Zanzibar’s Head of State, Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi has just invited the winner of Nobel Prize in Literature, Prof Abdulrazak Gurnah to visit the Isles.
“I have talked to Prof Gurnah the Nobel Laureate and in addition to congratulating him for the achievement, I used the occasion to invite the Novelist to Zanzibar,” stated President Hussein Mwinyi.
An official statement from the Zanzibar State House, earlier on announced that, Dr Mwinyi was having a virtual meeting with the Nobel Prize winner, Prof Abdulrazak Salum Gurnah directly from the Isles.
But other than inviting the acclaimed author to his motherland, the Isles’ State House is yet to divulge what else was discussed during the virtual meeting between the President and the Novelist.
The new development comes shortly after series of online arguments and discussions regarding whether the Award Winning International Author should be described as ‘Zanzibar National’ let alone being addressed as ‘Tanzanian Novelist.’
That is because Prof Gurnah, who was born in Zanzibar in 1948, left the Isles in the 60s moving to the United Kingdom where he became permanent resident.
Professor Gurnah who has so far authored 10 books, got awarded the Nobel Prize for what is being described as his ‘Uncompromising and passionate,’ portrayals of the effects of colonialism.
It was Gunah’s 1994 novel ‘Paradise’ which told the story of a boy growing up in Tanzania in the early 20th century, which won him the Booker Prize and marked his breakthrough as a novelist.
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