Identity crisis as postcolonial problematic in Muhammad al-Fayturi's songs of Africa and Sahar Khalifeh's the inheritance

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Scholars have read Muhammad Al-Fayturi’s Songs of Africa as unveiling the tragic consequences of slavery and colonization on the psyche of African people, while others have read Sahar Khalifeh’s novel, The Inheritance, as depicting the issue of identity of women in a patriarchal order.

They have, however, omitted the major issue at stake: the farreaching circumstance of identity crisis.

The significance of this study comes from its attempt to answer the question: Does colonialism affect the identities of colonial subjects? This article, therefore, explores issues of identity crisis as represented in Sahar Khalifeh's novel The Inheritance (1997) and Muhammad Al-Fayturi's poems Songs of Africa.

Sahar Khalifeh (1941-) and Muhammad Al-Fayturi (1930-) are two Arab writers, whose works can be categorized as postcolonial literature.

By exposing the pains of her protagonist, Zayna, who is a hybrid character, and the pains of Palestinians inside their homeland, Sahar Khalifeh’s work emphasizes the daring impacts of colonialism on the identities of Palestinians.

Also, Muhammad Al-Fayturi's poetry exposes the cruelty of colonialism.

Through his poetry, Al-Fayturi makes it clear that colonialism is responsible for identity crisis.

It is also responsible for the destruction of Africa, his homeland, which is left barren after being liberated from colonizers.

From the analysis of Khalifeh's novel and selected poetry of Al-Fayturi, this work concludes that colonialism impacted greatly on the identity of colonial subjects both in Palestine and Sudan.