Everything about M G Vassanji totally explained
Moyez Gulamhussein Vassanji,
C.M. (born
30 May 1950) is a
Canadian novelist and
editor. He prefers to be referred to as M.G. Vassanji.
Of
South Asian heritage, Vassanji was born in
Nairobi,
Kenya, and raised in
Tanzania. While attending the
University of Nairobi he won a scholarship to the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study nuclear physics. He completed his
Ph.D. at the
University of Pennsylvania. In 1978, he moved to Canada in to work at the
Chalk River Laboratories, in the theoretical physics branch in
Chalk River,
Ontario. In 1980, he moved to
Toronto to begin his writing career. In 1981, Vassanji, his wife Nurjehan Aziz, and a few others founded
The Toronto South Asian Review (TSAR) which later spawned the publishing company
TSAR Publications. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.
Themes
The focus of Vassanji's work is the situation of
South Asians in
East Africa. As a secondary theme, members of this community (like himself) later undergo a second migration to
Europe, Canada, or the
United States. Vassanji examines how the lives of his characters are affected by these migrations: "[theIndian diaspora] is very important...once I went to the US, suddenly the Indian connection became very important: the sense of origins, trying to understand the roots of India that we'd inside us" (Kanaganayakam, p. 21). Vassanji looks at the relations between the Indian community, the native Africans and the
colonial administration. Though few of his characters ever return to India, the country's presence looms throughout his work; his 2007 novel
The Assassins Song, however, is set almost entirely in India, where it was received as an Indian novel.
Vassanji is concerned with the effects of
history and the interaction between personal and public histories. The colonial history of Kenya and Tanzania serves as the backdrop for his work, but it's the personal histories of the main characters that drive the narrative. Vassanji's presentation of the past is never cut-and-dried. He avoids the impression of, a simple, linear, historical truth emerging. In much of his work the mysteries of the past remain unresolved. (Kanaganayakam p. 22). He consistently refuses to be pigeonholed by nationality or faith, attempts to do which he finds offensive and malicious.
Awards and honours
Vassanji's work has received considerable critical acclaim.
The Gunny Sack won a regional
Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1990. In 1994, he won the
Harbourfront Festival Prize in recognition of his "achievement in and contribution to the world of letters." That year he was also one of twelve Canadians chosen for
Maclean's Magazine's Honour Roll. Vassanji won the inaugural
Giller Prize in 1994 for
The Book of Secrets. He again won the Giller Prize in 2003 for
The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. He was the first writer to win the Giller Prize more than once. (In 2004,
Alice Munro became the prize's second repeat winner.) In 2006,
When She Was Queen was shortlisted for the
City of Toronto Book Award.
His latest work,
The Assassin's Song has been short-listed for the 2007 Giller Prize.
In 2005, he was made a Member of the
Order of Canada.
Bibliography
Novels
Short story collections
Uhuru Street (1992)
When She Was Queen (2005)Further Information
Get more info on 'M G Vassanji'.
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