Farrah Complete Hausa Novel

It is a very large stream with water flowing through it, going back and forth. The river water here is reddish, the color of earth, while along the banks there are big and small beautiful rocks. The water comes over them and rolls back. More than a hundred women and children are gathered at the front of the river, washing, as if there were a market for washing there. There is noise and singing, and a scorching sun has risen, shining everywhere and adding to the beauty of the place.

Seated on one rock is a young girl with a huge pile of clothes in front of her that she has washed, and more still beside her that she has not yet washed. Sweat slowly trickles down the side of her face into the water. Two girls stand on the rock behind her, wearing different wrappers and blouses, with small green caps on their heads. Both of them are holding combs in their hands, talking while watching the other women washing there. One of them said, “Rakiya, by Allah, we will win this competition. Look at Lami and Tani—they haven’t even done half of their washing.” The one called Rakiya turned, spat out the comb in her mouth, then looked at the one sitting in front of them with her back to them as she washed the clothes and said, “Why don’t you hurry up, Farrah? Tani’s group has already passed us.” She increased the speed of her washing without saying a word. Rakiya clicked her tongue in annoyance and looked at her friend, saying, “By Allah, I feel like I could kill this girl. I swear I won’t rest until I humiliate her in this village, Atine.” Atine spat and said, “Humiliate her? What else is left? Haven’t you already made her deaf and dumb? And now she’s already become the house’s donkey.” She smacked her lips and looked at the girl’s back. “You, hurry up. By Allah, you won’t eat either lunch or dinner. You know the kind of people you live with.”

She heard all they were saying, but said nothing to them; she only washed faster. She was tired from since morning—no, since yesterday morning—her mouth had not seen food. She only worked. They all stood there, and before another thirty minutes passed she finished washing the huge pile of clothes that remained, completely, because God had given her strength and endurance. As if they had been waiting for her to finish, Rakiya suddenly shoved her, and she fell into the river with a splash. Rakiya picked up the clothes she had washed, and she and Atine started shouting, “We’ve finished the washing!” The women there followed them with their eyes, making a commotion as if they were not the ones who had pushed someone into the water. Slowly, she lifted her head out of the water and wiped her face with her hand, opening her eyes gently. She had eyes that were a kind of pale white, while the pupils were light brown, not black. Her eyebrows were thick with black hair, nearly joined together. Her forehead was completely covered with wet hair that had flattened down from the water she had fallen into. Slowly, she looked at everyone, while Rakiya jumped up and down in joy because they had come first in the washing competition; later they would receive a prize from the village head’s wife and a special reward. Gently, she came out of the water and stood up slowly. She was not very tall at all. You could not exactly call her short, nor could you call her tall, because she had neither height nor weight; if you blew on her, she would fall. The laughter she heard made her turn slightly. It was Rakiya and her friends laughing at her and pointing at her. One of Rakiya’s friends, Ladidi, said, “Her eyes are like those of a mouse,” and they burst out laughing again. Rakiya said, “Just leave her alone, the deaf girl.” She hurried off, walking very quickly. Everywhere she passed, people looked at her like that until she reached their house in the village. It was a modest mud house. She pushed the door and went in. The house was neat and empty; she knew Inna was at the village head’s house, and as for the children of the house, even if she had not been told, she was sure they were by the river. She went to the place near the sheep and cattle pen, then slowly pushed open another door that led to a small room. The room had neither mat nor bed; only the reddish earth floor was there. There was nothing in the room except a black wrapper in one corner, and it seemed that this was her bed spread out on the ground. There was also a bundle of wrappers and a few clothes there. In haste, she untied it, took out a long faded dress, quickly removed the one she was wearing and put it on, then took a cap, removed the cap from her head, and long hair spilled down to her waist. She gathered the hair and tucked it into the cap, then went out and hung the clothes on a line. Then she stood still and looked around the house, her stomach making a hollow, hungry sound. She moved back and back until she leaned against the wall, slowly looking at their kitchen, which was surrounded by a fence of branches. She stayed like that for nearly two minutes, then slowly squatted, feeling as though she might fall, still staring at the kitchen. She was so hungry that she felt as if, if someone gave her a person right then, she could eat them. Her mouth was trembling, and her pale eyes were rolling. Seeing that she looked as though she might die gave her some strength, and she ran to the kitchen. When she got there, she opened the pot: it was rice, cooked blackened dark, as though someone had put dye in the pot. She swallowed hard; her stomach gave a sound like it was tearing for food. She did not know when the lid slipped from her hand and fell to the ground. She put her hand into the pot and did not care at all about the heat of the food; she ate as though she had spent years in the world without finding food.

Inna’s greeting from the middle of the compound made her heart drop terribly, and with terrible speed she sprang up from the stove and moved back and back. Her mouth was completely stained red, and so was her hand; she did not even know where to put herself because of how her body shook. Of all the people in the world, the one she feared most was Inna. Even hearing her voice made her body tremble. She collided with the many pots lined up in the kitchen, and they scattered and made a loud noise that caused Inna, who was in the courtyard removing her hijab, to say, “Who is in this house? Why are all those children not by the river?” She spoke as she was removing her hijab.