In a profound exploration of belonging and identity, Abdulrazak Gurnah, the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, reflects on the complex emotions that tether one to their homeland, even amidst the dislocation of exile. During the Africa In the World festival, in a conversation led by academic Awam Amkpa titled “Home & Exile,” Gurnah unravels the enduring connection to one’s roots, a bond that persists regardless of physical location, suggesting that the experience of home transcends geographic boundaries.
You’re on your way somewhere, but you don’t know what you’re leaving behind – you don’t understand that part. You leave, arrive elsewhere and discover you never left in a sense; the other place lives on. The negotiation between these processes is something that presumably never ends.
Speaking is Abdulrazak Gurnah in a recent conversation entitled “Home & exile” which the academician Awam Amkpa conducted with him at the Africa In the World festival. Gurnah is the 2021 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature.
