Abdulrazak Gurnah Explained

Abdulrazak Gurnah
Birth Date:	20 December 1948
Birth Place:	Sultanate of Zanzibar
Education:	Canterbury Christ Church University (BA) University of Kent (MA, PhD)
Awards:	Nobel Prize in Literature (2021)
Language:	English
Occupation:	Novelist, professor

Abdulrazak Gurnah (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution.^[1] His novels include Paradise (1994), which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea (2001), which was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion (2005), shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents".^[1] He is Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent.^[2]

Early life and education

Abdulrazak Gurnah was born on 20 December 1948^[3] in the Sultanate of Zanzibar.^[4] He left the island, which later became part of Tanzania, at the age of 18 following the overthrow of the ruling Arab elite in the Zanzibar Revolution,^[5] arriving in England in 1968 as a refugee. He is of Arab heritage,^[6] and his father and uncle were businessmen who had immigrated from Yemen. Gurnah has been quoted saying, "I came to England when these words, such as asylum-seeker, were not quite the same – more people are struggling and running from terror states."^[7]

He initially studied at Christ Church College, Canterbury, whose degrees were at the time awarded by the University of London.^[8] He then moved to the University of Kent, where he earned his PhD with a thesis titled Criteria in the Criticism of West African Fiction,^[9] in 1982.

Career

Academia

From 1980 to 1983, Gurnah lectured at Bayero University Kano in Nigeria. He then became a professor of English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent, where he taught until his retirement^[10] in 2017. he is professor emeritus of English and postcolonial literatures at the university.^[11]

Fiction

Alongside his work in academia, Gurnah is a creative writer and novelist. He is the author of many short stories, essays and novels.^[12] He began writing out of homesickness in his 20s. He started with writing down thoughts in his diary, which turned into longer reflections about home, and eventually grew into writing fictional stories about other people. This created a habit of using writing as a tool to understand and record his experience of being a refugee, living in another land and the feeling of being displaced. These initial stories eventually became Gurnah's first novel, Memory of Departure (1987), which he wrote alongside his Ph.D. dissertation. This first book set the stage for his ongoing exploration of the themes of "the lingering trauma of colonialism, war and displacement" throughout his subsequent novels, short stories and critical essays.^[10]

Although Gurnah's novels were received positively by critics, they were not commercially successful and, in some cases, were not published outside the United Kingdom.^[13] After he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, publishers and booksellers struggled to keep up with the increase in demand for his work.^[14] It was not until after the Nobel announcement that Gurnah received bids from American publishers for his novel Afterlives, with Riverhead Books publishing it in August 2022.^[15] Riverhead also acquired rights to By the Sea and Desertion, two Gurnah works that had gone out of print.

While his first language is Swahili, he has used English as his literary language.^[16] However, Gurnah integrates bits of Swahili, Arabic and German into most of his writings. He has said that he had to push back against publishers to continue this practice and they would have preferred to "italicize or Anglicise Swahili and Arabic references and phrases in his books".^[10] Gurnah has criticised the practices in both British and American publishing that want to "make the alien seem alien" by marking "foreign" terms and phrases with italics or by putting them in a glossary.^[10] As academic Hamid Dabashi notes, Gurnah "is integral to the manner in which Asian and African migratory and diasporic experiences have enriched and altered English language and literature. ... Calling authors like Gurnah diasporic, exilic, or any other such self-alienating term conceals the fact that English was native to him even before he set foot in England. English colonial officers had brought it home to him."^[17]

Consistent themes run through Gurnah's writing, including exile, displacement, belonging, colonialism and broken promises by the state. Most of his novels tell stories about people living in the developing world, affected by war or crisis, who may not be able to tell their own stories.^{[18] [19]} Much of Gurnah's work is set on the coast of East Africa and many of his novels' protagonists were born in Zanzibar.^[20] Though Gurnah has not returned to live in Tanzania since he left at 18, he has said that his homeland "always asserts himself in his imagination, even when he deliberately tries to set his stories elsewhere."^[10]

Literary critic Bruce King posits that Gurnah's novels place East African protagonists in their broader international context, observing that in Gurnah's fiction "Africans have always been part of the larger, changing world". According to King, Gurnah's characters are often uprooted, alienated, unwanted and therefore are, or feel, resentful victims". Felicity Hand suggests that Gurnah's novels Admiring Silence (1996), By the Sea (2001) and Desertion (2005) all concern "the alienation and loneliness that emigration can produce and the soul-searching questions it gives rise to about fragmented identities and the very meaning of 'home'." She observes that Gurnah's characters typically do not succeed abroad following their migration, using irony and humour to respond to their situation.

