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2015 novel by Abubakar Ibrahim From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Season of Crimson Blossoms is an adult fiction debut novel by Nigerian writer and journalist Abubakar Adam Ibrahim. The novel, set largely in the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria, depicts an unusual salacious affair between the 55-year old widow Hajiya Binta and the 26-year old drug dealer and local gang leader Reza.
Cover image | |
| Author | Abubakar Adam Ibrahim |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Romantic fantasy, adult fiction, family saga, literary fiction |
| Set in | Jos, Nigeria |
| Publisher |
|
Publication date | 2015 |
| Publication place | Nigeria |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 346 |
| Awards | Nigeria Prize for Literature (2016) |
| ISBN | 9781911115007 |
| Preceded by | Painted Love in Valentine's Day Anthology |
It was first published in Nigeria in 2015 by Parrésia Publishers. Later Cassava Republic acquired the rights for international publication and released it in Germany, Kenya, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. It was released in the United States in 2017.[1] The book won the 2016 Nigeria Prize for Literature, generally considered the biggest literary award in Africa, for best prose fiction.[2][3][4] It is one of the few internationally released Nigerian fiction novels that features Nigerian Hausa people and the Hausa language.
The story is set in predominantly Northern Nigeria against the backdrop of violence in the author's home city of Jos, Plateau State.[5] The plot also spills into other parts of northern Nigeria, including the capital, Abuja; the story takes place roughly between 2009 and 2015.[6] The story focuses on Binta Zubairu, a Muslim widow in her mid-50s who falls for Reza, a local political thug and drug lord in his early 20s. Binta, a survivor of violence that tore her family apart in her former home in Jos, sees in Reza not her murdered husband but her slain son Yaro. In turn, Reza, with an ailing father and a mother he last saw as a child, feels the undertow of parental warmth in his budding liaison with Binta. When they meet again and have sex, the dynamic feels incestuous to them, as Binta reminds Reza of his mother who abandoned him and he reminds her of her slain son, whom she could not address by his given name due to social norms.[7]
"[This] intense, compelling novel navigates violence and taboo sexuality, tenderness and longing, family and the individual. It reminds us, masterfully, about the irrevocable force of love and physical passion even in the face of brutality." –Indian novelist Namita Gokhale[10]
The novel received many critical reviews[10] and is seen by many as a departure from northern Nigeria's norm, with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle describing the author as a northern Nigerian "literary provocateur"[11] for daring to speak openly about female sexuality, breaking a taboo in the deeply conservative northern Nigeria.
As the theme of the novel centers around the sexual emancipation of Hajiya Binta, who lives in a society where women are denied the right to sexual desire and certain activities, the book has drawn interest and reviews from many women writers and feminist activists, including Indian writer Namita Gokhale, Sudanese author Leila Aboulela,[10] Ivorian novelist Veronique Tadjo, and United Kingdom-based writer Zoë Wicomb, the inaugural winner of the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize.[12]
Ibrahim has been asked many times whether the story reflects details from his own life, given the circumstances of the characters and the setting, but he has always maintained that although he was at one time compelled to relocate from Jos due to the violence, similar to Hajiya Binta, he was "conscious not to write him[self] into the story".[13] However, he did think a fatwa would be issued against it after the book's release,[1] alluding to the binding opinion issued by Islamic scholars on something deemed to be sacrilegious to Islam or popular norms.
In September 2016 the book was shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature, Africa's biggest literary prize.[14] On 12 October 2016, Ibrahim was announced as the winner for Season of Crimson Blossoms, beating Elnathan John's Born on a Tuesday and past winner Chika Unigwe's Night Dancer, the two other finalists from the initial 173 nominated books.[9]
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