Season of Migration Women
Role of Women in Salih’s “Season of Migration to the North”
In the Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb Saih portrays the heavy issues of sexism and colonialism through the role of women. The book not only informs its readers of the stereotypical gender roles, but it also illustrates the truth behind colonialism as a conquest of a people often enslaving them mentally and leaving them empty. According to this lens, the gender roles of men like Mustafa Sa’eed and Wad Rayyes represent the colonizers who ravish the colonized (personified by the female characters). Salih’s men are primarily sexual beings who see women as theirs to conquer while the women are meant to be subservient to sexual conquest.
In Mustafa Sa’eed’s world, love is a virus. Much like when a colonizing nation attacks, love attacks women swiftly and without mercy. The women that he comes across are afflicted with love for Mustafa; passionate, all consuming love that they cannot deny. Mustafa infects these women’s hearts, much like the germs he often mentions. He plays the role of the invader in these relationships, and is completely aware of it. Mustafa takes control of the women’s bodies and hearts. He mentally and physically ruins them. As mentioned throughout the text, he is the colonizer, and infects them with his virus. Mustafa Sa’eed physically penetrates the women harming the nation’s culture and integrity as a whole; “I will free Africa with my penis”. For example, Sheila Greenwood “entered (Mustafa Sa’eed’s) bedroom a chaste virgin and when she left it she was carrying the germs of self-destruction within her”.
The women Mustafa enslaves have the status and sexual freedom that come with being a modern-day Western woman, but they surrender their power to Mustafa and end up losing themselves. Mustafa takes all the women he wants, but he ends up self destructing—either as a ferocious werewolf or a misunderstood victim of colonialism if looked into through the lens of extenuating
In the Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb Saih portrays the heavy issues of sexism and colonialism through the role of women. The book not only informs its readers of the stereotypical gender roles, but it also illustrates the truth behind colonialism as a conquest of a people often enslaving them mentally and leaving them empty. According to this lens, the gender roles of men like Mustafa Sa’eed and Wad Rayyes represent the colonizers who ravish the colonized (personified by the female characters). Salih’s men are primarily sexual beings who see women as theirs to conquer while the women are meant to be subservient to sexual conquest.
In Mustafa Sa’eed’s world, love is a virus. Much like when a colonizing nation attacks, love attacks women swiftly and without mercy. The women that he comes across are afflicted with love for Mustafa; passionate, all consuming love that they cannot deny. Mustafa infects these women’s hearts, much like the germs he often mentions. He plays the role of the invader in these relationships, and is completely aware of it. Mustafa takes control of the women’s bodies and hearts. He mentally and physically ruins them. As mentioned throughout the text, he is the colonizer, and infects them with his virus. Mustafa Sa’eed physically penetrates the women harming the nation’s culture and integrity as a whole; “I will free Africa with my penis”. For example, Sheila Greenwood “entered (Mustafa Sa’eed’s) bedroom a chaste virgin and when she left it she was carrying the germs of self-destruction within her”.
The women Mustafa enslaves have the status and sexual freedom that come with being a modern-day Western woman, but they surrender their power to Mustafa and end up losing themselves. Mustafa takes all the women he wants, but he ends up self destructing—either as a ferocious werewolf or a misunderstood victim of colonialism if looked into through the lens of extenuating