Announcement of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature; Abdulrazak Gurnah: “As if there isn’t enough to go around”; A discussion on "By the Sea", with Abdulrazak Gurnah;Indian Ocean Journeys | Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah | Think Kent

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 was awarded to 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."

“A kind of miserliness,” is how Abdulrazak Gurnah describes the attitude of some in Europe to refugees. After all, he says, “Europeans streaming out into the world is nothing new” and he suggests those seeking succour also be seen as “talented, energetic people, who have something to give.” In this brief conversation with Adam Smith, recorded just after he had heard the news, his surprise at receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature is evident. “I was just thinking ‘I wonder who’ll get it’”, says Gurnah: “I thought it was a prank, I really did.”

On 20th November 2020, the Indian Ocean Working Group held a lecture as part of its Loiy Hamad Lecture Series based on Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah’s novel By The Sea (Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd., 2001). Saleh Omar and Latif Mahmud, the novel’s main characters, depart Zanzibar for the UK at different points of their lives. Through their memories and experiences, complex and deeply interwoven stories emerge of their pasts on that island of the Western Indian Ocean as they navigate life as immigrants in the UK. The webinar centered on a discussion between professor Gurnah and the moderators. Professor Cóilín Parsons, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Director of the Global Irish Studies Initiative at Georgetown University and Professor Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Professor of