Abulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea, is unique in its approach to the African literary terrain, choosing to address those issues which were previously silenced or unheard of. The novel begins with the first narrator Saleh Omar who has just arrived in England as an asylum seeker from Zanzibar. His journey as an elderly refugee into England under the name Rajaab Shabaan Mahmud sees him come into contact with an ‘expert’ of his area – Latif Mahmud. When their paths collide a bitter cross-generational dispute lays the foundation of the narrative, and in the process seduces the reader into utter complicity until the final words are uttered. Gurnah appears to position his characters in a narrative which interrogates deeply political experiences of East
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In remembering his life as a child Omar too recalls the marital passage many young girls underwent. When Omar thinks of a Zanzibari woman he imagines one who is “feeble”, thus connotative of being weak in strength, powerless and fragile against the forces of custom and religion which dictate their position in society. Women in Muslim society are therefore portrayed as devoiced and powerless, disappearing into non-existence “until they reappeared years later as brides and mothers” (146). R.W Connell (1987) considers power as a social construct in which individual deviations from the norm “are deeply embedded in power inequalities and ideologies of male supremacy” (Connell, 107). Thus, as a consequence of this severe gender inequality experienced in such communities, women like key female character Asha, Latif’s mother, often seek alternative modes empowerment, adopting what Connell (1987) terms as ‘emphasised …show more content…
However, this definition appears limiting, for Gurnah makes it too clear that this kind of sexual ascendancy applies to males as well, made apparent in the homo-sexual relationship between Hassan and Hussein. Kate Houlden (2013) note that “such figures also work to shore up gendered stereotypes, as Gurnah’s maligned homosexuals operate from a position of power, in contrast to those ‘passive’ women and men over whom they exert control” (Houlden, 2013: 92).Hussein “walked […] with a look of the world about him” (21), his mysteriousness stemming from his sea travels allows him to lull his victims into complacency. It also becomes clear that the “whimsical objects which he handed over […] a Chinese phrase book for [Latif], a rosary […]” (88), “and once a gleaming ebony table for Hassan” (96) draw the family in, and in particular Hassan who falls deeply in love with him. After he has seduced both mother and son into a subordination, as well as Saleh who admits after his dealings with Hussein fall through that he “too had been duped and seduced” (161), it is evident that his economic power and high social status grants him the power to exercise hegemonic masculinity, dominating over males and females both sexually and economically for his own personal gain. Therefore, Hussein becomes “The Assassin” (96), not only does his name take
In remembering his life as a child Omar too recalls the marital passage many young girls underwent. When Omar thinks of a Zanzibari woman he imagines one who is “feeble”, thus connotative of being weak in strength, powerless and fragile against the forces of custom and religion which dictate their position in society. Women in Muslim society are therefore portrayed as devoiced and powerless, disappearing into non-existence “until they reappeared years later as brides and mothers” (146). R.W Connell (1987) considers power as a social construct in which individual deviations from the norm “are deeply embedded in power inequalities and ideologies of male supremacy” (Connell, 107). Thus, as a consequence of this severe gender inequality experienced in such communities, women like key female character Asha, Latif’s mother, often seek alternative modes empowerment, adopting what Connell (1987) terms as ‘emphasised …show more content…
However, this definition appears limiting, for Gurnah makes it too clear that this kind of sexual ascendancy applies to males as well, made apparent in the homo-sexual relationship between Hassan and Hussein. Kate Houlden (2013) note that “such figures also work to shore up gendered stereotypes, as Gurnah’s maligned homosexuals operate from a position of power, in contrast to those ‘passive’ women and men over whom they exert control” (Houlden, 2013: 92).Hussein “walked […] with a look of the world about him” (21), his mysteriousness stemming from his sea travels allows him to lull his victims into complacency. It also becomes clear that the “whimsical objects which he handed over […] a Chinese phrase book for [Latif], a rosary […]” (88), “and once a gleaming ebony table for Hassan” (96) draw the family in, and in particular Hassan who falls deeply in love with him. After he has seduced both mother and son into a subordination, as well as Saleh who admits after his dealings with Hussein fall through that he “too had been duped and seduced” (161), it is evident that his economic power and high social status grants him the power to exercise hegemonic masculinity, dominating over males and females both sexually and economically for his own personal gain. Therefore, Hussein becomes “The Assassin” (96), not only does his name take