kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2021 3:51 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sokoto State University's Seminar on Abdulrazak Gurnah
History Department, Central Connecticut State Universityi
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2021 1:55 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sokoto State University's Seminar on Abdulrazak Gurnah
Please be cautious: **External Email**
"Gurnah chose a more nuanced narrative as his way of writing back to the empire in books like Paradise and By the sea, the two I am familiar with. In Paradise, as Yusuf journeys to the Congo with Aziz's caravan one seems to be reading a new version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness but without the absence."
Without which absence?
Gloria Emeagwali
On Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 05:19 Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
I have forwarded this to Gurnah.
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chambi Chachage <chachagechambi@gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at 4:11 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sokoto State University's Seminar on Abdulrazak GurnahThank you, TF, the Brittle Paper's article has inspired my compatriot to write an article with congratulatory messages from 50 Tanzanian writers/publishers; it is in Kiswahili - the English version will be published in my website today.
This is the Kiswahili version for the likes of Godwin Murunga: https://udadisi.com/hongera-abdulrazak-gurnah-pongezi-kutoka-kwa-waandishi-50-wa-tanzania/
I will post the English version here later today.
Best Regards,
CC
On Mon, Oct 25, 2021 at 10:20 PM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Congratulations to Sokoto State University for its successful seminar on Abdulrazak Gurnah. Coordinated by Dr. Sifawa, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, it was well attended by students and faculty. The Nobel Laurette attended by Zoom, as some of us also did. Professors Usman Kabir of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Prof. Alhaji Ibrahim, Rector of Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic, Dr. Nureni Oyewole of Sokoto State, and Professor Aliyu Kamal gave lectures that put Gurnah's work in context. I was asked to close the seminar, and I spoke to his broader contributions to migrant literature.
Find below, on another platform, several other responses on Gurnah and his writings.
"The Nobel Returns Home": Wole Soyinka on Abdulrazak Gurnah's Nobel Prize Win
103 African Writers Respond to Abdulrazak Gurnah's Nobel Prize Win
by AINEHI EDORO
October 12, 2021
Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah is the 2021 Nobel laureate for literature. The Swedish Academy shared the news on October 7th. They praised "his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugees in the gulf between cultures and continents." Gurnah has published 10 novels and is the 7th African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, following Albert Camus (1957), Wole Soyinka (1986), Naguib Mahfouz (1988), Nardine Gordimer (1991), J.M Coetzee (2003), and Doris Lessing (2007).
At the news of his win, the African literary community erupted in jubilation. To capture the celebratory mood, we asked African writers on the continent and the Diaspora to share their reactions, which we have collected below. Prof. Wole Soyinka was the first person we approached. It was a symbolic gesture because we wanted him, as a Nobel laureate, to have the first word on what Gurnah's win meant. The opening line of his statement, "The Nobel returns home," certainly expresses the history-making significance of the moment.
The collection of responses reflects the diversity of the African literary community. You'll find veterans such as Tsitsi Dangarembga, Ben Okri, and Nuruddin Farah, but also new voices like Arao Ameny, Nyuol Lueth Tong, and T. J. Benson. Nationalities are diverse, including Rwanda, South Sudan, DRC, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and many others. Some of the commentators speak of Gurnah's work from the distance of fandom while someone like Abdourahman Waberi is a dear friend of Gurnah. While many of the responses are celebratory, others are call-to-actions, asking us to interrogate the problems inherent to the Nobel Prize itself and what these problems say about a Euro-America-centered literary industry.
Gurnah's win is monumental enough, but the collective joy it brings is nearly as significant as the win itself. This collection of responses is an attempt to capture this shared experience and, in the process, say something that truly meets the moment.
It took a lot of administrative labor to put this list together, so I'd like to thank our Assistant Editor Alesia Alexander for dropping everything to work on this with me. Thanks to everyone on the list for taking the time to share their thoughts and to tell their stories.
There can never be too much celebration, so please use the comment section to share your thoughts.
Congrats to Gurnah!
