Voices in Exile: Postcolonial Identity and Muslim Immigrant Experience in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Admiring Silence

Academy of Education and Social Sciences Review Vol. 5 No. 4 | November, 2025 | 579 - 588 ISSN (p): 2790-8348 | ISSN (e): 2789-6781 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17779022 Voices in Exile: Postcolonial Identity and Muslim Immigrant Experience in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Admiring Silence Ahmed Mabrook Al-Hawtali College of Women Seiyun University, Seiyun, Yemen Kamran Zaib Department of English Linguistics & Literature Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan Ali Saleh Al-Hossini Department of English Language Hadhramout University, Mukalla, Yemen How to Cite: Al-Hawtali, A. M., Zaib, K., & Al-Hossini, A. S. (2025). Voices in Exile: Postcolonial Identity and Muslim Immigrant Experience in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Admiring Silence. Academy of Education and Social Sciences Review, 5(4), 579– 588. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17779022 Publisher’s Note: International Research and Publishing Academy (iRAPA) stands neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in the published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: ©2025 | Academy of Education and Social Sciences Review published by International Research and Publishing Academy (iRAPA) This is an Open Access article published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY): lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text or data mine the article, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, and do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honour or reputation. 10-1170-AESSR-CE Published online: 30 November 2025 View related articles Submit your article to this journal Discussion Paper Al-Hawtali, Zaib & Al-Hossini Vol. 5 No. 4 (November, 2025) 580 introduction Abdulrazak Gurnah is regarded as one of the prominent voices of contemporary postcolonial literature, especially as it relates to East African histories and lives in the diaspora in Britain (Hand, 2010). His fiction repeatedly returns to themes of exile, displacement and the long afterlife of colonial rule in the everyday experience of the ruptured histories of colonialism and their effects on fragmented subjectivities and narrative forms (Gurnah, 2004). Rather than presenting simple dichotomies between coloniser and colonised, his novels bring complex negotiations of memory, power and belonging in spaces marked by imperialism and its residues into the foreground (Bakari, 2012). Gurnah’s positioning as a Zanzibari of Arab descent who moved to Britain after the Zanzibar revolution informs his content and point of view in his work (Burgess, 1999). His own departure from Zanzibar under conditions of fear and political uncertainty, as well as his decades in Britain, provide him with an “exilic” position from which to examine the relationship between colonial and postcolonial histories and intimate, familial lives (Young, 2016). At the same time, his training and activity as a critic of African fiction attest to an unremitting interest in how African stories are read, valued, and classified within global literary systems (Gurnah, 1982). Within this larger body of work, Admiring Silence (1996) sits at the heart of an understanding of the postcolonial identity of the African Muslim migrant in Britain. The novel follows an unnamed narrator from a Zanzibari family who leaves his homeland to be educated and find his fortune in England, falls in love with an English woman, has a daughter, and returns to Zanzibar after more than twenty years in England. His split life - characterised by silence, half-truths and self-erasure in both places - reveals the psychic and ethical pressures of living between competing demands of culture and family (Falk, 2007). In this respect, the text has been interpreted as a narrative of (un)belonging, in which the protagonist’s failure to claim either Britain or Zanzibar as ‘home’ plays out a broader diasporic crisis of identity (Bungaro, 2005). The novel also needs to be situated within the specific historical and religious context of postrevolutionary Zanzibar, where questions of race, citizenship, and faith have been highly contested (Bakari, 2012). The narrator comes from an environment defined by Islam, Indian Ocean trading routes and a stratified colonial and postcolonial social order, and instead finds himself in a British environment that racialises him and normalises secular, liberal attitudes to family and sexuality at the same time (Habib, 2008). His gradual disconnection with Islamic practice, his “paperless” marriage to a non-Muslim partner and the hybrid status of his daughter highlight how migration reshapes moral frameworks, legal norms and senses of communal obligation (Said, 2000). Abstract This study examines the themes of postcolonial identity, exile, cultural hybridity and the experience of