Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah ****

Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism … in the gulf between cultures and continents." Afterlives is about Ilyas Hassan, his sister Afiya, and Hamza, starting with World War I and going through to World War II. The Africans live their lives in peace except when European wars are fought in Africa where they are killed in great numbers to settle European conflicts. The history of the first half of the twentieth century as told from East Africa.

Both Ilyas and Hamza are German Schutztruppe askari during World War I. Hamza returns to marry Ilyas’ sister Afiya. They have a child, Ilyas Junior. Hamza searches for the missing Ilyas Senior. The book chronicles life with the juxtaposition between European violence, contempt, prejudice, and brutality, and the quotidian life of the Africans when left to themselves.

While the Europeans are interested in maintaining their prestige and class hierarchy, the Africans are gossiping and making small talk. Among the Schutztruppe askari, the German officers abuse the askari, but the askari are exempt from menial labor. Those tasks belong to the carrier ranks. In the town, Africans improve their lot by marriage and learning skills, such as bookkeeping, trading, and carpentry. The Africans invest in boats and machinery, while the Europeans only fight.

Much is made of the ability to read and write.

African aspiration: “He thought he would look for [a mosque], to have a wash and for the company. In so many places he had traveled there were no mosques, and he missed them, not for prayers but for the sense of being one of the many.”

European aspiration: “Make it what they called A White Man’s Country, … to remove all Indians and only allow Europeans but keep the Africans as laborers and servants, with a sprinkling of some savage pastoralists in a reserve for spectacle.”

“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”

Check out https://amzn.to/2SpaDMN to see my books.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.