Bintu Part 1 Complete Hausa Novel

She was a seventeen-year-old girl, and one look at her was enough to tell she had been raised in the village. She was dressed in a long, loose Ankara gown. The modern tailoring fit her perfectly. Instead of properly covering herself with her headscarf, she had merely covered her hair and let the ends hang around her neck, tying them there. Her face was bright and bare, without even a trace of makeup, and this made the displeasure on her face stand out clearly.
As far as she was concerned, life in the city was too restrictive. Mami had forbidden her from wearing even powder on her face. In her own view, she was old enough to be dressing up, attracting boys, and mingling with them like the other girls she had left behind in the village. But instead, her life was being burdened with Western education, which she hated, not to mention the Islamic school her aunt already forced her to attend.
She clicked her tongue just as she reached Mami’s grand sitting room for receiving visitors, where she had come to call Anti Asma’u, just as Mami had instructed her. But then she stopped short when she saw Anti Asma’u sitting with Yaya Ma’aruf beside her, the two of them talking in low voices.
Her eyes widened when she noticed how relaxed Yaya Ma’aruf looked. He kept smiling so broadly that his teeth could not stay hidden. She glanced at the distance between the two lovers, and there was hardly any distance at all. Even the way they sat together was improper.
“Tch! There is shamelessness in the city,” she muttered under her breath.
She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when she saw Yaya Ma’aruf take Anti Asma’u’s hand. Quickly, she covered her mouth with her hand and pressed herself even closer behind the thick curtain in the sitting room, which kept them from seeing her. Still, they did not notice her movement at all.
Surprisingly, Anti Asma’u did not even seem bothered. Instead, she kept laughing, almost leaning into him.
That was when she suddenly stepped out from her hiding place.
“Innalillahi!” she exclaimed loudly, placing her hands on her head.
Startled, they both turned to look at her; they had not heard her at all. Ma’aruf let out an annoyed hiss. Honestly, he could not stand the girl. She had no home training.
As for her, she had already begun stepping backward to leave, but as if he knew exactly what she intended, he quickly got up and seized her.
She shut her eyes tightly. “Oh no, I’m in trouble! Please Yaya Ma’aruf, forgive me—”
“Shii!” he cut her off, placing two fingers over his lips.
He glared at her, his face dark and tense, while Anti Asma’u had already stood up, pulled her veil around herself, and adjusted it properly. Her whole body was trembling. She was terribly afraid of Yaya Ma’aruf, because he never involved himself in her affairs at all. She preferred Yaya Rufa’i a thousand times over him. They were also much closer.
When he crouched down in front of her, she became even more flustered. She looked once at his face, then quickly shifted her gaze to Anti Asma’u, who was already trying to leave the sitting room in a hurry, clearly embarrassed that Bintu had seen them together.
Then he grabbed her ear tightly, and she let out a small cry. Her legs began trembling as she squeezed her eyes shut from the pain.
“Ow! Please forgive me, Yaya, I swear I won’t do it again.”
“How long have you been spying on us?”
She had already started crying. She made little jumps in pain, but he did not let her go. With difficulty, she shook her head and answered in a tearful voice, “I wasn’t spying on you. Mami sent me to call Anti Asma’u, I swea—”