Afterlives

by Abdulrazak Gurnah

'One of Africa's greatest living writers' Giles Foden

Restless, ambitious Ilyas was stolen from his parents by the Schutzruppe askari, the German colonial troops; after years away, he returns to his village to find his parents gone, and his sister Afiya given away.

Hamza was not stolen, but was sold; he has come of age in the schutztruppe, at the right hand of an officer whose control has ensured his protection but marked him for life.

The century is young. The Germans and the British and the French and the Belgians and whoever else have drawn their maps and signed their treaties and divided up Africa. As they seek complete dominion they are forced to extinguish revolt after revolt by the colonised. The conflict in Europe opens another arena in east Africa where a brutal war devastates the landscape. Hamza does not have words for how the war ended for him. Returning to the town of his childhood, all he wants is work, however humble, and security - and the beautiful Afiya.

As these interlinked friends and survivors come and go, live and work and fall in love, the shadow of a new war lengthens and darkens, ready to snatch them up and carry them away.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Africa, Nobel Prize, Tanzania, Historical, Audiobook

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 17, 2020

About the author

Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 in Zanzibar and lives in England, where he teaches at the University of Kent. The most famous of his novels are Paradise, shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea, longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents".

Reviews

[Ilse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Update 7th October 2021 - Nobel Prize for Abdulrazak Gurnah "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between culture and continents"

Lately a friend reviewed Abdulrazak Gurnah’s novel By the Sea, which reminded me of his novel Paradise(1994) that I did read some decades ago. So when the news reached me a new novel of him was about to be published, I was keen to read it as my present reading habits seem to have turned rather Eurocentric over the years.

Glimpsing through summaries of that Man Booker shortlisted novel Paradise, quite some parallels and recurring components in Gurnah’s storystelling struck me , from the social patterns defining the tough childhood of some of the characters (a childhood spent in debt bondage or suffering from domestic abuse), the dreamy nature of one of the protagonists, the merchant milieu, the setting of the narratives at the confluence of cultures and religions in East Africa, to the detached storytelling, the dash of homo-erotic suggestiveness and the astonishing kindness and generosity some of his characters bestow upon each other in a light-hearted way.



Like Gurnah’s novel Paradise, Afterlives is a historical novel which goes back to the times of the German and later British colonisation of East-Africa, in particularly what is today known Tanzania, mostly spanning the years shortly before and during the first world war, with a more concise rendition of the fate and experiences of the characters during the second world war and the aftermath of it.

Slowly paced, the novel introduces the reader gradually to the few principal characters in the story, through which storylines and history will meet: the merchant clerk Khalifa who is of Ghujarati descent, Ilyas, Hamza and Afiya.

A large chunk of the novel conveys the every day life and military campaigns of the Askari, the local soldiers serving in the German Colonial Army (Schutztruppe) recruited for enforcing the colonial regime and who fought in Africa during the first World War. Askari were employed by the Italian, British, Portuguese, German and Belgian colonial armies.

As the askari told their swaggering stories and marched across the rain-shadow plains of the great mountain, they did not know that they were to spend years fighting across swamps and mountains and forests and grasslands, in heavy rain and drought, slaughtering and being slaughtered by armies of people they knew nothing about: Punjabis and Sikhs, Fantis and Akans and Hausas and Yorubas, Kongo and Luba, all mercenaries who fought the Europeans’ wars for them, the Germans with their schutztruppe, the British with their King’s African Rifles and the Royal West African Frontier Force and their Indian troops, the Belgians with their Force Publique.

Both Ilyas and Hamza will join the askari forces voluntarily, unaware they will be merely pliable pawns of the brutal times sweeping their region. Their life paths will get connected when both men, in different stages of the novel, wash ashore on the premise of Khalifa in a unnamed East-African port town. Khalifa will also take Ilyas’s once lost little sister Aliya under his wing.

The novel paints a devastating picture of terror, war and exploitation in the name of bringing civilisation – personified in the ambiguous conduct of the despondent German officer sent to the region to occupy the country, treating his African batman, Hamza half seriously, half mockingly, with a weird mixture of contempt and affection. The officer attempts to learn the local language while at the same time he insists on teaching Hamza German, to introduce Hamza to German literature, with the ultimate ambition to acquaint him with Schiller’s writing.



Even though the colonisation and war are ravaging the region, by painting scenes of every day local life in the small merchant community, where Islamic faith goes together with traditional belief in necromancers and men and women find each other in birth and death, courtship and marriage Gurnah beautifully evokes how life goes on, working, loving, learning and worshipping. One of the themes is the sense of uprooting Hamza and Aliya experience, how they are cut off from the past, bereft of or abandoned by their parents and siblings, or having been abandoning them themselves, for different reasons. Their sensitivity in dealing with their past gives a melancholic tone to the prose.

While the distant, sober style made it hard to engage fully with the story, the matter-of-factness attributed significantly to the believability of Gurnah’s storytelling. When reading historical fiction I normally have to silence the voice in my head wondering if what I am reading is fact or imagination, which more often than not prevents me from truly enjoying the book and making me wish I had chosen to read a non-fiction account of the subject and period instead. Gurnah’s deft storytelling however managed to soothe that pesky voice. While not the whole cast of characters was entirely convincing – for instance the proto-feminism of the merchant and of Alifah won my sympathy but seemed improbable - the background narrative was immersive.

Reading historical fiction not that often, for what it is worth, Afterlives to me came across as a fine specimen in the genre, weaving the big history throughout the tale and touching on the impact of the life of individuals in a way the balance between historical details and fictional elements seems fine, covering and bringing to life an episode in Western and African history which might be less known.

Later these events would be turned into stories of absurd and nonchalant heroics, a side-show to the great tragedies in Europe, but for those who lived through it, this was a time when their land was soaked in blood and littered with corpses.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for granting me an ARC of this finely composed novel of love, resilience, freedom and survival.
(***1/2)
(paintings by Irma Stern)

[Adina ( not enough time ) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the novel was quite average and forgettable. And when I say forgettable, I mean it literary. I even tried to ask ChatGBT to write me a summary to remember what it was about (not to put it in my review). In case you were wondering, it did an awful job, I am not sure how kids send those answers as projects and receive passable grades. Or, maybe, even Artificial Intelligence got bored when reading this book and failed to remember the plot correctly.

Since I read it a month and a half ago and don’t remember much I will skip the detailing of the plot. I am pretty sure it was about a bunch of people from Oest-Afrika who got screwed by the colonising forces before, during and after WW1. It was interesting to learn more about Germany’s colonial past as I did not know much ( I mean anything) about the subject. The author succeeded to present facts without sounding as a history manual, so I give him that. However, he did not succeed to make me feel anything. Not about the characters or the events he described. From that perspective, it was as if I was reading a history manual. It is not a good sign when the most interesting part of a book is the true bit and not the fiction, where the writer’s talent should shine, especially since he won the Nobel prize.

Anyway, many other reviewers liked this novel so also read those opinions. However, I feel a consensus out there that this is not his best work and, in consequence, not the most appropriate place to start with the author.