the Muslim immigrant in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s novel Admiring Silence (1996). The study is concerned with racial and cultural issues of the diaspora Muslim immigrants. Using a postcolonial approach, the research explores the character’s struggle to find their identity and belonging, both domestically and abroad in the countries of their origin and the societies in which they live. The study sheds light on the complex identities of characters shaped by the dynamics of postcolonial experiences, including immigration, cultural hybridity, and racial and religious identity. The present study uses a descriptive-analytical approach in the postcolonial context. The findings show the protagonist’s experience of a cultural displacement and fragmented sense of selfhood as he struggles to balance the racial, national, and religious identities that he is forced to adopt by both his homeland and his life in exile. The research aims to introduce new knowledge into the multidimensional human experience of Muslim immigrants living in exile and to reveal their sufferings of alienation, identity loss, and a sense of belonging. Keywords Admiring Silence Cultural hybridity Muslim immigrant Postcolonial literature 581 Voices in Exile: Postcolonial Identity and Muslim Immigrant Experience in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Vol. 5 No. 4 (November, 2025) Postcolonial theory offers a significant framework for analysing these negotiations of identity, faith and belonging on national and cultural borders (Bhabha, 1994). Concepts like hybridity, liminality, and ambivalence help elicit the idea that the narrator is never quite at home in either Zanzibar or Britain, but must reinvent himself each time in relation to both. At the same time, postcolonial criticism’s focus on language, representation, and the politics of culture helps clarify the workings of diasporic Muslim subjectivities within unequal global structures (Ashcroft, 1998). In this respect, the present research is devoted to Admiring Silence, specifically the experience of Muslim immigrants. It asks: How does the novel construct the postcolonial identity of its unnamed Muslim narrator as he makes his way from Zanzibar to Britain? What does he find displacing, racial and cultural subordinations and Islamic moral values in his sense of self, belonging and failure? Furthermore, in what ways does the text by Gurnah bring forth the specific plight of Muslim immigrants who must bargain with religious, cultural, and family demands in a secular host culture? These questions assist the research in understanding Gurnah’s work more critically and in contributing to the making of larger discourses regarding the Muslim diaspora, postcolonial identities, and the continuing human impacts of exile and immigration (Barry, 2002). MEtHodoLoGY This study is qualitative and follows a descriptive-analytical design. Rather than gathering empirical or numerical data, it relies on close reading and critical interpretation of a literary text to examine how postcolonial identity, exile, cultural hybridity, and the Muslim immigrant experience are represented. The research is therefore interpretive and text-based, aiming to uncover the complex layers of meaning embedded in Admiring Silence (Gurnah, 1996) in relation to broader postcolonial and diasporic concerns. The primary source for the analysis is Gurnah’s novel Admiring Silence. The text is studied with particular focus on narrative voice, characterisation, setting, symbolism, and key episodes that foreground the unnamed narrator’s experience of displacement, racialisation, religious tension, and fractured belonging. Secondary sources include critical and theoretical work on postcolonial literature, diaspora, and identity, as well as scholarly work on Gurnah’s fiction, East African Muslim diasporas, and the historical contexts of Zanzibar and Britain. These secondary materials are used to contextualise the novel, support interpretation and place the discussion in existing academic debates. The analysis of data is carried out in both thematic and textual forms. First, relevant textual instances in Admiring Silence are identified and grouped into key themes, including postcolonial identity crisis, exile and return, cultural hybridity, racial and religious marginalisation, and Muslim immigrant subjectivity. These thematic clusters are then analysed by close reading, paying attention to language, imagery, narrative structure and the protagonist’s interior monologue. The findings from the primary text are continually compared with insights from the secondary literature, and triangulation between the novel, historical context, and theoretical perspectives is possible. This iterative process of reading, interpreting and revisiting the text ensures depth, coherence and critical self-reflection in the analysis. Postcolonial theory In recent years, postcolonial literature and theory have emerged to the surface of literary and cultural