This essay argues for the primacy of energy as an impetus within the writing of Sudanese author, al-Tayyib Salih. Taking his most famous novel, Mawsim al-hijra ilā al-shimāl, as a case study, it explores the significance of climatic factors, and of changes to energy regimes, within the novel’s plot, characterisation, intertextuality, and postcolonial critique. Through the character of Mustafa Saʿid, it argues for a posthuman impulse in the novel, as Mustafa transforms from Faustian archetype to a fantastical, nonhuman force, in a process of exemplary uncanniness. It concludes by shifting to alternate forms of energy within Salih’s writing, as the spiritual energy of the Sufi “unseen” meets the unheeding world of atoms, supercharged with new energies in the modern era.