International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net Volume 13, Issue 5, 2020 Modernization and Resistance: Healing the Social Ills in Leila Aboulela’s Lyrics Alley aAli Abdullah Saaed Alfuady, bLecturer Ahmed Sa'ad Aziz (Ph.D.), cLecturer Suhaib Majeed Kadhem, a,b,cDepartment of English/College of Arts/ University of Al-Qadisiyah /Iraq, Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Following the postcolonial Sudanese writer, Tayeb Salih’s perspective in his famous novel, Season of Migration to the North (1969), Leila Aboulela exposes the binary identity that her characters gain it through migration and transportation. This paper examines the traditional resistance to modernity in Aboulela’s Lyrics Alley (2011). It investigates how Sudanese parochial norms resist the Western modernity and how to rejuvenate and modernize such tradition. As she attempts to create a real image of the Sudanese postcolonial situation, Aboulela shows out the deep- rooted norms of Sudan that set up a barrier between Sudanese tradition and Western modernity. Sudanese think of education as a shame for women and a waste of time for men. Education is considered “as being a great evil that come to them with the armies of occupation” (Tayeb Salih 1969: 19). The novel points out the feminist voice which strives to get her moral choice, her privacy and her personal freedom. It brings out the importance of education to narrow the gap between Sudan and the West that may help Sudanese cope with modern world. The paper critically questions women’s position in the conservative Sudanese family and the fragmented identity that fails to stand in front of the patriarchal hegemony. Through postcolonial perspective, the paper critically sheds light on the Islamic Scripture, Holy Qur’an and its patriarchal misinterpretation that takes women for granted and makes them alienated from the world. The patriarchal interpretation of Islamic Scriptures has been examined through the modern feminist theories. The paper reveals the double marginalized world where Sudanese women live. The marginality shows out that Sudanese women fall into the trap of traditional norms that enforce women to live within four walls. Key words: Leila Aboulela, Lyrics Alley, Postcolonialism, Patriarchal Taboos, Feminist 1753 International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net Volume 13, Issue 5, 2020 Introduction Leila Aboulela is a Sudanese novelist living in diaspora. She has written many short stories [and] semi-autobiographical essays. She has published more than six novels, The Translator in 1999, Minaret in 2005, Lyrics Alley in 2011, Kindness of Enemies (2015), and Bird Summons (2019). Her novels have created a literary revolutionary voice in (Sudanese) Arabic society as she “promotes the importance of an Islamic framework to provide resilience through the ruptures of forced migration” (Rashid 2012: 416). Aboulela won some international prizes for her novels. She won Fiction Winner Prize for her Lyrics Alley (2011). Aboulela also won the Caine Prize for African Writings in 2000 for her short story, “Museum” which was later published as one of her short story collection, “Coloured Lights” in 2005. She also won the 2018 Saltire Book for her short-story collection, Elsewhere, Home which was published in 2018. Social Ills Social ills are meant to be some man-made norms which have been constituted to restrict the space of woman. Aboulela opens her, Lyrics Alley (2011), with a survey on Sudanese social habits and customs that narrow the space of freedom of Sudanese women. The novel represents not only the voice of Aboulela, but also all the Sudanese women who fall in trap of parochial trap. Lyrics Alley unveils the Sudanese traditional norms that enforce woman to stop her education and get married as early as she can. However, Aboulela urges women to fight for their right to education. This message can be seen in Soraya speech. I would have insisted on finishing school and persuaded Sister Josephine to come home and speak to Father long before the engagement was public . I would have spoken to Nassir himself and told him I did not want him and challenged that a gentleman would not marry a girl against her will. I would have threatened to commit suicide. (Lyrics Alley 2011: 7) The strong relationships among not only the Sudanese family, but also amidst the Sudanese society are appreciated. Aboulela appreciates the strong connections among family members and how they respect their elders. In her interview with Peter Cherry, Aboulela says, “the father is a positive figure . he does live up to protecting the women or trying to make their lives a little bit better.” (6) Aboulela, here, adopts the Islamic view of men’s duties toward women. They have to protect women and support them financially. Through the postcolonial lens, Lyrics Alley (2011) is meant to