Abdulrazak Gurnah, until recently a professor at the University of Kent, has been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The honour was bestowed on Professor Gurnah, who became emeritus professor of English and post-colonial literatures at Kent when he retired recently, ¡°for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents¡±.

Professor Gurnah was born in Zanzibar and moved to the UK as a student in 1968. He earned his PhD from Kent in 1982 and was a long-serving member of the university¡¯s School of English.

His main academic interest is in post-colonial writing and in discourses associated with colonialism. He has edited two volumes of Essays on African Writing, as well as The Cambridge?Companion to Salman Rushdie.

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However, he is best known for his 10 novels, of which Paradise (1994) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. His most recent book?is?Afterlives, published last year.

Karen Cox, Kent¡¯s vice-chancellor, sent ¡°huge congratulations¡± to Professor Gurnah on his ¡°tremendous achievement¡±.

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¡°Abdulrazak is a complete inspiration to all of us ¨C as a teacher, an alumnus of Kent and as such a powerful voice in post-colonial literature,¡± Professor Cox said.

¡°His stories, some of which were first drafted in our very own Templeman Library, have touched millions worldwide and shine a light on human experiences that are so often ignored. We couldn¡¯t be prouder of his success.¡±

Bashir Abu-Manneh, head of the School of English, said Professor Gurnah¡¯s writing ¡°epitomises our contemporary condition of displacement, violence and belonging¡±.

¡°His is the struggle for individual voice, for justice, for feeling at home in an ever-changing world,¡± Dr Abu-Manneh said.

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¡°No one writing today has articulated the pains of exile and the rewards of belonging so well. Canterbury and Kent are both his exile and home.¡±

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com