Guzray Din
By Hasan Manzar
Aqs Publications
ISBN 9789697312177
600pp.

Guzray Din (Days Gone By) is a hefty diary maintained by Hasan Manzar during his stay in Nigeria. It comprises four years from February 1964 to May 1968, first in northern Nigeria, and then western Nigeria. Although its content is purely non-fiction, the reader may find the mode of expression of the author quite amusing and dramatic. Sometimes it even gets scary. So scary that it is hard to imagine that all those four years were actually lived by the author.

Hasan Manzar is the pen name of Syed Manzar Hasan, who has been bestowed by numerous awards including the Maulvi Abdul Haq Literary Award and the Sitara-i-Imtiaz. A psychiatrist by profession, he was appointed by Unicef as a medical officer in Kaduna in North Nigeria.

Kaduna, a small city, was equipped with parks, clean and clear roads, libraries, cinemas and swimming pools, alongside the Kaduna River and its famous Lord Lugard Bridge, and was slow-paced and calm. Manzar readily found it up to his temperament.

In a few months, however, he was reappointed by Unicef as a rural medical officer and posted to the southernmost district of the northern province, in district Igala’s central town Idah, which was situated in the middle of a dense forest. In those times, it was devoid of electricity, cooking gas, petrol pumps, libraries or bookshops, cinemas or even parks. On top of that, having no fellow countrymen, or anyone who spoke the same language, was a bit too much to endure for the mild-tempered gentleman.

A diary of the experiences of a Pakistani doctor who worked in Nigeria for four years in the 1960s is both amusing and dramatic

The roads of Idah had no traffic. All vehicles or people there moved at their own pace. There was no hurry or rush. In Idah, Manzar’s main job was to find and help patients suffering from leprosy and the chronic skin infection yaws. He used to visit the markets of towns and villages on a weekly basis to look for them and have them undergo medical treatment in a way that did not hinder their normal work routines.

Besides the market places, patients suffering from skin diseases were also undergoing treatment at health centres, Christian missionary homes and convents.

Prostitution was very much present and practised quite openly, so much so that the women involved in the profession did not need to hide or withdraw from society. It was accepted as any other profession there. The living conditions, laws, customs and set beliefs of Idah were astonishing for Manzar.

In 1965, Manzar and his wife Dr Tahira Manzar were both appointed as assistant medical officers of health in Lagos. In their first term, they stayed in Ikoyi Island, where they used to see giant crabs emerging from the sea to enter their house, as if they were searching for something.

The bulk of the two ethnic groups Hausa and Fulani are concentrated in northern Nigeria. The Fulani brought Islam with them. It was a great factor in the social life and culture of the place. The author admired the cleanliness of northern Nigerians, their desire for education and their strong moral and religious values.

In their second term, they lived in Apapa, on the mainland. Manzar’s office was in Ebute Metta and the hospital was in Yaba. Life was easier in Lagos. The family not only rejoiced at the availability of basic necessities, but were also happy to find there lots of fellow Pakistanis, along with many Indians and Bangladeshis too.

Although his stay in northern Nigeria’s different states, towns or villages were not very long, Manzar has praised the north Nigerians at length, for they acknowledged the difference between right and wrong. They possessed civic sense and this resulted in no street crime reported there.

The bulk of the two ethnic groups Hausa and Fulani are concentrated in northern Nigeria. The Fulani brought Islam with them. It was a great factor in the social life and culture of the place. The author admired the cleanliness of northern Nigerians, their desire for education and their strong moral and religious values.

For example, if one had not locked the main gate of one’s house before going out, it meant that the house had been given in the protection of Allah Almighty. No one dared enter the house to steal or for any other misdeeds; it was the other way around for houses that were locked.

While commuting in Idah or during long drives to other cities or towns for purchasing groceries, Manzar witnessed that river banks and natural water reservoirs were used openly for bathing by both men and women, who respectfully kept to their side of the bank. There were no indecent incidents. Moreover, anyone passing them by in their cars or buses might have even got a high five from both the men or women while they were in the water.

Manzar starts his book with the mention of two men, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Ibrahim Bello and Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who were major figures in northern Nigeria’s pre-independence politics. During his stay in Nigeria, he lived through a civil war, witnessed the emergence of a new individual country from Nigeria, the Republic of Biafra, two major coups and a counter coup d’etat. His diary is testament to all that he experienced during that time.

The reviewer writes short fiction in Urdu and
is currently working on her first novel

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, October 15th, 2023