studies. These studies usually tackled crucial issues such as ethnicity, gender roles, identity, hybridity, immigration, political, cultural and religious constraints. In this context, certain critics, such as Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak, tackle the field’s core aims by presenting fundamental ideas in complex prose. On the other hand, critics like Edward Said and Frantz Fanon arguably suggest that their works should ideally be read first, as their ideas laid the foundation for anti-colonial discourse, which later developed into post-colonial theory, a method for reading and interpreting texts produced by writers from formerly colonised countries. Indeed, those prominent theorists have significantly contributed to the popularisation of post-colonial studies. According to Young (2016), postcolonial theory as a “political discourse” emerged mainly from experiences of oppression and struggles for freedom after the “tricontinental” awakening in Africa, Asia and Latin America: the continents associated with poverty and conflict (p. 383). Al-Hawtali, Zaib & Al-Hossini Vol. 5 No. 4 (November, 2025) 582 Historically speaking, the concept of “postcolonialism” emerged as a distinct field of study in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It gained significant traction after World War II, providing a platform for writers from formerly colonised regions to explore themes of identity, nationhood, culture, power and resistance in the context of colonialism and its aftermath. However, the key themes of postcolonialism are cultural hybridity, the struggle for national identity, the impact of colonialism on language and culture, and the ongoing effects of historical and ongoing power imbalances. In this regard, Childs and Fowler (2006) emphasise, “Postcolonialism as a concept “emerged out of developments within literary studies in the late 1970s as the revolution in ‘theory’ was extended to encompass the cultural, political and economic legacy of empire and its aftermath” (p. 183). They affirm that for many years, the pivotal moment in the development of postcolonialism came with the publication of Edward Said’s path-breaking book Orientalism in 1978 (Said, 1978, p. 183). They also add, “Said linked the cultural and intellectual discourse of ‘the West’ with the material practices of colonialism. This concern with the relationship between culture and power is the dominant feature of postcolonialism, which has broadened into a disciplinary sub-field in its own right” (183-84). Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) is considered a milestone in the shaping of postcolonial studies. In Orientalism, Said argued for a direct correlation between the knowledge Asian scholars produced and its redeployment in the constitution of colonial rule. The term postcolonialism broadly refers to the representation of race, ethnicity, culture, and human identity in the modern era, particularly following the independence of formerly colonised nations. It is commonly associated with imperialism, spanning from the era of colonisation to the 21st century. As Habib (2008) explains, “The word imperialism derives from the Latin ‘imperium’, which has numerous meanings including power, authority, command, dominion, realm, and empire” (p. 737). It describes many interactions between ‘coloniser’ and ‘colonised’. The majority of the world was under the control of European countries. Thus, postcolonial theory frames its critique around the social histories, cultural disparities, and political discrimination that are practised and normalised by colonial and imperial systems. Ashcroft (1998) states that postcolonial literature comes from Britain’s former colonies in the Caribbean, Africa and India. Immigrant or Diasporic African literature and postcolonial literature share several significant and overlapping themes. This suggests that diasporic literature holds a significant position within postcolonial literature. In this regard, postcolonial writers in exile wrote their works in English to reflect themes of independence and national identity. In this context, Gurnah is deeply preoccupied with themes of identity and displacement, particularly how these issues stem from the legacies of colonialism and slavery. Misrepresentation has been consciously addressed through his carefully selected characters, the emphasis on real experiences, and the use of multiple voices in his works. According to modern literary discourse, Gurnah’s novels can be located in the British postcolonial literary canon. Using postcolonialism as a framework, Admiring Silence has been selected as a representative postcolonial and diasporic novel. It addresses themes of exile, asylum, refugees, colonialism, and identity. In Admiring Silence, Gurnah explores the reconstruction of self and cultural identity within the context of immigration and exile. He presents a shifting concept of home as characters immigrate, where the journey symbolises both growth and development and