Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiang o, along with Nigerian Ben Okri and Angolan writer Ondjaki won an inaugural African literature prize here on Friday.
The ceremony for the first-ever Grinzane For Africa Prize was held on the sidelines of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa.
I m very glad to receive this prize and more so in Ethiopia, with its thousands of years of independence, Ngugi said after receiving the prize.
Ngugi, 70, whose vast experience includes journalism and playwriting, wrote his first novel, Weep Not, Child, in 1964. The book was one of the first to be published in England by a black African author.
He received the award s Heritage Prize, while 49-year-old Okri received the Mainstream Prize. Angola s Ondjaki, 31, was named the young author of the year.
The prize, which is sponsored by an Italian foundation, will honor African writers every year and enable their works to be published in the Italian language. -AFP
