Literature
Former editor of ?The Write Stuff?, Mallam Ibrahim Sheme, has lost his wife, Binta S. Muhammed. She died on 4th May 2009, after a protracted illness. She died while returning from Egypt, where she was flown for treatment. A lecturer in the English Department of Bayero University, Kano, Binta is a renown writer and literary activist. She is author of several books, including Contour of Life (poetry) and A Clean Break (novel), and co-founder of the Creative Writers Forum, a monthly meeting of authors supported by the British Council, Kano. She was on Study Fellowship to University of Abuja studying for her PhD in English Language.
She has since been buried in Kano, her hometown, according to Muslim rites.
She is survived by three children.
Her family home in Kofar Gadon Kaya, Kano, was a beehive as personalities from all walks of life trooped in to condole the family. Among the dignitaries was His Excellency, the Kano State Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau; Professor Abubakar Abdulrasheed, former Managing Director of New Nigerian Newspaper Limited and current Dean of Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Bayero University, Kano; and Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Leadership Newspaper, Sam Nda Isaiah.
The dignitaries prayed for the soul of the deceased.
Governor Shekarau prayed, "May her soul rest in peace and may Allah give her family the fortitude to bear the loss."
Her collegues in the literary circle also sent in their condolences.
Dr. Adamu Yusuf, lecturer in the Geography Department of Bayero University, Kano, who announced the death on the writers? listservs, josana and krizitivity, prayed, "we missed her dearly and pray to God to grant her soul eternal rest."
Barrister Ahmed Maiwada, Abuja-based legal practitioner and legal adviser to Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, prayed that "the departed receive pardon and the coveted prize of paradise."
Patrick Oguejiofor, member of the Abuja chapter of ANA also prayed, "may the soul of the departed find rest with God. And may God grant the husband and those she left behind the fortitude to bear the tragic loss."
Obi Nwanyawu, the US-based writer, recalled his first and only meeting with the deceased. "We were together in a writers? workshop in Maiduguri in 1995 and we never met again."
He then condoled her husband, Ibrahim Sheme, their children, and their entire family members. "May Allah in His infinite mercy grant her eternal rest."
The chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of ANA, Friday John Abba, described the incidence as a loss to the literary community. He prayed God to have mercy on her soul.
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Literature
Former 'Write Stuff' editor loses wife
Former editor of ?The Write Stuff?, Mallam Ibrahim Sheme, has lost his wife, Binta S. Muhammed. She died on 4th May 2009, after a protracted illness. She died while returning from Egypt, where she was flown for treatment. A lecturer in the English Department of Bayero University, Kano, Binta is a renown writer and literary activist. She is author of several books, including Contour of Life (poetry) and A Clean Break (novel), and co-founder of the Creative Writers Forum, a monthly meeting of authors supported by the British Council, Kano. She was on Study Fellowship to University of Abuja studying for her PhD in English Language.She has since been buried in Kano, her hometown, according to Muslim rites.
She is survived by three children.
Her family home in Kofar Gadon Kaya, Kano, was a beehive as personalities from all walks of life trooped in to condole the family. Among the dignitaries was His Excellency, the Kano State Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau; Professor Abubakar Abdulrasheed, former Managing Director of New Nigerian Newspaper Limited and current Dean of Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Bayero University, Kano; and Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Leadership Newspaper, Sam Nda Isaiah.
The dignitaries prayed for the soul of the deceased.
Governor Shekarau prayed, "May her soul rest in peace and may Allah give her family the fortitude to bear the loss."
Her collegues in the literary circle also sent in their condolences.
Dr. Adamu Yusuf, lecturer in the Geography Department of Bayero University, Kano, who announced the death on the writers? listservs, josana and krizitivity, prayed, "we missed her dearly and pray to God to grant her soul eternal rest."
Barrister Ahmed Maiwada, Abuja-based legal practitioner and legal adviser to Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, prayed that "the departed receive pardon and the coveted prize of paradise."
Patrick Oguejiofor, member of the Abuja chapter of ANA also prayed, "may the soul of the departed find rest with God. And may God grant the husband and those she left behind the fortitude to bear the tragic loss."
Obi Nwanyawu, the US-based writer, recalled his first and only meeting with the deceased. "We were together in a writers? workshop in Maiduguri in 1995 and we never met again."
He then condoled her husband, Ibrahim Sheme, their children, and their entire family members. "May Allah in His infinite mercy grant her eternal rest."
The chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of ANA, Friday John Abba, described the incidence as a loss to the literary community. He prayed God to have mercy on her soul.
Pictures:
1. Gov. Shekarau (right) in a handshake with Sheme during the condolence visit
2. L - R: Badamasi Burji, Sheme and Isaiah during the condolence visit
(c) Reported by SUMAILA UMAISHA and Published in the New Nigerian of 9th May, 2009.
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?I saw them coming, I saw them through the tiny window of the cell; the hangman and a wardress, and I thought the hour had come. But as they opened the door and came in another wardress hurried in and shouted; ?that?s not her file!?? That was Mairo,...
- The Write Stuff Bags Media Merit Award
The Write Sutff, the weekly literary column edited by Sumaila Umaisha in the New Nigerian Weekly, has once again brought garlands to the stable of New Nigerian Newspapers when it was conferred with a Media Merit Award for sustained excellence. The award...
- Kano Censorship Crisis: Far From Over (report)
Kano is arguably one of the most vibrant states in Nigeria in terms of literary output. None compares to it in Hausa arts and literature. The commercial nerve-centre of the North is also legendary for intellectual debates among writers and scholars on...
- Umaisha - "new Nigerian Weekly Has Come A Long Way" (interview)
SUMAILA ISAH UMAISHA who is currently the literary editor of the New Nigerian Weekly is one of the pioneer staff of the paper. Our reporter, JOHN EWAOCHE GABRIEL, interviewed him, as the paper clocks ten. NNW: Sir, when did you assume the role of the...
- Umaisha Wins Literary Journalist Of The Year Award (report)
Literary Page Editor of New Nigerian Weekly, Malam Sumaila Umaisha, has won the 2007 ANA/Anyiam-Osigwe Literary Journalist of the Year Award. This was announced at the 26th International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), which...