you to write your book, My Life as an Almajiri?

The first draft of the book took one week to write, it was in early 2014.  I had written a short story about Almajiri children and submitted it to a newspaper on 21st June, 2009   under the pen name Munira Sadiq, It was called ‘The Life of an Almajiri’.  One art editor tore it apart; I didn’t know anything about the elements of fiction and story structure so I stopped submitting anything to the newspaper and decided to improve my writing craft. I brought four second hand textbooks on writing from a person selling books in front of A.B.U. One of the textbooks was about poetry three were on fiction writing  and I learnt as best as I could and I  forgot about the short story but I guessed it stuck to my subconscious.  

 I wrote my first children storybook at 15 because my brother had finished reading his few storybooks and was looking for a book to read. I wrote a young adult fiction book after I finished my W.A.E.C. I wrote the first three chapters and I showed it to my classmates and they said I had to finish it because they wanted to know what will happen to the characters. I wrote it in a notebook which got missing when we changed houses. I kept diaries as a teenager and I wrote poems for a few friends to give to people they like.  I knew more about writing poetry than short stories. I was trying my hand at Nonnet, Cinquain, Quatrain, Senryu, Haiku and free verse. I submitted a few poems to Toni Kan when he was the editor of the Sun Art Review. It was five years after the short story that I saw a boy whose slippers broke and I felt I should write about it. The second draft of the book took three weeks to write and it wasn’t difficult.   

There has been a lot of discussions about almajirai, was that what motivated you to write about them?

 I was uncomfortable seeing the way children were made to do chores and were given leftover food as reward. I never noticed until I gave food to an Almajiri once. It was in my service year, I was posted to Anambra State but I fell ill and was transferred to Kaduna. I just gave the almajiri the food I cooked and I told him he could be coming every day to collect food. My neighbour said people don’t give food like that to an almajiri; she said they were usually given leftovers.    

My main motivation for writing this book was seeing an almajiri whose slippers broke, he picked the two slippers with his hands and on his face it was as if he lost everything. I gave him a pair of slippers, luckily I had two and a pair was small for my feet.  At that moment, I felt I wanted to know what his life was like. During the course of research, I felt that the children suffered a lot and that even though almajiri started as a good thing, it’s time for a change. The disadvantage of being an almajiri child outweighs the advantages.

The almajiri problem is a problem that adults created and in most likelihood will only be solved by adults but you chose to write a children’s book about it. What were you hoping to achieve with this choice?

When adults talk about the almajiri problem they see and visualize the children’s experience as adults. They think in terms of the benefit, they say the children will earn a path to paradise and learn about Islam. They rarely think about the dangers the children face daily, the hardships and deprivation they face like not having access to proper hygiene, having to beg for food and living on the streets they are exposed to child abuse, accidents, sexual assaults, and ritual killings and riots etc. 

I had hoped that the book will affect the way the adults view almajiri and it did. One of the women who brought the book told me she read it and now both she and her children are kinder to almajiri children. She is from the Eastern part of the country and she said before reading the book each time she saw them begging she felt they were nuisances but now she figured they were victims of their parents’ belief.

What research did you have to undertake to write this book? How challenging was it to write it?

I have come in contact with a former almajiri child who told a story about the harrowing experience he faced. I researched on the internet. I have come in contact with some almajiri children. As part of the research I slept in a shop in a motor park. It was safe. I collected the keys to a shop and I slept on a bench. I saw some Almajiri children sleeping on a pavement in front of the shop. They had no mat or cardboard. I couldn’t sleep.    

 The main challenge I had while writing the book was to protect the image of the almajiri children and to make people more empathic towards them. 

What were the primary considerations while writing the book, especially since you were writing for children?

My primary consideration was to make the book interesting. I didn’t want to lecture and preach to children. I wanted the children to see the almajiri as children like themselves. I wanted the parents of the children to remember that the almajiri child is a child just like their child.  

How successful have you been getting the book on the syllabus?

I have not been successful because of corruption. I tried but someone asked me to give bribe and I didn’t want to pay a bribe to have the book on the syllabus.   

That is interesting. In 2015, the NLNG Prize for Literature, which was in the children stories category, was not awarded on the grounds that none of the entries merited the prize. How did you react to that announcement?

I was disappointed because it meant Nigerian literature for children was in a bad state. I wanted to win but I also wanted someone to win. At the same time I felt I clearly had to improve on my writing craft. I know my limitations when it comes to writing for children and writing fiction. A literary prize is hinged on language and it’s the one thing I struggle with. I will get better but for now I’m going to enjoy writing my book with the language I have.  I hope that in the future I’ll look back and say I can’t believe  language was difficult for you.   

Do you think the judges were right in not awarding the prize that year? 

Since they read the entries and it didn’t meet up to the standards they set, then yes, they were right in not giving the prize.

After that announcement, the NLNG invited 20 writers to a workshop on children writing, as a writer in this category, do you think that intervention was necessary? 

Yes, because it meant they were committed to helping writers improve in their writing craft. I thought since they had a rich literary prize they could open a creative writing workshop yearly. It’ll go a long way in improving the quality of writing in Nigeria.

What is the next project you are working on? 

I have three books in line that I want to publish. Two are for children. ‘Zakari and the Sallah Ram’ and ‘Naira and the Kidnappers.’

 I wrote ‘Naira and the Kidnappers’ simultaneously with ‘Nari’ a young adult fiction book. Nari is short form for Hannari Shehu; it’s about a young girl who has autistic spectrum disorder [ASD] and her struggles to make friends. The book is about the healing hand of friendships and about misfits. I put a group of teenagers dealing with life and coming together to tell, in their own voices, what it meant to be teens. I submitted it to AMAB Books and they liked it.  I’m a Medical Laboratory Scientist and I’m always performing experiments with my art. I started working on another young adult fiction book in this December. The book is set in the north in the 16th century. It has been a challenge looking for information.  I have no idea what it’ll end up like but it is a genre bender.