Renowned Tanzanian novelist – Abdulrazak Gurnah has been declared winner for Noble Prize for literature. 

The Swedish Academy has bestowed the honour to Abdulrazak Gurnah for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism”. 

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“The theme of the refugee’s disruption runs throughout his work. He began writing as a 21-year-old in English exile, and although Swahili was his first language, English became his literary tool,” the Swedish Academy said in a statement. 

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The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.14m / £840,000). 

73-year-old Abdulrazak Gurnah, thus far, has authored ten novels, including globally aclaimed Paradise and Desertion. 

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

https://twitter.com/GurnahAuthor/status/1446077815829549057

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Born in Zanzibar in 1948, Gurnah arrived in England as a refugee in the late 1960s. 

Until revently, he was a Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury.