Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah to deliver Mandela lecture

The 22nd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture will be held in Wits University’s Linder Auditorium.

Abdulrazak Gurnah, a former professor of English at the University of Kent, who won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, will deliver this year’s lecture.

The Swedish Academy honoured him for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.

Gurnah is the author of 10 novels, including 1994’s Booker and Whitbread Prize-shortlisted Paradise, set in colonial East Africa during World War 1, 2001’s Booker Prize-longlisted By the Sea, and 2005’s Desertion. 

The author was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, now part of present-day Tanzania, in 1948, arriving in England as a refugee in the late 1960s.

Gurnah is known for creating work that questions simple narratives and structures, and his books reckon with a past deliberately eclipsed and erased by colonialism.

“One thing that motivates me is to speak about the world I live in, and particularly if I note and see that there is an injustice taking place. It is something I most admire about us humans. It is this ability to retrieve something from bad experience,” he says.

The theme for this year’s Mandela lecture is “Realising Our Shared Humanity”, which, according to the foundation, is to “reflect the notion that we as human beings are all one family, and that there should be a deep sense of caring and concern for each other that transcends differences such as race, religion and nationality”.

“Having a sense of shared humanity means being committed to championing justice — even if it be against ourselves, the rich or powerful. In an international context, our sense of shared humanity should guide our understanding of justice and inspire us to pursue justice beyond the borders of our respective communities and countries.

“We live in a world in which global politics is a major issue in our lives and will continue to be as we grow ever more connected to each other. Not only does what happens beyond the borders of our respective countries affect us in economic, social and even emotional ways, but international dynamics are also evolving as the global order is being reimagined and reorganised.”

The foundation’s outgoing acting CEO Verne Harris says: “We believe that Abdulrazak Gurnah is ideally positioned to speak to this theme about how we can use literature and other mediums of expression and activism to realise our shared humanity — something we are in desperate need of as a global community.”

The Nelson Mandela Foundation invites local and international audiences to engage in this vital dialogue and contribute to a deeper exploration of social justice and shared humanity. 

EVENT DETAILS:

Date: Saturday, September 28 2024

Venue: Wits University’s Linder Auditorium

Time: 3pm to 5pm. Doors open at 1.30pm

Note: Seating at the lecture is limited; registration details will be available soon.

This article was sponsored by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.