The Notion of “Home” as it Emerges from Season of Migration to the North

The theme of home and of being at home is quite central in Season of Migration to the North. A highly physical aspect of home is brought about, along with the fact that with home is associated a certain notion of constancy.

Firstly, a deeply entrenched physical aspect of home is brought out by its perception by the primal senses. The “sound of the wind passing through the palm trees” and how the protagonist differentiates it from the sound of the wind “when it passes through fields of corn” bring out an existence that is deeply embedded in a “land” in which the wind blows through palm trees and fields of corn. This existence is strengthened by “the palm tree”, that is visible from the window of the protagonist: through its “strong straight trunk … roots that strike down into the ground … (and) green branches”, and the fact that the protagonist after returning to his country after years looks at it and knows that “all was still well with life”, one becomes sure of a certain deep association of self with the “physical home”. This association becomes even more vibrant through the addition of the dimension of smell: the protagonist identifying and then intricately differentiating the “scent of acacia blossom and animal dung, the scent of earth that has just been irrigated after the thirst of days, and the scent of half-ripe corn cobs and the aroma of lemon trees” from the cold night breeze, is testament to the highly physical aspect of home.

   

To the notion of home is also attached a certain notion of constancy. This is also evident through the physical picture of home that was just painted in the previous paragraph. The protagonist left his homeland and returned after a few years and everything was exactly as he had left it: the sound of the wind passing through the palm trees and the fields of corn, the palm tree outside the protagonist’s window, and the multitudes of scents and aromas, remain unchanged. Apart from this physical picture of home, the notion of constancy is also depicted through the protagonist’s grandfather whom the former describes as “something immutable in a dynamic world”. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the presence of his grandfather, by virtue of it being a certain form of constancy “reinvigorates” the protagonist’s spirits when the “black thoughts” stirred by Mustafa Sa’eed’s  story serve as a source of disturbance.

That a certain comfort is derived from the notion of being at home is indisputable. In the case of the protagonist, he goes to the physical aspects of home to derive this comfort. The “voice” of his grandfather praying being the last thing the protagonist hears before falling asleep and the first thing he hears when he wskes up is a powerful example of how, for the protagonist, home took on a primarily physical form.