We speak with Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, which recognized his “uncompromising and compassionate” writing about colonialism and the refugee experience. He is the first Black writer to win the award since Toni Morrison almost 30 years ago and the first Black African writer to win the prize since 1986. Gurnah discusses his work, which explores displacement, migration and “historical moments that create us.” His latest novel is titled “Afterlives” and will be published in the United States in August 2022.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.