A Man From Tanzania Wins The Nobel Prize In Literature

 

Time To Shine

TANZANIA

Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, becoming the first black African in almost two decades to win the world’s most prestigious literary award, the New York Times reported.

The Swedish Academy – which awards the prize – recognized 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.”

Born in 1948 in Zanzibar, which is now part of Tanzania, Gurnah became the fifth laureate from Africa to receive the prize, a list that includes Wole Soyinka of Nigeria (1986), Naguib Mahfouz of Egypt (1988) and the South African winners, Nadine Gordimer (1991) and John Maxwell Coetzee (2003).

The author – currently living in Britain – left Tanzania at the age of 18 following a violent 1964 uprising against the government led by soldiers. His works predominately focus on immigrant experiences in Britain, the effects of colonialism in East Africa, and the impact of exile on identity and a sense of belonging.

Gurnah’s award follows criticism of the academy for how its choices have lacked diversity: The Nobel Peace Prize for Literature has been awarded 118 times but 95 of those laureates were from Europe or North America.

Only 16 winners had been women.