“Challenging Boundaries in Season of Migration to the North and Under the Frangipani” argues that within Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North and Mia Couto’s Under the Frangipani, heterotopic spaces, orality, and natural imagery serve to critique the binary notions of East and West, North and South, and tradition and modernity that undergirded colonial experiences. Though set in Sudan and Mozambique, countries with distinct histories, these texts complement each other as they demonstrate the limits of these binary oppositions and hint at what moving beyond these constructs would look like. This paper first considers the importance of space as a tool to interrogate social and political norms. It then explores the way orality is used to construct memory and identity. Finally, it examines the use of natural imagery to reflect the post-independence challenges faced by those in Sudan and Mozambique. While this paper focuses on stories set following the colonial period, it hopes to demonstrate the importance of disrupting and renegotiating binary discourses.
