Tanzanian author and retired British academic Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. A Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury Gurnah was awarded the prize for his work on exploring the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee. Gurnah has written 10 novels and several short stories.
His most famous novel is Paradise , which was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1994
“Gurnah consciously breaks with convention, upending the colonial perspective to highlight that of the indigenous populations. Thus, his novel Desertion (2005) about a love affair becomes a blunt contradiction to what he has called “the imperial romance,” the Nobel Prize added.
The twitter page also shared a recording of a near six-minute telephone interview with the writer. “I was just watching the announcement here on my computer. Who are you please?” Gurnah asks as an official from the Nobel Prize speaks. When the person later introduces himself and asks how he feels, Gurnah, sounding calm and composed, says, “I am still settling in, man. This is such a big prize.”
Gurnah becomes the first Tanzanian writer to win the Nobel Prize.
Credit : Business Line
Picture Credit : Google
