Africa tale wins Orwell prize

A revealing story of childhood and adolescence in southern Africa during a time of acute social and political crisis has won the 1996 Orwell Prize for literature. Peter Godwin's Mukiwa: a White Boy in Africa, describes childhood in Rhodesia, youth as an officer in the British South Africa police and adulthood as a young journalist in Zimbabwe. The Orwell Prize judges called it a "shrewd and wry examination of the conflict and confusion inherent in growing up in late 20th-century Africa". Members of the George Orwell Memorial Fund, who have hosted the pounds 1,000 prize since 1992, presented the awards last night at the Reform Club, in London.

Matthew Brace