103 Responses to Abdulrazak Gurnah's Nobel Prize
(Alphabetical Order)
Leila Aboulela
Our well-kept secret is out in the open! Gurnah's fans cherish him without shouting about him, so private is the reading experience. He exceeds all others in depicting the lives of those made small by cruelty and injustice, the cowed and put-upon – humiliated women, abused orphans and struggling refugees. Time after time he seduces readers with worlds of stunning beauty caught in the grip of cruelty and harshness.
Sulaiman Addonia
There are those of us who do not know Gurnah's work well enough, but that doesn't stop us from rejoicing that he is our literature Nobel laureate. The fact that Gurnah consistently maintained focus and discipline all these years despite the lack of this thing called "recognition" is immensely inspiring. He writes for the sake of writing and not for prizes or sales. I respect him for that and send him my warmest congratulations.
Leye Adenle
I'm delighted that an African won. This will do so much for Gurnah, and I hope, for other African writers. It's about time.
Lanaire Aderemi
Gurnah's writing taught me to think of the writer as a "truth-seer." While working on my play, I read his essay, "Writing and place," which was honest in its reflection of distance and estrangement. Gurnah's vivid and delicate recollections of "lost life" and "lost place" gathers histories and memories of the displaced and unremembered and makes a bold declaration that writing should memorialize the forgotten. Congratulations, Mr. Abdulrazak Gurnah for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021.
Angela Ajayi
I'd been thinking of how I first came across Gurnah's work as an editor in book publishing many years ago. A number of our edited volumes featured scholarly essays on his novels. It concerned me, however, that like quite a few other vital African writers at that time, he'd remained in virtual obscurity outside academia. I can now sit back and watch with satisfaction as he breaks more fully into the mainstream.
Richard Ali
Abdulrazaq Gurnah's 2021 Nobel Prize win focuses literary and critical interest on Zanzibar and the larger East African Coast, which gave us Swahili—that great culture and language of hybridity. In this, it kickstarts a long-overdue African conversation in these times when all sorts of tribalists and purist-extremists dominate our commons. That Gurnah was not well known before the Nobel is unimportant; the fact that his work will likely start a continental conversation re-centering the cosmopolitan ethos of identity and place being an equal and distinct give-and-take of many causes is everything. Congratulations to Professor Gurnah.
Rosanna Amaka
Congratulations to Abdulrazak Gurnah on winning the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. For many years, he has been one of the trailblazers in African literature, and now his long body of work has not only been recognized by his readers, but also rewarded by receiving the Nobel Prize. This win is also especially important because his work covers the stories of simple but small lives, both past and present, that can remain hidden beneath the noise and chaos of this world, even as they are ultimately most impacted by the effects of colonialism, displacement and immigration.
Arao Ameny
I see opportunity. Here in the US, Abdulrazak Gurnah's win is expanding and adding to already existing conversations on why many readers in the US don't know or aren't aware of writers from the global South, especially African writers, with the exception of a few. I think this win challenges readers to explore vibrant literary worlds and spaces outside of the US, especially those created by and centering Africa writing.
Uju Asika
As a Nigerian, I remember how thrilling it was when the great Wole Soyinka won in 1986. It's incredible that it's taken nearly three decades for another Black African writer to receive the Nobel Prize. I am over the moon for Abdulrazak Gurnah whose lyrical, compassionate voice helps illuminate the humans behind labels like "foreigner" and "refugee." Something we need more of in these divisive times. Huge congratulations sir, and here's to your books selling out worldwide!
Efe Paul Azino
Gurnah's bookmakers defying win reinforces the importance of quiet commitment to craft in an age of hollow showmanship. A huge encouragement to the many gifted and dedicated African writers across the continent, and the diaspora, telling the stories that need to be told irrespective of the approval or validation of Western literary power structures.
Unoma Azuah
Abdulrazak Gurnah's win was a pleasant surprise though I was hoping Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o got it this time. I celebrate this win because Gurnah has done an excellent job of writing about the impact of two issues that are close to my heart: colonialism and migration. I am particularly happy that a writer who portrays the profound effect of dislocation from one's roots finally gets a well-deserved acknowledgement. Perhaps this win will bring more (about time too) attention to the literature of the marginalized, be it migrants, the refugees, and African literature generally.
