Pulitzer Prize in Literature

Reuters

STOCKHOLM, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee,” the award-giving body said on Thursday.

Based in Britain and writing in English, Gurnah, 72, joins Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka as the only two non-white writers from sub-Saharan Africa ever to win what is widely seen as the world’s most prestigious literary award.

His novels include “Paradise”, set in colonial East Africa during the First World War and short-listed for the Booker Prize for Fiction, and “Desertion”.

“Gurnah’s itinerant characters in England or on the African continent find themselves in the gulf between cultures and continents, between the life left behind and the life to come,” Anders Olsson, head of the Swedish Academy Nobel Committee, told reporters.

“I dedicate this Nobel Prize to Africa and Africans and to all my readers. Thanks!”

Gurnah tweeted after the announcement.