Personal Angle By Fatima Baram Alkali Analysis

4.0 Personal Angle by Fatima Baram Alkali

Fatima Ba’aram Alkali is one of the emerging female writers from Northern Nigeria writing in English. In Personal Angle, she delves headlong into problems encountered in modern day marriages prominent amongst which include lack of fulfillment in marriages as exemplified by Zaria. Zaria, her heroin is wife of Balarabe Jr., the eldest son of the late patriarch Alhaji Balarabe. She has been married to Alhaji Balarabe Jr. for over a year but rarely meets intimately with her husband. She does not find fulfillment in marriage as a result. Though she is provided for financially, the message here is that satisfaction in marriage is not necessarily tied to financial benefits. Zaria decides as a result to break

The womanists argue that though marriage is a binary fusion established by God, it should not be a reason why a woman should slave against all odds to keep her marriage. They believe as Alkali does that a woman should strive to find happiness by educating herself but if the task of educating her becomes impossible, she should learn a trade so as not to be a total burden on her husband. This will enable her to be a partner in the task of keeping the family. This is only when she can truly attain self satisfaction. A classical example can be deduced from Marjorie Jones; when Eldred Jones (her husband) went “completely blind …Marjorie has been literally his eyes” (Palmer, ix). That means that Marjorie had to read to Jones all the articles and reviews submitted to him for the publication of African Literature Today. At the launching ceremony of Syl Chiney-Coker’s massive novel, The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar in Freetown, Eldred Jones who was the keynote speaker and who had to give his views of the book did it so superbly meaning that Marjorie must have read the whole of that extensive novel to him. It also means that Marjorie read it so well that Eldred was able to give an informed opinion of it… That held

We women should support them” (86). But on the other hand, she opines that the men themselves are so drunk with this idea that they feel “threatened when they see an assertive woman expressing themselves” (100). This explains why the judges are taken aback by Barr. Talib’s attitude in the high court presided over by Akilu (a.k.a AK). Even when judge Quadr knows the truth about AK’s corrupt tendencies, he (Quadr) could not condemn him on account that he is a colleague in the bench. Feminists argue that men do not give women a chance to pursue their ambition politically, economically and otherwise which is one of the cardinal reasons for the establishment of the Women’s Political and Economic Empowerment Movement in Personal Angle. Mr. Humphrey who is the zonal coordinator of the movement argues that “…our men are backward with regards to giving women a proper place in the society. Men still treat women as though they are meant just to get married, give birth and raise the children” (164 - 5). Hajiya Laila is portrayed as a woman who has travelled round the world, has the connection, a ‘fatter’ bank account than most men in the economic sector but who has refused to accept the society’s definition of her role that she should marry and raise children. Instead, she defines whom she wants to be with, where to go and how to control her money. She is depicted as the African equivalent of the western woman. The