On settler colonialism from Afterlives: Ishfaq Ullah, Zahid Kamal, Haris Bari, ‘Settler Colonialism the Gradual Elimination of the Natives: Assimilation, Cultural Destruction, Dislocation of Land, Forced Relocation Represented by Gurnah in the Novel Afterlives’, Qualitative Research Journal for Social Studies, 2, 2, 2025, pp. 1016-1023 | settler colonial studies blog

On settler colonialism from Afterlives: Ishfaq Ullah, Zahid Kamal, Haris Bari, ‘Settler Colonialism the Gradual Elimination of the Natives: Assimilation, Cultural Destruction, Dislocation of Land, Forced Relocation Represented by Gurnah in the Novel Afterlives’, Qualitative Research Journal for Social Studies, 2, 2, 2025, pp. 1016-1023

08Aug25

Abstract: The present research paper focuses on the ways in which the portrayal of settler colonization through the subtle and devastating means is discussed in the novel Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (2020). The focus is on the numerous strategies employed by settler colonial states in an attempt to dominate indigenous populations, such as displacement, cultural genocide, and dispossession, and assimilation. This article takes a closer look at how such gradual, yet violent acts dissemble the indigenous people, in this case, the process of destroying the culture and severing them off their ancestral lands is done systematically using the novel as a sample. The example of the long-term impact of such colonial activities on the existence of people and the historical memory of the collective as a whole is movingly offered by the story of Afterlives. This paper aims to give insight into the symbolic effects of settler colonizing, by analyzing their life and the socio-political context of the characters.

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