The Social Vision of Zaynab Alkali

Abstract

The significance of Zaynab Alkali derives from the salient features of her vocation as a novelist, and these do not merely strengthen the force of her social visions, they also compel attention to her literary work. She is an award winner (the Association of Nigerian Authors' Literary Award in 1985 for her novel The Stillborn), the best known female writer from northern Nigeria, a product of a society where a woman's assertiveness is a function of her enlightenment and social emancipation in its incipient stage. Alkali's social visions is here examined in the context of traditional society under the catalysis of social mutation and with modem development as the reference point. The preoccupation of Alkali in The Stillborn goes beyond the theme of women's emancipation to dwell on the human predicament in a society undergoing rapid transformations. Her apprehension of the human predicament is naturally and understandably feminist, and her social visions emanate largely from the predominantly feminine perspectives of the literary world she created in her novel. Alkali's social visions, in the context of the novel, are informed by dreams, proverbs, philosophical dictums, selfknowledge, the examination of past events, and illuminations from sad experiences. Dreams are the primal features of Alkali's social visions, and significantly they give the novel its figurative title. The protagonist, Li, made this explicit in her futuristic dream when she theorizes on dreams: Everybody does and as long as we live, we shall continue to dream. But it is also important to remember that like babies dreams are conceived but not all dreams are born alive. Some are aborted. Others are stillborn.