Orientalism in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North free essay sample

In a discussion of the â€Å"boundless historical chasm,† separating the east and west, Mustafa Sa’eed forewarns, â€Å"I have come to you as conqueror,† (50). The relationship between the Occident and the Orient is one of â€Å"love,† â€Å"hate,† â€Å"astonishment,† â€Å"fear,† and â€Å"desire† (132). Said seems to denounce the possibility of an objective reflection between the two spheres, â€Å"the chances of anything like a clear view of what one talks about in talking about the Near East are depressingly small† (92). Tayeb Salih’s novel explores the possibility of dismantling such a cultural divide by calling into question the very elements that create such opposing outlooks. In doing so, he elevates a negative appraisal of the â€Å"other† into one of wonder and mystery, â€Å"curiosity [†¦] changed into gaiety, and gaiety into sympathy [†¦] sympathy will be transformed into a desire,† (33). The novel can be seen as an exploration of the influence that western ideology can have on the â€Å"Orient†. We will write a custom essay sample on Orientalism in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page English education is seen as a syringe through which to inject the hemlock of western thought, â€Å"the schools were started so as to teach us how to say ‘Yes’ in their language. They imported to us the germ of the greatest European violence,† (79). The European experience seems to sever Sa’eed from his Sudanese roots. â€Å"Everyone who is educated today wants to sit at a comfortable desk under a fan and line in an air-conditioned house. † The novel portrays the tradition of sending the young and talented of Africa, and other colonized areas, to the intellectual pantheon of Oxford and Cambridge. As is evident in the novel, not only does a European education further isolate such individuals, but also such a liberal education is seen as trivial in the eyes of their African counterparts, †We have no need of poetry here. It would have been better if you’d studied agriculture, engineering or medicine,† (9). In his interview with Henry Louis Gates, Wole Soyinka asserts that true emancipation from colonial thought will only come at the expense of the established education system in Africa. â€Å"Now, first of all† he says, â€Å" I think the most fundamental means is the complete reorganization of our educational system†. If the standard of education is set to the tune of European ideology then, intellectualism, indeed the entire philosophical landscape, is cast under the manipulative shadow of western thought. â€Å"Universities are very much the slaves of the system of bureaucratization. † (523). Common in many literary works written by members of the African Diaspora is an overarching feeling of isolation. This existential displacement is very much alive in Salih’s novel, â€Å"the whole of the journey I savoured that feeling of being nowhere, alone, before and behind me either eternity or nothingness† (24). There seems to be a bifurcation of â€Å"self† present in Season of Migration that is also very common in many post-colonial, African artists. Sa’eed speaks to this dual life, spending half the day â€Å"with the theories of Keynes and Tawney† and â€Å"at night I resumed the war with boat and sword and spear and arrows† (30). Sa’eed’s aptitude for the English language, and western thought in general, inspires envy on behalf of his schoolmates. He is ostracized and thought of as different. His intellect â€Å"would fill† the other students â€Å"with annoyance and admiration at one and the same time. With a combination of admiration and spite we nicknamed him the black Englishman. ’† Sa’eed’s transition to the â€Å"other†, to a lighter gradation of â€Å"blackness†, began even before he traveled to England. â€Å"Isolated and arrogant,† he spends his time â€Å"alone† (43). There are many intertextual references within Season of Migration, the most apparent being Salih’s allusions to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Where Conrad’s novel centers around a westerner traveling to Africa in an attempt to realign himself with emotion, Salih’s book is a reversal—a story of an African venturing into the heart of Europe in an attempt to buffer raw impulse with philosophy. In his interview with Phillips, Chinua Achebe asserts that â€Å"Africa is presented to the reader as the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization [†¦] a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality,† (40). Africa is used as a â€Å"backdrop,† devoid of any â€Å"human factor,† it is a â€Å"metaphysical battlefield [†¦] into which the wandering European enters at his peril,† (404). Conversely, Salih reduces Europe to the role of â€Å"props† for the breaking up of the Orient’s mind. Both writers suspend their readers in a world in which the protagonist has had to endure the psychic and physical pain of displacement. While Conrad presents a primitive Africa that is â€Å"doomed to irredeemable savagery,† Salih depicts a dehumanizing and morally corrupt western world as it holds a scrupulous mirror up to the European gaze by questioning its own grip on â€Å"civilization† (406). In addition to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Salih’s novel also stands on the shoulders of Shakespeare’s Othello.