During a conversation, Michael Imossan, while highlighting the relevancy of heightened language in poetry, noted that sometimes you read a prose work and feel a high sense of poetry therein. Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s work conveys this sense. While reading through his book, Season of Crimson Blossoms, I was nostalgic for his collection of short stories, Dream and Assorted Nightmares, which was set in the fantasy land of Zango in Northern Nigeria, and his recent evergreen tale of the tragic lives of Yarima Lalo in When We Were Fireflies. Returning to his visit to Sokoto during the Sokoto Book and Art Festival 2023, Abubakar, in response to a question on whether he is or was a poet, said he is just a lover of beautiful exploration of language in works.
In 2016, Season of Crimson Blossoms was awarded the 2016 Nigeria Prize for Literature, a fitting accolade for the book’s heightened use of language. Abubakar, through vivid imagination coupled with accurate narration and figurative exploration, displays his in-depth knowledge of language, as well as his mastery of writing, by weaving each word like a master weaver in the art of weaving. You can sense this through some of the lines in the book, and it is not limited to the following:
“Reza heard the noise—music riding on the back of the evening breeze into the ears of passersby—from some distance” (Metaphors —Page 166)
“His footfall sounded of the terrazzo, echoing the emptiness of the large building”. (Imageries —Page 184)
“This time, their silence was heavy, and they felt its immensity pressing down on their shoulders.” (Personification —Page 193)
“The night breathed.” (Personification —Page 189)
“….dreams can be dainty and beautiful, like butterflies, and just as fragile.” (Simile —Page 290)
Also, in an earlier examination of the importance of Nigerian proverbs and folklore in the exploration of language in literature, Ayobami Kayode, during a panel discussion at the recently concluded Sokoto Book and Art Festival 2024, drew attention to the centrality of proverbs and folklore as pivotal in assessing Nigerian literature. He remarked, “If Nigerian contemporary writers can approach their native lingual in regards to their writing, they would understand and harness the beauty of each Nigerian proverb and folklore in their works”.
This could be also said for the novel as each epigraph starting a new chapter epitomizes the strength and depth of an evocative ancient text in solicitation of the beauty that often strikes the core of modern African literary writings. The writer invokes through these epigraphs the beauty of proverbs in regard to their importance in modern society. With expressions such as “a snake can shed its skin, but it will still remain a serpent”, “The sight of dark clouds should not make one throw away the water in the pitcher.”, “An elephant’s tusks are never too heavy for it to carry”, “Only a stupid blind man picks a quarrel with his guide”, “The search for a black goat should start way before nightfall”, “A snail will never claim to have horns where rams are gathered”, “The chicken is never declared in the court of hawks”, the writer bridges the gap between African contemporary literature and ancient African literature. The iterative reference to these proverbs in each chapter highlights it as fundamental to the progression of the readers’ curiosity and careful exploration of various events that will unravel the mystery of their curiosity.
Like how sadness will always bloom where it should not be felt, same way love, too, like sadness is a weed. Abubakar also highlights the frailty of love amidst communal expectations. Pain, lust, and love, like an intertwined thread, are in flux between both protagonists. Thus, to be candid, one could say these three emotions are like a cycle; a continuous recycling of each other, and constant change. Yet for all the end product of these emotions, the writer gives us the beauty of language, or rather, the language of beauty.
Season of Crimson Blossoms takes us through the complicated love story of Reza, who became a thug after his innocence was left to wither by the agony of life, and Hajia Binta, a widow, who lost his son and husband to the violence of faith in Jos. The story not only explores the romanticism between both characters, but also their complications and the influence of society, especially the northern belief on such a kind of relationship.
The story as we travail through the life of each character is ekphrastic, yet with a twist, as it befits Abubakar’s storytelling which stretches beyond the precipice of mere imagination. The story, reinscribing other societal issues, features the character of Hureira, Binta’s daughter, who is constantly unsettled in her marriage. It also features the separation of Babale Mairago and Maimuna, who are the parents of Reza; depression as displayed by Faiza, who is horrified by the trauma of the tragic loss of her brother; and conflagration of faith and ethnicity which led to the massacre of innocent lives, including Zubairu, who identified as Binta’s husband. Finally, it highlights the exploitation of criminal elements in society by the higher authority and corrupt politicians, as peculiar to ASP Dauda Baleri and Senator Maikudi, respectively.
With the exploration of all these personal and political mayhem that could be identified in this contemporary society, one could say, this writer is an extrinsic observer of his immediate environment and the happenings around it.
Abubakar, mirroring the truth of the modern community in this story, also envisioned the harsh realities of his environment. Fulfilling the role of fossilizing his in-depth understanding of language, Abubakar, in his quest to create awareness through this story invites the reader to dwell between the past and present of Nigeria, especially the northern part of the country. While the writer as the mouthpiece of truth continues to explore the beauty of love and the maladies that each character suffers as they are trapped in its webs, the reader is left in a state of suspense waiting for the last blank page of every of his writing to fold out of their emptiness.
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