[William2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just finished I am rendered speechless. No lame summary will suffice. Brilliant! I suppose that’s why Stockholm gave him the Nobel.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every bit of it belonged to Europeans, at least on a map: British East Africa, Deutsche-Ostafrika, Africa Oriental Portuguesa, Congo Belge.

This is a hard book for me to rate since I found the material with which it's concerned fascinating - but the mode of storytelling is very distanced and 'told'. Rather than living through the experiences with the characters, we're often absorbing narrative information as if we were reading a history text rather than a novel: 'They burned villages and trampled fields and plundered food stores. African bodies were left hanging on roadside gibbets in a landscape that was scorched and terrorised.' This exposition-heavy style includes lots of indirect speech (instead of dialogue): 'Ilyas told Khalifa how he had run away from home as a child and wandered around for several days before he was kidnapped by a schutzgruppe askari at the train station and taken' - scenes that might have been powerful if we'd witnessed them or even heard them in the voice of the subject become almost incidental. I did wonder if this was deliberate technique to normalise the experiences of the characters or whether this is a reference to a different, non-western, storytelling tradition - I don't know the answers but it did make this a very slow read as I was intellectually engaged but not emotionally involved.

The story itself takes a look over a period of about 60 years of colonial involvement in East Africa, primarily the role of Germany. This is such a little-known history to me that I was fascinated to find out more, especially the role of African mercenaries in German 'protection troops'. Beginning in around the 1890s, there's a large section that explores how English-German hostilities during WW1 and after played out in Africa; and the book also flips forward to WW2 when the Nazis' policy of lebensraum extended back to Africa and their former colonies there.

All of this is fabulous material, but I struggled with the telling. The characters on whom the story is hung move in and out of focus: sometimes we're engaged in their lives, at others they seem just hooks upon which to hang the history. And then the book ends abruptly with a bald statement that feels inconclusive.

So I think this is one of those books where we need to manage our expectations going in - the content is unusual in terms of material and is absolutely fascinating, but the mode of telling might be less novelistic that I, at least, wanted.

Thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC via NetGalley

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 10th novel by the 2021 Nobel Prize Literature winner (and the final published before the award).

From the Nobel Citation

Gurnah’s latest novel, the magnificent Afterlives from 2020, takes up where Paradise ends. And as in that work, the setting is the beginning of the 20th century, a time before the end of German colonisation of East Africa in 1919. Hamza, a youth reminiscent of Yusuf in Paradise, is forced to go to war on the Germans’ side and becomes dependent on an officer who sexually exploits him. He is wounded in an internal clash between German soldiers and is left at a field hospital for care. But when he returns to his birthplace on the coast he finds neither family nor friends. History’s capricious winds rule and as in Desertion we follow the plot through several generations, up until the Nazis’ unrealised plan for the recolonisation of East Africa. Gurnah again uses name-changing when the story shifts course and Hamza’s son Ilias becomes Elias under German rule. The denouement is shocking and as unexpected as it is alarming. But in fact the same thought recurs constantly in the book: the individual is defenceless if the reigning ideology – here, racism – demands submission and sacrifice.

Gurnah’s writing has I think two main strands. One of them is his five exile novels (“Pilgrims Way”, ”Admiring Silence”, “By The Sea”, “Last Gift”, “Gravel Heart” – all of which feature male characters from Zanzibar exiled (for different reasons) in the UK and finding themselves no longer really belonging to either country. Many of the themes are also recurrent (storytelling, the English language canon, the after effect of colonialism on colonisers and colonised, relationships with Fathers, family secrets) and at times I feel like the novels are rewrites of the same stories.

The second series is his African-set novels: “Memory of Departure”, “Paradise”, “Desertion”, “Afterlives” which are set in East Africa (this like “Paradise” not in Zanzibar but the mainland) during the colonial era itself and which explore that era.

This novel is set over around 80 years – from the early violent years of colonial German East Africa and the various uprisings they faced in the late 19th century – through to two years after the independence in the 1960s of Tanganyika in 1961 (as West and East Germany fight for soft power).

The former period forms something of the prologue to the book – an evocatively described set of chapters which introduce the main characters.

The last period (and the years from the Second World War) are crammed into the final chapter which is something of a rather forced epilogue.

A larger part of the book, although one which in what seems a typical Gurnah style is told rather than shown – is set in the First World War and tells of the actions during that period of the German colonial army – the Schutztruppe and the Askari who served in it under German command.

But the bulk of the book and when it really comes to life and when, perhaps unusually for Gurnah, we really enter the mind of some characters and see more of their daily lives and feelings (not filtered by either story telling or by letter writing – two of his favourite devices) is set in the inter war period – as the characters live their lives in Tanganyika in its post Versailles-treaty years as a British ruled protectorate under League of Nations Mandate.

The first character we meet is Khalifa – he is the son of a poor Indian born Gujarati who uses village connections to get a job as bookkeeper on an African estate run by someone from his home village and who marries his African wife (Khalifa’s mother) there. Khalifa in turn gets work with two Gujarati bankers on the East African Coast and after around 10 years works his way into the service of an unprincipled but successful merchant (come wheeler dealer) Amur Biashara – who later marries him to his niece Asha (who resents Amur for defrauding her of her family home – a familiar trope in Gurnah’s writing – in which the couple now live).

We next meet Ilyas when he comes to the town, shortly after the death of the merchant (whose son Nassor inherits the business and Khalifa/Asha live. Ilyas we learn was abducted by the Schutztruppe as a child years earlier – now returning with a letter of introduction to a German factory owner he quickly befriends Khalifa who persuades him to return to his childhood village – where Ilyas finds that his parents are gone and that his sister Afiya has been adopted by a couple who treat her as a servant. Initially Illyas takes her back to the town where he educates her but when the War starts his natural sympathies are with the Germans and he rejoins their army – Afiya returns to the adoptive couple who are threatened by her education and start to beat her, but she sends a message to Khalifa who adopts her.

The story then switches to Hamza – his back story is only revealed later (*), but the book begins with him on his way to join the German army. Throughout his life, something about his bearing and intelligence seems to gain him favour with those who have power over him and he is taken under the wing of the main officer (the Oberleutnant) as his personal batman – with the officer then enjoying teaching him to speak and then read German. This is perhaps the most frustrating part of the book as Gurnah seems to distance himself from his character – the story of the German campaign and slump towards defeat told almost as non-fiction. As the Germans face defeat at the war’s end the Feldwebel (who has always resented Hamza’s seeming intimacy with his superior officer) tries to kill him with his sabre – the Oberleutnant taking the badly wounded Hamza to a Lutherean Mission where he is nursed back to health over time.

The main part of the story is later – Hamza healthier (although still wounded) and unsure what to do, returns to the town which he originally escaped to join the Germans – and is taken on by the Merchant’s son as a Night Watchman and then offered accomodation by Khalifa. The merchant and Khalifa both initially seeming him as a pawn in a lifelong struggle between them – but he winning both their trust over time and starting to form a relationship with Afiya (who is still haunted by the fact that Ilyas has not returned from the war – something only resolved after the Second World War).

