Gurnah, the right pick for Nobel Prize for Literature

His works explore themes of violence, oppression and exploitation

Though the Swedish Academy has been known to make controversial selections for the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature, the award of this year’s prize to Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah has been well accepted and welcomed as right and appropriate. Gurnah was not on any shortlist, but when the announcement was made, it did not produce any demur and disagreement. There was some surprise that a more famous East African writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o from Kenya, whose name figured regularly on the list of probable winners in recent years, did not make it this year too. But the fact that the prize has gone to Africa, which has till now won only four Nobel Literature prizes, has been well taken. No black African writer has won the prize since Wole Soyinka in 1986. Most prizes in the past have gone to writers from Europe and America.

Also read: 'It's just wonderful' Tanzanian writer Gurnah says on winning Nobel Prize

The Nobel committee has said that the prize was awarded to 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”. His novels deal with the theme of movement and migration of refugees and their problems of identities and assimilation. He is himself a refugee, having moved from the small island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean, which became a part of Tanzania, to the United Kingdom to escape state terror and oppression. The 10 novels that he has written are about displacement and the state of refuge and are informed by his personal experience. He has said that “the loneliness, the estrangement became fertile ground for reflection and led me to write fiction”. The works also explore the themes of violence, oppression and exploitation that smaller communities have to suffer when they are colonised by bigger communities and countries.

These themes are very relevant now when the world is witnessing unprecedentedly large waves of migration across national borders due to civil strife, political violence, social oppression, natural disasters, climate changes, and the rise of prejudices and discrimination. Refugees represent about 4% of the world population. Migration raises cultural, social and political issues and creates multiple identities. Many are exiled from themselves. There is the reality of conflict and the need for assimilation, the pain of loss and the gain of new life, memories of the past and dreams for the future. So, it is no surprise that a writer who has internalised them and told stories about them has won the world’s best literary honour.