The Sahara is a desert on the African Continent. It is the third-largest desert in the world. The first two are the deserts of the Arctic and Antarctica. The desert covers most of North Africa and has been inhabited by numerous people groups spanning thousands of years. European colonialism began in the 19th century with the countries of Spain, France, and Britain. The Sahara region had been divided into several countries but they were colonized by European powers. Britain began protecting Egypt including Sudan in 1882. Sudan is a country with its borders in the Sahara. This desert became a ground for colonization, fighting, and eventually freedom for the countries that dwelled there. In The Half-Caste the LePoer’s go to Belfast, but because it is so isolating for them the narrative voice compares it to the Sahara desert.

“Sahara.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara. 

Craik, Dinah Mulock. The Half-Caste, edited by Melissa Edmundson. Broadview Editions, 2016.