A Guyanese woman who is now based in Nigeria has again won the Common-wealth Best Book prize for the African region.
The Commonwealth Foundation said Karen King-Aribisala’s Hangman’s Game is “a densely layered, challenging ambitious work of fiction” which weaves together two distinct historical moments: the slave revolt of 1823 in British Guiana and the heroic resistance to military authoritarian rule inflicted on contemporary Nigeria. This is the second time King-Aribisala has won the Common-wealth Writer’s Prize, having won the Best First Book award in the African region, in 1999 for her collection of short stories Our Wife and Other Stories.