Gabeba Baderoon
The gracious, generous Abdulrazak Gurnah has deservedly received the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. We Africans now have our fifth Laureate of Words, one who writes from and about a complex place, Zanzibar, and with luminous sentences. Many will now discover his erudite narrators and their subtle journeys. May they also encounter the African scholars who read him so finely, among them his finest interlocutors.
Bibi Bakare-Yusuf
Writings and writers from the African Continent have a long history that is both outside of and indebted to the English metaphysical empire—a history about which we do not know even though we should. If it takes a committee in faraway Sweden to force the world to (re)read Abdulrazak Gurnah, then the existing publishing and media infrastructure need to do better in serving the interests of readers and moving beyond a monolith.
Gurnah's name will now rightly be rolling off everyone's tongue as it should have been, and his books will be discovered by a new audience. In the midst of the celebrations, we must make time to acknowledge his publishers who through 10 books have continued to publish him despite all odds. That's commitment and belief. It is that commitment and belief from both writer and publisher that has made this Nobel possible.
Biyi Bandele
I'm absolutely thrilled for Abdulrazak. It couldn't have gone to a more deserving writer, a writer whose works speak so directly to these most turbulent and frenetic of times, in a voice no less eloquent for being so understated. It's also a great moment for African literature. This truly calls for celebration. Congratulations, Abdulrazak!
T.J. Benson
Apart from his heartfelt brilliant novels, he has done so much to elevate the work of other African writers in academia. It is a delight to see Prof Gurnah's gentle genius honored in this way.
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
I was thrilled when I got the WhatsApp message that Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel! The friend who messaged me is a Cape Verdean writer, and we had just been speaking the day before about how writing from African authors has not only been gaining more (overdue) attention, but the opportunity this has meant for writers who don't write in English. I hope the Nobel Committee for Literature also looks to our women writers, someone such as Ama Ata Aidoo, in particular.
Alma-Nalisha Cele and Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane
Congratulations to Prof Abdulrazak Gurnah on his Nobel prize for literature. We started the Cheeky Natives as a space to critically engage with the work of black writers with the reverence and criticality deserved. What a special joy to see one of our own, who has worked so brilliantly to write our experiences into the archive, awarded such a high honor. Congratulations Prof Gurnah. Long may your light shine!
Panashe Chigumadzi
Munyori, magona, madadisa. For years, the world has denied itself the pleasure of our worlds and words. Through your work, may they begin to share in our multitudes.
Tsitsi Dangarembga
I am delighted that work which highlights still extant structures of colonialism's ruinous impact on people's lives today receives such high recognition and congratulate Abdulrazak Gurnah heartily for this achievement. It is a signal to us to continue our symbolic struggle in literature and proof that the writer's word can contribute to positive transformation.
Abi Daré
I am absolutely delighted by the win, which is a significant one for African writers all over the world, that which tells us that our stories continue to be relevant and worthy of every accolade and recognition. Hearty congratulations to Gurnah.
Tjawangwa Dema
You can't hear or see me but I'm ululating – still! Much has been said about Abdulrazak Gurnah's writing and character – the ways in which the work is an experience so unwaveringly inclusive of the ordinary and careful with the vulnerable speaks volumes. We talk abstractedly about empathy and here you have it across decades as gaze and voice – as active, I think, as story can be. So, I celebrate this too. That the prize has deservedly gone to Gurnah not only gives someone like me a figure to look to, but it is an overdue offering for spaces and countries, that even within postcolonial literary circles, tend to be made absent. I may be wrong, but in my experience, Tanzania is not necessarily the country you hear referenced most often when literature or African or postcolonial literature is mentioned and as we see it is not because the calibre or writing isn't there. But let us not lose sight of the man – Congratulations to Gurnah!
