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Essay / Colonialism and Character Development in the Season of Northern Migration
Tayeb Salih's Season of Northern Migration was first published in 1969 and has become considered exceptional in its genre. Originally written in Arabic, the book has notable parallels with Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, to which many consider it a response. However, Season of Migration to the North does not seek to define itself by other literary works, but rather by providing a unique commentary on the colonial experience in Africa. Written about Sudan by a Sudanese author, it offers extraordinary insight into the world it seeks to describe. To provide this insight, Salih uses the character of Mustafa Sa'eed (hereafter referred to as MS), in conjunction with the anonymous narrator, to demonstrate how colonialism disrupted the balance, albeit imperfect, present in Africa before the involvement European, and how he hopes it will be restored. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay The story of MS, who takes center stage at the beginning of the narrative, begins in his childhood years, when he is still only a blank page, or “blank slate”, on which life and the prejudices of the world have not yet written anything. From a young age, MS showed none of the typical child personality or charm and interacted with his mother as if they were "strangers on the road", brought together by little more than circumstance (Salih 19). This sense of isolation further contributes to one's lack of character definition and is an important feature of colonialism, which cleverly divides people and separates them internally, leaving them incapable of resistance or opposition. Instead, the colonized (and MS) are solitary and "rounded, [as if] made of rubber", so as not to be further damaged by the trauma inflicted on the world as they knew it ( 20). MS soon leaves to go to school in Cairo, which he considers an escape from the intellectual imprisonment of his native village and a real “turning point in [his] life” (21). Essentially, MS rejects his own experiences of Africa, intact. by the effects of colonization, it seems, in favor of anglicized strangers. This desire for solitude, both physical and cultural, is particularly apparent as MS continues his journey, this time departing from Cairo for England. He finds undeniable peace when “the blue horizon encircles” his ship and “the sea swallows the shore,” leaving him perfectly alone in every way (26). MS “enjoys this feeling of being nowhere… before and behind [him] either eternity or nothingness” (27). As Césaire suggests in his Discourse on Colonialism, the colonial system involuntarily fosters such feelings of discontent and dissatisfaction, as if the situation before was no longer sufficient. It leaves the colonized wanting more – in education, health care or infrastructure for example – and then refuses to provide those things. MS finds himself lucky in that he has the opportunity to satisfy these desires. However, he discovers that his thirst is never truly quenched. By pursuing these nameless and perhaps indefinable desires, MS becomes something other than himself, as if practicing manipulating his own identity before irrevocably and detrimentally altering those of others. Rather than presenting an authentic personality to those he meets in England, he invents a persona intended to appeal to the Western desire for exoticism and difference. In this way, he indelibly modifies the picture of his life, defining himself through fantasycosmopolitan of "Africa" and rejecting the value of simple living, rooted in truth (although he would come to appreciate its value later in life) in favor of serving as "a symbol of all [desires] Europeans],” a depiction of “tropical climates, cruel suns [and] purple horizons” (30). However, the attribution of such stereotypical images of MS is little more than a perpetuation of these symbols, even if they are adopted by MS. It diverts the reader's attention to the unfortunately still present Western objectification of the concept of "Africa", a treatment of it not as an entire continent, filled with diverse and unique cultures, but rather as an entity unique with the attraction of the unknown and the different. “Mustafa the African” is a construct of the Western imagination, a conscious manipulation of European expectations strategically employed in order to insinuate itself into English society without challenging its tropes. Salih uses MS's actions and characterization in England to demonstrate how "the interaction between the Islamic Arab world and Western European civilization is determined by illusions" (Shaheen 162). MS embodies these “lies and fantasies” and effortlessly attracts English women with this intentional primitiveness (Shaheen 169). To the women MS meets and becomes involved with, he presents himself as Othello, a character steeped in the archaic. ideas of race and immense tragedy, but perhaps more importantly, marked connotations of sexual vitality (Salih 38). His choice of Othello, and his sharing in that choice as a means of emotional manipulation, ironically foreshadows his own self-inflicted demise. He imitates Othello in life, as both are overcome by lies, and ultimately in death as well. MS's various relationships with English women, however, are relevant beyond the Shakespearean parallels. Before his eventual downfall, he attracts many with “his world…of burning sandalwood and incense,” primitive and raw and decidedly sexual (35). MS makes these relationships a form of revenge, because "colonization is incarnated in [him] as a germ born from European violence... a thousand years ago", part of a cycle which, according to him, must be supplemented and balanced by inflicting “violent reprisals” on these English women (Shaheen 160). He forms destructive and abusive relationships with them in a strange continuation of colonial history where the roles are reversed. Instead of allowing himself to be integrated into his new environment, MS chooses the role of colonizer, truly acting as a "black Englishman" by forcing the women with whom he has sexual relations to conform to his own preferences and choices (Salih 53). . . He attempts to turn the tables against them, and by extension the British imperialists, by exerting physical and emotional dominance in every relationship. This practice, as unhealthy as it is, has for some time encountered little resistance from the women concerned. It is only when Jean Morris enters his life that he begins to question this life of self-satisfaction, lived by a person who is not real. Jean Morris, with whom MS falls in love “against [his] will,” subjects him to degradation, just as he had made previous women slaves to his will (156). She challenges his dominance, which has never met resistance before, and forces him to acknowledge his emotions, something “Mustafa the African” does not do. Experiencing “ignominy, loneliness, and loss” is unnatural for MS and triggers an identity conflict that marriage to Jean Morris only exacerbates (159). He finds himself in her, and there follows his own ruin in her too. Identity 49-50).