Tradition and Transformation

Abstract

This paper examines Al Tayeb Salih’s Domat Wad Hamid as a literary exploration of memory, myth, and cultural identity within the postcolonial Sudanese context. By centering the sacred doum tree as a symbol of heritage and communal resilience, Salih dramatizes the villagers’ devotion to Sufi traditions and their resistance to modernization. Through close reading, the analysis reveals how myth and oral storytelling function as counter-histories that critique colonial neglect and expose the failures of post-independence governance. At the same time, Salih’s narrative resists a binary opposition between tradition and progress, instead envisioning a “parallel modernity” where cultural heritage and infrastructural development coexist. Drawing on postcolonial theory and African literary debates, the paper argues that Domat Wad Hamid affirms Sudanese resilience by reimagining modernity not as rupture but as dialogue with tradition, thereby contributing to broader discourses on identity, hybridity, and cultural continuity in African literature.