Waye Shi Part 1 Complete Hausa Novel

“Nanne! Nanne! Nanne!! … get up, didn’t I tell you?”

The girl called Nanne stirred slightly, then continued sleeping.

“Will you open your eyes, or should I wake you up with water?”

Inna said, shaking her again. Hearing this, Nanne pouted and sat up, rubbing her eyes as her long, tangled hair fell over her face.

“Get up, wash your face, and go out before Salisu leaves. You know we agreed on this since yesterday.”

Nanne raised her head and looked at the clock fixed on the wall of the room—it was 8:15 a.m. Altogether, the sleep she got after the dawn prayer hadn’t even reached two hours. She had completely forgotten that she and Inna agreed she would go early this morning to tell Salisu what kind of cotton he should pick for her at their uncle’s farm, where cotton harvesting was scheduled for today before the company buyers would take the best ones. She intended to use it to weave ceremonial shawls worn by brides on the day of the bridal bath (this is a tradition of a certain ethnic group from Niger).

“Oh Allah, Inna, if you knew how exhausted I was when I lay down, you would have let it be. One of the others, like brother Umar, could have told him.”

“You know I won’t see them before they leave, so get up, freshen your face, and go before Salisu leaves. I know they’ll soon be heading out, because I’ve been hearing the sound of vehicle engines since earlier.”

Nanne gathered her hair back with her hand and tied it up. She went into the bathroom attached to the room, poured water into a kettle, washed her mouth and face, then came out. Inna handed her a hijab from where she was sitting.

“Oh no, this one is too crumpled. Let me check another.”

She opened the wardrobe, pulled out a slightly longer one and put it on, then took the large nylon bag that Inna was pointing at.

“Explain it to him exactly the way I told you yesterday, please.”

The way Inna softened her voice almost made her laugh as she left the room. Since they lived on the first floor, she could see the large courtyard below. Because it was morning, there weren’t many people around—only a few workers passing back and forth occasionally.

Their family house, located in a neighborhood in Katsina, was an old structure built with solid stone blocks that hardly cracked even with a nail. The entire building had three floors. From the massive iron gate set into the tall perimeter wall surrounding the house, one entered a wide compound spacious enough to host large family celebrations. There were large car shelters and flower gardens surrounding the entire open space.

Along the building itself was a long veranda stretching across the width of the compound, with six rooms in a row belonging to her male cousins. In the middle was a large door leading inside to the section of their uncle’s house on the right, which included a large guest living room and two rooms with a bathroom. On the left side was the family kitchen, which itself had two sections: one with storage cupboards, and another used as a firewood area with heaps of wood and large cooking pots.

Beyond that, on the ground floor, there were two large storage rooms for farm produce. A wide staircase rose from the middle of the courtyard and split left and right, leading to the women’s quarters of their uncle’s four wives, each having a living room and two large bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. There was also Inna’s section—their grandmother and the uncle’s mother—with a large living room, one bedroom, and a bathroom.

The second and top floor was a wide open terrace, the largest space in the entire house, surrounded by walls in such a way that if one wasn’t careful, they wouldn’t even notice the ground below. Clothes were dried there, food ingredients spread out, and people relaxed there because it had different kinds of chairs and flower pots. From there, one could see the entire neighborhood—mostly scattered houses, many unoccupied, and some still under construction.

Among all of her uncle’s children, Nanne was the seventeenth. There were also two girls, daughters of Aunty Amarya, who were older than her.

Her uncle’s first wife was Hajiya Nasiba, known as Hajiya Babba. She was from Katsina town, while her husband was originally from Niger. She had six children: Ahmad, Nasir, Muhammad, Ishaq, Farida, and Aisha—four boys and two girls. Ahmad and Farida were already married, leaving three boys and one girl, Aisha, still at home.

Then there was Mama Rabi, who was also from Niger and was her uncle’s relative. She had four children: Ibrahim, Sulaiman, Umar, and one daughter, Jamila. Her eldest son, Ibrahim, was also married.