ABSTRACT
Fiction writing by Hausa women in northern Nigeria blossomed a century after several northern Nigerian female poets matured within the context of local Islamic scholarship. The panegyric poems of female Islamic scholars such as Nana Asma’u ɗan Fodiyo are widely known and appreciated, and, in terms of habitat, themes and recognition, the journey of female Hausa fiction writers is not unlike that of female Hausa panegyric poets. This chapter examines the evolution of fiction writing across three decades, from 1980 to 2010. The description of writings from the 1980s highlights the first female author, Hafsat Abdulwaheed, who rose to fame following a literary competition organized by the Northern Nigerian Publishing Company. The 1990s was marked by the proliferation of female Hausa writers that was encouraged by the Kano State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors. The 2000s saw a massive boom in Hausa writing and the beginnings of what is known as “Kano Market Literature” which provided — and still provides — a platform for women’s fiction writing in the Hausa language. For each decade, two female authors are profiled, and detailed descriptions of each of the six novels chosen are given in order to enable an understanding of the analysis in subsequent chapters.
