Home » Sudan » Tayeb Salih » بندر شاه مريود (موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال (Season of Migration to the North)
Tayeb Salih: موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال (Season of Migration to the North)
Our unnamed hero/narrator has just returned to his native village in Sudan after having spent some time in the United Kingdom, writing a thesis on an (unnamed) British poet. He is very glad to be back home and is soon mixing in with everybody. There is, however, one newcomer. He is Mustafa. He had been there five years. He had come from Khartoum, bought a farm, married and settled in. He seemed to keep himself to himself, but nevertheless seemed to get on well with everybody.
Our narrator is questioned. about Europeans and their customs and tells his fellow villagers that they are not terribly different from the Sudanese.
One thing he does notice is that modernisation is taking place. Sudan has only been independent for a few years when the book starts differences that can be seen such as the use of pumps rather than water wheels on the Nile.
He does meet Mustafa a few times and Mustafa mildly mocks him for studying poetry rather than something useful such as agriculture, engineering or medicine. However, , when all the men get together and have a few drinks, Mustafa starts reciting a poem. We are not told what it is, but it is in fact.Ford Madox Ford’s, he relatively obscure poem.
When Mustafa is challenged on this the next day, he has completely forgotten that he recited it.The narrrator challenges him saying he’s very mysterious and he is invited over to Mustafa’s house.
When he visits Mustafa, Mustafa produces various documents such as a birth certificate and passport to prove that is who he is. But then he also produces a British passport in his name which has various stamps, showing that he has travelled to quite a few places. Mustafa gives us a long account of his story, in particularly the fact that he seemed to chase women and some of the British women were clearly attracted by his exotic nature. He then just mentions in passing that he has served seven years in prison for killing a woman and we also learn that three women committed suicide because of him. We have also learned how he did so well at school that he got a scholarship to Cairo, then to London and then made a name for himself in academic circles in London.
The narrator has promised not to tell others about this. However he does compare his own time in London, in which, he says he neither that hated oro loved the British but, on the whole, did not get very close to them.
Obviously the narrator is somewhat surprised by all of his and carries on with his life and we jump ahead, learning that Mustafa has died, possibly accidentally, possibly by suicide and that he had worked very much with the colonial government. Our author is not surprisingly somewhat critical of the British in Sudan and how they exploited the Sudanese and how there were Sudanese, like Mustafa, who took advantage of this and were beholden to the British authorities.
The narrator has worked at the Ministry of Education in Khartoum and we learn of various people he meets who knew of Mustafa or knew him personally and he gets given various stories about him some of which are contradictory but most of them accepting that Mustafa, despite his personal faults, was nevertheless a brilliant man. However, the there are arge disputes between our narrator and others about the nature of Mustafa and, of course, about the role of colonialism in Sudan.
Our narrator spends much of his time in Khartoum at his job and therefore is a bit out of touch with what is going on in the village. We and he know that Mustafa has died and he has asked a narrator to look after and guide his two sons and to help his wife. He is also left a set of keys which gives access to a room in the house in which as he tells the narrator in a letter all is explained.
Hosna, the widow or Mustafa is bringing up their two sons and has enough money to do so. However Wad Rayyes, a much married man who very much likes women and who is 40 years older thanHosna wants to marry her. She does not want to do so. However, this is a male dominated society and women have to do what the men tell them to do and, in this case, her father insists she marry. Wad Rayyes. Eventually she does so but it does not go well at all.
The narrator will eventually go into the locked room, and had half expected to find Mustafa’s body there. He does not but he finds a large amount of books on a variety of subjects as well, of course, a document written by Mustafa about his life. We and he learn a lot more about Mustafa’s time in London and, in particular, about his disastrous marriage and the death of his wife.
Obviously, the main feature of this book is the story of Mustafa and we get various versions of it from different people. While all agree that he is a highly intelligent man, there seems to be wide disagreement on what he did with his life and about his behaviour. He himself recognises some of his faults but at the same time he is critical of others.
As mentioned Salih is highly critical of British colonialism and the harm it has caused to his country, and, as we see withHosna, he also criticises the sexism whereby? women are subservient to men and have to obey them in all things.
The book has been recognised as one of the best Arabic novels and though I am not competent to judge whether this is the case., it is certainly a very fine work with a first class story and criticism of colonialism and sexism.
Publishing history
First published in 1966 by Hiwâr i
First published in English in 1996 by Kegan Paul
Translated by Denys Johnson-Davies