The High Commission of Tanzania in Abuja Celebrates Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian Diaspora Making Impact.

 

Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah, posing for the camera after his award on Thursday, 7/10/2021

A U.K.-based Tanzanian in diaspora , Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose experience of crossing continents and cultures has nurtured his novels about the impact of migration on individuals and societies, won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, 7th October, 2021. According to the Committe he was awarded for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism" . Gurnah, 72, recently retired as a professor of English and post-colonial literatures at the University of Kent. He is the author of 10 novels, including “Memory of Departure,” “Pilgrims Way,” “Paradise” — shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994 — “By the Sea,” “Desertion” and “Afterlives.” The settings range from East Africa under German colonialism to modern-day England. Many explore what he has called “one of the stories of our times”: the profound impact of migration both on uprooted people and the places they make their new homes.

Gurnah, whose native language is Swahili but who writes in English, is only the sixth Africa-born author to be awarded the Nobel for literature, which has been dominated by European and North American writers since it was founded in 1901.  “And many elder people are very, very happy Himid said. “Also me, as a Zanzibari. It’s a new step to make people read books again, since the internet has taken over.” The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, who won the Nobel Literature prize in 1986, welcomed the latest African Nobel laureate as proof that “the Arts — and literature in particular,  “May the tribe increase!” Soyinka told the AP in an email.

Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel Committee for literature, called Gurnah “one of the world’s most prominent post-colonial writers.” He said it was significant that Gurnah’s roots are in Zanzibar, a polyglot place that “was cosmopolitan long before globalization.”