(*) As the Nobel Citation implies there is an interesting intersection between this book and “Paradise” – the back story of Hamza is very similar to that of Yusuf in “Paradise” including many of the very minor details (but with names changed) so that this book is literally the Afterlife of Yusuf. Gurnah has previously done something very similar with the Abbas in the “The Last Gift” being all but the Abbas in “Admiring Silence”.

Overall I found this a fascinating novel. I felt quite disconnected in the middle First World War part of the novel – but decided overall that this was deliberate – Gurnah’s focus in not on what was simply a colonial war but on its aftermath – on the afterlife of the Africans drawn into it and on the on-going lives of those in the Coastal town who are very much on the fringes of the war but whose livelihoods and lives are at the vagaries of colonial military and economic developments that they do not really follow. As commented above the lengthy inter-war section is powerful and unusually immersive for Gurnah – although the last part was I think a definite misstep.

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in literature last year, not nearly enough people had read anything by the Tanzanian-born writer. The author of 10 English-language novels, Gurnah had attracted critical praise, but fans knew his stories of East Africa and exile should be reaching a wider audience. In response to the Nobel Prize news, Gurnah’s British editor confessed, “It has been one of the great sadnesses and frustrations of my career that his work has not received the recognition it deserves. . . . I had almost given up hope.”

That hope was well placed. Propelled by the worldwide recognition that the Swedish Academy conferred, Gurnah’s books are finally being reprinted in America, and his latest, “Afterlives,” is being released by Riverhead, the savviest U.S. publisher of literary fiction. Consider this a late invitation you should not ignore.

Now 73, Gurnah fled to England as a teenage refugee after the 1964 uprising in Zanzibar. He began writing fiction in English — his first language was Swahili — and eventually became an English professor at the University of Kent, where he taught for several decades. Throughout his career, he has worked to impress upon a forgetful world the experiences of people displaced and rendered invisible. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Nobel Prize winner, that always creates high expectations. Gurnah is a natural born storyteller, that's clear: he follows a limited number of characters in a more or less chronological story and a concrete setting, with a mix of descriptions, dialogues and reflections. No experiments here, and that in itself is perhaps a relief. On top of that, the entire setting of this novel is quite attractive: the Indies community in East Africa, in the first half of the twentieth century. In scents and colors Gurnah evokes the hard life in this very diverse environment, with roots that reach very far both locally and internationally. And that's refreshing. The perverse influence of Western colonization is also highlighted, with the hard-hearted Germans in particular as the culprits, whilst the British come off remarkably mildly.
But there are downsides. This book lacks focus: especially in the beginning Gurnah jumps from one protagonist to another, ending up with the sympathetic but tormented Hamza, an African volunteer in the German colonial corps; his story is captivating, indeed. But at the end, Gurnah suddenly chanches his style to a dry summary of Hamza's son's efforts to track down the uncle he is named after, a search that leads him into the past of Nazi-Germany. This break in style is weird, as if Gurnah couldn't quite finish his narration.
So this certainly not is a bad book, but it has a number of issues. I have to admit I was slightly underwhelmed, given that Nobel Prize. (rating 2.5 stars)

[Beata · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew this novel would offer me an insight into German colonialism of which I had not read much. My first novel by Mr Gurnah was a surprisingly rewarding read, with simple narration and focus on characters whose lives interconnect. A descriptive rather than philosophical novel with simplicity at its heart.
OverDrive, thank you!

[Cherisa B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic historical fiction about colonial east Africa through the wars of empire and beyond. Searing depiction of war and brutal violence, but also of kindness and community, friendship and loneliness, love and family, in whatever ways it can be formed.

Nobel laureate from Tanzania (2021).

[Anna Carina · Rating 3 out of 5]

„Herzlich Willkommen in meinem Land“
„Du musst es schon so aussprechen, als würdest Du es so meinen“

Eine Szene, die sich zwischen Hamza, der zu den Funkern der Askari gehört (der deutschen Schutztruppe in Ostafrika) und seinem Oberleutnant, der ihm deutsche Konversation beibringt, ereignet.
Sie ist stellvertretend für Gurnah’s Art die Kolonialgeschichte und andere traumatisierende Ereignisse im Text aufzuzeigen.
Wir schreiten auf den wenigen Seiten mal eben durch 50 Jahre (Anfang 1900 bis ca. Mitte der 50er Jahre). Die Verweildauer in den Zeiträumen unterscheidet sich erheblich.
Der Fokus des Textes liegt auf den Einzelpersonen, ihren persönlichen Geschichten, ihrem Alltag.
Der Kolonialismus, die Ausbildung bei den Askari, die Weltkriege finden natürlich statt. Sie werden von Gurnah nur nicht in Szene gesetzt. Ihre Auswirkungen werden wie durch oben erwähntes Zitat, Gespräche und Verhaltensweisen der Figuren gespiegelt. Er arbeitet mit dieser Technik eine Ambivalenz heraus, die nahezu verstörend wirkt, die der Brutalität der Zeit, eine sanfte Umwölkung verleiht. Wir erleben eine Figur, die sich gut von den Deutschen behandelt fühlt und sich freiwillig den Askari anschließt. Auch Hamza macht äußerst ambivalente Erfahrungen mit den Kolonialherren und Missionaren.
Gerade der Ausbau des Bildungssektors und der medizinischen Versorgung (insbesondere durch die späteren britischen Kolonialherren) wird in ihren Möglichkeiten herausgearbeitet.
Gurnah eröffnet damit einen komplexen Raum der Widersprüche des Sozio-Kulturellen Lebens.
Der muslimische Glaube und damit verbundene Verhaltensregeln spielen thematisch eine wichtige Rolle. Es folgt auch etwas Geisteraustreibung und Mythologie.
Doch grundsätzlich ist Dreh- und Angelpunkt das alltägliche Leben. Das Geschäft, die Arbeit, die korrupten Arbeitgeber, das Durchschlagen, Tratsch, viel Tratsch, heiraten, verheiratet werden und in spärlichsten Verhältnissen dem trotzen, wodurch die Zeit einen zieht und mitschleift. Menschlichkeit beweisen. Bei aller Ruppigkeit und Schroffheit, Herz haben. Sich Kümmern, Verantwortung übernehmen und aushalten, dass Menschen einfach abtauchen und nie wieder gesehen werden.
Die Person Khalifa ist das Herzstück des Romans für mich.Tolle Figur! Die Charaktere sind sehr gelungen. Eine äußerst individuelle, spezielle Note.

Dennoch: Sprachlich ist das kein großer Genuss. Der Text wirkt, wie seine Figuren, all zu oft kantig, teils hölzern, unelegant. Er bleibt durchweg nüchtern bzw. emotionsarm. Die Zeitsprünge sind zu Beginn und am Ende viel zu zackig. Da kann nichts atmen, nur informieren. Das Ende bekommt eine Note von einem Geschichtsbucheintrag. Außerdem landen wir in erzählerischen Sackgassen. Ich sehe das zwar als Stilmittel um die Realität des Lebens darzustellen, ist für die weitere Handlung jedoch als Leser etwas frustrierend.

