Privately Empowered: Expressing Feminism in Islam in Northern Nigerian Fiction

245 Pages·2016·2.063 MB·English

by  Shirin Edwin

Privately
Empowered

Privately
Empowered
Expressing Feminism in Islam
in Northern Nigerian Fiction
Shirin Edwin
northwestern university press
evanston, illinois
Northwestern University Press
www .nupress.northwestern .edu
Copyright © 2016 by Northwestern University Press.
Published 2016. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data are available from the Library
of Congress.
Except where otherwise noted, this book is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a
copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
In all cases attribution should include the following information:
Edwin, Shirin. Privately Empowered: Expressing Feminism in Islam in Northern
Nigerian Fiction. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2016.
The following material is excluded from the license:
Earlier versions of revised work as outlined in the Acknowledgments
For permissions beyond the scope of this license, visit www.nupress.northwestern.edu
An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of
libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative
designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. More
information about the initiative and links to the open-access version can be
found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
A Note on Transcription xi
Introduction
Conjugating Feminisms: African, Islamic as African- Islamic Discourse 1
Chapter 1
Connecting Vocabularies: A Grammar of Histories, Politics,
and Priorities in African and Islamic Feminisms 35
Chapter 2
Noetic Education and Islamic Faith: Personal Transformation
in The Stillborn 77
Chapter 3
Historical Templates and Islamic Disposition: Personal Journeys
in The Virtuous Woman 107
Chapter 4
Spiritual Legacies and Worship: Personal Spaces in The Descendants 135
Chapter 5
Frequent Functions and References: Personal Solutions
in Sacred Apples and Destiny 163
Epilogue 189
Notes 195
Bibliography 217
Index 229

Acknowledgments
This book would not have started without my husband Ayub’s loving
suggestion that I should write it. After trying to find a publisher for a
dissertation in French in the United States, and finding none, I rather
belatedly realized that our thoughts are imprisoned by language— and
language itself by place. So I am forced to write in English. But Ayub’s
belief in me has exploded every line that can possibly be drawn by
language, religion, or place. The odds that two people from two large
minorities in an even larger country defy by living and laughing together
on a daily basis are beyond the drama that a Bollywood film can ever
hope to capture, and beyond my own linguistic abilities to describe, even
in Hindi. On the other hand, I am able to express my deepest gratitude,
if insufficiently, for the material ideas in this book that developed with a
generous Enhancement Grant for Professional Development (EGPD) at
Sam Houston State University (SHSU) in 2007. I am indeed fortunate to
benefit from SHSU’s continued support for my research endeavors. Over
the years, I was fortunate to present some ideas in this book at the African
Literature Association Conferences, the Modern Language Association
Conventions, and other venues to capitalize on so many conversations
with colleagues across the disciplines—S uman Venkatesh, Gaurav Desai,
Anouar Majid, Lynn Ramey, Robert Barsky, and Nouri Gana, in par-
ticular, offered much- needed encouragement of my scholarly goals in the
early stages of my career. Though not directly connected with this book,
Carli Coetzee’s incisive reading skills sharpened my critical thoughts on
literature and literary criticism and reminded me to think more and ask
more. I am grateful to her for her intellectual engagement and encourage-
ment of my work on African literatures. Gabeba Baderoon and Shaden
Tageldin offered me the opportunity to talk about the work in this book,
exposing me to invaluable feedback and a community of academics that
enriches my work in immeasurable ways. I am lucky to have colleagues at
SHSU who have helped me along the way and friends whose work habits
and intellectual drive inspire me to continue in my scholarly pursuits.
Grateful thanks are due to April Shemak, Shuangyue Zhang, Hiranya
Nath, Manuel Triano- Lopez, Sharon Murphy- Manley, Alejandro Latinez,
and, more recently, Peter Gachanja. The Interlibrary Loan staff at the
Newton Gresham Library at SHSU— Erin Cassidy, Ann Jerabek, Bette
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Craig, Sammie Phelps— have shown me more patience than I deserve as I
feverishly requested books and materials for this project. From the start,
Gianna Mosser at Northwestern University Press held my hand through-
out the publication process with her enthusiasm and patience, generously
offering to read, edit, and comment on the manuscript. I am deeply grate-
ful to the two anonymous reviewers at the press and to Nathan MacBrien
and his wonderful team for treating my work with such great care,
patience, and efficiency. Warm thanks are also due to Serene Yang for
her meticulous copy editing and for polishing and straightening many of
my sentences and phrases. Deepest thanks to Steven Moore for his skill-
ful indexing of the book. My friends Norma, Pat, Roxanne, Jill, Tracy,
Maritza, and Fatma deserve special mention for tolerating my antisocial
ways as I was writing this book. My parents, Lt. Col. (retired) R. B. K.
Edwin and Anita Edwin, and my brother, Lt. Col. Sunil Edwin, have had
more faith in me since I can remember and have brought me this far— I
can’t express here or in words the gratitude I feel for their love and belief
in my abilities, for motivating me from even before I understood the pur-
pose of that encouragement. As they wondered why I was typing so much
over these past few months, Sana, Shuaib, and Samreen have come to
think of me as an “author” and have inquired if I will visit their elemen-
tary school to read the stories I’m writing, and when they may borrow
them from the local library. But most of all, they have enlivened my writ-
ing experience by vastly improving my knowledge of Pokémon over the
months. I dedicate this book to my little Jolteon, Bouffalant, and Leafeon.
An early version of a small segment of my discussion on African feminism
appeared in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, and my discussion of
Hauwa Ali’s Destiny is a revised version of a portion of an article that
appeared in Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. I am thankful
to the University of Nebraska Press and Taylor and Francis for allowing
me to use part of these publications here in modified forms.
Abbreviations
D Ali, Hauwa. Destiny. Enugu: Delta Fiction, 1988.
SA Gimba, Abubakar. Sacred Apples. Ibadan: Evans Brothers, 1994. Also
published in the United States as Golden Apples. New York: Vantage
Press, 1997. Citations in Privately Empowered refer to the latter edition.
TD Alkali, Zaynab. The Descendants. Zaria: Tamaza, 2005.
TS Alkali, Zaynab. The Stillborn. Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1984.
TVW Alkali, Zaynab. The Virtuous Woman. Ikeja: Longman, 1987.
ix