BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Abdulrazak Gurnah, this year’s Nobel Prize winner in literature is basking in deserved glory and international acclaim. His fame is spreading throughout Africa in particular because Gurnha wrote about African’s displacement, migration and oppression caused by post-colonial world. Some 103 African writers have reacted in writing or expressed their opinions as to the significance of the author’s works and his final triumph. Some of the writers like Kenyan author Ngugi wa Tiongo or the Nigerian Ben Okri, themselves potential candidate for the prize have endorsed his honor and the significance of his lifelong concern with the fate of Africans in the post-colonial world either at home or in the African Diaspora.
No African winner of the Nobel Prize has enjoyed so much attention and tributes. Even Wole Soyinka, the doyen of African literature and a giant of arts in the continent had aroused so much interest as Gurnah has. In a way Soyinka may be regarded as an African writer who writes from the continent to the outside world while the reverse is true for Gurnha who writes from the continent to the people of the continent.
As such, Soyinka is most famous in the outside world while Gurnah’s fame is rooted within Africa. Soyinka has experienced migration and exile but not to the extent and magnitude Gurnah has. Displacement is in Gurnah blood and experience. That may be why the first reaction to Gurnah’s winning the Nobel came from none other than Soyinka himself.
So much enthusiasm for Gurmah’s body of works or his win could be expressed not only because he has written about African displacement and the perils of migration in a peculiar way. The collective reaction for contemporary and older African writers also demonstrates that the issue of colonialism and post-colonialism or neocolonialism in Africa is still a fresh topic that is still continue to shape the destinies of millions of Africans her at home and in the Diaspora.
To be honest, many prominent African novelists have dealt with the topic of colonialism and neocolonialism in their own ways. Starting from Chinua Achebe, with his classic “Things Fall Apart” and “No Longer at Ease”, to Wole Soyinka’s “The Interpreters” all through Ngugi’s post-colonial novels, the issue of colonialism in Africa has inspired scores of essayists, fiction writers and poets at various times.
The post-colonial generation of African writers like Ghanaian novelist, Ayi Kweyi Armah’s “the Beautiful Ones are not Yet Born” dealt with neocolonialism. Even younger writers like Nigerian female novelist Chimamanda Ncosi Adichi’s bestselling novel “Americanah” is in a way a novel about uprooting or displacement as the main characters leave their countries either in search of love or better opportunities.
Relatively speaking Gurmah’s works date from the early decades of the post-colonial world but they continue to strike a chord at this time for one major reason: colonialism and neocolonialism are still attracting the attentions of African fiction writers simply because the issues are still fresh not only in the minds but also in the day to day lives of millions of young Africans who continue to suffer the consequences of European colonization. This is also a result of disappointment or disillusionment with the post-colonial African world that had not changed much in terms of economic and social emancipation.
In the 1960s Kenyan politician Odinga Odinga wrote “Not yet Uhuru” (Not yet freedom), expressing his disappointment with the promises of the post-colonial African elites. More than half a century after Odinga’s political treatise, many African writers still express the same dilemma. Yes, Africa may be politically independent but economically and socially, it is still at the bottom of the ladder.
Africa’s fate is still determined by the post-colonial Western world and waving national flags has lost much of its glamour as it has never been backed by genuine economic independence. Africa seems to be betrayed by its own elites and their Western masters. This fact is also recognized by the African Union, which is supposed to lead Africa’s economic and social emancipation but is still unable to deliver the promises of independence.
In “No Longer at Ease” Achebe expresses this tragedy by saying, “Real tragedy is never resolved. It goes on hopelessly forever.” Africa’s colonial and post-colonial tragedy is still going on.” And the 103 African authors who expressed their support and admiration to Gurmah’s Nobel award are in a way reflecting this sentiment, the sentiment of unfulfilled promises of post-colonialism.
By the way, the long list of Gurmah’s new and prominent fans is topped by two prominent Nigerians, namely president Bhuari and Wole Soyinka, the first African winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. In his e-mail message to Gurmah, Soyinka expressed his pride in the fact that the prize has come back to its homeland. President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, a former lecturer at Bayero University, Kano. President Buhari, in a release by his Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, believed that given the ignoble experiences of Africans and people of African descent in the past, all forms of race-related vices and injustices have no place in modern history.
