Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o did not win the Nobel Prize in Literature, yet again. For years, the Kenyan writer has topped the list of contenders at betting sites, rivaling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, or with the case this year, American novelist Don DeLillo. But on Oct. 13, the Swedish Academy presented the prize to the American singer-songwriter, Bob Dylan, whose reticence about the award since has been called “rude and arrogant,” and has left many wondering if he will ever accept it.
But Ngũgĩ should have won the award–not for the fame, money and global recognition that come with the prize–but because his literary and social activism has made Africa and the world a better place since his first book was published in 1964. For more than half a century, no amount of detention, harassment, prohibition or exile has deterred Ngũgĩ, whose writing has continued to broaden and influence a new generation of thinkers and writers.
A win for Ngũgĩ would also have been a win for Africa. For decades, Ngũgĩ’s novels, plays, and essays have listened to the cords of the African conscience, addressing the issues of nationalism, class, race and gender with energy and urgency. The breadth of his work is also almost unparalleled, bringing readers to more varied historical and cultural backgrounds.
In a world that has given Dunald Trump a shot at POTUS, it is not hard to guess why they’d award a white singer who strings words together and sings them, instead of an African for work that should be written and read.
It’s fun to see Dylan scoffing at the Academy. He’s neither nor the last to reject an award or treat it with contempt.
Irvine Welsh, the novelist best-known for Trainspotting, said he was a Dylan fan but considered the decision an “ill-conceived nostalgia award” bestowed by “senile, gibbering hippies".
Joanne Harris, the writer of Chocolat, wondered: “Is this the first time that a back catalogue of song lyrics has been judged eligible for a literary prize?
“Or is it just that the Nobel has run out of old white men to award their literature prizes to?
In my opinion Bob Dylan’s win was overdue, my favourite all time musician and songwriter. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when his songs chronicled social unrest.
I’d also like to point out that last year’s winner was Svetlana Alexievich, who won the award for collecting interviews she conducted with those who lived through the Soviet Union. She’s a non fiction writer and journalist. The idea that the Nobel only goes to novelists and poets is a myth.
He has not commented on the Prize (which has made some members of the Swedish Academy a bit cross) but he has not in any explicit way made it known that he would not accept it.
The mention of the prize was removed from his website but this is not a formal refusal.
Bob Dylan was first nominated in 1997, and has been considered every year since
They didn’t just wake up one morning and say “I was listening to Bob last night in the bath an really enjoyed it, lets give the award to him so we can meet a rock star”
They considered his nomination carefully for twenty years. Kindly listen to his songs and i’m sure you will change your thinking. How he plays with words and tells you stories. Master of sarcasm. His thoughts, wit, imagination and wisdom intertwined together into poems brought to life with his soul ripping voice.
