A man will work and slave in obscurity for ten years and then become famous in ten minutes – Robert Ripley
IN the last few weeks that name has become familiar and a popular jingle in the mouth and the ears of the world. However, before the dawn of October 7, 2021, when he was named as the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, many would have reacted in the manner of the title of this piece if his name was mentioned. Before that fateful day, his name was only known to a few, he was not in anyway in view at all or among those whose named had been bandied among those who claim to know how the Swedish Nobel Committee makes its choice of winners every year.
No one ever mentioned his name where the issue of Nobel was concerned. I am myself a little bit shamed because before that day in October, I had always prided myself as someone who knew one or two things about any notable writer in the world. In fact, I used to think that there was no any writer of note that you mentioned that I would not know. I may not have read his/her book, but at least, I would have heard or read about such a writer. But not Abdulrazak Gurnah!
The fact that he is an African is another thing of shame that until that bright morning when he was announced, I never heard nor read a jot of line from him. That shows how vast and rich the world of our literature is. I think it was also the same for many; the Nobel Literature Committee caught us all unawares!! But is that a vote on the obscurity of the winner? No. What it shows is that we all need to look further and listen to other voices that are writing and making the canvas of literature broader than our eyes can see. Immediately his name was announced, I put a call through to some of my bibliophile friends and some teachers of literature in our universities to ask them if they’ve heard of him or read any of his works. A particular don when I mentioned his name asked me how I expected him to know the name of that “religious leader” when I know his reaction to such matters! He apparently hadn’t heard that Abdulrazak Gurnah had then been announced as the Nobel Prize winner in a subject area he is a specialist in!!! I burst his bubble by telling him the name belongs to this year’s winner of the Literature Prize. “Common Doc, you know more than that to give me that s***.” I told him to cut the call and check the social media or any news website and get back to me. A few minutes later, he did and told me he had never heard of the name. Then I knew I was not alone.
But all these are not enough to justify the limits of our reading list. Gurnah was not new to being nominated for prestigious prizes, his novel Paradise, set in colonial East Africa during the first world war, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994. Not only that his sixth novel By the Sea, was longlisted for the same Booker Prize in 2001. And for a man who has set himself the self-imposed task of reading all winners of that prize, the fact that I never took notice of him until Nobel came is a minus. Well, he never won the prize the two times he was shortlisted and longlisted, anyway. That perhaps is a valid excuse for my not having him in my line of sight! However, my maverick friend Maxim Uzoatu is familiar with his works, at least they both at one time or the other wrote for the literary magazine Wasafiri.
In the statement announcing him as the winner, the Nobel committee had said “He was awarded the Nobel for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” In shedding light on why Gurnah was chosen as the winner, Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee, observed that “[Gurnah] has consistently and with great compassion penetrated the effects of colonialism in East Africa, and its effects on the lives of uprooted and migrating individuals.” He becomes the first Tanzanian to win the prize.e He
In in own reaction to the win, Gurnah who first dismissed the news as one of those fake news often built around the prize, after confirming it was true said, “I am honoured to be awarded this prize and to join the writers who have preceded me on this list. It is overwhelming and I am so proud.” On the other hand, his longtime editor Alexandra Pringle said, the win was a well-deserved honour for a writer who has not previously received due recognition. According to her “He is one of the greatest living African writers, and no one has ever taken any notice of him and it’s just killed me. I did a podcast … and in it I said that he was one of the people that has been just ignored. And now this has happened.” The prize has changed all that. He has earned his place and got the recognition.
There is no doubt that this is a great news to Gurnah who has since the announcement lost his privacy and anonymity, he has suddenly found himself among the pantheons of not only African literature but world literature. The win has heralded him into the big world of authors whose books would fly off the bookshelves and be read among the literati as well as make the lecture rounds with huge pay.
A few minutes after his name became a common world jingle, I went online to Amazon, the world largest retailer of books to search for any title of his books to purchase. I got there only to find out that his books were nowhere to be found online. I wondered what happened and I asked, why should Nobel be awarded to a writer whose books are unavailable? I later found out that those have been mopped up by readers who were eager to read his works. I was however compensated twenty-four hours later when I worked into a bookshop and without any promptings the saleslady thrusted to me two of his books, including his latest. Without any hesitation I paid for the two. That is what the Nobel does.