historicize the two Sudanese eras which are during and after the British occupation. It reveals the implicit impacts of the British colonizer who enlarges the social gap between the rich and the poor families. The middle class had been destroyed. It also compares between the neighbouring countries, 1754 International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net Volume 13, Issue 5, 2020 Egyptian and Sudanese societies socially and economically. The novel is but a real picture of the Sudanese society. It reveals the humble life and Sudanese commitment to their cultural norms. It didn’t embarrass Badr that he was perched on a donkey cart with his family and their motley possessions. He was busy noting that the land on which Mahmoud Bey had built his tall building had been purchased from a Christian, a cautious business man made insecure by the advent of Independence. Khartoum was, slowly but surely, becoming Islamic. Today the opening of the new mosque, and tomorrow, once the English left, there would be others. A city with a predominant and growing Muslim population had seven churches and only two mosque – only a colonizer would impose such an imbalance! The English would go and take their street names with them. and the X signs they unashamedly set up to mark the red-light districts would be pulled down. (Lyrics Alley 2011: 295-6) In Lyrics Alley (2011), Aboulela reveals the real situation of Sudan pre-independence. She evolves a hope of success by shedding light on the educated hero, Nur. The main character in Lyrics Alley is Nur, which means ‘light’ in Arabic. By adopting such name, Aboulela attempts to show that there is always hope, in spite of the darkness and ignorance. This light symbolizes the knowledge that enlightens one’s mind and heart. For that, Nur is employed in this novel as a source of knowledge. His education is going to enlighten Sudanese society and may also deconstruct the backward norms which degrade the educated women. His hope to get high education, work and get married to his pretty cousin Soraya. His disability does not stop him to achieve his aspirations. His shattered back is metaphorically depicted as the light space that stands between ‘the forward-contemplation’ and’ the backward-looking.’ His thinking of spineless back inspires him to challenge his disability. The two periods of Nur’s life—before and after his back was broken are exposed to bring to light the perspective of the Sudanese society towards a disabled person, who is socially considered useless person. The Sudanese society marginalizes and ignores those people with disability. However, Nur also challenges his disability which limits his own space. “It is not only being in a wheelchair and having useless arms, but the things that go wrong inside; infections and minor complications that keep him in and out of hospital” (Lyrics Alley 2011: 119). He uses his poetic talent to cross out his narrow space. He makes a poetic contact between him and the outer world, refusing to be a victim of his disability. He decides to shape his space of life through education. Consequently, he moves from his space of disability to the space of ability. He resists to be marginalized. In his article, Voicing marginality: disability in Leila Aboulela’s Lyrics Alley, Ken Junior Lipenga argues that “The character of Nur is employed to display two seemingly contradictory models of masculinity in the novel, and therefore in Sudanese society. Prior to disablement, Nur is presented as the epitome of ableism, in his athletic able-bodied stature which parallels his academic 1755 International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net Volume 13, Issue 5, 2020 achievements” (5). Nur’s awareness of his disability helps him to diminish his sensitivity. Being disabled and submissive, his father forced him to cancel his engagement to Soraya. Father symbolizes not only the patriarchal dictator in the family, but also reflects the social perspective of Sudanese society which looks at the person with disability as an alien. Nur fails to resist his father’s decision. He has to succumb to the order of his family. His silence represents his fragile character which is deconstructed by the accident. In The Disability Studies Reader, Lennard J. Davis argues “the disabled body is limited in what it can do and what it can be trained to do. It experiences new situations as obstacles” (315). This means that Sudanese society looks at Nur as a useless body, but not as a human who can be trained to cope with his ability to succeed in his life. The two wives of Mahmoud, Nabilah and Waheeba symbolize tradition and modernity. The names that have been given to them reveal the difference between both wives. It is a traditional awareness of such names which reflects the difference between modernity and tradition and which one is preferred by the Sudanese people.