Another media report in the wake of Gurmah’s award said, “At the news of his win, the African literary community erupted in jubilation. To capture the celebratory mood…Professor Wole Soyinak was the first person asked and he answered by saying that “The Nobel returns home”.
The reactions to Gurmha’s award are not only one of enthusiasm and celebration. The reactions came from diverse African writers, veterans as well younger ones. The veterans include, and NigerBen Okri and Somali author Nuredin Farah to name only two of them. Among the younger voices, there are writers like Arao Ameny, Ntuol Lueth Tong, and T.J. Benson. Nationalities are diverse, including Rwanda, South Sudan, DRC, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and others. The following statements are by diverse African writers who expressed their reactions to the media.
Somali writer Nurredin Farah said, “Abdulrazak Gurnah has been a very close friend for many years and I am delighted that he received the prize this year. His writing is like no other, his sentences are elegant, his prose is precise, and he is an artist of the highest degree. I am full of joy.”
It is virtually impossible to go through all the 103 African authors who expressed their endorsement, and happiness at Gurnah’s honor, most of them considering it an honor and recognition of the suffering of millions of Africans in the colonial and post-colonial eras including at present. Gurnah said in an interview that he was still leaving after his long residence in Britain where he experienced or observed overt racism and abuse. As Gurnah himself had said in an interview Africans in the Diaspora are still leaving like those who are daily leaving the continent despite the dangers of the journeys to Europe. This is indeed a continuing tragedy as Achebe had said in “No Longer at Ease”.
Not only African writers, the media around the world have written extensively about the significance of Gurmah’s Nobel Prize win. Bloggers and journalists are joining the African writers who are hailing Gurmah and his works as significant not only in the context of past African migrations but also in the context of the post-colonial world and to the present. Young African writers are still hammering on the themes of migration, leaving the continent to go where the feet take them and the melancholy of the uprooted in many of their poems, novels, short stories and non-fictional works as well.
Among the international media that are appreciating Gurmha’s lifelong commitment to the fates of millions of Africans who left the continent either forced by internal conflicts or the ongoing Western oppression and exploitation in the form of neocolonialism or globalism, is created a sense of African identity that is still seeking genuine liberation. Gurnah is not only an African writer but also a writer with strong Islamic identity. The reason for leaving Zanzibar in the 1960s was none other than the persecution his people suffer back in 1964 during the Zanzibar Revolution against oppression.
Yet, Gurnah is not and ‘Islamist writer’. He is a strongly secular writer who cares about Africans like him being uprooted or displaced in another continent. He is rather deeply engaged in the fate of all the displaced Africans irrespective of their religions or identities even though Muslim characters are said to be populating his fiction. It was hard for him to accept Britain as his second homeland because of the open racism he experienced or observed during his long stay in the country.
Gurnah was nostalgic and melancholic of the then prevailing situation and this nostalgia is translated in his works through his characters. As he himself tells us the reason why he started to write fiction later in his life (he was over 40 when he published his first work) was the urge to deal with this nostalgia of a lost past and a lost continent. However, Gurnha frequently travels to Zanzibar to visit his relatives who are still living there while he has found a refuge in his works in a remote continent.
Africans are still suffering and enduring the dire consequences colonialism that has metamorphosed into neocolonialism and globalism. There are still many younger writers in East Africa and in Africa in general who are dealing with the new realities in their books and poems. This is a clear indication that, it is not yet uhuru for Africa. It is our expectation that African writers will not stop denouncing the evils of the West millions of Africans are forced into, until genuine freedom comes to the continent and young Africans stop taking the roads of migration into a familiarly oppressive Western world. Meanwhile, with his works, Gurmah will continue to inspire new African writers to join the struggle for true freedom while millions Africans find inspiration and hope in his words. For now, 103 African writers are speaking about the significance of his works. No doubt that hundreds of millions of Africans are listening.
The Ethiopian Herald October 26/2021