displacement. discussion and Analysis Scholars and critics examine ideological, cultural and racial dynamics in postcolonial texts. As an academic field, postcolonialism aims to interpret, critique, and address the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism. When analysing literary works, postcolonial theory consistently explores both the benefits and challenges arising from the interaction and fusion of diverse peoples and cultures. Accordingly, this study is intended to investigate themes of postcolonial identity, culture, and the Muslim immigration experience in the novel Admiring Silence (Gurnah, 1996). The study employs post-colonial theory as a theoretical framework. Post-colonial theory is a literary approach that focuses on literature 583 Voices in Exile: Postcolonial Identity and Muslim Immigrant Experience in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Vol. 5 No. 4 (November, 2025) produced in countries that were once or are currently colonies of other nations. In literature, various postcolonial theories and concepts are reflected in and applied to literary works. Admiring Silence is Gurnah’s fifth novel, first published by The New Press in 1996. In the novel, the unnamed protagonist voluntarily immigrates from East Africa to England in the early 1960s to pursue higher education and seek a better life. However, in England, he experiences a complex form of displacement, facing racism and estrangement. These layers of dislocation are primarily reflected in his struggles with nationality, culture, and religion. Postcolonial identity This issue is complex, as both the writer and the protagonist experience exile. They faced waves of struggle and conflict as immigrants or minorities within the majority in England. In Admiring Silence, Gurnah draws the protagonist’s experience as an immigrant in the host land, Britain. The writer deliberately does not give him a name to represent all the African immigrants who live in Europe and still suffer from an identity crisis, cultural and religious influences. The protagonist at the beginning of the novel is a disgruntled man unhappy in England. Likewise, when he returns to Zanzibar, his homeland, for a short visit, he becomes confused and unhappy with “much trouble” (Gurnah,1996, p. 173). The novel’s events are depicted in both contemporary Zanzibar and Britain. Zanzibar is an island in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Tanzania, East Africa. It is not a separate country but a semi-autonomous region within Tanzania. The novel’s protagonist, an African immigrant of Arab descent, is introduced through a first-person narrative. After spending over twenty years in Britain with his girlfriend, Emma, and their daughter, Amelia, he returns to his homeland in East Africa. As illustrated in the excerpt below, he is welcomed as the African son who has attained “educational success” (Barry, 2002, p. 107) by mastering and teaching in the dominant language of his host country. The scene highlights his family’s pride in his linguistic and academic achievements, as well as his ability to engage with both his native and adopted cultures. He says, “My mother brought me into the conversation with the announcement that I taught in London… her mother said, a joke which `everyone who made it seemed to think was original. ‘Can’t they speak their own language?” (Gurnah,1996, p. 164). In the story, the protagonist narrator loses his father even before he is born, and his mother turns her interest away from him to concentrate on his stepfather and half-siblings. His partner and daughter’s abandonment leaves a deep feeling of loss, plunging him into dejection and rendering him unable to break the ‘fragile silence’ (Gurnah, 1996, p. 217) that pervades him from stepping out of it. This sense of losing his identity, family, and even his homeland has heightened his awareness of being destroyed. His life becomes a choice between two bitter paths: the first is to get astray until he faces his final fate; the second is to seek another land that may embrace him. Silence, here as the title suggests, has been used metaphorically. One can argue that the first-person narrator is presented as the refugee’s strategy to shield his identity from racism and prejudice, but also as a means of avoiding a collision between past and present, producing disappointment and disastrous self-deception. In this case, silence means loneliness, isolation or awkwardness. It can be used to indicate emotional withdrawal, disapproval or even self-punishment. It also symbolises the character’s self-defeat. All events go against his wishes and dreams. His deep silence reflects his painful experience and his current life. His inner conflict means he has no answers for all the questions raised by the people around him. Admiring Silence raises questions about the definitions of belonging and the realities of home. The unnamed protagonist narrator is a clear picture of the failure of patriarchal power, readily admitting his