Als Gesamtkomposition funktioniert das für mich nur mittelprächtig. Das Buch ist zu kurz für den Zeitraum, den es umfasst. Einiges wird nicht genügend auserzählt, was ua. den Zeitsprüngen geschuldet ist. Dadurch wirken gewisse Situationen, Entscheidungen, Gespräche auf mich nicht nachvollziehbar oder seltsam. Ich finde außerdem, dass Gurnah die Qualität der speziellen Technik, die Figuren die Verhältinisse spiegeln zu lassen, nicht aufrechterhält. Er inszeniert Gespräche und Szenen, die zum haaresträuben banal, unnötig und deplaziert sind. Ich lese in einigen Passagen den Zweck, die Absicht zu arg heraus.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

To start with honesty: when Abdulrazak Gurnah was announced as the Nobel Prize winner, I had not heard of him (his Booker prize nominations came prior to my proper engagement with the prize at a time when I read the winner but took no other notice of the prize) and certainly had not read any of his books. I made a decision that I should rectify that and did what I think most people would do with an author they have not read before: I chose his most recent book.

To continue with honesty. At the 100-page mark I contacted Gumble’s Yard on WhatsApp because I knew he had read a lot of Gurnah’s books and rated this one highly. I contacted him to ask if I should continue reading because I was seriously thinking of putting the book to one side. I’ll explain why in a minute. The upshot of our discussion was that I continued reading (despite GY’s advice - he explained that it was better to read Gurnah’s books as a set rather than just reading the last one to which my reply was to wonder why I would want to read more than one if they were all like this). And I am glad I did continue because the book changed markedly on page 101. Sadly for me, it then changed back again at around the 200-page point and I finished it with the same kind of struggle as I started.

I hope this explains my rating which is purely about my personal enjoyment of the book and not about its subject matter. The subject matter is well worth learning about, but for my tastes, the way that subject matter is presented was off-putting. The novel is set over a period of several decades and covers both German and British colonial involvement in East Africa. This is something I know absolutely nothing about. So, perhaps I should have been more interested in this book because large parts of it read like a history text book rather than a novel: it is written in an expository, “told not shown” fashion for the most part which holds the reader (well, this reader, anyway) at a distance. For the first 100 pages, it almost entirely failed to engage me.

The next 100 pages were a different story (almost literally). Suddenly the writing seems to change as we focus on two characters and start to engage with them emotionally. Although, over the course of that 100 pages the style of the previous 100 pages gradually phases back in and leaves us finishing the book as we started.

My rating of this book is mainly based on my high expectations (the author won a Nobel Prize!) and my sense of disappointment with what I actually read. This disappointment is probably my fault rather than the book’s, but then this review is about my experience of reading the book, not about its literary merit. I’m sure it is a very good book, but the simple fact is that I didn’t enjoy reading it.

[Vaso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Αφρική, αρχές του 20ου αιώνα.Το βιβλίο ξεκινά γνωρίζοντας μας τον Χαλίφα που αργότερα θα συναντηθεί με τον Ιλιάς κι όταν εκείνος θα αποφασίσει να καταταγεί στους Ασκαρι, ένα τμήμα μισθοφόρων του Γερμανικού στρατού, ο Χαλίφα δεν θα προσφέρει απλά άσυλο στην Αφιγια, τη μικρή αδερφή του Ιλιάς, αλλά θα τη μεγαλώσει σαν την κόρη που δεν απέκτησε ποτέ.
Ο Χάμζα, από την άλλη, απέδρασε από τον έμπορο στον οποίο τον έδωσαν οι γονείς του για να ξεπληρώσουν το χρέος τους και κατατάχθηκε κι εκείνος στους Ασκαρι.
Παρακολουθώντας λοιπόν τις ζωές του Χαλίφα, της Αφιγια, του Χάμζα, ο συγγραφέας μας μιλά για μια περίοδο της αποικιοκρατίας στις χώρες της Αφρικής για τις οποίες δεν έχουμε διαβάσει πολλά. Βλέπουμε την καθημερινότητα της ζωής των απλών ανθρώπων και πόσο δραματικά αλλάζει, ανάλογα με την πολιτική που ακολουθούν οι εκάστοτε αποικιοκράτες.
Η διδασκαλία είναι για λίγους κι εκλεκτούς και προφανώς μια γυναίκα δεν χρειάζεται να γνωρίζει να γράφει και να διαβάζει - μάλιστα τιμωρείται και για αυτό. Ο συγγραφέας μας μιλά για το αποκιοκρατικό κλίμα που επικρατούσε στην Αφρική, εστιάζοντας περισσότερο στους χαρακτήρες και την καθημερινότητά τους και αποφεύγοντας τα ιστορικά γεγονότα. Θα ήθελα να διαβάσω κάτι ακόμη από τον συγγραφέα.


3,5 αστέρια

[Mihaela Abrudan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pentru o carte premiată cu premiul Nobel mă așteptam la o carte mai interesantă, dar a fost totuși o lectură plăcută. Pentru mine contextul și evenimentele istorice au fost ceva nou, coloniile germane din Africa de Est, dar poveste nu rezonează cu titlul cărții.

[Gabriela Pistol · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
I struggled with the writing (stern, with no depth and no emotion), but I was won over by the story.
It's an amazing journey in the history of East Africa for over 70 years and this history geek has learned so many things she didn't know about German (and British) colonialism and the African culture.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

You want me to tell you about myself as if I have a complete story but all I have are fragments which are snagged by troubling gaps, things I would have asked about if I could, moments that ended too soon or were inconclusive.

A historian can take pieces of history, carve it into words, place it within layers of story on a page, and turn it into a novel. As I've been slowing making my way through Gurnah's oeuvre over the years, I'm reminded of several reasons I love his books: how he illuminates history, setting, and the emotional truth of exile in ways that you don't read about often. He often writes about the east coast of Africa and its rich history of trade, the saddening effects of colonialism and how it underpins cultural and racial identities.

This story begins with German colonial rule in East Africa, tracing back to 1889 with the Abushiri Revolt, or the "al Bushiri uprising" as it is referenced in the novel. You don't hear about the revolts often, how Africans, like the Wameru and Wachagga people, fought to keep their lands. But Gurnah writes about these things, keeps a record of them through his novels.

We meet Khalifa, a young man of African and Indian descent. At a young age, he trains with his bookkeeper father and is sent to live and work for Gujarati bankers. He is separated from his parents: his mother an African woman and his father an Indian man who sticks by his wife's side and sends his son away to make a better life for himself. At thirty-one, after the death of his parents, all Khalifa has are his work and skill. Although alone and misunderstood, he has managed to accomplish things people who look like him do not accomplish, thanks to his father's ethnic background and the training his father instilled. Khalifa marries his employer's niece and their home becomes a baraza, where evening drinks and gossip are exchanged. There, he is introduced to Ilyas, an African clerk who speaks fluent German because when he was young, he was stolen by a German soldier. Khalifa and Ilyas become friends. Khalifa is the glue that unites all characters in this story.

This is one of those instances when the book cover does not accurately describe the book. This is also one of those instances when you immediately sense a great book club read. This novel has so many discussion points, so many places to pause and ponder, so many interesting phrases and historical mentions to look up. No wonder it became a national bestseller.

