2021 Nobel Prize in Literature: Who is Abdulrazak Gurnah? Know about the prominent writer

The Swedish Academy announced on Thursday, 7 October that the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 is awarded to Abdulrazak Gurnah "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents." The 73-year-old author of 10 novels including well-renowned works such as ‘Paradise’ and ‘Desertion,’ received 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.14m / £840,000). 

After getting the award, Gurnah not only said he was grateful to the academy but added, “It's just great - it's just a big prize, and such a huge list of wonderful writers - I am still taking it in...It was such a complete surprise that I really had to wait until I heard it announced before I could believe it."

Who is Abdulrazak Gurnah?

Born in 1948, Abdulrazak Gurnah mainly grew up on the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean before arriving in England as a refugee at the end of the 1960s. Following the peaceful liberation from the UK’s colonial rule in December 1963, when Zanzibar went through a revolution under the regime of President Abeid Karume, it led to the oppression and persecution of citizens of Arab origin. However, Gurnah belonged to the victimised ethnic group and was forced to leave his family and his country, which was called the Republic of Tanzania. He was unable to return to Zanzibar until 1984. 

Until his recent retirement, he has been the Professor of English and Postcolonial Literature at the University of Kent in Canterbury and he mainly focussed on writers including Wole Soyinka, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Salman Rushdie. In totality, he has published 10 novels along with short stories. The Royal Academy has noted that the theme of the refugee’s disruption runs throughout Gurnah’s work.

When did he start writing? 

He began writing as a 21-year-old in English exile. While Swahili was his first language, English became his tool for literature. His debut novel was ‘Memory of Departure’ in 1987 and it is about the failed uprising in the African continent. His second work, ‘Pilgrims Way’ was published in 1988 in which the newest Nobel laureate explored the multifaceted reality of life in exile. His third novel was ‘Dottie’ in 1990 which is a portrait of a Black woman with immigrant background. His other works include ‘Paradise’ in 1994, ‘Admiring Silence’ in 1996, ‘By the Sea’ in 2001, ‘The Last Gift’ in 2011, ‘Gravel Heart’ in 2017. His latest novel is ‘Afterlives’ which was published in 2020 and it takes up where ‘Paradise’ ends. 

IMAGE: Twitter/AP