inadequacies saying, “I sobbed for myself, for the shambles I had made of my life, for what I had already lost and what I feared I was still to lose” (Gurnah,1996, p. 189). The protagonist feels deeply alienated from his family. He longs for affection and self-respect. His deception reflects a profound feeling of despair and recognition. To restore his family ties, he is seen as a traitor and a liar as he turns into a shame. His pain is intensified by the fact that, while others harm him without remorse, he is the only one who bears guilt. This sharp contrast is powerfully portrayed in the following passage, “At first she was as devastated as I was, and we sat weeping together evening after evening like lost souls... and she could not disguise her Al-Hawtali, Zaib & Al-Hossini Vol. 5 No. 4 (November, 2025) 584 exasperation and her derision” (Gurnah,1996, pp. 216-17). This is the profound suffering of an immigrant who lives in the diaspora. He feels neither has a sense of belonging to his homeland nor a connection to a new identity. The concept of diaspora refers to the dispersion of a people from their original “homeland” to at least two “peripheral” locations. In other words, diaspora refers to a large group of people who share a common cultural and regional origin but live outside their traditional homeland. This displacement can occur through forced immigration or voluntary movement to other regions. For the immigrants and minorities, the “original homeland” would exist among them as a perpetuated myth, memory and vision or as an idealised place to which they will return when the time is right. In this context, the immigrant’s family requires that he “should come back” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 153) and provide them with what they need. As a Black man, he is likely viewed as incapable of living independently or supporting his family. Society has a negative impression of him, identifying him with a slave. This is a manifestation of racial bigotry that the African immigrants face and undergo. According to the minority concept, the colonisers tended to label Africans as slaves who were uneducated and lived in disease-ridden countries. These attitudes to African immigrants are based on the way they understand themselves as a minority because of the external judgment and the discriminatory opinion they receive. The protagonist states, “I felt invisible to them. My voice sounded strange when I spoke in their midst, as if I was speaking in an incomprehensible tongue…, a cyclone or a cholera epidemic or an inherited deformity” (Gurnah,1996, p. 30). Living in England does not automatically make you a British citizen. In the British context, the doctor attempts to remind the African immigrant of his identity, stating, “Afro-Caribbean people have dickey hearts” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 9). This remark highlights the persistence of racial stereotypes and the immigrant’s struggle with his sense of self in a foreign society. The doctor appears to imply the sense of being a minority of the protagonist and his homeland in Africa by referring to the Afro-Caribbean and their weak heart. To achieve his ambition, the Muslim immigrant navigates various layers of consciousness in the host country. Living in England with the hope of building a successful life, he works diligently to attain “all the comforts” the host land has to offer. His aspirations drive him to persevere despite the challenges he faces in adapting to his new environment. He says, “You’ve struggled all these years to make a successful life for yourself, and now you have a good position, with all the comforts and conveniences you desire. Don’t think I don’t know how difficult it must...” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 153). Another element of the protagonist’s self-perception is his mother, who reminds him of his good position and his need for English in everyday life. This character experiences different situations influenced by the conditions and circumstances of the Muslim immigrants stay in England. These experiences reveal the depth of his identity and the conflicts he must confront in his unfamiliar world. The story’s plot reveals both countries, Britain and Africa: Africa, the protagonist’s homeland where he grew up, and Britain, the host country. He shares a strong bond with his family, as shown in their conversation: “How long has it been? We thought you’d forgotten us. You were only a boy when you left us, and now you return with a head full of grey. Mashaallah” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 122). In his homeland, cultural characteristics are closely tied to individuals, reinforcing their sense of identity. The protagonist’s citizenship in Africa symbolises his history, family, and roots, while in Britain, his sense of belonging is reduced to that of an immigrant. Muslim immigrant Experience The novel provides a real picture of what it is like to be a Muslim immigrant in exile. A man