The Most Famous
WRITERS from Tanzania
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Tanzanian Writers of all time. This list of famous Tanzanian Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Abdulrazak Gurnah (b. 1948)
With an HPI of 67.88, Abdulrazak Gurnah is the most famous Tanzanian Writer. His biography has been translated into 71 different languages on wikipedia.
Abdulrazak Gurnah (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels include Paradise (1994), which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea (2001), which was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion (2005), shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". He is Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent.
2. Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944 - 2020)
With an HPI of 43.64, Euphrase Kezilahabi is the 2nd most famous Tanzanian Writer. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Euphrase Kezilahabi (13 April 1944 – 9 January 2020) was a Tanzanian novelist, poet, and scholar. Born in Ukerewe, Tanganyika (now in Ukerewe District of Mwanza Region in Tanzania), he last worked at the University of Botswana, as an associate professor at the Department of African Languages (now African Cultural Department). He wrote in Swahili, and delivered talks on subjects such as 'Aesthetic Ambivalence in Modern Swahili' and 'The Concept of the Hero in African Fiction'.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Tanzanian writers born between 1944 and 1948. Of these 2, 1 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Tanzanian writers include Abdulrazak Gurnah. The most famous deceased Tanzanian writers include Euphrase Kezilahabi. As of April 2024, 1 new Tanzanian writers have been added to Pantheon including Euphrase Kezilahabi.
