Why Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah wrote his first novels out of pure homesickness

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, Abdulrazak Gurnah arrived in England as a refugee in 1968. He began writing in his twenties to process his displacement, eventually transforming personal reflections into a celebrated body of work that unflinchingly explores the lingering trauma of colonialism, war, and the search for belonging.

Abdulrazak Gurnah’s literary journey began not with a grand ambition, but as a private response to the profound dislocation of exile. Forced to leave Zanzibar at age 18 during the 1964 revolution, he settled in England, where he began recording his thoughts in a diary. These early entries, fueled by homesickness, evolved into fictional narratives that sought to understand his own experience of being a refugee. His debut novel, Memory of Departure, was written while he was completing his PhD at the University of Kent, setting the stage for a career defined by quiet, persistent storytelling about those often left unheard.

Gurnah’s work is deeply rooted in the East African coast, yet it consistently places his protagonists within a broader international context. Critics note that his characters are frequently alienated and uprooted, navigating the complex gulf between cultures and continents. Despite his long academic career—which included teaching at Bayero University Kano and the University of Kent—his fiction remained largely underappreciated by the commercial publishing world for decades. Many of his novels, including By the Sea and Desertion, were out of print or lacked international distribution until his 2021 Nobel Prize win triggered a massive surge in global demand.

A central tension in Gurnah’s writing is his relationship with language. While English is his literary medium, he resists the common publishing practice of italicizing or glossing Swahili and Arabic terms, arguing that such editorial choices serve only to make the familiar seem alien. His work remains a powerful examination of the 'lingering trauma of colonialism' and the fragmented identities born of migration. As he continues his work as an Arts Professor at New York University Abu Dhabi, Gurnah remains a vital voice, insisting that we listen to the stories of those displaced by crisis and the broken promises of the state.

General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.

Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?

Related

• How one Somali novelist kept his nation alive through decades of forced exile
• How a Sudanese novelist turned a small Nile village into a universal symbol of cultural collision
• How a Sudanese masterpiece exposes the lingering, violent shadows of the colonial encounter
• Why did a literary prodigy throw plates at a chandelier during his own award ceremony?
• How a Sierra Leonean poet turned the trauma of exile into a literary map
• Pushkin's African great-grandfather became a general of imperial Russia
• The poet who ruled an empire for one day before his tragic execution
• How a wine seller's son built the greatest treasury of Arabic poetry
• How a sixteenth-century Moroccan mystic became the voice of daily wisdom across the Maghreb
• The foreign film Oscar is really about language, not nationality
• The restless priest whose forbidden novel became the most reprinted in French history
• Achim von Arnim: The Romantic polymath who traded natural science for folklore

More in Writers · More in Ideas & Philosophy · Latest · A–Z · All topics