from Zanzibar goes to England in search of a better life, leaving his home behind. The nation was characterized by ethnic and class disparities, colonial rule, and slave trade had existed in the 1960s. Gurnah himself, as an immigrant, came to the United Kingdom in 1968 as a refugee at 18 years old. Born in Canterbury, he had an idea about the inside conflicts of the immigrant who tries to find his identity, belonging, and cultural dislocation. Although Islam is not the central theme of the novel, it powerfully shapes the protagonist’s background, his moral sense, and his alienation. Gurnah deliberately conceals the narrator’s identity to emphasise the theme of identity crisis and 585 Voices in Exile: Postcolonial Identity and Muslim Immigrant Experience in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Vol. 5 No. 4 (November, 2025) belonging. The main character is a member of Zanzibar, which is a Muslim state. His leaving of the Islamic world in Zanzibar for secular Britain is not only a physical voyage, but also a significant moral and spiritual displacement. The narrator’s silence to speak about his past, particularly his religious background, serves as a coping strategy that isolates him from both his host British society and his homeland. His silence is partly about Islam—how much of it he has left behind, and how much he still carries within. Being a member of a minority Muslim group, the protagonist recognises himself as an immigrant in the host culture; thus, he does not share his past with the British people due to the sense of extreme unfamiliarity that still lives within him, “I am a tragedy” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 12). The sense of being unfamiliar with the new community is presented as a key factor driving the transition in the protagonist’s psychological sense of self within the Muslim migrant discourse. This shift reflects the challenges of adapting to an environment where racial and cultural dynamics shape his identity. Thus, the novel reveals the life of an African immigrant living in England. The location of this scene is the climax of the protagonist’s relationship with Emma. The narrator tells us, “We were a bit drunk when we went to bed, just nice for a jolly romp, but Emma said she was too tired to make love. After a moment, I asked her if there was someone else, and she said yes, there was. Then, as we lay there in the dark, she began to talk about him and about all the things that had happened to her over the last several months” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 210). His everyday life in England completely disregards the Islamic traditions. In England, he feels a tangible gap in his life, which is caused by the lack of Islamic traditions, negating his feelings of cultural and religious alienation. His association with being an English woman has provided the basis of his assimilation into the British society, based on his Muslim identity. This silence is in reference to the general marginalisation that Muslim immigrants in postcolonial Britain face. Apparently, the sense of self among the Muslim immigrants implies that they were not only at odds with the host culture but also trapped. Therefore, being considered minorities in the dominant cultures, they must live between both sides of their identities and stipulate an individual definition of faith. In fact, the narrator is breaking him down. He is caught between the two cultures, but his challenging predicament prevents him from adopting either. He is not rejecting the practice of Islam, though he does not practice it. This, though, is an indication of cultural and moral deprivation that most of the secondgeneration Muslim immigrants went through during years of long exile. Apparently, his Muslim identity turns out to be a blend, which he cannot understand. This liminality depicts the idea of the third space, as Homi Bhabha describes immigrants leading a hybrid existence. In this regard, Islam is a historical construction as well as a constant reminder of alienation. He struggles to accept that he has married an English woman in England, which complicates the situation and prevents him from taking his daughter back to the African continent. This internal struggle makes it very clear how complicated his identity was and how hard it was to balance his life in Britain with his connection to his native land. Emma, who is too weary to make love, in her turn, emphasises the emotional and mental toll that the actions of the main character, in particular his attempts to construct a new life for himself, have. This quote shows that his choices cause him a lot of pressure and weight on his Muslim immigrant identity. The protagonist is thrust into a severe crisis: he must decide to break up with Emma in England, yet he is reluctant to take his daughter with him, out of embarrassment and a fear of being mocked. The following text offers another analysis of what a Muslim immigrant is and provides references to the main character’s