Meet SoulUnraveled

Dear Hopefuls,

Our hopeful for this week is Zainab Sabeeha Hussain (SoulUnraveled) 

Zainab Sabeeha Hussain | SoulUnraveled |

Poet; SoulUnraveled, Rising From The Ashes | Medical Student | Writer | Activist | 

For her poems, do visit: @SoulUnraveled on Instagram

Purchase her anthology on Amazon or at Tarbiya Book Plus (21, Blantyre Street Off Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent. Wuse 2, Abuja )

We share with you our review of her work.

The Three Abstractions

A Review of SoulUnravelled by OurSharedHope

SoulUnraveled means a lot to readers. On Wednesday just recently I learnt of the three abstractions of life and this became my flashlight in writing this review. I would now try to explain SoulUnraveled according to these three abstractions: Love, Time and Death.

LOVE

Love is the fabric of life and I wish it upon everyone  – May you find the truest of love – I see love as the core of SoulUnraveled, you can see it in every piece of Art she has ever produced. It is there in the lovers eyes

 – When she wrote

“I’ve always been a hopeless romantic

I believe in love

The sacrificial love;

The love that bends for the other; both ways…”

You can see it and I dare say feel it even in pain for sometimes love comes with pain

 – remember this poem where at the middle it says

“…You took my wings and clipped it

Doused my flames,

Extinguishing the embers…”

 – Or this one

“…But darling, I would do it all over again

Feel the butterflies

Hold your hand

Laugh from my heart

…

Feel the pain as it tears me apart

But I will not fall apart

I will live and learn and love

I live a life of no regrets,

I love a love with no regrets

It is there even when she drifts to topics of hope and pride

 – try recalling

“…my eyes carry the wisdom of my ancestors;

The horrors they’ve seen,

The nightmares they’ve lived.

…

We have been tried, tested, sold, fucked, bent, burnt, broken

It is an honor to be called black

Just see us now.

Every piece of Art called poetry that Sabeeha Hussain under SoulUnraveled has produced has been able to capture the definition of poetry we all can agree on: That poetry is the spontaneous flow of emotions

When I first came across SoulUnraveled it was with a poem caption titled “A Letter to My Mother” and what struck me was the braveness of the poet, how the poet dared say so much. Then I went on to stalk her by reading the 20 or so poems already uploaded. It was only then that I realized, she has been the poet I longed for because all those poems got to me

– She was “my” bright light

In this ill-lit world.

Some of us at a point say to love – Dear Love, Goodbye – because maybe it let us down. You see, we get hurt in love, most of us here if not all have fallen in love so deeply and been hurt so badly that we thought and swore never to love again. My deepest love wasn’t my last because it didn’t last, we broke up but it taught me that true love never dies, it only fades

 – Wait; there is a SoulUnravelled poem similar to that

“If I could regret anything;

It wouldn’t be fallen in love,

Or meeting him

…

But I regret

The chances I didn’t take

…the pride I should have cast away

 – But it also proved to me what Sabeeha once wrote

“Don’t break a writer’s heart,

They’ll write books about you,

Immortalize your story

Recount every moment

Your love will live on

…

Tread carefully with a writer.

…a writer is everything all at once.

You see SoulUnraveled is the modern day Art; it is a mirror for not just the 21^st century kid that does weird things such as Snap chat and Twitter but for anyone who got a chance to look.

 SoulUnraveled defines Love in its own unique way.

Zainab Sabeeha Hussain

TIME

Some believe that time is an illusion and I understand time as people, cultures and history.

 – On the 9^th of April, Sabeeha posted a poem

“Where are the dreamers?

The ones living in a world of theirs’

Crossing mountains, swimming seas.

The rebels; rule breakers

…

The crazy ones; that dare to believe

The misfits; red flowers in white gardens.

Forever ceasing to blend with crowds

…

Keep howling against social norms,

Let the echo be heard centuries to come.”

To those born in 2004, Dubai represents a normal city at most an Arabian paradise but to someone born in the 90’s and 80’s Dubai represents how dreamers have made impossible just a word.

Literature from poetry to prose to drama tells of time in its entirety

 – Try reading

Shake sphere’s King Henry IV

 – Or watching

Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu

 – Or feel poetry when Nicklaus speaks on The Originals

Through poetry, Sabeeha Hussian tells of the time she finds herself – a time of Sexual assault, killings, terrorism, and a time of depression, discrimination and segregation – you see this is evident in her poems

 – I’m sure you’ve read once in time

“They say I over exaggerate sexual crimes

…

Tell that to screams late at night

To tears at moments of flashbacks

Tell that to panic attacks at intimate times

To every survivor; relating to this

Tell me again how sexual abuse, rape, molestation, violence and assault are overrated”

 – Or this poem

“See I know over thinking is a disease

I am afflicted by it

I think about failing sometimes

…

My momma says I need to have more confidence in myself.

If only it were that easy.”

 – Or my favorite

“In a world where Blacks are killed

Just for that; Belonging to a race

Muslims are being labeled; Terrorists

For practicing the religion of peace

Where women are held back

Keep them in place

Where they are said to belong

…

I am strong, I am me, I am proud

I am a Black Muslim Woman”

 – Or this one

“My childhood was full of trying to fit in

I remember being too fair for some kids

Fascination drawing them to me

They begged to touch my hair

…

They threw the occasional “you’re not like us” at me

…

I remember being too dark for some kids

They teased and mocked me

…

They cleaned their hands when they touched my skin

Wrinkled their noses at my hair;

Too curly, too frizzy, too African”

 – remember the slavery poem?

“Forcing us into marriage is slavery

Cutting off our genitailia is slavery

…

Beating us like dogs is slavery

Financial imprisonment is slavery

…

We have prayed for it

Now watch us fight for it”

Take a look at the poems of Sabeeha under SoulUnraveled, it tells of two of this three abstractions and I’m going to tell you of the third abstraction; Death.

DEATH

“Oh this man will be the death of me”

Wrote SoulUnraveled in an erotic poem she published on her blog: beehassain.wordpress.com

I appreciate that Sabeeha has no death poems - at least none that I’ve come across – it is always good to focus on the living for there are many things wrong in our society. Death is a foreign concept, none of us understands it, none of us can explain it, and we rely on faith to do that.

Everyone dies but not writers for their works live on forever. My teacher said to our class sometime: try to leave good impressions in the hearts of people you meet so that when they remember they bless you. Fine literature leaves good impressions and so when we remember SoulUnravelled or Sabeeha, we are sure to bless her.

Our Prayer is that she joins the Association of Nigerian Authors sometime soon, that all of the world gets a copy of her work and that it takes her to greater heights. 

Her poetry should definitely be read everywhere - in schools and at home – for she represents the future of Northern Nigerian Literature. Take away the errors and the clichés and you will find the perfect debut for such a mind blowing talent. SoulUnraveled is packed with one of the greatest gifts of life – Art

Zainab Sabeeha Hussain,

You have with these poems proved yourself a feminist and a poet of immeasurable talent and we are proud to have had the opportunity of being around you. Please don’t fade away, keep on writing no matter what happens for this is your truth. Write more and more and more and more for we are always eager to read it.

Thank you.

-OurSharedHope

December 2017

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From us here at OurSharedHope, we say thank you and stay hopeful.