Effect of Colonialism on African Personality as Portrayed in Al-Tayeb Salih’s Novel “Season of Migration to the North

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the distinctive characteristics of post-colonial African characters as exemplified by Al-Tayeb Salih’s “Season of Migration to the North”. The researcher has adopted descriptive method by which the data is gathered from primary and secondary sources. The primary source is the selected novel, and the secondary sources are Al-Tayeb Salih’s work in particular and the literary criticism for African fiction in general. The researcher comes out with the following findings: The African character is portrayed as a hybrid of different culture, selfish and self-conflicting, not very open minded. Moreover, African males have hardly any respect to women (sex obsessed character). Finally, the African characters are seen in this novel as politically immature, when given the chance to choose their leaders. However, self-interest and tribal affiliations have the ascendan- cy over national and social consideration.