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Wad Rayyes
Mahjoub is the narrator’s oldest and closest friend. He is a resident of Wad Hamid, the village where the narrator has roots. Mahmoud and the narrator attended elementary school together. However, while the narrator continues on with his education and eventually goes abroad to study, Mahjoub learns only enough arithmetic and writing to help him carry out farming work in the village. In spite of his limited education, he distinguishes himself as a village citizen, taking on a leading role in a village cooperative project that improves farmers’ and villagers’ lives. Through this project, he also becomes acquainted with Mustafa Sa’eed, the stranger who settles in the village, and whose secret history the narrator slowly uncovers. Mahjoub’s pragmatic ability to effect change in the village is contrasted with the narrator’s own more prestigious—yet emptier—work for the ministry of education in the capital, Khartoum. While the two friends are very close, their friendship is threatened after Hosna’s murder of Wad Rayyes. The two take a different view of the murder-suicide: while Mahjoub condemns Hosna’s actions, the narrator defends her, and this causes a break in their friendship.
Mahjoub Quotes in Season of Migration to the North
The Season of Migration to the North quotes below are all either spoken by Mahjoub or refer to Mahjoub. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6
Quotes
“You know how life is run here,” [Mahjoub] interrupted me. “Women belong to men, and a man’s a man even if he’s decrepit.”
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Chapter 7
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[Mahjoub] will not believe the facts about the new rulers of Africa, smooth of face, lupine of mouth, their hands gleaming with rings of precious stones, exuding perfume from their cheeks, in white, blue, black and green suits of fine mohair and expensive silk rippling on their shoulders like the fur of Siamese car, and with shoes that reflect the light from chandeliers and squeak as they tread on marble.
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Chapter 8
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“A week or ten days after you went away [Hosna’s] father said he had given Wad Rayyes a promise—and they married her off to him. Her father swore at her and beat her; he told her she’d marry him whether she liked it or not.”
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Mahjoub Quotes in Season of Migration to the North
The Season of Migration to the North quotes below are all either spoken by Mahjoub or refer to Mahjoub. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
“You know how life is run here,” [Mahjoub] interrupted me. “Women belong to men, and a man’s a man even if he’s decrepit.”
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Chapter 7
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[Mahjoub] will not believe the facts about the new rulers of Africa, smooth of face, lupine of mouth, their hands gleaming with rings of precious stones, exuding perfume from their cheeks, in white, blue, black and green suits of fine mohair and expensive silk rippling on their shoulders like the fur of Siamese car, and with shoes that reflect the light from chandeliers and squeak as they tread on marble.
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Chapter 8
Quotes
“A week or ten days after you went away [Hosna’s] father said he had given Wad Rayyes a promise—and they married her off to him. Her father swore at her and beat her; he told her she’d marry him whether she liked it or not.”
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