Ten Years Without My Malama

God, it is TEN years! It feels like ten days ago. I lack the poetry, the prose, the drama or, indeed, the erudition, to describe the sense of loss, the nostalgia or the longing I have always felt over the loss of my wife, Binta. But I have always taken solace in the memory that hers was a life well spent in doing good to family, friends and humanity, and in the fact that our three children – Fadila, Nabil and Mubarak – are hale and hearty and doing well in school. 

Binta, may your soul continue to rest in peace as we keep praying to the almighty Allah to forgive your sins and reward you with Aljannatul Firdaws.

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Note to my friends: Binta S. Mohammed (Malama), a published poet and novelist, was a lecturer in the Department of English and European Languages, Bayero University, Kano, at the time of her death. She had just completed her PhD at the University of Abuja when the Final Decider came calling.

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