Leila Aboulela
River Spirit by Leila Aboulela is the story of the Mahdist war in the Sudan during the 1880s. The Mahdi claims to be descended from the Prophet of Islam. His ostensible mission is to conduct a holy war to liberate Sudan from its Ottoman-Egyptian colonial oppressors.
The novel unfolds through the perspectives of several different characters. Some are first-person narratives; others are in third person. Included is the perspective of Musa, an idealistic young man who aligns himself with the Mahdi uprising. Other perspectives are those of Yaseen, a young man who works with the Turkish colonialists; Richard, a Scottish artist who has come to Sudan to seek renewal after the tragic death of his wife; Fatimah, Yaseen’s mother; Salha, Yaseen’s wife; and Charles Gordon, the British general sent to quell the revolution and evacuate the British from Khartoum. The central figure is Akuany, later re-named Zamzam. She is a young woman who is sold into slavery several times over and who experiences the uprising from different vantage points. The chapters rotate between the perspectives of different characters but always return to Akuany as the anchor.
Aboulela presents a panoramic view of the Mahdi’s uprising and its impact on the people. Although she presents alternative views on the uprising and on colonial power, her lens focuses on those traditionally marginalized by the larger political context, namely, the experience of women and what women do in order to survive. At the end of the novel, Salha reflects on the impact of the uprising. Through letters, she reveals that after the Madhi’s unexpected death, his mantle is picked up by another who claims to be the new Mahdi and who proceeds to oppress the people. A revolution waged on behalf of the people ends up terrorizing its people. Desperate for a solution, the population seek a new redeemer only to be repeatedly let down and tossed from one oppressive government to another.
There is much to be admired in the novel. The wide scope and panoramic view immerse the reader in Sudan’s complex history during the 1880s. The novel effectively illustrates the desperate plight of a population ready to cling to anything promising hope. But the shifting of numerous perspectives can feel choppy and confusing at times, and some sections of the novel are better integrated than others. A few of the characters are not well developed and emerge merely as mouthpieces for specific points of view. However, if the goal is to capture a time in Sudan’s turbulent history from a variety of vantage points and shed light on the deleterious impact of colonialism, slavery, and the desperation of its population, then Aboulela has succeeded.