Abdulrazak Gurnah-Nobel Prize winner of Literature of 2021

STOCKHOLM (AP) - A British-based Tanzanian writer, Abdulrazak Gurnah, who has experience traveling across continents and cultures to write his novels on migration that affects people and society, won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. Gurnhah, a retired professor of English literature and post-university literature at the University of Kent, received a call from the Swedish Academy in his kitchen in Canterbury, southeast of England, thinking it was a prank. Born in Zanzibar in 1948, he arrived in England as a refugee in the late 1960's.

On October 7 the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in the year 2021 to Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian writer living in Britain, for his "unwavering commitment and sensitivity to the effects of colonialism, the fate of refugees in the Gulf and the culture of the continent". He has been a Professor of English literature and post-colonial at the University of Kent and Canterbury since retiring and has written 10 novels and a series of short stories. Abdulrazak Gurnah was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his unequivocal but kind remarks on the impact of colonialism on refugees, Gulf culture, and the continent," the school announced.

In 2018, last year's award was postponed following allegations of sexual harassment that shocked the Swedish Academy, which is a secret society that selects the winner. Andrew Limbong reports on Andrew Gurnahs as the first black writer since Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, reports NPR. He is the sixth African-born author to win the award.

Other Nobel Prizes to be awarded this week include the David Julius Ardem Patapoutian Prize in Medicine for his work of touch and heat. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Award was presented to Syukuro Manabe of Japan, Klaus Hasselmann of Germany, and Giorgio Parisi of Italy. On Monday, the Nobel Committee presented American scientists David Julius and Andrej Patapoutsian with a Physiology or Medicine award for their discovery that the human body receives heat by touch.

The Nobel Prize for Literature honors one person for his or her outstanding literary contributions, while the Nobel Prize recognizes two or three winners for their shared research. The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three scientists on Tuesday for their work in a seemingly chaotic environment that helped define and predict natural forces, including our understanding of climate change. In addition to prize money and fame, the Nobel Prize for Literature strongly encourages award-winning authors, promotes book sales, and introduces lesser-known winners to a wider international community.

Past awards honored poets, writers, and songwriters, most recently Bob Dylan. The Nobel Prize for Literature 2021 was awarded by the Swedish Academy on Thursday and distinguished Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah for his "uncompromising insensitivity to the effects of colonialism, refugees, and Gulf culture" on the continent. He is the sixth African-born author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature held by European and North American writers since its inception in 1901.

Gurnah is best known for his 1994 book Paradise, set up during the First World War in colonial East Africa and for which he was awarded the Booker for fiction. News of the award was enthusiastically received in Zanzibar, where many remember Gurnah and her family, but few have read her books. Although Swahili is the first language to be given to Abdulrazak Gurnahs in 2021, English has become his writing tool, the Swedish Academy, which issues the award annually, in a statement.

Abdulrazak Gurnah, who lives in Britain and writes in English, is the only non-white sub-Saharan African writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 and Nigerian Wole Soyinka. Gurnhah was born in Zanzibar and now lives in England. He is a professor at the University of Kent. Born in Zanzibar, Abdul Razak Gurgah is a retired professor of English literature and post-colonial literature at the University of London and Canterbury in England.

Abdulrazak Gurnah, who emigrated from Tanzania at the age of 18 as a refugee in the 1960s to Britain, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2021 on October 7 which made him the first African writer to receive the award for more than a decade. In 1968 he left Zanzibar, which belonged to Tanzania, to Great Britain as a student. As a 21-year-old exile, she began writing fiction, choosing English as her first language and then using Swahili in her writing work. While this latter is the first language of the Gurnah, the captive writer began writing in English and made his own writing tool.

His fourth novel, Paradise (1994), was one of Abdulrazak Gurnahs' 10 novels that demonstrated his worldwide success as a writer and earned him a nomination for the Booker Prize, the highest of UK folklore. His novel Paradies, released during and after the First World War in colonial East Africa, was shortlisted in the 1994 Booker Prize. the vision of Yusuf, a 12-year-old boy forced to work hard in East Africa for years leading up to World War II. As Ganeshananthan noted in The New York Times in 2017, Gurnah is more than just an “imaginary story” that brings its unique identity to life.

Anders Olsson, chairman of the awards committee, said: "The characters in the Gurnahs stories are caught in the middle of a past life and the life to come, facing stigma and discrimination that compels them to present the truth, revitalize human history and avoid conflict with the truth. His case contradicts that of the 2017 Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, a writer who emigrated to Britain at a young age.