Afterlives is a 2020 novel by Nobel Prize–winning Tanzanian-born author Abdulrazak Gurnah, published by Bloomsbury. Set against the turbulent backdrop of German colonial East Africa in the early 20th century, this work is Gurnah’s most ambitious historical fiction yet, blending personal tragedy with the broader violence of imperial conquest.
The book is historical literary fiction, drawing heavily on the lived realities of colonialism in East Africa, the First World War’s African theatre, and the forgotten personal narratives of people caught between cultures. Gurnah—himself a product of the Swahili coast’s rich, multi-layered heritage—uses Afterlives to revisit themes of displacement, loyalty, betrayal, and survival, continuing the trajectory of earlier works such as Paradise and By the Sea.
Afterlives is not merely a story about individuals living through colonial violence; it is a meditation on how empires carve scars into both land and memory. The novel’s great strength lies in its fusion of intimate character portraits with vast historical forces, reminding us—as one character reflects—that “no life is lived outside of history.”
Table of Contents
1. Background
Gurnah sets Afterlives during a neglected chapter in world history: German East Africa’s brutal campaigns before and during WWI. Between 1885 and 1918, the German colonial administration relied on askari (African soldiers) to suppress uprisings, including the Maji Maji Rebellion (1905–1907) in which over 200,000 Africans died. The novel captures this historical trauma while also tracing its aftershocks into the interwar years.
The backdrop is not just war—it’s also the everyday life of Swahili towns, Indian Ocean trade routes, and the slow intrusion of European systems into African social order. In Gurnah’s hands, history becomes “a chorus of small voices against the march of great events” (p. 42).
2. Summary of the Book
Plot Overview
The story revolves around Hamza, Afiya, and Ilyas, whose lives intertwine over decades in a German-occupied East African town.
- Ilyas, abducted as a child by the German army, is raised within the colonial military system. After years as an askari, he returns to his hometown but finds it changed beyond recognition. His family is gone, except for his younger sister, Afiya, who has lived a life of hardship as an orphaned servant.
- Afiya, gifted to Ilyas by the man who raised her, slowly grows into her own independence despite the constraints of colonial society.
- Hamza, sold into servitude by his father, ends up working for a cruel German officer during the war. His survival is a testament to endurance, and after the conflict, he seeks to rebuild a life in the town.
The war’s chaos and the colonial economy’s rigid hierarchies push these characters into difficult moral and emotional terrain.
Gurnah structures the novel episodically, moving between each character’s experiences—childhood, war service, love, and loss—before culminating in a bittersweet reconciliation of their lives in the postwar era. The plot does not build to a dramatic climax; instead, it accumulates emotional weight through moments of connection and separation.
Setting
The setting—German East Africa—is not just a backdrop but an active force in the narrative. From coastal towns with Islamic architectural influences to inland garrison posts, Gurnah evokes the textures of place: “the creak of dhows in the harbour, the dry wind carrying dust, the murmur of market haggling” (p. 87). The landscape is both beautiful and cruel, offering opportunities for survival while trapping its inhabitants in colonial labor systems.
3. Analysis
3.1 Characters
Hamza: His journey from abused servant to war survivor to loving husband is the emotional core of Afterlives. Hamza’s quiet resilience contrasts with the violence he has endured. His relationship with Afiya offers the novel’s most hopeful thread.
- Afiya: Intelligent and strong-willed, Afiya resists becoming a mere symbol of victimhood. She learns to read, manages her household, and insists on dignity in a world that undervalues her.
- Ilyas: Perhaps the most morally ambiguous, Ilyas’s years in colonial service make him complicit in its crimes, yet his longing for home is genuine. His eventual disappearance remains one of the book’s haunting mysteries.
- The German Officers: Figures like Lieutenant Weiß and others embody the brutality and contradictions of colonial authority, alternating between moments of paternalism and outright cruelty.
3.2 Writing Style and Structure
Gurnah writes in an unhurried, elliptical style, rich in description but never indulgent. His prose blends the oral rhythms of Swahili storytelling with modernist fragmentation, mirroring the characters’ fractured lives.
Dialogues are sparse but potent. As Hamza tells Afiya, “We live in the ruins they have made, but we can still choose how to walk among them” (p. 219).
3.3 Themes and Symbolism
Colonial Violence: The novel does not romanticize African service in European wars; it depicts beatings, starvation, and the psychological toll of being used as expendable labor.
Memory and Forgetting: The title Afterlives suggests both survival and the lingering presence of trauma. Characters live in the “afterlife” of war, carrying invisible scars.
Love and Resilience: Against the backdrop of destruction, Hamza and Afiya’s relationship becomes a quiet act of resistance.
Homecoming: Returning home is never simple; for Ilyas and Hamza, the place they long for no longer exists as they remember it.
Symbolically, the recurring image of the sea reflects both connection (trade, migration) and separation (exile, loss).
3.4 Genre-Specific Elements
As historical fiction, Afterlives excels in world-building—markets, military barracks, mission schools, and plantation fields are rendered with sensory detail. The dialogue blends Swahili expressions with colonial bureaucratic jargon, reinforcing the hybrid cultural space of the era.
Recommended for: Readers of postcolonial literature, African history enthusiasts, and fans of human-centered war narratives like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun.
4. Evaluation
Strengths:
- Deep character psychology.
- Vivid historical detail without overloading the reader.
- Balanced portrayal of moral ambiguity.
Weaknesses:
- Some readers may find the pacing slow, especially in the middle chapters.
- Ilyas’s unresolved fate may frustrate those seeking narrative closure.
Impact: Personally, the novel left me with the image of Afiya sitting by the window, sewing in the fading light—a quiet moment loaded with the resilience of someone who has endured the unendurable.
Comparison with Similar Works: Compared to Paradise, Afterlives is more introspective and less driven by adventure. It shares thematic territory with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat but focuses more on domestic intimacy.
Reception and Criticism: Critics praised its historical scope but noted its understated style might not appeal to all. The Guardian called it “a masterclass in restraint and empathy.”
5. Personal Insight with Contemporary Educational Relevance
Reading Afterlives during a period of renewed debate over colonial monuments and history curricula made its relevance striking. Statistics show that less than 5% of British high school history courses cover Africa before 1960; novels like this help fill that gap. In university postcolonial literature courses, Afterlives could anchor discussions on the intersections of personal and political history, demonstrating how “grand narratives” filter into ordinary lives.
6. Quotable Lines
- “We live in the ruins they have made, but we can still choose how to walk among them.” (p. 219)
- “No life is lived outside of history.” (p. 42)
- “Home is the place you return to and find it has moved on without you.” (p. 301)
7. Conclusion
Afterlives is a quietly devastating masterpiece. By focusing on the lives left in the shadows of history books, Abdulrazak Gurnah humanizes an era too often reduced to dates and battles.
For readers seeking both a moving story and a deeper understanding of African colonial history, this novel is indispensable.