When Germans recruit askari (local soldiers serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in Africa) in their war with the British to control lands in East Africa, Khalifa's village sinks into poverty. Elsewhere, Hamza, a displaced child, runs away to the army, becomes an askari, and faces dire circumstances. When he arrives back at his hometown, lost and injured, he stays with Khalifa and meets Afiya. Ilya's sister Afiya, she who also has a troubled past of abandonment as an impoverished youth. Despite all she has endured, Afiya is tenderhearted and tenacious, the kind of friend Hamza needs as he learns to trust again.

At other times she was afraid she would lose him, and he would move on as he had come, heading nowhere in particular but away from her. She had understood that much about him, from looking and listening, that he was a man who was dangling, uprooted, likely to come loose. Or at least that was what she guessed from what she saw, that he was too diffident to make the decisive move, that one day she would wait for him to come to the door for the bread money and he would not appear and would be gone from her life forever.

Like the prose, the undertones are stark. Displacement and abandonment are themes that ignite the stories of characters who bond through shared experiences and support of each other. Did I enjoy the ending, or how the mystery of Ilyas concluded in an uneventful way? Not so much. I also sensed a rush to complete, or perhaps to fill-in some parts of the novel with laborious information. However, I enjoy reading Gurnah for how he merges carefully researched history with deft storytelling and illuminated character perspective. So, I will be finding my way to the next book in my Gurnah TBR...

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Na de mit adtak nekünk a rómaik? Oké, elhozták nekünk a vízöblítéses vécét, de vajon megengedik egyáltalán, hogy használjuk? Vagy azt se nézik ki belőlünk, hogy le tudjuk húzni magunk után?

A gyarmatosítás finoman szólva is ellentmondásos ügy. Egyfelől az Afrikába érkező európaiak tagadhatatlanul hoztak magukkal egy-két dolgot, ami a kontinensen lakók életminőségét növelte: orvosi ellátást, közoktatást, kinint*. Másfelől alapvetően úgy álltak hozzá, hogy kulturális felsőbbrendűségük feljogosítja őket arra, hogy mindent kipréseljenek az elfoglalt területekből – ha a „fehér ember terhe” a világosság elvitele a térkép sötét szegleteibe, akkor a gyarmatokról lefölözött haszon e teher jogos ellenértéke. A németek ezen a téren különösen kegyetlenek voltak, a sokat emlegetett poroszos szigor náluk konkrétan egyes népcsoportok kiirtását jelentette, például a namíbiai hererókét. És bár Német-Kelet-Afrikában (a mai Tanzániában) nem járt el így a kezük, de azért aszkarikból (vagyis helyben toborozott, német tisztek irányítása alatt álló zsoldosokból) álló egységeik azért alaposan összemocskolták az uniformisukat – jellemzően a vétlen civil lakosság vérével. És hogy cserébe ott hagytak egy-két Schiller- meg Heine-kötetet, no, ez nem tűnik azért igazán jó deal-nek.

Gurnah könyve ezt a korszakot jeleníti meg – a XX. század elejétől kábé a hatvanas-hetvenes évekig. Tulajdonképpen tipikus történelmi-családregény, amiben nyomát se találni a modern széppróza vívmányainak, nincsenek látványos szemszögváltások, felbontott linearitás és egyáltalán: semmi, ami akár csak enyhén a posztmodernizmus bűzét árasztaná**. Csak egy pontosan, szépen elmesélt történet azokkal a központban, akikre a gyarmatosítók rátelepedtek. Mert bár a fehér ember hajlamos volt úgy gondolni, hogy kulturális vákuumba érkezik, ahol igény van az ő bölcsességére, de ezek a közösségek igenis nagyon szilárd, az európaival egyenértékű hagyományokkal rendelkeztek. Megvoltak a saját szokásaik, a saját vallásuk, ami megszabta életük ritmusát – és ez a ritmus az, ami Gurnah szövegét is egy kényelmes tempóba kényszeríti. Van egy olyan érzésem, hogy a szerző nem annyira az emberi drámákra fókuszál, nem a tragédiák érdeklik (bár ezeket is nagyvonalúan bonyolítja), hanem az, milyen egyáltalán élni ott és akkor. Következésképp a szöveg ritmusát sem annyira a cselekmény fordulatai strukturálják, sokkal inkább a szereplők hétköznapi nehézségeinek és szokásainak egymásutánisága. Afiya és Hamza szerelme például európai közegben talán tele lenne lángolással, a szenvedély tűzijátékával – itt is van persze lángolás, de a lényeg a szerelem megélését akadályozó bonyolult társadalmi szabályok kitartó és elszánt felszámolása. És ezért nem korlátozódik a regény arra, hogy szimpla vádbeszéddé váljon a fehér ember bűneiről – mert a lángoló igazságérzetet moderálja valami nyugodt, tárgyilagos bölcsesség, ami kiölte a gyűlöletet az elbeszélőből. Az ilyesmiktől válik ez a szöveg egy alapvetően higgadt hömpölygéssé: mintha csak ülnénk a teraszon teát iszogatva, és hallgatnánk egy hosszan tekergő, szép mesét.

* Mondhatnám ugye a keresztény vallást is, ami szerves része volt az európai életjobbító segélycsomagnak - de hogy valóban segített-e az ott élőkön, vagy csak teológiai értelemben legalizálta az elnyomást, arról megoszlanak a vélemények.
** Az egyetlen modernnek tűnő eszköz az, ahogy Gurnah a szereplőit esetenként több szemszögből is bemutatja: egyes figurái hol a történet központjában állnak, hol mellékalakok, akiket más központi karakterek szemén keresztül látunk új megvilágításban. Némiképp szokatlan húzás persze az is, hogy Gurnah az utolsó fejezetben hirtelen sebességet vált, az addigi komótos tempót elhagyva hirtelen évtizedeket darál le, hogy elvarrja a fő szálakat – de ez nem posztmodern trükk, inkább a posztmodernizmus hiányának újabb bizonyítéka: törekvés a mese lezárására, lekerekítésére még akkor is, ha ez ellentmond a történet általános időkezelésének.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my fourth book by this author and the fourth book that I only like in hindsight.

Set in the early 1900s between Kenya and Tanzania, we witness the invasion of the Germans and later the British.

There were parts of this I was totally absorbed in, while some chapters I struggled through. Some characters were really well done and interesting, while others were flat and didn't really have a role anywhere.

Now, reaching the end, I really like this story (which has been a theme for me with this author's work).

I've read a good sample of this authors work now, and the reading experience has been tedious at times. He's very wordy, and there's long paragraphs with no relevance or impact. As short as the book are, they feel longwinded. It's only on hindsight that I can look at the overall story and appreciate what he is doing.

Three stars.

[Trudie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to make of this work by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah.

It's a novel that didn't work for me if judged on "propulsive storytelling" and yet there is something essential and nuanced here about colonisation that is rarely handled so well. The Nobel judges obviously agree with me awarding the author -
for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents

The thing is, you have to be exceedingly patient with this text as it unfurls at a decidedly uneven pace.
The best part, Hamzas' time as a Schutztruppe Askari - ( colonial soldier in German East Africa ) is followed by a painfully slow drip-feeding of events that is hard not to find mundane. Then inexplicably everything of interest occurs in the space of a few pages at the end. It's such a frustrating way to tell a story ...

