Takari Part 1 Complete Hausa Novel

After three weeks, Gajiye returned to Dogon Daji village, saying she had come to attend the wedding of one of her cousin’s daughters.

The wedding house was filled, just as weddings are usually done in the village.

There was rice tuwo with alaihu soup and kulili; women and children were scooping and eating. Gajiye and her group were the main guests of the ceremony. As a big-city woman, she sat comfortably on a plastic mat.

This was brought to her, that was brought to her, but her attention was not there at all—she kept looking toward the doorway, hoping to see Yar Kulu enter.

It was only after the afternoon prayer that Inna, Yar Kulu, arrived at the wedding venue, responding to the invitation Gajiye had sent her the previous night. She even came with the matching outfit Gajiye had given them. The three of them stepped out of the wedding area together.

Many people at the ceremony were surprised by Yar Kulu’s presence at this wedding, because whenever there was a childbirth, she usually came at night to help and congratulate, and if it was a wedding, she would come to pray for blessings and then leave.

But today, here she was, even wearing the matching clothes Gajiye had given them. Even so, people knew there had always been kinship and neighborly relations between them.

People ate and drank—tuwo and zobo, hot or cold—though there wasn’t much, yet everyone kept enjoying themselves.

Inna sat aside on a mat, squeezed in tightly, because she was not used to being in large gatherings like this.

“Uhmmm… Inna, they are girls, aren’t they?” Gajiye asked Yar Kulu.

“They are fine at home, very well. You’re just being stingy with those children of yours,” Yar Kulu replied.

“No, no, not at all, Gajiye. Except for your own children—how could I be stingy with them? They are their mother’s children,” she said.

Gajiye adjusted her sitting position, because her trap was beginning to work.

“Even at the wedding, you didn’t allow them to come, Yar Kulu. They should be here, since they are around in town,” she said.

With modesty and calmness, Inna spoke, explaining that they didn’t have time for such things. After returning from fetching water, they go straight to Islamiyya school and only come back close to Maghrib.

“You see, even if they don’t have time to come here now, in sha Allah, before you leave, I will send them to greet you.”

The women chatted a lot at the venue, while Gajiye, Inna, and some other women had their own discussions on one side.

During the conversation, Gajiye told Inna that her husband’s daughter was about to give birth, in sha Allah, and that after the delivery, in the coming month, she would come and take Hafsat and the others to attend the celebration.

Suddenly, Yar Kulu’s heart sank. Going to the city with her children was something that could never work—not even in a dream. If her children went to the city, then she herself would have to go too, because it was in the city that children get spoiled.

Gajiye was talking, but Inna didn’t hear a thing; she was lost in thought.

“Hmmm, no matter how clever you are, I will still eat the money of your daughter,” Gajiye said to herself, realizing that Inna had gone deep into thought and her face showed disapproval.

After the gathering dispersed, Gajiye gave Inna plenty of wedding food, saying it was to help her children.

She then sent Ramatu to follow up and assist her with the matter of the children at Inna’s place.

One day after the wedding, Ramatu entered Inna’s house.

“Hey, hey, hey—welcome!” she said. “Today you are in our house.”

“I am Yar Kulu. I passed by on my way and said I should come in and ask how you are recovering from the wedding,” she said.

“Oh, thank you very much,” Inna replied.

After they sat and chatted for a while, Ramatu brought up the issue of Inna’s children going to the city.

“Yar Kulu, listen—this is good news, honestly. Gajiye, the city woman, wants to take your children to the city. If it were me, by now I would already be dancing in the village.”