Utvandringens tid : Kolonialismens variga sår och orientalistiskt begär

This paper is an analysis of the novel Season of Migration to The North by Tayeb Salih. Season of Migration to The North was first published in 1967 and it is the most accomplished among several works in modern Arabic literature. I shall focus on one of the two major characters, Mustafa Said, a young Sudanese student whose brilliant career at school in Sudan and Cairo eventually brings him to England; he has a successful academic career in England as a lecturer at the University of London. One of the major themes of the novel is the confrontation between Mustafa Said and England, which in other terms is described as the confrontation between East and West. The conflict is rooted in colonialism. Mustafa Said’s native country, Sudan, was a British colony when the story takes place. It is a period marked by war, oppression and colonial violence. Hence Mustafa Said comes to England as a conqueror and invader. The confrontation is mainly depicted through Mustafa’s relationships with a number of English women. These relationships are nothing less than complex and they symbolize the clash of two cultures within a Western context. My main purpose is to more closely examine the relationship between Mustafa Said and the English women. In these relationships an important part is played by the stereotypes; the women see Mustafa as an object of their “oriental desire”. This is something he is well aware of but chooses to use the stereotype of himself as the typical Arab-African male, (so as) to seduce and “conquer” the women. In this context the term “orient/oriental” references Edward Said’s theoretical definition as described in his book Orientalism. Questions that will be raised in this paper are: what (is the composition of) the relationships between Mustafa Said and the English women. How does Mustafa Said construct an “oriental identity”, what role does the female body play in the relationships? These questions will all be discussed through a postcolonial perspective. One of the central features of postcolonial theory is an examination of the impact and continuing legacy of the European conquest, colonization and domination of non-European lands, peoples and cultures. What is also central to this critical examination is an analysis of the ideas of European superiority over non-European peoples and cultures that such imperial colonization implies. I will be referencing the postcolonial theories of Edward Said in Orientalism but my main focus will be on Black Skin, White Mask by Frantz Fanon, which is a psychological analysis of colonialism