QU Press Dialogue with 2021 Literature Nobel Laureate Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah.

Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948-; African authors; Nobel Prize winners; Translations; Authorship

Nobel laureate Prof. Abdulrazak Gourna was invited by Qatar University Press and warmly welcomed by the audience of the Doha International Book Fair. The long interview focused on the relationship between the author and publisher and responsibilities of the author to represent the concerns of his local culture on a world stage. Here, the significance of translation was apparent as well as direct communication between author and audiences worldwide. His African, Arabic, and Islamic roots contributed to the rich heritage of Prof. Gurnah, whose novels unravel this complexity of identities. The dialogue was enriched by a discussion on how the author as a novelist and academic dealt with postcolonialism and the evil of colonialism. More importantly, how in his original home Zanzibar, different societies, the coastal cultures, the Arab traders, the Indian traders, the Swahili traders, and the people in the interior, negotiated their coexistence peacefully, which ended with the arrival of European colonialism. This led to fragmentation of African societies and in many ways was responsible for the oppression and dictatorship that ravaged the contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]