Ayi Renaud Dossavi-Alipoeh
Text in French:
C'est un plaisir et un honneur de compter un nouveau prix Nobel africain avec Abdulrazat Gurnah. Nos plus chaleureuses félicitations à ce monument de notre littérature et cette nouvelle inspiration pour les auteurs africains que nous sommes. Ce prix est un symbole pour toute l'Afrique, en particulier pour sa jeunesse, c'est le signe que le continent a encore beaucoup à offrir, non seulement au monde mais d'abord à lui-même. C'est aussi un rappel que nous, Africains, devons nous étudier davantage, nous connaître davantage, reconnaître nos plus grands créateurs, les traduire et les partager massivement à travers les régions et les zones linguistiques, et ne pas attendre qu'ils soient "découverts" et célébrés par des instances extérieures, aussi prestigieuses soient-elles. L'Afrique peut s'écrire elle-même, pour elle-même et pour le monde, et merci au grand Gurnah de nous le rappeler. — Ayi Renaud Dossavi-Alipoeh, Ecrivain Poète togolais, Secrétaire général de l'association d'écrivain PEN – Togo, Officier de l'Ordre du Mérite national
Text in English:
It is a pleasure and an honor to have a new African Nobel Prize winner with Abdulrazak Gurnah. Our warmest congratulations to this monument of our literature and this new inspiration for African authors that we are. This prize is a symbol for all of Africa, especially for its youth, and a sign that the continent still has much to offer, not only to the world but first of all to itself. It is also a reminder that we Africans must study ourselves more, know ourselves more, recognize our greatest creators, translate and share them massively across regions and linguistic zones, and not wait for them to be "discovered" and celebrated by external bodies, however prestigious they may be. Africa can write itself, for itself, and for the world, and thousand thanks to the great Gurnah for reminding us of this. — Ayi Renaud Dossavi-Alipoeh, Togolese writer and poet, Secretary-General of the PEN – Togo writer's association, Officer of the National Order of Merit.
Edwige Renée Dro
Text in French:
Quand on pense connaitre toute la production littéraire africaine, le monde se reveille avec le nom de Abdulrazak Gurnah sur toutes les lèvres comme pour nous rappeler qu'on a seulement effleuré la surface de cette dense production littéraire. 'Félicitations' ne rend pas assez justice à ce Prix Nobel de Littérature tant mérité, mais FELICITATIONS!!! Surtout que nous savons que très bientôt, nous dans cette partie de l'Afrique dite francophone, aurons le bonhehur d'aller au-delà de Paradis, Près de la mer ou encore Adieu Zanzibar pour découvrir (ou redécouvrir) la plume magistrale d'Abdulrazak Gurnah
Text in English:
When we think that we know all of Africa's literary production, the world wakes up to the name of Abdulrazak Gurnah on everyone's lips as if to remind us that we've only scratched the surface of that dense literary production. "Congratulations" does not render enough justice to such a deserved Nobel Prize for Literature, but CONGRATULATIONS!!! Especially as we now know that, very soon, those of us in this part of Africa called francophone Africa will have the joy of going beyond Paradise, By the Sea or Desertion to discover (or rediscover) the fantastic penmanship of Abdulrazak Gurnah.
Amatoritsero Ede
It was gratifying to hear of Abdulrazak Gurnah winning the Nobel Prize. This is particularly so because his is a quiet literary intelligence in a calm, unassuming and self-effacing personality. His humility is such that some sections of the global reading public are caught unawares by this obviously 'unpopular' writer. So unpopular that the now ritualistic and annual Nobel prospect guessing games did not mention his name at all. However, Gurnah has been a prolific and large literary presence in the European university curriculum and literary festival circuits since the early 1990s.
Victor Ehikhamenor
It is awesome to have Gurnah's name added to the greats who have won the Nobel. For many who are strangers to his great body of work, which deals with longing, belonging and beyond all of that, I believe this prize will acquaint them.
Nurrudin Farah
Abdulrazak Gurnah has been a very close friend for many years, and I am delighted that he has received the prize this year. His writing is like no other, his sentences are elegant, his prose is precise, and he is an artist of the highest degree. I am full of joy.
