In her introduction to the US edition of Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North, Laila Lalami observed that the novel was unique in that it was ‘written in the author's native language, rather than the colonial one’. Salih explained that he wrote in Arabic ‘as a matter of principle’.

We know that some novels have been written in African languages and that Najib Mafouz wrote in Arabic, as have other North African novelists. We also know that many novels written in French or English were uncompromisingly anti-colonial, and we have glimpsed what the choice of language can mean in terms of the dilemma confronting authors. This has been articulated by Ngugi wa Thiong'o in Decolonising the Mind and it has led him to write in Gikuyu. The fact that Ngugi is now resident in the USA, where he is lionized for his English-language novels, speaks volumes about the ‘balance of power’ in publishing and distribution that confronts African writers – and breaks their idealism and resistance.

William Maynard Hutchins and Pearson Publishers deserve credit for the translation and publication of Amir Taj ElSir's The Grub Hunter. The volume answers the suspicion that Africans – and writers from all developing countries – have about choice of language. There are obvious reasons for writing in colonial languages and these include earning royalties, gaining access to an international reading public and recognition. Recognition may include winning prizes – that may include a token or a deserved Nobel.