Wa?at al-Ghurub (2006) captures in its plot the complexity of the colonial situation in Egypt at the end of the nineteenth century through engaging different peoples and spaces. It portrays the reaction(s) of individuals from the Berber population at the Siwa Oasis to the current of dissimilar cultural beliefs and practices striking their community when Ma?mud, their new district commissioner and his Irish wife, Kathrin, arrive at their oasis. Ma?mud’s life experience is the generator of events and flashbacks. His journey from being the young, hopeful son of an affluent merchant and becoming a police officer in Cairo to falling into existential despair and suicide at the oasis corresponds with the experience of the Berber marginalization under the dual colonial rule by the Egyptian government and the British colonial administration. In this paper, I examine how the novel portrays critical and dynamic areas of interaction and tension among the racially and culturally diverse characters, on one level, and among the allegedly homogenous Berber community, on the other, in order to disrupt essentialist perceptions of this significant ethno-cultural minority group in Egypt. I argue that Wa?at al-Ghurub does not only present a profound criticism of imperial doctrines and practices of differentiation, but also revokes the invasive and unethical forms of knowledge that heedlessly disregard others’ values and customs in the selfish pursuit of one’s own desires.