Sibongile Fisher
This win by Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work I was only introduced to recently upon the announcement that he will be headlining the 2021 Ake Festival, is a reaffirmation that patience and intentionality is still rewarded and very important in producing quality work. As Michaela Coel mentioned, we live in a world that now requires writers to be hyper-visible in order to succeed. Gurnah's win becomes a personal reminder that one should write not for the promised success that may come but simply because one is compelled to. Congratulations to Abdulrazak Gurnah on a well-deserved win that has inspired younger generations of writers.
Tope Folarin
I came to know about Abdulrazak Gurnah through his criticism, which introduced me to new ways of feeling and thinking about African literature. Eventually I found my way to his fiction, which enlivened my heart and mind. I could not be happier that he won the Nobel. It's a fabulous achievement—for him, obviously, and for all of Africa. His win is also a reminder to all writers to keep the faith. Great art will find its moment.
Petina Gappah
I couldn't be more thrilled. Quietly industrious, Abdulrazak Gurnah has consistently produced wok of great beauty and power, from Memory of Departure, Paradise, all the way to Afterlives. Personally, I'm delighted both because he inspired me to write historical fiction, and because I just love Zanzibar. As an amateur cultural anthropologist, I wonder if his win makes him as much of a tourist attraction there as Freddie Mercury!
Chimeka Garricks
Big congratulations to Abdulrazak Gurnah — one of post-colonial literature's extraordinarily compassionate and assured voices — on winning the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. This is a deserving win for a gifted writer, scholar, and critic. Also, it is heartwarming that this win has rubbed off on African and Black writing and is an inspiration for the unsung and the diligent.
Simon Gikandi
The awarding of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature to Abdulrazak Gurnah may have come as a surprise to many readers and scholars of fiction, especially those who only seem to understand literature in its narrow nationalist sense, but not to those of us who believe that there is no contradiction to being African and postcolonial. Rejecting the rush to a facile globalization and its simple hashtags, Gurnah's novels, like his critical essays, have always been attuned to the nature of identities lived across the historical ruptures that defined the long twentieth century—the trauma of colonial conscription, the anxieties of a belated potscolonialism, and the pain and pleasure of exile and displacement. His novel are constant reminders of the capacity of literary language and the imagination to heal the wounds of the past.
Hawa Jande Golakai
Congratulations to Abdulrazak Gurnah, our father and brother in ink! This win is his honor as much as it is ours…another step in highlighting African art as global art.
Pumla Dineo Gqola
The award of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature to Abdulrazak Gurnah is wonderful recognition of the body of work and thinking by a writer and intellectual who has consistently invited us, as readers of his work and as teachers of the same, to think again about the messy business of belonging. Gurnah's writing asks that we pause on the meanings we ascribe to the long afterlives of slavery and colonialism, whose shadows continue to complicate what home is both in our imaginations and for our bodies. Zanzibari, Swahili, Tanzanian, Arab, African. He is all these things, of course. And his words on the page allow us to infuse these places with increasing possibility.
Helon Habila
Gurnah's win has come as a surprise–not because he is undeserving in any way, but because in America and the UK, prizes have become too much about king making and bestowing of prestige on only a few select writers. With Gurnah the Scandinavians have shown us that it is possible to work diligently and honestly outside the limelight and to be recognized someday for the work itself. Bravo.
Ivor Hartmann
Every year, we hope for the likes of Ngugi, Mda, Okri, Farah, and of course Gurnah. This rare year we were not disappointed. As the second black African to win a Nobel for literature in 120 years of the prize, we hope now as we hoped in '86 that this indeed signals a movement of sustained recognition and appreciation from the Nobel and beyond for the existing and future work of black Africans.
Tendai Huchu
Gurnah's win was a wonderful surprise and a joy for us lovers of African literature. I was delighted to see a master craftsman receive the ultimate recognition for his body of work. Congratulations to him, to Tanzania, and all the appreciative readers of his work.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
Gurnah's win is a delightful surprise, not only because of his race, or his long-almost forgotten link to Nigeria. His writing has always had a way of percolating under one's skin and staying there and I am delighted that because of this win, more readers will seek out his work. But what is even more surprising though is the fact that Gurnah becomes only the second black, African to win the Nobel. I hope it will be just one of many to come.
