Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. This comes in as a milestone for the black demographic as he is the first black author to win the award since Wole Soyinka in1986.
The Swedish Academy praised Gurnah for his “uncompromising compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism.”
Gurnah, 73, is the author of 10 novels, including Paradise and Desertion.
The novelist has said he was “surprised and humbled” to be awarded the prize.
“It’s just great-I it’s a big prize, and such a huge list of wonderful writers- I am still taking it in,” he said.
The novelist notes that it was such a complete surprise that he really had to wait until he heard it announced before he could believe it.
Paradise, published in 1994, told the story of a boy growing up in Tanzania in the early 20th century and was nominated for the Booker Prize, making his breakthrough as a novelist.
“Abdulrazak Gurnah’s dedication to truth and his aversion to simplification is striking,” the Nobel Committee for Literature said in a statement.
Abdulrazak was a professor of English and post-colonial kinds of literature at the University of Kent, Canterbury, until his recent retirement. Gurnah is the first black African author to have won the award since Wole Soyinka in 1986.
The Nobel Prizes, which have been awarded since 1901, recognize achievement in literature, science, peace, and latterly economics.