In Seasons of Migration to the North, the sexual relationships that Mustafa Sa’eed deliberately gets involved with with the several women in the novel, can be seen as his way of getting “revenge” on the West for colonialism. Throughout the novel Mustafa Sa’eed’s sexual exploits with Ann Hammond, Sheila Greenwood and Isabella Seymour, can be seen as the process of “reverse colonization” as Musataf Sa’eed himself expressed as trying to “Liberate Africa with (his) penis” (p. 120). Mustafa Sa’eed embodies the figure of a colonizer and tries to colonize the west through sexual conquests with these women, which ultimately lead to their death. I will be exploring how Mustafa Sa’eed is able to successfully, in his mind, colonize these women, physically …show more content…
Mustafa Sa’eed would “Seduced her with presents, honeyed words, and an unfaltering way of seeing things as they really are. It was my world, so novel to her, that attracted her” (p. 35) Mustafa acknowledges this and used it to lure her into having a sexual relationship with him. In the end, Sheila Greenwood commits suicide as well. By treating These Western women, Sheila, as well as Ann Hammond as Others and as sexual objects and not seeing them as individuals, rather as prey, Mustafa Sa’eed, in his mind, is fighting back against …show more content…
Suddenly I felt a violent jab from her between my thighs. When I regained consciousness I found she has disappeared. (p. 157)
It can be seen that Jean knew Mustafa Sa’eed was in love with her but still continued to mistreat him. Jean also defiantly defied Mustafa Sa’eed when he tells her he will kill her “My sweet, you’re not the kind of man that kills” (p.159) which made Mustafa Sa’eed experience a “feeling of ignominy, loneliness, and a loss” (p.159). Feeling this way, and realizing that he had become the quarry, Mustafa Sa’eed, murdered Jean as his final conquest of colonizing the west even though Jean thought he wouldn't do it and he took full pleasure in doing so.
I thought you would never do this…I pressed down the dagger with my chest until it had all disappeared between her breasts… ‘I love you’ she said to me, and I believed her. ‘I love you’, I said to her, and I spoke the truth.
Underneath the tale of Segu is the hushed and disloyal question few people tend to voice: how did they lose the rights to use the land and resources of an entire continent? This novel explains that it was not just Europe’s greed and Christianity pretense that led to the fall of Africa. It shows that Islam was a major force that endangered Segu as well. However, aside from the tragedy’s that were outlined, there lies a captivating story about culture, spirituality, and diversity.
In the novel Segu, Maryse Conde beautifully constructs personal and in depth images of African history through the use of four main characters that depict the struggles and importance of family in what is now present day Mali. These four characters and also brothers, by the names of Tiekoro, Siga, Naba, and Malobali are faced with a world changing around their beloved city of Bambara with new customs of the Islamic religion and the developing ideas of European commerce and slave trade. These new expansions in Africa become stepping stones for the Troare brothers to face head on and they have brought both victory and heartache for them and their family. These four characters are centralized throughout this novel because they provide the reader with an inside account of what life is like during a time where traditional Africa begins to change due to the forceful injection of conquering settlers and religions. This creates a split between family members, a mixing of cultures, and the loss of one’s traditions in the Bambara society which is a reflection of the (WHAT ARE SOME CHANGES) changes that occur in societies across the world.
What art succeeds in doing is transmute the sexual expression into an acceptable form - by turning it into a thing of beauty and approximating it into a haze of sublimity. In the post- modern climate of media, eros as sexuality reels dangerously on the brink of pornography. Yet what is also important is to realize that it is an important lens to view our social, political and cultural identities. At the beginning of the twentieth century, sexuality rode on the tide of social progressivism and became a vehicle for artistic expression in the novel. Also, when eros as sexuality serves as a principal theme in serious or popular literature, it is often used as a means of remarking upon the dynamics in a society. This is the point that is scrutinised and analysed in this paper where the sexuality of women is seen as an important definition and perspective in Toni Morrison’s Sula (1973).The novel explores the lives and friendship of Sula Peace and Nel Wright in the black neighbourhood dubiously named ‘The Bottom’ in the city of Medallion . The novel also investigates lives of its various female characters in this community who add to our understanding of the life of African American women. Morrison is one of the most remarkable African-American authors of the twentieth century and her novels remind readers that the position of African-Americans in the white-dominant society of the United States of
After a journey into the dark history of Europe and Africa with Sven Lindqvist, I found myself shocked. It’s earth shattering. Ideas and historical events are presented through a journal/proposal of his unique view on racism. Lindqvist raises questions as to where racism was spurred and why what happened in late 1800’s and early 1900’s lead to the holocaust. Including religion, personal human values, advanced warfare and even societies’ impact as a whole. His travels through the Sahara and Africa in the early chapters show a more current day view of society over seas. The description of the desolate continent and harsh conditions paints a picture of what previous civilization lived through. He explains that part of the reason he has traveled to the desert is to feel the space all around him, a definite emptiness if you will. As his travels progress he introduces his own family life that pertains to the human emotion, which is also a big focus point in this book. Childhood beatings over taking the lord’s name in vain, dropped calls from his daughter that leave him torn and sad. He does an excellent job on taking the reader on a personal journey with him through his current day traveling and even his early life. Linking these personal experiences and tying in histories misconceptions of “right and wrong” is what makes this book so valuable. Lindqvist gives a relevant and educated answer to the question of how racism became such a terrible tribulation in all parts of the world.