Novelist Maaza Mengiste has described Gurnah's works by saying: "He has written work that is absolutely unflinching and yet at the same time completely compassionate and full of heart for people of East Africa. [...] He is writing stories that are often quiet stories of people who aren't heard, but there's an insistence there that we listen."

Aiming to build the readership for Gurnah's writing in Tanzania, the first translator of his novels into Swahili, academic Dr Ida Hadjivayanis of the School of Oriental and African Studies, has said: "I think if his work could be read in East Africa it would have such an impact. ... We can't change our reading culture overnight, so for him to be read the first steps would be to include Paradise and Afterlives in the school curriculum."^[21]

Other writing

Gurnah edited three and a half volumes of Essays on African Writing and has published articles on a number of contemporary postcolonial writers, including V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, and Zoë Wicomb. He is the editor of A Companion to Salman Rushdie (Cambridge University Press, 2007). From 1987 he has been a contributing editor of Wasafiri and is on the magazine's advisory board.^{[22] [23]}

Other activities

He has been a judge for literary awards, including the Caine Prize for African Writing,^[24] the Booker Prize,^[25] and the RSL Literature Matters Awards.^[26]

Awards and honours

Gurnah's 1994 novel Paradise was shortlisted for the Booker, the Whitbread and the Writers' Guild Prizes as well as the ALOA Prize for the best Danish translation.^[27] His novel By the Sea (2001) was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, while Desertion (2005) was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.^[28]

In 2006 Gurnah was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[29] In 2007 he won the RFI Témoin du Monde (Witness of the World) award in France for By the Sea.^[30]

On 7October 2021 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents".^{[31] [5] [1]} Gurnah was the first Black writer to receive the prize since 1993, when Toni Morrison won it,^[5] and the first African writer since 1991, when Nadine Gordimer was the recipient.^{[10] [32]}

Personal life

Gurnah lives in Canterbury, Kent, England,^[33] and he has British citizenship.^[34] He maintains close ties with Tanzania, where he still has family and where he says he goes when he can: "I am from there. In my mind I live there."^[35]

He is married to Guyanese-born scholar of literature Denise de Caires Narain.^{[36] [37] [38] [39]}

Writings

Novels

• Memory of Departure (1987)^[40]
• Pilgrims Way (1988)^[41]
• Dottie (1990)^[42]
• Paradise (1994)^[43] (shortlisted for the Booker Prize^[44] and the Whitbread Prize;^[44] selected for the Big Jubilee Read)
• Admiring Silence (1996)^[45]
• By the Sea (2001) (longlisted for the Booker Prize^[46] and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize)^[46]
• Desertion (2005)^[47] (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize)
• The Last Gift (2011)^[48]
• Gravel Heart (2017)^[49]
• Afterlives (2020)^{[50] [51] [52] [53] [54]}

Short stories

• "Cages" (1984), in African Short Stories, edited by Chinua Achebe and Catherine Lynette Innes, Heinemann Educational Books.
• "Bossy" (1994), in African Rhapsody: Short Stories of the Contemporary African Experience, edited by Nadežda Obradović. Anchor Books.
• "Escort" (1996), in Wasafiri, vol. 11, no. 23, 44–48.
• "The Photograph of the Prince" (2012), in Road Stories: New Writing Inspired by Exhibition Road, edited by Mary Morris. Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, London.
• "My Mother Lived on a Farm in Africa" (2006), in NW 14: The Anthology of New Writing, Volume 14, selected by Lavinia Greenlaw and Helon Habila, London: Granta Books^[55]
• "The Arriver's Tale", in Refugee Tales, edited by David Herd and Anna Pincus (Comma Press, 2016,)^[56]
• "The Stateless Person's Tale", in Refugee Tales III, edited by David Herd and Anna Pincus (Comma Press, 2019,)^[57]

Non-fiction: essays and criticism

• "Matigari: A Tract of Resistance." In: Research in African Literatures, vol. 22, no. 4, Indiana University Press, 1991, pp. 169–72. .
• "Imagining the Postcolonial Writer." In: Reading the 'New' Literatures in a Postcolonial Era. Edited by Susheila Nasta. D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 2000. .
• "The Wood of the Moon." In: Transition, no. 88, Indiana University Press, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, 2001, pp. 88–113. .
• "Themes and Structures in Midnight's Children". In: The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie. Edited by Abdulrazak Gurnah. Cambridge University Press, 2007. .^[58]
• "Mid Morning Moon". In: Wasafiri (3 May 2011), vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 25–29. .
  • "Learning to Read". In: Matatu, no. 46, 2015, pp. 23–32, 268.

