The Season of Migration to the North , is an extraordinary tale about Mustafa Saeed's life in the West-the remnants of which are present only in Saeed's memory and in the locked room in the village of Khartoum.
The village which Saeed chooses to bury his secrets in is painted as a simple, neglected village with an organic feel ,it has houses with doors of harraz(whole tree), waterwheels, pumps,braying donkeys, houses made of mud, acacia and sunt bushes. The soul of the vlllage is pure however the inhabitants of the village are deprave and corrupt in nature. The values around the village are extremely anglicized and crude which juxtaposes the very essence of the village and makes the village seem like a mythical entity for the things and people in the village are unlike common citizens of Egypt.
Morality is considered as over rated in the village and sex is an open topic of discussion, with elders of the family discussing their levels of intimacy, sexual experiences and female circumcision, thus discussing all that was considered as tabboo by the East. It wasn't just the profundity with which sexual desires were declared rather alcohol was openly consumed by men and women alike. The female sexual appetite is expressed as voracious in this village and the females have no qualms of accepting this appetite in extremely risque terms.For example Bint Majzoub when recalling the pleasure she derived from her first husband said ' he'd lift my legs after the evening prayer and I'd splayed till the call to prayers at dawn.'
However, on the other hand the concept of pride was as rigid in the village as any society, females were still looked down upon as articles of trade and therefore had no right to refuse or accept marriage proposals at their own discretion. Hosna Bint Mahmoud's father agreed to Wad Rayees's proposal because he couldn't let the people of the village think his daughter was inobedient.
The village therefore was both liberating and nauseating, was both Western and Eastern, was both boorish and gentle, the village had strange customs and was a world of its own perhaps it was the most ideal place for Mustafa Saeed's secrets.
The village which Saeed chooses to bury his secrets in is painted as a simple, neglected village with an organic feel ,it has houses with doors of harraz(whole tree), waterwheels, pumps,braying donkeys, houses made of mud, acacia and sunt bushes. The soul of the vlllage is pure however the inhabitants of the village are deprave and corrupt in nature. The values around the village are extremely anglicized and crude which juxtaposes the very essence of the village and makes the village seem like a mythical entity for the things and people in the village are unlike common citizens of Egypt.
Morality is considered as over rated in the village and sex is an open topic of discussion, with elders of the family discussing their levels of intimacy, sexual experiences and female circumcision, thus discussing all that was considered as tabboo by the East. It wasn't just the profundity with which sexual desires were declared rather alcohol was openly consumed by men and women alike. The female sexual appetite is expressed as voracious in this village and the females have no qualms of accepting this appetite in extremely risque terms.For example Bint Majzoub when recalling the pleasure she derived from her first husband said ' he'd lift my legs after the evening prayer and I'd splayed till the call to prayers at dawn.'
However, on the other hand the concept of pride was as rigid in the village as any society, females were still looked down upon as articles of trade and therefore had no right to refuse or accept marriage proposals at their own discretion. Hosna Bint Mahmoud's father agreed to Wad Rayees's proposal because he couldn't let the people of the village think his daughter was inobedient.
The village therefore was both liberating and nauseating, was both Western and Eastern, was both boorish and gentle, the village had strange customs and was a world of its own perhaps it was the most ideal place for Mustafa Saeed's secrets.
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