The Story of Hanatu Zakayi’, by Michael Olatunbosun  |

“Broken: The Story of Hanatu Zakayi (2023, PurpleBloom)” is a novella written by Dr. Lola Odeyale Ayo-Fashida. The author holds a PhD in personnel psychology, and has over 20 years experience in different sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, education and banking. She is a management and finance consultant, author and humanitarian with  focus on financial literacy, leadership coaching, and empowering vulnerable groups through social initiatives.

The work is an exposé on intimate partner exploitation and abuse. It is also a story of deceit and triumph.

We are introduced to Hanatu, the central character in the novella. The first daughter of her parents, Hanatu is a beautiful lady with so much promise. Her two siblings are Ahmed and Bala. She works hard at her studies and deliberately has few friends in order to concentrate on her books. 

Hanatu meets Sola, an old school mate and they start a relationship. After about a year, they get married. But trouble starts for her during their honeymoon. Sola refuses to touch her with the explanation that he is fasting. Sola would not take a bath together with her unless they switched off the light. On top of that they both stay in different states. Sola only visits Hanatu in Akure during weekends. But there has been no intimacy between the couple, years into marriage. 

In the book, Hanatu and her husband are childless after four years of marriage. She has been masking her confusion with all kinds of lies until there is no more believable lie to tell her colleagues at work. At one point, she lied to her colleagues that she and her husband were getting to know each other better before having children. After four years of marriage, Hanatu decides to run away. We later learn that Hanatu never consummated her marriage with her husband. 

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Sola only slips into the house late in the night and slips out early in the morning. And this has become a big dilemma for Hanatu, who is now left to wonder if Sola sees her as a piece of furniture or a monster. All the while, Sola has been impotent.

His family, trying to prevent her from getting a divorce, now want Hanatu to sleep with one of his siblings. But it is too late. 

Sola tries all kinds of antics to keep her. 

In this book, Hanatu remarries soon after, in order to ward off questions. Her new husband, Zaki, is a handsome smooth talker. Within a year, she is pregnant for Zaki, and she has a girl, Zaratu. But another level of ordeal kicks in for her. Zaki is perpetually suspicious of her every movement, even with a second child, Muhmad, two years into their marriage. 

Zaki is jobless, and this puts strains on Hanatu. She sets up a business for him, but that is not enough. He wants her to resign from her work. Then he starts hitting her after, alleging that she is having extramarital affairs. 

This work solidly gives voice to the burden of emotional torture faced by women in abusive and exploitative relationships. Hanatu funds Zaki’s travel abroad, but finds out to her pain that he later dumps her after some months abroad. 

A third man comes into view, but Hanatu is done with giving her heart out and getting crushed. And Titaye appears to be another pest. So she decides to heal. 

After some years, she meets Damisu, a friend from her youth service days. Will Damisu be the man to make her happy? This novella has the answer.

The work also discusses the phenomenon of sibling rivalry and its destructive effect. Ahmed is Hanatu’s immediate sibling. He becomes a huge challenge for Hanatu, for he believes he is more important than his sister because he is a boy. This also throws up the strand of patriarchy which downgrades the female child. The result of this would be early school dropout for the girl child and makes them to be married off in their teens. Despite this, Hanatu makes steady progress, having been determined to work hard and earn the respect that is due to a first child among boys in the family. This pushes her to do many daring things, over-reaching herself most times, in order not to be put aside in many activities because she is a girl. Indeed, the girl child is endangered in a society taken by patriarchy!

The work also throws up the burden that society places on the first child. In Hanatu’s family, just like many Nigerian homes, the first child is used like an assistant parent. She does most of the chores: washes clothes, sweeps the floor and assists in the kitchen. On top of it, being a girl makes it more burdensome.

In Broken, we also learn that it is critical for people to know their areas of strength and weaknesses. Hanatu is a successful athlete. But her strength is in dashes and short races. She always comes first in competitions. But one experience almost cost her her life. She is persuaded to run a marathon for her Red House in school. She does not have the skill for a marathon, and after coming third, she passes out at the finish line, only to be resuscitated by her sports master.

This work is a powerful text on spousal abuse, and the author has indeed shown that women who have experienced abuse and violence can heal and find love again. It is a beautifully written work, and a text for all ages. 

. Olatunbosun can be reached via 0802-351-7565 (SMS and WhatsApp only) and [email protected].

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