As editor

• Essays on African Writing Vol. 1 A re-evaluation and 2 Contemporary Literature (Heinemann Educational, 1993)
• The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Sources

• Book: Hand, Felicity. Becoming Foreign: Tropes of Migrant Identity in Three Novels by Abdulrazak Gurnah. 2012. Metaphor and Diaspora in Contemporary Writing. 39–58. Sell. Jonathan P. A.. Palgrave Macmillan. en. 10.1057/9780230358454_3. 978-1-349-33956-3.
• Book: King, Bruce. 2006 . Abdulrazak Gurnah and Hanif Kureishi: Failed Revolutions. The Contemporary British Novel Since 1980. 85–94. Palgrave Macmillan. Acheson. James. Ross. Sarah C.E.. 978-1-349-73717-8. New York. 1104713636. 10.1007/978-1-349-73717-8_8.
• Lavery. Charné. May 2013. White-washed Minarets and Slimy Gutters: Abdulrazak Gurnah, Narrative Form and Indian Ocean Space. English Studies in Africa. 56. 1. 117–127. 10.1080/00138398.2013.780686. 143927840. 0013-8398.

Further reading

• Web site: Breitinger. Eckhard. Gurnah, Abdulrazak S. Contemporary Novelists.
• Jones, Nisha (2005). "Abdulrazak Gurnah in conversation". Wasafiri, 20:46, 37–42. .
• Book: https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/gurnah-abdulrazak-1948. Gurnah, Abdulrazak S.. Palmisano. Joseph M.. Contemporary Authors. 2007. Gale. 978-1-4144-1017-3. 507351992. 134–136. 153. 0275-7176.
• Book: Whyte. Philip. Deutsch-Ostafrika: Dynamiken europäischer Kulturkontakte und Erfahrungshorizonte im kolonialen Raum. 2019. Peter Lang. 978-3-631-77497-7. Noack. Stefan. en. East Africa in Postcolonial Fiction: History and Stories in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise. Christine de Gemeaux. Uwe Puschner.
• Whyte, Philip (2004). "Heritage as Nightmare: The Novels of Abdulrazak Gurnah", in: Commonwealth Essays and Studies 27, no. 1:11–18.

External links

• • Abdulrazak Gurnah at RCW Literary Agency.

