Summary Of Season Of Migration To The North

In 1956 Sudan finally achieved independence from the British colonizers. Around this same time, surrounding countries had military coups, dictators, and corrupt government developing. The question that remained in everyone’s mind was one of Sudan’s fate. Author’s used this opportunity to write excerpts, poetry, and novels to analyze the Sudanese, their government, and ultimately those who they felt were to blame for the turmoil Sudan and the surrounding areas, the British. One of those authors was Tayeb Salih. Tayeb Salih is a Sudanese writer who was educated in the UK. He often wrote drawing from personal experiences and about people and their complex relationships. He used these same styles to write his book Season of Migration to the North, published in 1966, ten years after Sudan gained independence. Through Season of Migration to the North, Salih criticizes the …show more content…
Throughout Season of Migration to the North, Salih continuously compares colonization to a disease. A contagious one that infect the minds of any who encounter it, a disease that causes destruction and violence. Salih states in the book that the women who had relations with Mustafa “were not killed by Mustafa Sa’eed, but by the germ of a deadly disease that assailed them a thousand years ago” (Salih, 29). Mustafa’s demise is attributed to the sickness that is colonization, rather than his troubling personality. He states, “a thousand years ago”, alluding all the way back to the conquering’s of Rome and Ancient Greece, stating that it, colonization, was “imported to [them]...the germ of a deadly disease that struck them more than a thousand years ago” (Salih, 79). Here, Salih is not stepping back from his criticism of the British, to share his view on the concept of colonization. He does this further by stating that if the disease of colonization is not cured, the African people risk losing their identity and