Wang Siping: Approaching the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Abdul Razak Gürna

At 13:00 local time on October 7, 2021 in Stockholm, Sweden (19:00 Beijing time), the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, which attracted the world's attention, was announced, and Abdulrazak Gurnah, a British-Tanzanian writer, won this honor. This is the fifth African-born African writer born in Africa to win the Nobel Prize in Literature after Wallace Soyinka of Nigeria in 1986, Najib Mahalford of Egypt in 1988, Nadine Gordimer of South Africa in 1991, and John Maxwell Kutcher of South Africa in 2003. In his acceptance speech, the Swedish Academy explained the reason for Gürna's award: "Because he was able to see the consequences of colonialism, reflect the fate of refugees struggling in different cultures and intercontinental divides, have a deep sense of compassion for them, and persevere." Anders Olson, president of the Nobel Prize in Literature Jury, said at a news conference that Gurna was "widely regarded as one of the world's preeminent postcolonial writers" and "always had a deep understanding of East African colonialism and its impact on the uprooted and individual lives of immigrants with great sympathy." ”

After receiving the news of the award, Gurna told the reporter who came to interview: "This is really surprising! Until I got the notification confirming the news, I could hardly believe it was true. Then Gurna posted on his personal Twitter post at 2:40 p.m. (8:40 p.m. Beijing time) on the 7th: I was able to win the prize to Africa, the people of Africa, and my readers. Thank you!

According to Wikipedia, Gurna was born on December 20, 1948, on the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania, where he grew up, went to school, and lived with his family, leaving Zanzibar at the age of 18, tossing and turning, arriving in the United Kingdom in 1968 to go to school, and has lived most of the time in the United Kingdom since then. Although he has relatives and friends living in Zanzibar, Gurna rarely returns here, only a limited number of important cultural events in Zanzibar, such as the Zanzibar Film Festival, where he has been invited to participate.

Abdulrazak Gurnah

In 1964, left-leaning revolutionaries in Zanzibar overthrew the Sultan of Zanzibar and his Arab regime and established a new government. Soon the new Government headed by Karum succeeded in holding talks with President Nyerere of Tanganyika on the issue of the merger of Zanzibar and Tanganyika and determined the formation of a new unified State, Tanzania, with Nirer as President. As a vested interest in the Arab regime in the former Sultan of San Island, Gürna was forced to flee to Britain as a refugee.

After arriving in the UK, he initially studied at Christ Church University in Canterbury before moving on to the University of Kent for further studies, where he received his PhD in 1982. Since then, he has been teaching at the University of Kent for a long time, during which time he has also lectured at the University of Valero in Nigeria, and was appointed as the special editor of Traveler magazine, but he has retained the teaching position of the University of Kent, serving as a professor in the English Department and the director of the university's postgraduate department until his retirement. Gürner was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Letters in 2006. Influenced by his personal historical encounters and life experiences, Gurna's main academic interests are postcolonial writing and discourse related to colonialism, especially the teaching and research of colonial and postcolonial literature related to Africa, the Caribbean, and India.

The 73-year-old Gulner has written and published 10 novels and many short stories, essays, papers, etc. Although Swahili was his native language, English was his literary tool. In chronological order, the 10 novels are Memory of Departure (1987), Pilgrims Way (1998), Dottie (1990), Paradise (1994), Admiring Silence (1996), and By (2001). The Sea), Desertion (2005), The Last Gift (2011), Gravel Heart (2017), And Afterlives (2020).

Gurna's 1987 debut novel, Memories of Parting, is about a talented young protagonist trying to escape the social woes of his African coastal region (a faint shadow of Zanzibar) in the hope of getting shelter from a wealthy uncle in Nairobi. But he was humiliated and had to return to his broken family, accompanied by his alcoholic and violent father and his sister who was forced into prostitution.

Published in 1994, Heaven is Gürner's masterpiece, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the most influential literary award in the United Kingdom, awarded to the best original novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom, and shortlisted for the Costa Book Award, which is also influential in the United Kingdom. The work, which tells the story of a Tanzanian boy Yusuf at the beginning of the 20th century, is a love story about growing up and sadness, in which different worlds and different belief systems collide strongly. The novel presents his breakthrough as a writer, with Gulner drawing on the story of Joseph in the Quran and set in a detailed description of the violence of colonial rule in East Africa at the end of the 19th century. In the optimistic ending of the Quran story, Joseph was rewarded for the power of faith. In contrast, Gurna's Yusuf is forced to abandon his beloved woman, Amina, to join the German army he once despised. This is Gurna's style, which makes the reader's vision of a happy ending disappointed.