Notes and References

1. News: 7 October 2021. Nobel Literature Prize 2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah named winner . en-GB. BBC News. 9 October 2021 . 7 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211007164325/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58828947 . live.
2. Web site: Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah. University of Kent . 7 October 2021. 9 October 2021. 8 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211008004338/https://www.kent.ac.uk/english/people/200/gurnah-abdulrazak. live.
3. Book: Loimeier, Manfred. Metzler Lexikon Weltliteratur: Band 2: G–M. 30 August 2016. Springer. 978-3-476-00129-0. Ruckaberle. Axel. 82–83. de. Gurnah, Abdulrazak. 7 October 2021. 7 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211007151643/https://books.google.com/books?id=G0vvDAAAQBAJ. live.
4. Book: King, Bruce. The Oxford English Literary History. Oxford University Press. 2004. 978-0-19-957538-1. Bate. Jonathan. 13. Oxford. 336. 49564874. Burrow. Colin. registration.
5. News: 7 October 2021. Flood. Alison. Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel prize in literature. 7 October 2021. The Guardian. en. 7 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211007122935/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/07/abdulrazak-gurnah-wins-the-2021-nobel-prize-in-literature. live.
6. News: Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the Nobel prize in literature for 2021. The Economist. 7 October 2021.
7. Web site: Prono. Luca. 2005. Abdulrazak Gurnah – Literature. 7 October 2021. British Council. 3 August 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190803094503/https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/abdulrazak-gurnah. live.
8. Book: Hand, Felicity. Abdulrazak Gurnah (1948–). The Literary Encyclopedia. 7 October 2021. 19 June 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180619181555/http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/ratnakara/sites/grupsderecerca.uab.cat.ratnakara/files/Literary_encyclopedia_people_11741.pdf. live.
9. Book: Erskine. Elizabeth. Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature for 1986. 61. 1989. 0-947623-30-2. 0066-3786. 588. W. S. Maney & Son.
10. News: Alter. Alexandra. Marshall. Alex. 7 October 2021. Abdulrazak Gurnah Is Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. en-US. The New York Times. 9 October 2021. 0362-4331. 7 October 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211007121712/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/books/nobel-prize-literature-abdulrazak-gurnah.html. live.
11. Web site: Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah: An introduction to the man and his writing. Lizzy. Attree. The World. 7 October 2021. 10 October 2021.
12. News: Johnson. Simon. Pawlak. Justyna. 2021-10-08. Tanzanian novelist Gurnah wins 2021 Nobel for depicting impact of colonialism, migration . en . Reuters . 2021-10-11.
13. News: Alter. Alexandra. 2021-10-27. He Won the Nobel. Why Are His Books So Hard to Find?. en-US. The New York Times . 2021-10-27. 0362-4331.
14. News: Why one Nobel Laureate is struggling to sell books in America. https://web.archive.org/web/20211105011228/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/abdulrazak-gurnah-nobel-prize-books-b1949697.html . 2021-11-05 . limited . live. Alexandra . Alter. November 5, 2021. The Independent.
15. News: Love and Empire. The New York Times. Imbolo . Mbue. Imbolo Mbue. 18 August 2022.
16. News: Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Financial Times. David. Pilling. 8 October 2021.
17. Web site: This one for Africa: The Nobel Prize ennobles itself. Al Jazeera. Hamid. Dabashi. 12 October 2021. 2 November 2021.
18. Web site: Mengiste. Maaza. 8 October 2021. Abdulrazak Gurnah: where to start with the Nobel prize winner . live. 9 October 2021. The Guardian. en. 9 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211009090223/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/08/abdulrazak-gurnah-where-to-start-with-the-nobel-prize-winner.
19. Kaigai, Ezekiel Kimani (April 2014) "Encountering Strange Lands: Migrant Texture in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Fiction". Stellenbosch University. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
20. Book: Bosman, Sean James. Rejection of Victimhood in Literature by Abdulrazak Gurnah, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Luis Alberto Urrea. 26 August 2021. Brill. 978-90-04-46900-6. 36–72. Abdulrazak Gurnah. 10.1163/9789004469006_003. 241357989.
21. Web site: Why Tanzanian Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah is hardly known back home. BBC News. Priya. Sippy. 8 November 2021. 8 November 2021.
22. Web site: People Abdulrazak Gurnah. live. 7 October 2021. Wasafiri. en-GB. 3 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190803094504/https://www.wasafiri.org/person/abdulrazak-gurnah/.
23. Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature. Wasafiri. 8 October 2021. 31 October 2021.
24. Web site: Kenyan wins African writing prize. BBC News. 16 July 2002.
25. Web site: Abdulrazak Gurnah on being appointed as Man Booker Prize judge. University of Kent. 26 October 2016. 7 October 2021.
26. Web site: RSL Literature Matters Awards 2019. 10 September 2018 . The Royal Society of Literature . https://web.archive.org/web/20200814104322/https://rsliterature.org/2018/09/rsl-literature-matters-awards-2019/. 14 October 2021. 14 August 2020.
27. Web site: Abdulrazak Gurnah: Influencing policymakers, cultural providers, curricula, and the reading public worldwide via new imaginings of empire and postcoloniality. REF 2014 Impact Case Studies. 14 October 2021.
28. Web site: We Congratulate 2021 Nobel Laureate for Literature Abdulrazak Gurnah. The Authors Guild. 7 October 2021. 14 October 2021.
29. Web site: Abdulrazak Gurnah. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20201010131256/https://rsliterature.org/fellow/abdulrazak-gurnah-3/. 10 October 2020. 7 October 2021. Royal Society of Literature. en-GB.