Before the slave trade began, Europeans had ideas about Africa, before discovery, which varied with “time and pace” (Davidson, 23). Africa was extremely foreign to Europe, as the only information they has was from a memoir written by a traveler titled “Inner Africa” in 1447. The information in the memoir is known as “caravan gossip” which was picked up by a traveler named Antonio Malfante, was wildly untrue. Malfante told Europeans that in the south of Tuat and the deserts surrunding Tuate: “there are black people who have innumerable great cities and territories” (Davidson, 24). He explained further that Africans were “carnal, and “act like beasts” he even told some that they were cannibals. It is because of these sorts of misconceptions lead on by “travelers” like Malfante, that Europeans built false understandings of places less traveled, like Africa.
by analyzing the case of Sarah Baartman as the quintessential Black female erotic body. The viewing of black women’s bodies as animalistic explorative and subsequent centuries of colonialism but also connects all hegemonic movements to surveillance and defining/redefining of the black female body.
In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization
Both Mathurin and Jean Kerbouchard create enemies throughout their journeys. Their enemies were some of the same people. Tournemine became Mathurin’s because he was responsible for the death of his beloved mother. Since Tournemine was the murderer, Mathurin felt remorse for Tournemine and he attacked him and if Tournemine had not moved he would be d...
And she also was angry with her maid, because her maid was Latino also. But one night when Jean fell of the stairs and was hospitalized at home, her close friends and husband did not have time to stay with her, and did not seem to care, while her maid was there for her and even stayed overnight to take care of her. So, when Jean saw that she started to understand that she should not have judged her maid by her race, and regretted for her bad attitude toward her maid and gave her a big apology hug.
What is it about sex that makes everyone so uncomfortable? Upon reading Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home, one of the major themes that the novel goes in depth about is Nidali’s sexual awakening. Many students would argue that this novel is littered with too much sexual activity, i.e. masturbation. However, A Map of Home is a novel about finding your place in this world; the search for your identity and purpose. Sexual identity plays a significant part of that continuum. You may question, “Well, could you have figure out a way to describe her story without all the sex stuff?” This statement would demolish the novel’s relatable and sheer honest tone, as well as disintegrate the genuineness behind the narrative if Jarrar would omit Nidali’s sexual experiences. The complete fact that young teenagers do think about sex so often makes one grasp the true relatability this novel showcases through the main character’s sexual experiences. In this essay, I plan to explore the importance of sexual awakening, Nidali’s own reasons for experimenting with her sexuality, and what we can ultimately learn from being open with what we want in that context.
Fatou Diome’s first novel, The Belly of the Atlantic, tells the coming-of-age of a young Senegalese female living in Strasbourg after she emigrated from the island of Niodior. Reflective of the author’s own life, the fictionalized narrative recounts the experiences of Salie. After growing up in a community in which strict traditions require women to submit to men, at a young age Salie decides she will educate herself although not enrolled in school. The schoolteacher Ndétare quickly discovers her academic and motivational abilities and decides to guide her through her education. Later, Salie moves to France and she is progressively shun out by her family, except by her brother Madické who is constantly seeking to go to France to play soccer professionally. Salie is quickly overcome by the lack of identity her immigration has caused her. She is constrained between both Europe and Africa, which she can’t call home. Through this disconnectedness the narrator suffers, and Salie’s identity progressively becomes that of exile. How, then, does the novel illustrate the degrading identity of the narrator trapped between two worlds?
History has been told through various forms for decades. In the past, history was more commonly expressed through word of mouth, but more recently in the past century, through written text. While textbooks and articles give formal information with little to no bias, novels give a completely new perspective from the people who experienced it themselves. The Novels, God’s Bits of Wood, written by Sembene Ousmane, and No Longer at Ease, by Chinua Achebe give a more personal account of the effects of colonization. These two novels tackle the British and French method of colonization. God’s Bits of Wood takes place in the late 1940s and sheds light on the story of the railroad strike in colonial Senegal. The book deals with different ways that the Senegalese and Malians respond to colonialism during that time. No Longer at Ease is set in the 1950s and tells the early story of British colonialism and how the Nigerians responded to colonization. Comparing the two novels, there are obvious similarities and differences in the British and French ways of rule. African authors are able to write these novels in a way that gives a voice to the people that are most commonly silenced during colonialism. This perspective allows readers to understand the negative ways that colonization affects the colonized. Historical fiction like God’s Bits of Wood and No Longer at Ease are good educational tools to shed light on the history and effects of colonization, but they do not provide a completely reliable source for completely factual information.
The old woman would hold hands of the young girls and watch. If the hands were smooth and pliant; if the spices placed on the palms sang their songs, the girls would be accepted or else they were hurled into the sea: Spices have strong colonial connotations and they also symbolise the subversive power of the postcolonial era. When we look back down the lanes and by lanes of history, the spices had first allured, enchanted and enslaved the foreign travelers with their latent powers. In the course of time, these travelers became the rulers of the land. In this tale of dreams and desires, the spices are mastered by a female, incidentally called Mistress, rendering a distinct colonial master-slave flavour.
While Collins does a succinct job of examining the economic and political factors that heightened colonization, he fails to hone in on the mental warfare that was an essential tool in creating African division and ultimately European conquest. Not only was the systematic dehumanization tactics crippling for the African society, but also, the system of racial hierarchy created the division essential for European success. The spillover effects of colonialism imparted detrimental affects on the African psyche, ultimately causing many, like Shanu, to, “become victims to the white man’s greed.”
Having done the above analysis on my favourite text, “Anowa” by Ama Ataa Aidoo, I realise that my like for the text have heightened because the analysis of Anowa has given me a deeper understanding of Africa’s colonialism. I now know what actually led to our colonialisation (the betrayal) and how it began(the bond of 1844) through the personal lives of Anowa and Kofi.