A REVIEW OF HANEEFAH ABDULRAHMAN'S "GONE SANITY" BY ABDULSALAM IBRAHEEM KEHINDE

*Gone Sanity: A Reappraisal of Haneefah's Outlet from A Contrastive Periodic Analysis And An Intricate Juxtaposition of Historical Composite.*

Haneefah's work, as many other African works, shall be broken into review typically from a three consecutive historical periods in Nigeria: pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods respectively, taking to account symbolism/satirism  as an analytical tool or tools. It's apposite to here strike the point that the analysis would be informed and underpinned by the antithetical positions and ideological gaps having been created over time by the divergent mindsets endorsed by the drivers of each period. And till date, the ideological gaps have become too wide to breed again as every of the phenomena which characterizes these devilish periods, most especially colonial era, have all boiled down to what Nigerians have woken up to consider as "songs of sorrow", social decadence, political deaths versus reincarnation, social upheavals,  intertribal cum religious intolerances, and a strong draconic and unbent "U" turn in the historical roundabouts of the nation - Nigeria. To this literature review, these three periods handle baton onto each other to have successfully crossed the marginal line of hypercomplex and uncontrollable losing disjunctions of which we Nigerians are not aware.

Thus, Haneefah's choice of narrative technique (second person techniques) instigates and represents the collective efforts of people as: writers, journalists, critics, historians, social analysts, anthropologists etc who have all undertaken some contrasted researche, and have all decided to tell the Nigerian governments both military and civilian (highly represented by the personality of the main character who is out of her mind) of the bad, worst, worse and every condemnable plus negative thing Nigeria as a nation has welcomed as a result of the underserved historical intervention of the colonial masters in the clustering building of this nation. On that note, the author believes Nigeria's government is out of her mind or has gone mad again, and the only beautiful way to bring her back into "sanity" is to tell her how the collapses have come about, when and where the dooms originated, who to blame and probably how to overcome these sociopolitical paralyses setting the nation on the hungry inferno. The author is thereby commended for such demonstration to have taken a bold step further in figuring out "the troubles with Nigeria."

Not to digress, the grandma represents precolonial age, the parents whose attention the main character doesn't like to get symbolise colonial age, and the main character whose name wasn't mentioned represents post-colonial/independence age. By this view, the thoughts, roles, and actions of the main character go in line with the Nigerians, especially, the writers who strongly hold onto the fact that the architectural causes of the dooms besetting Nigeria could be easily traced down to the colonial era of which her "unworthy parents" represent. As the narrator says *"It has always been like that you and your parents live in worlds apart".* By this submission, one easily sees the generational clash of ideologies between what colonial perpetrators believed in, and conversely, what the post independence generation of revolutionists hold onto. By way of citing instances, the intertextual dialogue obtainable in Joseph Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_ and Chinua Achebe's _Things Fall Apart_ offers a better understanding of what these two generations believe and shall continue to believe of each other : while the former is portrayed to be an archetypal prophet of inhumanity and tribalistical orientation,  the latter is said to be " primitive and unproductive "!

From this stance, when the post-colonia young minds realise the "devils on the cross" (as the parents represent), they tend to make a diametrical finding and orchestrate the thrust that for justice, unity, goodness etc to come back to Africa/Nigeria, the first age/generation of which grandma represents ought to be brought back to bear - the philosophies of those great precolonial African men who thought as men of actions and subsequently acted as men of thoughts must be raised above the bar of devaluation, must be again re-enlivened, and repractised! And by that effort, Haneefah narrates, "she is still alive, we need to take her to hospital". This disproves the postulations that today's African life, as a colonial legacy, has blindfolded today's Nigerians that those so good a memory showcased by people as Elechi Amadi's _Concubine_ Soyink's _Death and the King's Horseman_ Ola Rotimi's _Kurumi_ Asare Konadu's _A Woman in Her Prime_ etc cannot be reinstated. Haneefah, just as Ngugi Wã Thiong'o, so much believes that Africans can still be African by religion, philosophy, politics etc only if colonial wrong orientations are collectively brought to a giant detribalized
crusade of which a certainty of our victory stands a wider chance of coming to lime light again. Thereby, Haneefah portraying the grandma as of 90 years of age whose celebration could have held the following day to her death day could be analysed as that our fore-African fathers would have broken the jinx of innovations in arts, sciences, politics and other respects if the old grandma (African first generation) had not drowned (I.e. if those great men had not been wiped off by colonial masters of the day). For this reason of a greater loss of a fast-approaching optimism and impending groundbreakings in the control of the universe, the narrator says, "you (post-colonia people) fainted from the shock of seeing your grandma fall". Hence, this is tantamount to the remorse/wailings post-independent writers carry over as a cross to be bored now and forever just as Jesus. A typical example of those drivers of revolution is Ngugi Wa Thiog'o who does not only denounce being called a Christian baptismal name but also stops writing in English. And in liue of this, Ngugi retains his African name and writes with Bantu language. This stands on the horizon of the post-independent African literature as a greatest demonstration of dislike and disquiet against the colonial madness otherwise tagged "civilization."

Going further, the symbolic characterization of Asabe, a friend to the main character, is so crucial to this literature body as, to my subjective implications, Asabe represents the "religion" Africans saw (as Achebe portrayed in _Things Fall Apart_) which makes them to run emotionally that they rejoice till an extent that  the nameless character "shouted...(to see her) grandmother *fell of the cliff and drowned when...(she) SCREAMED out of joy...."*  In another instance, it's the religion which most of them dream and hope to open-handedly embrace that trigger of the death (drowning) of their sense of togetherness, communalism, collectivity etc of which grandma still represents.

Thereby, Asabe's unwillingness to leave the main character despite the mental trauma and insanity her presence has caused so far is a psychosocial representation of the high extreme the colonial religion has driven us in Nigeria. That, the religion causes us a great number of moral diseases, name it religious prejudice, mental slavery, nepotism, vilification, intertribal/interreligious crises, discriminatory manifestation etc and yet, the religion still appears as ironically so caring to us because it has been attached onto our individual's emotions. By this, the main character has no choice but "to love her (Asabe/religion) more than your parents because she has always been there."

Yes! The main character would love Asabe/religion than even her parents/Africaness because the African gold has been exchanged for iron! Now, Haneefah proclaims how many individuals have refused and refuted the idea of "foreign religion" starting from the course of  nationalism down to the clarion calls for the massive exodus to be trod from colonial mindset down to precolonial's, as she narrates, "I think you should go home Asabe." But, the white people who are using religion to perpetrate disunity in Africa and across the globe will always devise novel ideational channels to ensure that religion retains its strong root here in Africa. For, the more it sustains our sympathy, and the more we lose our sense of focus and innovations. And that is why Asabe instantly rejects the suggestion and replies, "We will stay here till daybreak and I promise to be part of your gone sanity." What a deceit!

All in all, these clashes of ideas which have come from the past to affect our present time negatively can only be overcome once Africans fix fingers together, re-define themselves, and disclaim to be white by religion, idea, philosophy, and other ramifications of life. With this, the Haneefarian strong belief is that our hands will be loosen off the chains of imperialism, neocolonialism, and we will believe that this mental capacity where are into could easily be broken loose just as web could.

Reviewd by: Abdulsalam, Ibraheem Kehinde.
400level, Department of English and Literary Studies, ABU, Zaria.