This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Abdul Razzaq Jarna. The jury praised the Tanzanian novelist for his “uncompromising and passionate treatment of the effects of colonialism and the plight of refugees at the divide between cultures and continents”.
Gourna was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar. He came to Britain as a teenager, where he launched an academic career, but also became a novelist. He wrote in English, although his first language was Swahili.
His most famous historical novel heaven From 1994, he was nominated for the Booker Prize. It is his only published work with a translator in the Netherlands.
worldwide
“It paints a picture of Africa unknown to many readers,” said the Nobel committee chair. “The coastal region of the Indian Ocean, which suffers from slavery and oppression by various regimes, such as the Portuguese, Indians, Arabs, Germans and British. Zanzibar was cosmopolitan long before globalization existed.”
According to the jury, Garna’s interest is not only in the racism and prejudice his characters face, but also in the silence and the reinvented life stories with which they are trying to fight it. According to the jury, this results in stories where a simple outcome is impossible.
American winner
The Nobel Prize in Literature last year went to American poet Louise Gluck, only the 16th woman out of 118 people honored. Last month, her first collection of poems translated into Dutch was published, Hell.
Earlier this week, prizes were awarded for medicine, physics and chemistry. They went looking straight touch perceptionAnd climate models employment building particles. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner will be announced in Oslo tomorrow.
Not in Stockholm or Oslo
The Nobel Prizes are awarded on December 10, the anniversary of the death of their founder, Alfred Nobel. For the second year in a row, this did not happen in Stockholm and Oslo because of Corona, but the winners get the gold medal in their country.
All prizes are linked to a cash prize of 10 million Swedish kronor, just under 1 million euros. If a Nobel Prize is awarded to multiple recipients, that amount must be shared.