I detest nightmares. It must have been what kept me away for so long from this book gifted to me by the author and my co-judge at the Quramo Festival of Words 2021/2022, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.
By Lechi Eke
I detest nightmares. It must have been what kept me away for so long from this book gifted to me by the author and my co-judge at the Quramo Festival of Words 2021/2022, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim. But Lord have mercy, when recently, I picked it from my bedside table where it has been since October 2021, and I read the first sentence which is very long, Ibrahim’s fishhook caught me and pulled. On the strength of the diction, I continued reading.
I pause here to digress a bit. This has always been my point. Diction is like good looks, it gets people attracted to you, your good behaviour will keep your lover, but good looks will attract him/her first.
Literary scholars know what is called the 3-Act Structure which is made up of the Setup (Situation), the Confrontation and finally the Resolution in fiction or story-telling. Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s short story, Dreams and Assorted Nightmares is very strong in the setup or situation.
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The narrative opens in a place called Zango, a fictitious place set in a border town between two locations, a kind of no man’s land. And in such a place does evil thrives as explained to Lamide, our protagonist, by her aged grandmother, Kaka. Kaka also explains to her at the beginning or setup or situation, how the town is born: some men arrive there on transit to another place and finding some scanty trade and the services of prostitutes, remain there a while longer than they planned. Women of carnal services, seeing a need in a place where people rest before continuing on their journeys, decide to provide such services that the travellers may need, so prostitutes settle there too. The third settlers are loved ones who after waiting for a long time for their travelled loved ones to return and waiting in vain, decide to join them. So, a transit town is born called Zango.
As I said earlier, the diction attracted me and held me to discover the merits of the narrative. When you read something like: “…it was a sleepy in-between place until some itinerants got drunk on rest and forgot to complete their journeys…” and “…and the other places secret histories were procured from.” Others like, “…prostitutes who serviced the travelling men set up permanent shacks not far from the park where the roar of truck engines and the blare of car horns masked the noises of indiscretion…” and “…Kaka was already losing her mind, and no one knew for sure if she remembered anything right,” and “…none of the dramatic deaths yet eclipsed Vera’s…” and “Inside, her heart had atrophied becoming an ancient stone that squirted bile into her veins.” Also, “In the afternoon, she watched Ramatu sit in the compound, stretch her legs before her and sing praises to the mothers of sons who would inherit their husband’s house,” and other such uses of words to mould a story that is very heart-wrenching, the story of a woman scorned.
The theme is as old as humanity on earth, a woman losing the love of her life; the story of husband- sharing as it happens openly in Africa because elsewhere it is going on, only that the perpetrators are discrete. It is the story of infidelity thrown in the faces of lovers all over the world as we have seen on the internet, Wendy Williams suffering maladies caused by the discovery that she’d been husband-sharing for years and Kourtney Kadarshian taking a decision to let her lover and father of her children go for good because amongst other things, he’s been unfaithful time and time again.
The Situation is very good.
Now, the Conflict is even better. You can imagine what a poor woman who loves her husband is going through when after preparing a delicious dish for her husband which the ingrate of a husband acknowledges to be great, is paid with a casual, “I’m taking a second wife.” And when the poor woman asks brokenly, “A second wife?” The response she gets is, “In fulfilment of the sunnah, yes.”
Of course, we know that these husband sharers come prepared. They already knew from outside when they were being wooed that there was competition. Many of them come armed with wiles, trickeries and love portions (okpo, juju or magic). So, Lamide is not only dealing with heartbreak and rejection listening to her husband make passionate love to her mate just a few feet from her room, she’s also dealing with being rejected and treated as trash by her husband, as well as being scorned by her co-wife. The conflict is palpable. Everything Lamide does is misconstrued and judged harshly.
So, we see two of the three-act-structure scoring high already. On the third act which is the Resolution, I incidentally, have a problem. I don’t think the author handled it well.
However, let’s get to the structure of the narrative since I’m actually dealing with the Meaning, Structure and Diction in this short story. The strongest point of Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Dreams and Assorted Nightmares is, the Structure, or what the cognoscenti call the plot/structure. This a beautifully structured narrative.
The story opens on how Zango became a town and moves on to the strange things that happen in it, zeroing into strange death occurrences in it. From narrating a few death occurrences, the author zeroes in on the one the protagonist prefers for her adversary, her mate, the one sharing her husband with her. It’s a beautiful structuring. The introduction to the plot of the story is very good. I never guessed where the story was going or what it was all about until I got there – nice, nice (applauses)!
So, from the situation, the story begins to unfold to the conflict. I said earlier that I have a problem with the resolution.
Things deteriorates quickly as can be expected in a situation like the one our protagonist finds herself and, of course, when one’s back hits the wall or floor, there’s no more room for further development, rather, a resolution must by necessity set in. and this is where I delve into Meaning in Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Dreams and Assorted Nightmares.
Okay, Literature students know that in poetry, we are required to find meaning which is the Message the poet is conveying to his/her readers. But I believe we need a message in stories, too. So, dear Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, I’m sorry, I couldn’t find meaning in this very well-written narrative. What’s the lesson we are to learn? Or, are we not supposed to learn any lessons at all? Or, are we supposed to draw a lesson we deem fit, such as “Marry another person’s husband, you’ll be able to oust the old cargo and take over? Or, “husbands, get new wife to find heaven-on-earth bliss?” I don’t know.
The end saddened me, not because a wife loses her husband, or a child loses her dad, no, but because, at the end, it becomes meaningless. Lamide is not a hero, but a villain, that’s what your end makes her. And nothing prepares us for her villain status which the end presents, and nothing in her thoughts and actions indicates that she is a villain.
Meaning for me would have come if the protagonist moves away from such a toxic environment as her husband and mate have made her home for her. This would have conveyed to the readers to go away from such toxic situation if you ever find yourself in one. Or, if the townspeople resented the new comer, the new wife and stand in solidarity with the old wife. Or, if there are things indicative, either of thoughts or actions from the beginning, that Lamide is a bad person. Or, if at the end, love/lust for new wife wanes (as it must) and husband returns to his senses or takes another wife.
This story indicates that the world is mad, that it is chaotic and, that it is not “governed”, that good things can happen to bad people and bad things to good people, and that there is no retribution, that people can get away with murder, that there is no judge of all the earth.
But if we go by the above, there wouldn’t be need for law enforcement agents, judges and remand homes and prisons. These institutions, I believe are reflections of something unseen, spiritual and inevitable. There exist good and evil, which ever you occupy yourself with, you’ll receive the reward.
As story-tellers, I believe we have a duty to bring societal change through our art. I know there’s a school of thought that believes in art for art’s sake. However, I’m of the school of thought that storytellers are in this world to contribute their quotas in transforming the world and making it a better place by pointing out to people how to live a better life that will not be harmful to other people and how there is a payday for all actions.