The Tanzanian writer Mr Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the Nobel Prize 2021 in Literature on Thursday for his impeccable contribution to the study of the legacies of imperialism on uprooted individuals.
BREAKING NEWS:
The 2021 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the novelist Abdulrazak 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.” pic.twitter.com/zw2LBQSJ4j— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 7, 2021
‘His uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugees in the gulf between cultures and continents’ has garnered him massive accolades all across the world including a noble prize.
Who is Abdulrazak Gurnah?
Born in Zanzibar in 1948 and based in England, Gurnah is a professor at the University of Kent. He is the author of 10 novels, including Paradise, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994.
He is also bested with the title of ‘one of the world’s most prominent post-colonial writers’ by Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Literature.
While singing praises of the Tanzanian writer the Swedish Academy mentioned, “He began writing as a 21-year-old in English exile, and although Swahili was his first language, English became his literary tool.”
The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over 1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.
So far, So far, 117 people have been recognised for their literary creations by the Academy, of which 16 are women. Mr Gurnah is the latest addition.
Last year, the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to American poet Louise Glück, professor of English at Yale University, “for her unmistakable poetic voice that, with austere beauty, makes individual existence universal.”
This year, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Benjamin List and David MacMillan for their development of a precise new tool for molecular construction: organocatalysis.
writer Mr Abdulrazak Gurnah
Meanwhile, the physics Nobel prize has been awarded to Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and the other half to Giorgio Parisi for laying the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it, as well as revolutionised the theory of disordered materials and random processes.
The Nobel announcements began on Monday with David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian being recognised for their contribution in the field of medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
