Abstract

Season of migration to the North has been variously described as a novel of events, a postcolonial quest novel, and more than little postmodern novel. Having won large audience across the globe, Season of Migration to the North has been acclaimed as one of the first hundred masterpieces in the world and the best Arabic novel in the twentieth century. While Season of Migration to the North has been conceived thus, not much attention has been paid to it as a story of national interests. This study argues thatSeason of Migration to the North looks in particular at the crisis of the Sudanese nation. The novel’s use of expressions such as ‘slave’ and ‘master,’ 'local man’ and ‘stranger,’ ‘south’ and ‘north’ epitomizes its approach to highlighting the fate of the Sudanese people as a nation. This paper explores the relationship between this novel and the Sudanese nation. It reads, that is to say, the novel against the grain. It overlooks the journey outside, the journey undertaken by the protagonist from Sudan to Britain. It considers, instead, the journey inside as much as from the outskirts of Khartoum to the village at the bend of the Nile. This south-northward journey through the Sudanese landscape poses the question, ‘How do the Sudanese people see themselves as a nation?’ This paper tries to come close to answering this question.

Key words: Master, slave, local man, stranger, janjawid, zurga, sons of the North, sons of the West, Northerners, non-Northerners.