Africa Is a Country

Another African wins the Nobel?

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Another African wins the Nobel?

By
Abdourahman Waberi

At least 3 African writers are favorites for the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature. They'd be the 5th African winner.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Wiki Commons).

In a couple days or so, the Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced (probably on Thursday, 6 October or the next). We know for sure that all information concerning the nomination and selection of the Nobel laureates is kept a secret for 50 years. The betting odds seem to favor the 81 years old Syrian poet Ali Ahmed Said Asbar who writes under the pen name Adonis. The best chances for Africa are the 3 following (in any particular order) forerunners: Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah (Crossbones, his eleventh novel just out last month), Kenyan novelist, essayist and activist Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, and Algerian novelist and filmmaker Assia Djebar. From now on, I will cross my fingers for my three inspiring and admirable friends.

Africa’s previous winners of the Literature Nobel are: Naguib Mahfouz, Nadime Gordimer, Wole Soyinka and J M Coetzee.

Nadine Gordimer, the late South African writer (1923 – 2014), who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991 (Wiki Commons).
Wole Soyinka (Photo: Wiki Commons).
J M Coetzee.

Further Reading

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The road to Rafah

The ‘Sumud’ convoy from Tunis to Gaza is reviving the radical promise of pan-African solidarity and reclaiming an anticolonial tactic lost to history.

Sinners and ancestors

Ryan Coogler’s latest film is more than a vampire fable—it’s a bridge between Black American history and African audiences hungry for connection, investment, and storytelling rooted in shared struggle.