30. Web site: Abdulrazak Gurnah, Prix RFI Témoin du Monde 2007. Catherine . Fruchon-Toussaint. RFI. fr. 8 March 2007. 8 October 2021. 14 March 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210314173945/http://www1.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/087/article_50171.asp. live.
31. Web site: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 . NobelPrize.org . 7 October 2021 . 7 October 2021 . 7 October 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211007151626/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2021/summary/ . live .
32. Web site: Abdulrazak Gurnah: the truth-teller's tale. openDemocracy. Rashmee Roshan. Lall. 31 October 2021. 31 October 2021.
33. Web site: Shariatmadari. David. 2021-10-11. 'I could do with more readers!' – Abdulrazak Gurnah on winning the Nobel prize for literature . 2021-10-11. The Guardian. en.
34. News: 8 October 2021. Can the Nobel Prize 'revitalize' African literature? . 2021-10-10. Deutsche Welle. en.
35. Web site: In Tanzania, Gurnah's Nobel Prize win sparks both joy and debate. Sammy. Awami. Al Jazeera. 9 October 2021. 10 October 2021.
36. News: Marshall . Alex . 2022-08-21 . Abdulrazak Gurnah Refuses to Be Boxed In: 'I Represent Me' . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-08-13 . 0362-4331.
37. Book: Narain, Denise DeCaires . Olive Senior . 2011 . Northcote House Publishers . 978-0-7463-1099-1 . en.
38. Web site: Denise Decaires Narain : University of Sussex . 2023-08-13 . www.sussex.ac.uk.
39. Web site: Denise DeCaires Narain . 2023-08-13 . Wasafiri Magazine . en-GB.
40. Hand. Felicity. 15 March 2015. Searching for New Scripts: Gender Roles in Memory of Departure. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. en. 56. 2. 223–240. 10.1080/00111619.2014.884991. 144088925. 0011-1619. 7 October 2021. 7 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211007151627/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00111619.2014.884991. live.
41. Mirmotahari. Emad. May 2013. From Black Britain to Black Internationalism in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Pilgrims Way. English Studies in Africa. en. 56. 1. 17–27. 10.1080/00138398.2013.780679. 154423559. 0013-8398. 7 October 2021. 7 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211007151628/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00138398.2013.780679. live.
42. Lewis. Simon. May 2013. Postmodern Materialism in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Dottie : Intertextuality as Ideological Critique of Englishness. English Studies in Africa. en. 56. 1. 39–50. 10.1080/00138398.2013.780680. 145731880. 0013-8398.
43. Kohler. Sophy. 4 May 2017. 'The spice of life': trade, storytelling and movement in Paradise and By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah. Social Dynamics. en. 43. 2. 274–285. 10.1080/02533952.2017.1364471. 149236009. 0253-3952.
44. News: Nobel Prize in Literature 2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah honoured. 7 October 2021. 7 October 2021. The Irish Times. en. 7 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211007151629/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/nobel-prize-in-literature-2021-abdulrazak-gurnah-honoured-1.4693669. live.
45. Olaussen. Maria. May 2013. The Submerged History of the Indian Ocean in Admiring Silence. English Studies in Africa. en. 56. 1. 65–77. 10.1080/00138398.2013.780682. 162203810. 0013-8398.
46. Web site: Abdulrazak Gurnah. 7 October 2021. Booker Prize. en. 7 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211007151628/https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/abdulrazak-gurnah. live.
47. Web site: Mars-Jones. Adam Mars-Jones. Adam. 15 May 2005. It was all going so well. live. 7 October 2021. The Observer. en. 26 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210126135809/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/may/15/fiction.features1.
48. Kaigai. Kimani. May 2013. At the Margins: Silences in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Admiring Silence and The Last Gift. English Studies in Africa. en. 56. 1. 128–140. 10.1080/00138398.2013.780688. 143867462. 0013-8398.
49. Bosman. Sean James. 3 July 2021. 'A Fiction to Mock the Cuckold': Reinvigorating the Cliché Figure of the Cuckold in Abdulrazak Gurnah's By the Sea (2001) and Gravel Heart (2017). Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies. en. 7. 3. 176–188. 10.1080/23277408.2020.1849907. 233624331. 2327-7408.
50. Web site: Mengiste. Maaza. 30 September 2020. Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah review – living through colonialism. live. 7 October 2021. The Guardian. en. 14 September 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210914193520/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/30/afterlives-by-abdulrazak-gurnah-review-living-through-colonialism.
51. News: 2022-08-18 . Love and Empire . en . 2023-08-15.
52. 2022-01-10 . Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah Urges Us Not to Forget the Past . 2023-08-15 . Time . en.
53. Web site: Domini . John . 2021-12-08 . Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives . 2023-08-15 . The Brooklyn Rail . en-US.
54. Web site: 2022-09-28 . Gurnah's latest novel 'Afterlives' explores effects of colonial rule in East Africa . 2023-08-15 . PBS NewsHour . en-us.
55. Web site: Biobibliographical notes. 7 October 2021. Nobel Prize. en. 7 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211007151651/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2021/summary/?_pjax=%23pjax-well. live.
56. Web site: Refugee Tales – Comma Press. 7 October 2021. commapress.co.uk. 28 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210528143344/https://commapress.co.uk/books/refugee-tales. live.
57. Web site: Refugee Tales: Volume III – Comma Press. 7 October 2021. commapress.co.uk. 10 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210510164823/https://commapress.co.uk/books/refugee-tales-volume-iii/. live.
58. Gurnah, Abdulrazak, "7 – Themes and structures in Midnight's Children", in Gurnah (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie, Cambridge University Press, 28 November 2007.