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Identity, gender, and politics in Buthaina Khidr Mekki's Novel Hujul min Shawk (1).

Article Excerpt
The Sudanese novelist and short story writer, Buthaina Khidr Mekki, (2) has been a major contributor to modern Sudanese literature. She has written thematically diverse novels and short stories from a number of genres and traditions. Among her many short story collections are al-Nakhta wal Maghna ("The Palm Tree and Singing") 1993; Ashbah al-Mudun ("Cities Ghosts") 1994; Ataif al-Huzn ("Spectrums of Sadness") 1996; and Uhzujat al-Makan 2001 ("The Song of Place"). Her novels include Oghniat al-Nar ("Fire Story") 1998; Sahil al-Nahr ("River Neigh") 2000; and Hijul min Shawk ("Anklets of Thorns") 2004. Mekki has also produced several collections of articles and children books including Ghita al-Samt ("The Veil of Silence") 1996; Fatat al-Qariah ("Village Girl") 1993; and Ta'sil al-Turath fil Tarbiyah wal Ta'lim ("Authentification of Heritage in Education and Learning") 2004, among others.

The literary work of Buthaina Khidr Mekki has been recognized not only nationally, but also regionally especially in some Arab countries. As some critics have noted, Mekki uses the Arabic language in a style that gives the reader the sense that she is an artist who is not afraid to present the "truth" clearly and without any obscurity (3). The Iraqi critic Sabri Moslim remarked that Mekki is a skilled story-teller who chooses her events carefully without giving the reader the sense that she is writing an autobiography. Other critics, such as Ibrahim Sa'afan, have noted that Buthaina Khidr Mekki is a realist who fuses her feelings with reality to the extent that they become part of one another. Such a quality gives her a vantage point that allows her to depict the setting of her narrative, not only from the perspective of an outsider, but also from within, at its most intimate inner core, until the country itself becomes a living being that breathes and moves along with its characters. She clearly has an intimate connection and knowledge of the Sudan and expresses this intimacy with passion and a sense of belonging to her homeland, expressed with love for its Nile, grass, haskanit (4), and its moon that always shines in tranquility, as noted by the Sudanese writer al-Tayyeb Zarroug.

Despite the fact that a number of critics have written about the works of Buthaina Khidr Mekki, most of these short accounts fall within the category of the descriptive, and to some extent journalistic, style. This essay is perhaps the first that takes a scholarly approach to analyze in depth one of Mekki's novels and introduce it to a non-Arabic speaking audience. The article examines Mekki's most recent novel, Hijul min Shawk ("Anklets of Thorns"), and gives special attention to the book's core themes of identity and gender. Mekki implicitly, as well as explicitly, addresses the complexity and/or crisis of modern Sudanese identity, exploring the tension between its Arab and African heritage. The following passage is indicative of this tension:

She used to think of herself as an Arab whose ancestry dates back to al-Abbas, the Prophet's [Muhammad] uncle. However, mixing with pure Arab societies has stripped her off this characteristic despite her Arabic tongue and culture. She is proud of her Sudaneseness and her mixed origins ... She is the grand daughter of "Tajuj," the grand daughter of "Nasra bint 'Adlan" whom history has obscured and has been silent about.... Why does she adhere to her Arab descent ... [why does she] yearn for it, dropping her African origins, if such descent is doubted and does not give her [any thing] in return but hujul min shawk [Anklets of thorns] that shackle the purity of her personality and the virginity of her [liberty]?! (5) [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]

However, before delving any further into this exploration of modern Sudanese identity, a word is due on how Mekki chose to begin her novel. While the main voice of the novel is that of the female protagonist, the implied narrator (7), the novel opens with the male figure of Mahjoub. As a passenger on a poor, fourth class train passengers' coach, Mahjoub is on his way to northern Sudan following the death of his paternal grandmother. The reader, however, is quickly taken away from Mahjoub's immediate physical world and delivered into the world of his memories through the technique of a stream of consciousness. (8) As he sits in the runway that connects the train coaches of the fourth and third classes, Mahjoub painfully remembers the scorn of his wife. His wife accused him of being lazy and reluctant to earn a living because he had failed to obtain an entry visa into one of the neighboring oil-rich Arab countries or to find work that could help lift them out of poverty (9). Mekki's decision to introduce her reader to the struggles of the Sudanese economy through this stream of consciousness technique is not arbitrary. Like most Sudanese men and women of her status, Mahjoub's wife dreams of imaginary petrodollars that will open the door to happiness, luxury, and felicities. She wonders why her husband is content to live in poverty and all the dishonorable suffering that comes with it. Five years earlier, Mahjoub had traveled to Saudi Arabia to perform the Umra, (9) but stayed for a period of three years and returned with nothing more than a few grey hairs. Nobody seemed to care about the state of tribulation he had endured there for two years before he could find a job or the illness he suffered that almost killed him. All that anyone was concerned about was the fact that he had returned home safely, carrying gifts of perfume and clothing for his family, relatives, and friends (12-13).

In Saudi Arabia, no one had known that this person was the...