For about a week, a new song, “Fatima Mai Zogale” performed by a veteran Hausa praise-singer, Dauda Adamu Kahutu, famously known as Rarara, has been trending across northern Nigeria’s social media space.
Here are five things you need to know about the subject of the song, Fatima Mai Zogale:
Origin
Fatima Mai Zogale whose full name is Fatima Aliyu was born in a village in Kaduna state more than two decades ago. She’s an only child to her mother, though she has many step siblings.
Marriage
Ms Fatima was once married in Minna, the capital of Niger state, where she had one child before her husband died. She’s a widow with an orphan child that stays with her aged mother.
Life challenges
Fatima Aliyu says she had struggled with many challenges after her husband’s death. She had ventured into many trades in order to make ends meet.
She says she had sold tomatoes, pepper and onions and later became a hairstylist as part of struggles to make a living.
Also read: ‘Fatima Mai Zogale’: How Rarara’s song caused trouble between Abuja food vendor, maid
Fame
Ms Fatima, (Fatima Mai Zogale) who was an obscure woman, working as an apprentice to a food vendor in Abuja, FCT, catapulted to fame after meeting ace Hausa praise-singer, Mr Rarara, who visited her food joint, where he bought a moringal leaves meal.
Just a day after meeting Mr Rarara, who she says she had been wanting to meet all her life, the musician released a song “Fatima Mai Zogale”, to honour her.
The song, which is still trending on social media like wildfire, brought wild attention to Ms Fatima, who has virtually turned into a local celebrity.
However, it was not all rosy, as Ms Fatima’s employer sacked her from her job, allegedly because her name was not included in Ms Fatima’s song.
Also, Ms Fatima says she has faced another challenge from her landlord, who raised her rent from N40,000 to N70,000 less than 24 hours after listening to the song made for her.
But Mr Rarara, who hosted Ms Fatima to a grand reception in Kano, has since promised to empower her with a capital and a place to re-start her moringa leaves business in order to become independent.
Expectations
Ms Fatima says Mr Rarara’s song has brought unprecedented personal success to her, despite the small setbacks she faced.
She reveals that she hopes to get married to her longtime boyfriend, whose planned marriage with her was postponed apparently due to financial pressures.
However, Ms Fatima says she wishes to maintain her private life with less publicity and friends.
“I just want to settle down in my business and pray that Allah helps me through,” she says in an interview with a radio station.