Yet ... it leaves a mark somehow and makes me curious about reading more from this author.

[Harun Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

৩.৫/৫

ইলিয়াস, আফিয়া, খলিফা আর হামজার গল্প "আফটারলাইভস।" জার্মানির উপনিবেশ থাকাকালীন তাঞ্জানিয়ায় গল্প শুরু হয়, শেষ হয় স্বাধীন এক দেশে কিন্তু রয়ে যায় অদৃশ্য ঔপনিবেশিকতা, রয়ে যায় গোপন ক্ষত। উপন্যাসে এই ক্ষত বয়ে বেড়ায় আফিয়া; তার ভাইকে আজীবন খোঁজার সাধনায়। ক্ষত বয়ে বেড়ায় ইলিয়াসও; দাসত্ব ছাড়তে না পারার মানসিকতায়।
গুরনাহ তার দেশের তৎকালীন আর্থ সামাজিক অবস্থা, সাংস্কৃতিক বৈচিত্র্য, নারীদের অবস্থা নির্মোহভাবে তুলে ধরেছেন এবং যথারীতি উপসংহারে এসে তাড়াহুড়ো করে আক্ষেপের জন্ম দিয়েছেন। এই আক্ষেপ নিয়েও "আফটারলাইভস" গুরুত্ববহ।

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Δείτε επίσης και στο Chill and read

Πολλοί λένε ότι και στη Στοκχόλμη πλέον παίζουν πολιτικά παιχνίδια και προσπαθούν να φέρουν στην επιφάνεια και να βραβεύσουν μη Δυτικούς συγγραφείς ή αν θέλετε συγγραφείς που δε γράφουν στα Αγγλικά. Και όντως αν δει κανείς τα βραβεία που έχουν δοθεί τα τελευταία χρόνια, οι αγγλόφωνοι συγγραφείς έχουν μειωθεί. Δεν ξέρω κατά πόσο ευσταθούν όλα αυτά. Δεν είμαι ειδικός στο θέμα. Αυτό που ξέρω είναι ότι διαβάζοντας το βιβλίο του Αμπντουλραζάκ Γκούρνα με τίτλο «Άλλες Ζωές» βλέπω μια οπτική αρκετά διαφορετική από τη λεγόμενη Δυτική οπτική. Βέβαια θα μου πείτε ο Γκούρνα μπορεί να κατάγεται από την Τανζανία, ζει όμως στη Βρετανία και γράφει στα Αγγλικά. Ναι, ισχύει. Όπως ισχύει και το ότι σε αυτό το βιβλίο τουλάχιστον, γιατί δεν έχω διαβάσει κάποιο άλλο δικό του, γράφει και μιλάει για την Τανζανία, για τη ζωή εκεί από την εποχή ακόμα που ήταν Γερμανική αποικία, πριν τον Πρώτο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο, αλλά και μέχρι μετά τον Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο.

Οι βασικοί ήρωες της ιστορίας μας είναι ο Χάμζα και η Αφίγια, όμως η αφήγηση δεν ξεκινάει με κανέναν από τους δύο. Ο Γκούρνα επιλέγει να μας μυήσει στο τι θα πει αποικιοκρατία και γι’ αυτό το λόγο ξεκινάει από δευτερεύοντες χαρακτήρες, των οποίων τη ζωή γνωρίζουμε, μαθαίνοντας παράλληλα και για την ιστορία του τόπου. Η Τανγκανίκα, σημερινή Τανζανία, ήταν από τα μέρη της Αφρικής που διεκδικήθηκαν από αρκετούς. Πολλοί ήταν οι Ινδοί που είχαν μετακομίσει εκεί και έκαναν εμπόριο με την Ινδία και άλλα Αφρικανικά μέρη. Ένας από αυτούς ήταν και ο Χαλίφα, ο δευτερεύον χαρακτήρας και άνθρωπος κλειδί στην ιστορία μας αφού θα φέρει κοντά τους δύο νέους και θα ενώσει τα κομμάτια της ιστορίας αλλά και τις ζωές τους.

Οι Γερμανοί ήταν οι άποικοι που είχαν και τη διακυβέρνηση του κράτους. Θεωρώντας φυσικά εαυτούς ανώτερους από τους ντόπιους, τους συμπεριφέρονταν σαν ζώα ή συγκροτούσαν στρατούς με Αφρικανούς, τους λεγόμενους Ασκάρι, για να πολεμήσουν στους πολέμους τους. Οι Γερμανοί ήταν οι αξιωματικοί του στρατού και οι Αφρικανοί ήταν φυσικά οι αναλώσιμοι στρατιώτες ή βαστάζοι που ήταν αναγκασμένοι να χρησιμοποιούν για να μεταφέρουν οτιδήποτε χρειαζόταν ο στρατός, από πυρομαχικά μέχρι τρόφιμα. Όλα αυτά θα τα μάθουμε διαβάζοντας για τη ζωή του Χάμζα, που το έσκασε από τον έμπορο στον οποίο τον είχαν δώσει οι γονείς του για να εξοφλήσουν ένα χρέος τους, και που κατατάχθηκε στους Ασκάρι, πιστεύοντας πως θα γινόταν καλύτερη η ζωή του.

Στους Ασκάρι κατατάχθηκε και ο Ιλιάς, ο αδερφός της Αφίγια, πιστεύοντας στη δύναμη και την υπεροχή των Γερμανών. Ο ίδιος είχε απαχθεί από τους Ασκάρι όταν ήταν παιδί και μεγάλωσε σε μια Γερμανική φάρμα, όπου έμαθε τη γλώσσα, τους τρόπους και τη θρησκεία των Γερμανών. Όταν πια έφυγε από εκεί, έψαξε για την οικογένειά του και εντόπισε τη μικρή του αδερφή, τη μοναδική συγγενή του, στην οικογένεια που την είχε αφήσει ο πατέρας τους. Η Αφίγια ήταν κάτι σαν παρακόρη, σαν μια μικρή Σταχτοπούτα, που στα δέκα της χρόνια κοιμόταν στο πάτωμα δίπλα στην πόρτα και έκανε όλες τις δουλειές της οικογένειας σαν σκλάβα και με το φόβο του αρχηγού της οικογένειας. Όταν ο αδερφός της είδε την κατάσταση στην οποία ζούσε η αδερφή του, τα κουρέλια με τα οποία ντυνόταν, κατάλαβε πως δεν την πρόσεχαν, αλλά την εκμεταλλεύονταν. Την πήρε από εκεί και της έμαθε γραφή και ανάγνωση, κάτι που ούτε τα αγόρια μάθαιναν εκείνη την εποχή. Λίγοι άνθρωποι είχαν τέτοιες ικανότητες στα μέρη εκείνα.