psychological consciousness. This conflict within himself shows how his emotional and cultural identity is multidimensional because the protagonist is examining the issues of immigration and searching his identity. He admits, “The trouble with you is that you only ever think of yourself. She is their grandchild. They have every right… Your parents have not even sent us a card or a present for the baby. I’m not trying to impose our customs on them or anything, but I’d have thought just a little token …” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 32). Al-Hawtali, Zaib & Al-Hossini Vol. 5 No. 4 (November, 2025) 586 This confession illustrates the differences of African immigrant’s culture with that of the host land in terms of ‘customs and society’s norms’. The issues of identity and culture experienced by the characters in Admiring Silence appear to be a dominating feature in the narrative. The novel presents the depiction of a new generation who is aware of the sense of a “loss of cultural identity and the like” (Bhabha, 1994, p. 12). The protagonist’s daughter was “born to an unmarried couple” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 24). This suggests a sense of not belonging, further suggesting disconnection from her mother’s land and her father’s homeland. This condition clearly brings a sense of ambiguity in her identity as stated in the story, “It’ll be neither one thing nor the other” (Ibid). Her hybridity places her in a liminal state, or instead in between two cultural worlds, not necessarily belonging to either. This complex identity depicts cultural dislocation. This multitasked cultural identity is not only to the African diasporic generation in England. The same case happen to the younger generation such as the daughter of the protagonist, Amelia and other generations. The tragic consequences of the protagonist’s decisions are apparent in this dilemma. Besides these in-depth impacts on his self-image as an African immigrant, the behaviour of his girlfriend has an even greater impact on his emotional shift. He gets lone and immoral, and it shows that he has a change in his inner self-knowledge. This emotional rejection is an indication of his identity conflict as an African immigrant. He states, “She told me her life was a narrative which had refused closure, that she was now at the beginning of another story, one which she was choosing for herself, not a tale she had stumbled into and then could not find a way out of…” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 210). In this scene, Emma attempts to deny any responsibility for her actions. She renounces the reality of having been in an illicit relationship with her new partner, seemingly forgetting her past with the protagonist, including their cohabitation outside their marriage and committing fornication. This behaviour reveals a significant change in his identity as a Muslim immigrant. He blames himself for renouncing the values and teachings of his religion. It also reflects his internal conflict which marks his identity shift, while Emma attempts to shift the blame away from herself. This complicated situation illustrates the weight of confronting failure, revealing the protagonist’s inner turmoil and the emotional cost of reconciling his fractured identity with the aftermath of his decisions. The protagonist’s emotional alienation from his partner, Emma, is compounded by his inability to fit into the family. When she deserted him, he is emotionally detached and culturally misunderstood. In this case, he is torn between family expectations and personal ambitions. The narrator returns to his motherland, Zanzibar, after 20 years of exile and finds his faith, Islam, which was one of the foundational pillars of the lives of the people he had abandoned. This alienation is the most apparent in this opposition. He is indeed no longer wholly a part of that world. Therefore, Islam during his childhood has changed and he cannot identify himself with it, which makes him feel even more out of place. The novel broadly explores ideological dynamics in the context of Islam and postcolonial society. Though the narrator seriously tries to reclaim aspects of his past in Zanzibar, he is shocked by the reality that religious and cultural norms about marriage and social prudery clash with his Westernised culture. This mental change in his attitudes proves the profound influence of his host society’s culture and norms. In the excerpt below, the narrator illustrates the transition that occurs within a Muslim immigrant, regardless of his concerns about maintaining his religious identity. Although his strategy is successful in some ways, it ultimately leads to a shift in his original faith. He expresses his regret by saying, “I was pleased to get a job in a comprehensive school in Wands worth. We rented a flat in Streatham, spent a happy weekend buying bed-sheets and table-mats, and settled down to a life of sin” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 75). His aim extends to achieving success, including securing a job, but a shift follows this success in his sense of self, as he sins living unmarried with an English girl. This situation marks the first stage of the protagonist’s transition in their emotional and spiritual sense of self. It represents the internal conflict he faces as his actions conflict with his moral and religious beliefs, leading to a deeper emotional and spiritual struggle. 