Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Briton Abdulrazak Gurna

The winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature was announced in Stockholm. He became a 72-year-old British writer Abdul Razak Gurna, who was born on the island of Zanzibar in an Arab family.

In the sixties, Gurna left Tanzania amid anti-Muslim protests and was granted asylum in England, where he began his university career. Gurn's native language was Swahili, but he made his literary debut in English. The writer's first novel, The Memory of Departure, was published in 1987.

Prior to his retirement, he held the position of Professor in the Department of English Literature and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kent.

The Swedish Academy's wording states that the prize is awarded to a novelist for an uncompromising and compassionate understanding of the consequences of colonialism in Africa and its impact on the fate and identity of refugees.