Αυτά είναι τα πολύ βασικά κομμάτια της εξιστόρησης και μια εικόνα για έναν τόπο μακρινό και βασανισμένο. Ο Γκούρνα δίνει το στίγμα της αποικιοκρατίας αλλά και της γενικότερης ιμπεριαλιστικής πολιτικής των Ευρωπαϊκών κρατών, μιας και εκτός από τους Γερμανούς, την περιοχή τελικά αποίκισαν και οι Βρετανοί που κέρδισαν τον πόλεμο. Ο τόπος αυτός δεν ήταν ποτέ καθαρά Αφρικανικός. Πολλοί πολιτισμοί και πολλές κουλτούρες παντρεύτηκαν σε εκείνη τη γωνιά της Γης. Μια γη πλούσια με φτωχούς κατοίκους. Μια γη που όλοι ήθελαν για το δικό τους όφελος και που άλλοι λιγότερο κι άλλοι περισσότερο νοιάστηκαν για τους ντόπιους στις καλές μέρες. Μια γη που επιτέλους ελευθερώθηκε μετά από πολλούς πολέμους και επαναστάσεις, μετά από αιματοχυσίες.

Η γλώσσα του Γκούρνα είναι απλή, όπως θα μίλαγαν οι ήρωές του. Δε θέλει να δείξει πως είναι καλύτερος από εκείνους, μιας και φαίνεται πως νιώθει ισάξιός τους. Αγαπά τον τόπο αυτό και μέσα από αυτή την ιστορία του το δείχνει. Δείχνει και τα καλά και τα άσχημα και τα παραθέτει ως γεγονότα, χωρίς να παίρνει θέση αλλά προσπαθώντας να αποδώσει τα πρόσωπα και τους χαρακτήρες όσο πιο κοντά στην πραγματικότητα γίνεται. Σίγουρα θέλω να διαβάσω κι άλλα δικά του κείμενα.

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

O livro deve ser bom, ou o seu autor não fosse um Nobel (por falar nisso, o que eu gostava de ver as estantes dos júris deste prémio), eu é que não posso gostar de tudo.

[Wojciech Szot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gdy Gurnah dostał Nobla w redakcji GW losowaliśmy po jednej jego książce do lektury. I tak przeczytałem debiutancką powieść Noblisty, "Memory of Departure" i nieszczególnie mi się spodobała.

Co innego "Powróceni" (tłum. Krzysztof Majer), ostatnia książka pochodzącego z Zanzibaru pisarza. To jest bardzo wciągająca lektura i niezwykle ciekawa historia.

Czytelnik dostaje w “Powróconych” zarówno dickensowską opowieść, jak i przypomnienie zapomnianej historii kolonializmu w Afryce. Szczególną uwagę zwraca na los askarysów, żołnierzy kolonialnych, którzy rekrutowani byli z miejscowej ludności. Oskarżani o szczególne okrucieństwo, sami byli ofiarami przemocy. Idealizowani przez niemieckich historyków, w wielu krajach afrykańskich są symbolem bezwzględnych kolaborantów. Gurnah niuansuje opowieść o askarysach, co jest cenne, gdyż robi to autor dobrze znający realia wschodniej Afryki.

Noblista pokazuje bezsilność kolonizowanych wobec kolonizatorów, pozorność ich wpływu na własne życie, a jednocześnie tworzy pasjonujący portret ludzi, którzy pewnie nigdy by się nie spotkali, gdyby nie uwikłanie w kolonialny świat.

Książka wydaje się być momentami trudna do zrozumienia bez pogłębionej wiedzy historycznej - historia drugiej połowy XIX wieku i początku XX w., w Polsce nigdy nie była uczona w perspektywie szerszej niż nasze własne podwórko. Na szczęście książkę opatrzono bardzo dobrym posłowiem Anny Branach-Kallas, która przedstawia tło historyczne, ale też nie narzuca przesadnie własnej interpretacji powieści Gurnaha. Bo mimo wszystko jest to powieść o miłości.

Tutaj więcej: https://wyborcza.pl/7,75517,29013703,...

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abdulrazak Gurnah recebeu o Nobel em 2021, tendo este "Vidas Seguintes" saído no ano seguinte. Foi o único que li até agora do autor. Mas pelo que li sobre o mesmo, vem na linha dos seus livros anteriores. A escrita de Gurnah é, sem dúvida, um dos pontos altos. A prosa é caracterizada por um lirismo discreto e preciso, capaz de nos hipnotizar. Impressiona o modo como evitando a ação, nos consegue prender pela mera descrição do que acontece. Nomeadamente, os personagens munidos de uma calma imensa, quase ausentes de emocionalidade, levam-nos pela mão, convencendo-nos a aceitar o trauma como uma inevitabilidade. Isto é tanto mais relevante por se focar nas questões da colonização de África pela Europa, que alegadamente aconteceu sem forte oposição. Como se Gurnah precisasse dessa encenação para dar conta da profundidade do choque produzido pela colonização.

A narrativa é deliberadamente arrastada, fornecendo detalhes históricos e culturais, despidos da esperada emocionalidade trágica, em linha com “Quando Tudo se Desmorona” de Chinua Achebe. Gurnah opta pela neutralidade emocional, confiando tudo à racionalidade dos personagens e contextos para gerar impacto. Aproxima-se assim da visão da colonização a partir da Europa, que sabendo do que aconteceu, continua a sentir todo o processo não apenas como distante, mas como totalmente inócuo.

No meio dessa aparente inocência, as personagens de Ilyas, Afiya e Hamza surgem carregadas de complexidades e contradições. A construção e reconstrução das suas vidas ao longo dos impactos coloniais, nomeadamente a guerra, demonstram o modo Gurnah nos obriga empatizar com um contexto histórico que se vai tornando cada vez mais próximo, mais nosso, convertendo-nos. No final do livro, as histórias de cada um ficam connosco.

4.5/5

Publicado no Nx: https://narrativax.blogspot.com/2024/...

[Quo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books, especially novels set abroad can seem to be a form of vicarious travel. In the case of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives, I was able to reenter a part of the world I'd once lived in, while viewing it through a very different lens. Other than C.S. Forester's The African Queen, I am not aware of other novels set in Africa during WWI.


The Nobel laureate author's long experience of life in England, as a Zanzibar-born immigrant of Yemeni origins, seems to have given him a sense of being an "outsider" within Britain, in spite of gaining degrees in Britain and becoming a college professor in Kent. The experience of existing well apart from his original homeland in East Africa, perhaps engendered an ongoing reappraisal of the place of his birth, much as was the case with James Joyce's long exile from Dublin.

In the novel, a character called Ilyas was abducted from his boyhood home on the coast of Tanganyika in East Africa, then a German colony, captured by the Kaiser's forces. Germany was soon to be at war with Great Britain, the colonial power in possession of much of the rest of East Africa. When Ilyas eventually returns home following WWI, his sister Afiya is held in a kind of bondage and nothing is as he remembered it.

Afterlives details the intersection between Ilyas, his sister Afiya and another character, Hamza, whose father had given him away to cover his debts and who later served in WWI for Germany. Hamza's life was likewise in shambles after the war, wounded physically & emotionally, bereft & lonely in the nation now know as Tanzania.


