Her name is Farida Ado and she’s making power moves. The Nigeria author referred to as ‘Kano’s Jane Austen has made TIME’s 2018 “Next Generation Leaders” List.
Farida Ado who writes her book in Hausa-is the author of six books featuring forbidden romance, polygamy and inter-generational drama. According to Time, her novels reflect the daily concerns and preoccupations of her contemporaries: how to get along with the multiple step-siblings from your father’s several wives; how to deal with a new, younger wife in your home; how to maintain family harmony while striving for independence; and what to do (or not do) about a husband’s infidelity.
Her recent series, The Block of Ashes, was inspired by a neighbor who went to a Nigerian juju priest hoping dark magic could help with her marital problems, to devastating results. “I try to reflect the reality of society in my stories,” she says. “These juju doctors had become a menace in many homes.”
Ado’s books, printed locally on cheap pulp, are not likely to be translated into English anytime soon. But to Nigeria’s Hausa-speaking population of 30 million, Kano’s Jane Austen has many more stories to tell.
Culled from TIME
