Season of Migration to the North

Season of Migration to the North

• Genre: Fiction; literary
• Originally Published: 1966
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 10 chapters; approx. 169 pages
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: The unnamed narrator of this story returns to his village in Sudan after years of study in Europe. When he meets enigmatic Mustafa Sa’eed, he is drawn into a conflict between Europe and Africa, men and women, and tradition and innovation, the likes of which he might not survive.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Sexual assault; colonialism; violence against women; murder; misogyny; racism; suicide; female/male genital mutilation/circumcision

Tayeb Salih, Author

• Bio: 1929-2009; Sudanese writer, journalist for BBC Arabic, and staff member for UNESCO; graduate of the University of Khartoum and University of London; Season of Migration to the North is considered one of the most important novels in Arabic literature; draws inspiration from his youth in Sudan; a group of his friends honored him with $20,000 in 1998, which he used to establish the Tayeb Salih Creative Writing Award; has two other writing awards named in his honor: the al-Tayeb Salih Prize for Literary Creativity and the al-Tayeb Salih Award for Creative Writing
• Other Works: The Wedding of Zein and Other Stories (1968); Bandarshah (1996)
• Awards: Arab Literary Academy’s Best Novel in Arabic of the Twentieth Century (1966)       

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• The Legacy of Colonialism
• The Value of Education
• Misogyny and Violence Against Women
• The Impact of Storytelling
• Passivity and Action

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the geopolitical and historical contexts regarding the effect of decolonization and pan-regional unification movements on postcolonial literature that incite the narrator’s story.
• Analyze paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of The Legacy of Colonialism, Misogyny and Violence Against Women, and The Impact of Storytelling.
• Draft and present a research paper that demonstrates an understanding of The Legacy of Colonialism on the development of newly independent African countries, based on text details.