Published in 2001, "By the Sea" was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The novel is also a tragic story about Saleh, a middle-aged man who sought political asylum from Zanzibar to Britain at the end of the 20th century, and encounters an unpleasant experience of racial discrimination and injustice in the process of asylum.

Gulner's latest novel, The Afterlife, takes place in the early 20th century, just before the end of German colonial rule in East Africa in 1919. The protagonist of the story, Hamza, was wounded in an internal conflict with a German soldier and was left in a field hospital for treatment. But when he returned to his birthplace by the sea, he had neither family nor friends left behind.

Gurna's novels open our eyes to a culturally diverse East Africa that presents a different style and color than many other places in the world. In Gurna's literary world, everything is changing—memories, names, identities. In all of his works, there is an endless exploration driven by intellectual enthusiasm, such as in his latest work, The Afterlife, which is equally prominent, just as he was when he began writing at the age of 21. He has also been telling African stories from an African standpoint, paying attention to the experiences and situations of Tanzanians in foreign countries, and is a typical post-colonial writer.

In addition to his fiction writing, Gulner also made important contributions to the promotion of African literature. He edited two volumes of Collected Essays on African Literature, which involved many contemporary African writers, such as Algerian writer Althea Jebal, Moroccan writer Tahar BenJaren, Ghanaian writers Ay kwe Almaher and Amma Atta Aido, Malawi poets Steve Timombo, Jack Mapanye and Frank Chipasula, and Zimbabwean writers Daimbuso Maricella.

In addition, Gurna regularly features the works of African writers in the Thames Literature Supplement, such as Mozambican writer Mia Cantor's "Sound Makes the Night", British Ghanaian writer Ike Eisen's "Sun Black Gold: In Search of a Home in Britain and Africa", Sudanese writer Tabor Saleh's "Bandesha", South African writer Andrei Blick's "The First Life of Adamasto".

After the news of Gurna's award reached Tanzania, it may be the reason why he has long left and rarely returned to Tanzania after arriving in the United Kingdom, coupled with the fact that Tanzana has produced fewer literary artists and literary works with world influence in recent years, Gurna and Tanzanne have not carried out literary exchanges, so neither The Tanzanian government nor the Zanzibar government immediately congratulated and commented on his award. Tanzanne's female president Hassan tweeted at about 12:00 p.m. on the 7th (5:00 a.m. Beijing time on the 8th): "Congratulations to Gürna for winning the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature." This award is an honour for you and for us in Tanzania and throughout Africa. Zanzibar President Mweni congratulated Gürna on his personal Twitter at 12 noon (5 p.m. Beijing time) on the 8th: "On behalf of the Zanziban people of the world, I commend Abdulazak Gürna for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. We deeply recognize your creations centered on discourse related to colonialism. Such milestones not only bring us honor, but also glory to all mankind. ”

The three major Tanzanian newspapers, the Daily News, The Citizen, The Guardian, and Zanzibar's most influential Swahili-language newspaper all carried the news of Gurna's 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature on the front page on October 8. The Tanzanian Government News Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports released a message on Twitter on the evening of the 7th: "The Tanzania Ministry of Culture, Art and Sports congratulates Gürna on winning the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, he has made remarkable achievements in the academic field, and his award is an honor for Tanzania and Africa. Probably because he made a mistake in his busyness, he actually miswrote the "Literary Prize" that Gurna won as the "Peace Prize", which made a big joke.

Before Gürner won the prize, almost no one in Tanzania knew about it. The author has successively learned from the University of Dar es Salaam, tanzania's highest institution of learning, the Bagamoyo Art Research Institute, and the relevant parties in San Island, but they know very little about Gurna. Sporadic information only says that Gürner had returned to Zanzibar in 1984 shortly before his father's death to see him for the last time. At the prestigious Zanzibar Film Festival in East Africa a few years ago, Gulner was invited back to participate. But in Tanzania, his works are few readers and there are no dedicated researchers. Now that his award has become a household name in Tanzania, I believe that his work will usher in a large number of readers. (The author is Cultural Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania and Director of the Chinese Cultural Center of Tanzania)