With her debut prose, ‘Not So Terrible People’, author and communication strategist, Nana Sule, said her aim is to make other cultures of northern Nigeria visible and accessible to her readers.
This she does by featuring stories from her childhood, as a means of showcasing the vast and rich cultures, traditions, and belief systems of northern Nigeria.
“The belief in other invisible beings called Djinn who live amongst us, but are not out to hurt us, draws from the Islamic mythology. We had an incident where a woman suddenly began to speak in a masculine voice, and it took really strong men to hold her down. Or stories we were told as children to cover your head so djinns don’t go through your head. These are just a part of our tradition.”
“I was, in a way, tired of all we knew about Nigeria and of our childhood experiences, being one-dimensional. So, I wanted to bring this other aspect, these other experiences from the north to the fore, to pique people’s curiosity.”
She also set the record straight on not being the first northern woman to write fantasy or speculative fiction. Rather, her book offers this genre of fiction in a language that is more accessible to the Nigerian public.
“A lot of authors, women included, have written speculative fictions featuring talking parrots, djinns, spatial travelling, but in the Hausa language. It is only that there is a language barrier. What I am doing, though it is just a drop in the ocean, is putting the stories out there.”
A collection of connected short stories, ‘Not So Terrible People’ borrows ideas and subjects like Djinns, Angels, Ghouls, from the Islamic mythology and theology, as well as from Sule’s own Igbirra culture, to explore human complexity, and the concept that no one is entirely evil, but can do terribly evil things.
“I believe in the complexity of humans. This is because a person could be seen as terrible by one person, yet viewed as the best person that ever lived by another person. Even bandits have people who support them, their families, for example. In the towns they have ransacked, they have killed people. However, those who survived the attack are grateful because they are protected from other bandits.
“I want to make that distinction that a person can do terrible things, and should face the resulting consequences. I, however, wish that we could all approach things with an understanding that there is room for redemption. A redemption that is not without consequences.”
Published in May 2025 by Masobe Books, the novel took Sule seven to eight years to publish.
“I don’t think publishing is something that should be rushed. It happens when it happens. You should let the stories marinate. For me, the journey to publication brings a lot of things into play. It’s about the timing, the book itself, and the vision of the publishers.
I guess it was just the time for it.”
Presently, the author is working on another fiction that she is keeping closely to her chest. She, however, admitted that her motivation for writing changes over time.
“I want to tell the stories I grew up around, stories from my own Igbirra homeland, hence, you see the characters bearing Igbirra names. For this book in particular, I was moved by the Abuja-Kaduna train track. I wanted desperately to feature that in the book. That need pushed me to write this book. And I am glad I did.”
