ABSTRACT

Zaynab Alkali was born in the Tura-Wazila community of Borno State, Nigeria. She was educated at Queen Elizabeth Secondary School in Ilorin, Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and Bayero University, Kano. She was the principal of Shekara Girls’ Boarding School, Kano, an assistant lecturer at Bayero University, lecturer in English and African literature, University of Maiduguri and senior lecturer in English and coordinator of English and general studies, Modibbo Adama College, University of Maiduguri. She is currently engaged in research at Bayero University. In his forties Alkali’s father converted to Christianity. In the early 1960s Alkali herself became a Muslim, yet she feels that both Christianity and Islam have influenced her. In 1971 she married Dr. Mohammed Nur Alkali, director-general of the Nigerian Institute of Political and Strategic Studies, Jos, Nigeria. They have six children.