Season of Migration to the North: Recasting Academic Syllabi for Postcolonial Studies Worldwide

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Sambalpur University in India, the classic novel by Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North has been an integral part of post-colonial studies syllabi.

It has been at least half a century since most African and Asian countries emerged from the shadow of imperialism. There have been few vernacular translations of the novel Season of Migration to the North in languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Bangla and Malayalam that boast reasonably large reading populace. The critic Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak calls translation from English source texts into other vernaculars, the cardinal sin of postcolonial languages. With utilitarian currents rife in the world of academia, few efforts are afoot to read classic texts such as Season of Migration to the North in their original language of publication.

From Australia to Alaska, the world has become a global village. But the syllabi in most universities nowadays consign the text to peripheral status, with the emergence of new superstars in the horizon of African literature. African writers have revolutionised contemporary writing in English. Season of Migration to the North had played a pivotal role in the construction of a postcolonial consciousness among Indian academic community. Since the publication of the English translation in 1969, Season of Migration to the North has been instrumental in the creation of a transnational mind-space. Theorists like Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak and Dipesh Chakravarty are products of that tradition.

Season of Migration to the North was described by Edward Said, the author of the pathbreaking work Orientalism, as one of the six major works of African literature. Season of Migration to the North is also a mainstay of Arab literature. This work of searing intensity akin to an ancient Greek tragedy, has been marginalised to make way for lesser works and minor authors from Bangla and Kannada, in post-colonial academic spaces such as the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.

Season of Migration to the North was translated by Denis Johnson-Davies, and published under the Heinemann series. With the emergence of subaltern studies, this important text of post colonial studies has been consigned to anthropology courses and comparative literature studies. With novels of migration such as The Namesake gaining currency in the film format, there has been a lacunae on the part of postcolonial academia in actively fostering literary translations and comparative literary research. There exist symbolic and cultural ties that connect Sudan to India and other nations of Asia and Africa as part of an early modern network of globalisation, which the work, Season of Migration to the North helps to frame.

Migrations past have been relegated in favour of migrations present. This foregrounding of the contemporary can’t augur too well for the specificities of south-south cooperation. Season of Migration to the North as a core text can provide insights for the nascent field of transcultural studies. The landscape of post colonial literary studies is slowly altering and this canonical work of postcolonial experience, should not be allowed to just fade away.

Umar Nizarudeen is with the University of Calicut in Kerala. He was a research scholar at the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. In an eclectic career spanning over a decade, he has taught in various colleges of Delhi University, in the University of Kerala and has also worked as staff reporter for the New Indian Express, a national daily. ‘Muse India’, ‘Vayavya’, ‘Culture Cafe’ journal of the British Library are some the journals where his poems have appeared, some of which were also found good enough to be broadcast by the ‘All India Radio’.