Jude Idada
More than nationality, race, sex, and creed is the brilliance of the writing, the depth and breadth of a stellar literary career, the profundity of thought, uniqueness of perspective, originality of voice, invocation of scholastic interest, and the quality of the contribution to the human experience that marks the stature of the mind of the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Abdulrazak Gurnah is such a mind. An academic soul content with the rigors of research, critique and writing while bestriding the realities of multiple existences in near populist anonymity. The one who though great, is more renowned for his critically acclaimed study of the greats. Although I am proud to call him an African and exhilarated that the prize has once again berthed in black Africa, I am prouder that there was no social media campaign, heated scholarly dialogue or nationalist, publicized angst that could be construed as an attempt to arm-twist the Nobel committee into crowning another black African after a more than three decades hiatus by those who share his hue, creed, nationality or heritage before a talented, erudite, courageous and independent minded human like he is was chosen worthy of such an honor. It is this light, that like the unexpected laureates before him, literature as a high art in the amorphous spectrum of its existence and the Nobel as an attestation of greatness and expert mastery is all the much better for this award. Congratulations to you, sir. You inspire.
Cajetan Iheka
I celebrate Abdulrazak Gurnah on his well-deserved achievement. This momentous Nobel Prize, like Gurnah's oeuvre, offers a sobering reminder of the multiplicities of the thing called African literature. I hope the renewed attention to Gurnah's striking, delightful prose results in further appreciation of the flourishing literary tradition spread across linguistic and generic modes on the continent. It is morning yet for African letters!
Eghosa Imasuen
It comes with a shared pride to see Abdulrazak Gurnah awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. To see a lifetime of work appreciated. There is always the hope that a day will come when wins like these are no longer recognized for being "firsts" for a group of people. When this is taken for granted. That Abdulrazak is a great writer and we are happy he won. When good writing, important writing, is rewarded for what it is. Today is a good day. I am happy.
Tade Ipadeola
Cutting to the chase now, Abdulrazak Gurnah is a thoughtful, deep and serious writer who has devoted his life to the craft of writing. It feels great to have the prize come to Africa, and such an African, again. Our stories are being told by some of the finest storytellers on earth, and this award simply amplifies the pertinence of what we want the world to know.
Sean Jacobs
Abdulrazak Gurnah's Nobel should be celebrated. It is a major achievement for a prize, which, as Bhakti Shringarpure, co-founder of Radical Books Collective, characterizes it, has "always favored the whitest and the most European of all literature." I don't have to repeat the statistics here, but they are abysmal: 4 black winners, 6 Africans (two of them white South Africans and a white Zimbabwean), and the first African only won one in 1986.
As a result, not surprisingly, initial appreciations of Gurnah's win, particularly on social media, have played up his racial identity; that is his Africanness and Blackness. That is fine, but Gurnah is from Zanzibar, an island nation (now in a confederation with Tanzania) that is at the crossroads of the Indian Ocean, Arabia, and Africa. And, as a Tanzanian friend reminded me, mainlanders and Zanzibaris exchanged words online over who could claim him. Even more significantly, Gurnah himself has fought these categories. And as we've learned in the last few days, the politics of publishing, especially some of the parochialism of the US, is again being exposed. Lily Saint, the literary scholar, tweeted right after his win: "The US literati's silence on Twitter re Gurnah's Nobel win is an admission of ignorance by omission, without the willingness to reckon with the reasons for that ignorance."
Tsitsi Jaji
Gurnah's award proves how central highly-texture African writing is to the idea of World Literature. His imagination radiates from Zanzibar, which is both a "small place" and a global nexus saturated in centuries of encounters at the intersection of the continent and the Indian Ocean, and Gurnah's writing has always encapsulated this phenomenon by boldly telling the most intimate and locally-inflected stories. He writes with the confidence that Zanzibar is the center of its own world, and a portal into understanding the great crises of our time – migration, civil unrest, ecological precarity.
Karen Jennings
My hope with Gurnah's recognition as this year's Nobel laureate is that the world will more willingly turn its gaze towards Africa and be more open to accepting and engaging with the stories that we have to tell on this continent.
Richard Ali A Mutu K.
