Abdulrazak Gurnah, an author with a unique journey and identity (Tanzania)

(A belated tribute on this forum)

Abdulrazak Gurnah, an author with a unique journey and identity (Tanzania)

Big surprise in Stockholm: the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah. The Tanzanian author, who writes in English, is best known for his novels Paradise (1994) and By the Sea (2001). He was recognized for his "uncompromising and compassionate portrayal of the effects of colonialism and the fate of refugees caught between cultures and continents", according to the Nobel Committee.His work moves away from "stereotypical descriptions and opens our eyes to a culturally diverse East Africa that is little known in many parts of the world".

Gurnah is the first African author since 2003 to win the prestigious prize, and the fifth from the African continent overall—following Wole Soyinka (1986), Naguib Mahfouz (1988), Nadine Gordimer (1991), and J.M. Coetzee (2003). Once again, the prize passed over Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who has long been among the favorites for the award.

Born in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) in 1948, Abdulrazak Gurnah grew up in an Arab family originally from Yemen. He sought refuge in the UK in the late 1960s, a few years after independence, at a time when the Muslim minority there was being persecuted. He wasn’t able to return to Zanzibar until 1984.

Since 1987, he has published around ten novels and several short stories in English (his native language is Swahili). None have become bestsellers, but his body of work as a whole offers a different perspective on issues like immigration and cultural diversity. His work sheds light on the effects of colonialism, exile, and the plight of refugees, "speaking" of his love for Africa and his fight against neocolonialism. Though Gurnah’s stories aren’t explicitly autobiographical, they’re inspired by his life as an immigrant in the UK.

Gurnah was also a professor of English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent in Canterbury until his recent retirement.

Does this award bring more attention to African literature? Who knows? At the very least, it might give it a boost. If African literature is less visible in the West, it’s partly because it isn’t widely accessible: Gurnah is rarely translated into French or German, and not at all into Arabic.

In Tanzania and its Zanzibar archipelago, he’s being celebrated with joy. "This means a lot for Zanzibar’s struggle for self-determination," says Ismail Jussa, a literary critic from Zanzibar. "It helps put Zanzibar back on the map." The Swedish Committee acknowledged that his work has helped understand "the divisions caused by colonialists, but also the heartbreak of being torn between the homeland one comes from and the life of exile one is forced into."

By the Sea. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2001 (Fr.: Près de la Mer. Galaade Éd., 2006)

Paradise. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1994/2004 (Fr.: Paradis. Motifs, 1999)

Desertion. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005 (Fr.: Adieu Zanzibar. Galaade Éd., 2009)

Afterlives. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020 (Fr.: Les vies d’après. Denoël, 2023)

Hery

the heartbreak between the homeland from which people originate and the life in exile they were forced into.

A phrase whose haunting echo resonates in many places, in many languages, before fading away without having conveyed its message...

(just a quick hello to this forum... )

It's never too late for a well-deserved tribute. 🙂

A few thoughts...

Gurnah is the first African author since 2003 to win the prestigious prize, and the fifth from the African continent overall—after Wole Soyinka (1986), Naguib Mahfouz (1988), Nadine Gordimer (1991), and JM Coetzee (2003)

And that’s just geographic Africa. If we consider cultural Africa, which seems like the right criterion since we’re talking about literature, the count is even slimmer. Gordimer and Coetzee? White South Africans, settlers—exactly the people Gurnah critiques. Mahfouz, the Egyptian, is part of Arab culture, and Gurnah himself embraces multiple cultural identities. That leaves only Soyinka, the Nigerian. Just one laureate for this culture, while Sweden has eight. 😮

You’d think that the following year (2002), there would’ve been room for someone more radiant, more universal than the French author Ernaux—but the Nobel’s ways are mysterious. 🤪

If African literature is less visible in the West, it’s also because it’s not accessible: Gurnah is barely translated into French and German, not at all into Arabic.

This reminds me of a staggering comparison: there are five times fewer books translated into Arabic (500 million speakers) than into Modern Greek (15 million speakers).

Good evening,

Thank you so much for your valuable thoughts and your unflinching perspective. I can only echo your observations. On the other hand, this assessment shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. It speaks volumes about our perception of this continent. And there are far too many examples of it.

In any case, Abdulrazak Gurnah is a truly deserving laureate. But it would be even more important for the Nobel Prize to be followed by lasting interest in this part of the world, with its diverse cultures and literature. An interest that goes far beyond covering crises and disasters. That would be an even greater honor for Abdulrazak Gurnah and his work.

« The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it. »

hgb