Ilyas, a sensitive & intelligent lad, sensed that Germany had improved the lives of the local people and decided to join the Schutztruppe (protection troops), while Hamza trains to be an Askari, Swahili for a local African policeman, desiring to master the German language & work his way up via loyalty to the Kaiser. Meanwhile, most of the German soldiers seem even more contemptuous of those Africans in service to Germany than the tribal Africans encountered in villages that they routinely vanquish. As a German officer tells Hamza:

We want you to be thick-skinned, heartless braggarts who will do our bidding without hesitation and then we will pay you well and give you respect. We are here to take possession of what rightfully belongs to us because we are stronger. We are dealing with backward & savage people and the only way to rule them is to strike terror into them and pummel them into submission. The Schutztruppe is our instrument.

In spite of this arrogance, most Africans wearing German uniforms remain loyal to the Kaiser, even as they are scorned, their fellow African supply carriers desert and though they haven't been paid, in part because it seems a step up for them to leave their hardscrabble villages and have a cause to fight for, even while clad in the uniform of a foreign land.

Germany is on the losing side in the colonial fight for Africa, as it was elsewhere in WWI. Wounded & delirious, Hamza's life is saved when a German Lutheran missionary & his wife take him in, caring for him throughout the remainder of the war, during which Hamza learns to love German literature, especially the work of Schiller, which at a later point he translates into Swahili.

He had suffered humiliation & had lost a friend who was like a brother & the woman he was learning to love. The war crushed those niceties out of him & showed him staggering visions of brutality. He thought that sorrow was the inescapable fate of man.

Much of the novel deals with the post-war circumstances bringing together the 3 main characters, two of whom eventually marry and a few others, including Khalifa, born of an Indian father & an African mother. The characters manage to overcome the memory of difficult experiences and forge new relationships, while struggling to find a way to earn a living.


I found Afterlives of sustaining interest, especially the plight of and relationships between the major characters within the tale. However, not having read anything else by Abdulrazak Gurnah, I have to suppose that this novel is not his most revered work.

The author's descriptions of life in Africa during the period covered in the novel seemed somehow subdued & at a distance, lacking much in the way of literary color for the landscapes traversed or the African people who inhabit the narrative. In spite of some drawbacks, I rather enjoyed the novel.

*I have retained a Swahili/English dictionary from my time in East Africa and used it frequently in reading Gurnah's novel. It has been indicated that the author dislikes having words from languages other than English translated. However, a glossary at the back of the novel would have enhanced its reading by those who are unfamiliar with foreign words such as mnafiki, mganga, tajiri & washenzi.

**Within my review are the images of: author, Abdulrazak Gurnah; a WWI map of colonial East Africa; the image of African "askari" (soldiers) in service to the Kaiser's Germany during WWI; the S.S. Liemba, a pre-WWI German-built ship on Lake Tanganyika, sunk by the British during WWI. (It was later re-floated, repaired & rather amazingly, is still in service in 2026. I sailed downriver from Bujumbura to Ujiji on the Liemba in 1968, a very memorable voyage!)

[BookOfCinz Reading Retreat Host · Rating 3 out of 5]

Afterlives explores a part of history I haven't read a lot about in literature. In this book we read the German colonial troops in East Africa. We read about how they were colonized and how that impacted the persons living there at the time.

I think if you are not familiar with the atrocities the German Troops did to the persons living there, I highly recommend you read this book.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the book’s description: “When he was just a boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents on the coast of east Africa by German colonial troops. After years away, fighting against his own people, he returns home to find his parents gone and his sister, Afiya, abandoned into de facto slavery. Hamza, too, returns home from the war, scarred in body and soul and with nothing but the clothes on his back--until he meets the beautiful, undaunted Afiya. As these young people live and work and fall in love, their fates knotted ever more tightly together, the shadow of a new war on another continent falls over them, threatening once again to carry them away.”

I had never read anything by this Nobel prize winning author, and noticed that this book was released in 2020, so thought I’d try it. Afterlives is a historical novel set in colonial German East Africa and later British Tanyanika (now Tanzania) just before and after the first world war and continuing into the 1960s.

It focuses on an ensemble of characters. It portrays the adverse effects of colonialism through focusing on one family’s history. It is slow in developing and the writing is subtle. It provides a strong sense of time and place, with detailed descriptions of life in this region – food, clothing, traditions, rituals, religion, superstitions.

It is a fairly straight-forward chronological account. I enjoyed learning more about this period in history of Tanzania, a place I have not often “visited” in my reading. I felt a bit detached from the story, and the ending is a little abrupt, but I will definitely check out more of this author’s back catalogue.

[Carol Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah was such a revelation. Initially I picked up the title as it is set during the early 20th century in east Africa where the Germans and British wrangle for dominion over the lives and heritage of its peoples. It promised to explore the interlinked lives of Ilyas, Afiya and Hamza who had been sold, stolen or given away, and how they survived in the shadow of war.

The novel certainly delivered on this promise and much more. Masterful storytelling carries readers into the characters' world, revealing stories within stories and subtly playing with us so that our understanding of the characters and their situations is constantly evolving and surprising us.

Irony, empathy, complexity, all are at play here in a marvellously compelling drama, full of humanity. The prose flows so easily, building a complex picture of ordinary lives and loves set against troubled times.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Deutsche-Ostafrika; a clash between East African and Western European cultures precipitated by colonial invasion and imperial warmongering. As told through the experiences of several members from one blended native family, it is a very interesting narrative.

Gurnah is particularly skilled at incorporating complicated historical detail in a manner that does not feel heavily expositional. His depictions of character, locale, mood, and moment are vivid and convincing. The only odd note involves an ending that accelerated with such sudden speed - relative to the rest of the novel - that I nearly suffered whiplash. It's like listening to a Brahms symphony only to have the final minutes replaced by the William Tell overture. Great music but...what?!

[Viktorija| Laisvalaikis su knyga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puiki bičiulės rekomendacija❤️ Persipynę žanrai, atrodytų, lyg skaitytum istorinį romaną, kitą akimirką lyg nuotykių romaną, o dar vėliau šeimyninę dramą. Jautri istorija apie karą palietusius žmones, jų sielų ir kūno žaizdas. Perskaičiusi jaučiuosi praturtėjusi: ne tik istorija virpino širdį, o kur dar pateiktos žinios apie to žemyno papročius ir tradicijas, apie vykstančius pokyčius Afrikoje, apie paprastus, bet neprastus žmones, apie laiką, kai vyko karas ir ne vienas afrikietis buvo tapęs savanoriu. Taip, skaitant buvo viena kita nuobodesnė vieta, bet labiau buvau įsitraukusi ir puslapiai tiesiog tirpo.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gostei muito da maneira como Gurnah construiu esta história, que se foca na forma como a guerra impacta a vida das pessoas. Não é uma história de bons contra maus, aqui há apenas pessoas, cada uma com os seus fantasmas, a tentarem viver o melhor que podem, num mundo nem sempre acolhedor, mas onde a bondade também aparece, por vezes onde menos se espera.

O livro cobre a primeira e a segunda guerra mundiais, e o livro tornou-se ainda mais interessante por a ação se passar em países africanos, o que é menos frequente neste tipo de ficção histórica. Quatro estrelas e meia, arredondadas para baixo, porque o comportamento de Ilyas senior não me pareceu totalmente plausível e achei o final um tanto apressado, sobretudo em comparação com o ritmo mais lento do resto do livro. Ainda assim, gostei muito e recomendo.