Text in French:
Le choix porté cette année sur l'auteur tanzanien, le professeur Abdulrazak Gurnah, comme Nobel de littérature est très significatif pour nous et cela se justifie par la joie immense et la fierté que nous avons tous ressenti une fois que son nom a été cité! Écrivains et jeunes écrivains du Congo-Kinshasa, nous remercions le comité Nobel pour ce choix et félicitons vivement l'heureux lauréat qui, pour nous, à coté d'autres grands noms de littérature du continent, devient un vrai modèle et source de fierté pour cette passion des mots qui nous singularise et surtout l'engagement dans l'écriture qui devrait souvent nous caractériser. Que vive Abdulrazak !!!
Text in English:
The choice of the Tanzanian author, Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah, as this year's Nobel Prize for Literature is very significant for us and is justified by the immense joy and pride we all felt once his name was mentioned! Writers and young writers from Congo-Kinshasa, we thank the Nobel Committee for this choice and congratulate the lucky winner who, for us, alongside other great names of literature from the continent, becomes a true model and source of pride for this passion for words that sets us apart and especially the commitment in writing that should often characterize us. Long live Abdulrazak!!!
Billy Kahora
It's so incredible. I was lucky to interview Gurnah a long time ago in Zanzibar. For me, it's his unwillingness to compromise and produce works that have more mainstream Western readability and continue with his amazingly immersive East African Coastal worlds and their subtle complexities while all the time talking to ongoing contemporary postcolonial debates on migration and movement and being rewarded for it that I'm so happy about. It tells me that I can continue doing my own thing.
Toni Kan
This was a surprise but a well-deserved win. I say surprise because when we speak of African writers or East African writers, for that matter, Gurnah is not among the first to come to mind. But he has been working quietly and consistently over the years. He now has his time in the sun as Nobel laureate and headliner for this year's Ake festival. In terms of what the Nobel committee described as "his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents," I believe that much of Gurnah's work stems from trauma brought about by the forceful departure from his homeland and being "twice Othered" as persecuted Arab and refuge seeking African. That trauma and the experience of exile and seeking refuge have informed his works. As a postcolonial writer, Gurnah chose a more nuanced narrative as his way of writing back to the empire in books like Paradise and By the sea, the two I am familiar with. In Paradise, as Yusuf journeys to the Congo with Aziz's caravan one seems to be reading a new version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness but without the absence. While Achebe chose a polemical response to Conrad, Gurnah chose a less strident and direct approach which, as we now see, is also an equally valid response.
Yejide Kilanko
As an African writer living in the diaspora, I am inspired by Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah's life story and the unflinching gaze of his art. Over the past week, much has been said about obscurity. I think this is a win for possibilities.
Laila Lalami
I'm absolutely thrilled to hear that Abdulrazak Gurnah has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His sensitive exploration of belonging, his keen eye for how power affects human relationships, his beautifully crafted sentences, and his humor drew me to his novels and made me a devoted reader of his. It really is so wonderful to see him recognized in this way. (It doesn't hurt that he's also one of the nicest writers I've ever met!) If you're new to his work, I recommend starting with By the Sea and Paradise. (Originally posted on Instagram).
Dzekashu MacViban
As the first black writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature since Toni Morrison in 1993, Gurnah's win is a tremendous achievement. In addition to introducing his work to a larger audience, I hope the prize will lead people to pay more attention to Tanzanian writers as well as the immense body of work produced in Kiswahili.
Siphiwo Mahala
I was inspired by the quiet wisdom of Abdulrazak Gurnah when I met him in March 2005 at the Time of the Writer festival in Durban, South Africa. He is not the one to stand on mountain tops and talk about how great a mind he is. Instead, he lets his work speak for itself. His quiet demeanour is contradicted by his thundering literary voice which reverberates across the globe. His recognition with the 2021 Nobel Prize for literature is a very well-deserved honour. This is a proud moment for the African continent and a great inspiration to many writers and readers of African letters. It affirms the dynamism of our voices, our stories and our literature. It introduces to the world a new African canon, a new generation of writers. This is also a reminder that as Africans we ought to celebrate our own writers and not wait for validation from the West before we recognise them.
Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse
As an East African, I am immensely happy that Gurnah's stories will be given a wider audience à travers le monde. As a francophone, knowing how hard it is to find Gurnah's books translated in French, I can only hope that this Nobel will eventually catch the interest of french speaking publishers.
Jennifer Makumbi
I've been dancing and drinking. This is as unexpected a moment as it is beautiful and wonderful but also special for East African literature. Will this do? This moment, this recognition are the blocks that bolster our self-belief and determination. It is such perfect timing when Africa writing is enjoying a renaissance that writers who have been nourished by Gurnah's work will be thinking, 'I can do that.'
Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Congratulations to Abdulrazak Gurnah on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature! May Gurnah's win be an inspiration to all writers who quietly and consistently—often in the absence of recognition—dedicate themselves to writing the important untold stories.
Nkateko Masinga
Africa in Dialogue's Fiction Interviewer, Saliha Haddad, had an interview with Abdulrazak Gurnah about his novel, Afterlives, earlier this year. Their conversation, titled "The Retrieval of Life after Trauma," left a lasting impression on me, just as Gurnah's work has done over the years. In response to a question about love being present in a story that has "very harsh subjects" at its core, Gurnah said: "It is one of the things that keeps people going: affection and small kindnesses that we extend to each other even in the most difficult times." On Gurnah receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, Haddad said to me, "I'm happy that a writer from Africa received the Prize. With all the great talent we have, awarding him feels much like awarding all these amazing talents."
As we celebrated Gurnah's momentous win, another team member, Creative Nonfiction Interviewer, Adhiambo Edith Magak, was on her way to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to attend the 4th edition of the African Writers Conference. How serendipitous that the awards were being held in the home country of the newly-announced Nobel Prize laureate! I am proud to lead a team of interviewers who engage, daily, with the work of African writers. This win feels personal for us as curators, an affirmation of what Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka said to Brittle Paper in his response to Gurnah's win, to which we collectively raise our glasses: "May the tribe increase!"
Maaza Mengiste
For decades Abdulrazak Gurnah has been writing novels and essays that have pushed back against historical erasures. His books shift the narrative lens of history to center those who have been written out of textbooks and ignored in global conversations about colonialism and migration. In doing so, he has helped to reshape what we know of the world.
Helen Moffett
Abdulrazak Gurnah's Nobel win is already doing important work in swiveling the eyes of the literary and publishing worlds towards Africa, a powerhouse of creative richness, especially in literature. The uncertainties about which laureates hail from the continent (Naguib Mahfouz was left out of a lot of the initial reports), and the question of why towering figures such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Nuruddin Farah and Chinua Achebe have been overlooked all point to the need for the compass needle to swing in this direction. So, we celebrate Gurnah with delight, and I personally dream of one day seeing Ivan Vladislavić's name up there.
Natalia Molebatsi
Congratulations to Abdulrazak Gurnah on such a significant win. One of my favorite writers, his work is a tool of resistance and radical compassion. His writing, which exhorts us to see one another, touches not only Africans on the continent and in the diaspora, but all people in the world. I hope that this win is yet another push (although not yet enough) for our writing to be not only "African literature," but also "writing in the world of literatures," with the aim of making the world more imaginative, a bit more human, and enriched by our stories.
Keletso Mopai
It was pleasantly surprising to hear the news about the Nobel Prize honoring Gurnah, an author originally from a country that is often overlooked when it comes to African Literature. As a young African writer, I know first-hand how often African writers are ignored and barely supported, while expected to compete and do well despite the sidelining. Congratulations to Professor Gurnah for this incredible feat. It is so well deserved! May his incredible work continue to educate and shine throughout the world.
Wayétu Moore
Writing with colonialism as a context, as a character, is so profound a burden that it frequently seems and feels impossible. Yet Abdulrazak Gurnah has done this again and again, and with such grace and truth that his works become less about the detailed consequences of imperialism and war, and more about the universal human condition. I am thrilled and inspired. I am proud and eager. We are moving.
Lidudumalingani Mqombothi
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