587 Voices in Exile: Postcolonial Identity and Muslim Immigrant Experience in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Vol. 5 No. 4 (November, 2025) As an African Muslim immigrant, the protagonist is confronted by two different cultures. As he is immersed in Western culture, he is not committed to his religious attitudes. His immersion in the host culture leads him to distance himself from the values and beliefs he once had, marking a shift in his spiritual identity and his relationship with his faith. The deep cultural influence. This cultural transition in his spiritual faith allows him to lose his fear of God (Allah). This religious weakness of the protagonist leads him to live with a non-Muslim English woman without being aware that he is committing adultery (Zina). In this context, the Qur’an says in Surah Al-Baqarah, “Do not marry unbelieving women (idolaters), until they believe: A slave woman who believes is better than an unbelieving woman. Even though she allures you. Nor marry (your girls) to unbelievers until they believe” (Qur’an Kareem, 2: 221) [translated verses, p. 94]. Islam has banned this kind of relationship between a man and a woman without legal marriage. As a Muslim immigrant, the protagonist does not marry his English girlfriend legally. This unlawful affair or sin has harmful, lasting consequences. Illegal relationships within the society usually lead to negative consequences. One of the adverse fruits is the birth of an illegitimate child. In the protagonist’s case, his illegal relationship with the English lady leads to a complicated predicament. His daughter struggles with her hybrid identity within both her familial and societal frameworks. This illegitimate child often faces confusion regarding his/her status within the community he/she is born in. The protagonist lives in a family formed outside the bonds of legal matrimony. This type of marriage is called a ‘paperless marriage’. His parents in law are ‘respectably’ married under the British legal and religious codes governing marriage. His own parents and the family he left behind in Zanzibar are defined within Muslim cultural laws, which frown upon his style of life and choice of a marriage partner. On mentioning to them that he is married to an English woman, the response from the step-father is, “You’re lost now... not only to us but to yourself. Just like your father” (Gurnah, 1996, p. 189). In the novel, the protagonist’s humanity is evident in his behaviour. As a Muslim African immigrant, he engages in harmful actions that turn against his religious beliefs, despite not being a member of the non-Muslim community in England. This external change signifies a profound internal conflict between his cultural identity and religious values. Thus, his actions reveal a deep internal and moral struggle to cope with his exilic and Islamic culture. concLuSion This study depicts crucial issues of exile, displacement, and colonialism. Gurnah’s fiction focuses on historical and social events that led to the displacement of people from Africa to Europe. By using narrative techniques, vivid descriptions, imagery, symbolism, and complicated characterisation, Gurnah lets readers enjoy reading East African immigrant experiences in exile. The novel has been discussed from a postcolonial perspective. It highlights the exilic experience of the unnamed protagonist who represents all voices of Muslim immigrants in exile. These minority groups face marginalisation, and their voices are often minimised in the host society to gain their rights and well-being. Gurnah has written to explore the dominant themes of postcolonial societies: immigration, identity struggles, racial, cultural, and religious clashes that East African Muslim immigrants experience in exile. In Admiring Silence, the protagonist renounces his role as a Muslim, both within his host and homeland culture. He does not reconcile his cultural, and personal struggles. Throughout critical analysis, the novel reveals that the sense of belonging for the Muslim immigrant is often shaped by constructs of nationality, culture, religion and society’s norms. This sense of belonging reflects a desire to assimilate and gain acceptance in the host country, particularly as minorities within a majority community. This process involves creating a new generation, which can integrate the complexities of cultural, religious, and social identities in both countries. The protagonist’s daughter exemplifies the new generation. Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.