Peter Godwin | |
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| Born | (1957-12-04)4 December 1957 (age 68) |
| Occupations | Journalist, author/memoirist |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
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Peter Godwin (born 4 December 1957) is a Zimbabwean author, journalist, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, and former human rights lawyer. Best known for his writings concerning the breakdown of his nativeZimbabwe, he has reported from more than 60 countries and written several books.[1] He served as president ofPEN American Center from 2012 to 2015[2] and resides inManhattan,New York.
Godwin's mother came from anAnglican background in England; she moved toSouthern Rhodesia in her twenties, where she was a medical doctor. His father, Kazimierz Jerzy Goldfarb, aPolish Jewish engineer moved to the country from England after marrying Godwin's mother. Godwin's paternal grandparents and aunts were murdered atTreblinka extermination camp in theHolocaust.[3] For fear ofanti-semitism, Godwin's father did not tell his children about his Jewish background for decades and instead went by the name George Godwin.[3][4]
Godwin grew up with his family inRhodesia, where he attendedSt. George's College. He was conscripted into theBritish South Africa Police at the age of seventeen to fight in theRhodesian Bush War. In 1978, his older sister Jain and her fiancé were killed when their car was ambushed by insurgents. Another sister, Georgina Godwin, has worked as a journalist, broadcast presenter and podcaster, in both Zimbabwe and the UK.
Peter Godwin studied law atCambridge University andinternational relations atOxford University.[5]
Godwin was formerly a foreign correspondent forThe Sunday Times (London), covering wars in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Later, he was the chief correspondent for theBBC's foreign affairs programme, directing documentaries on Cuba, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkans.[1]
His early books includeRhodesians Never Die: The Impact of War and Political Change on White Rhodesia c1970 – 1980, co-written with Ian Hancock;The Three of Us, co-written withJoanna Coles; andWild at Heart: Man and Beast in Southern Africa, with photographs byChris Johns.
Godwin is a contributor toThe New York Times andVanity Fair, among other publications. In 2008, he wrote in theTimes about the small islands of Likoma and Chizumulu onLake Malawi, which are lacustrine exclaves of Malawi located in Mozambican territorial waters.[6] He has also reviewed books forThe New York Times Book Review.[7]
In 2007, he called for the international community to "make it clear" to South African presidentThabo Mbeki "that he, and the new South Africa, have a special moral obligation to help a nearby people who are oppressed and disenfranchised, having been assisted in its own struggle by just such pressure."[8] In 2008, Godwin suggested inThe New York Times that the withdrawal of participating countries from the2010 World Cup in South Africa might persuade Mbeki to use his country's economic power to draw Mugabe's rule in Zimbabwe "to an end in weeks rather than months".[9]
In 2012, Godwin was named President ofPEN American Center, the largest branch of the world's oldest literary and human rights organisation.[10] On 20 March 2012, Peter Godwin, as the incoming president of PEN American Center, read poetry by the imprisoned,Liu Xiaobo, with outgoing PEN America President,Kwame Anthony Appiah.[11]
Godwin was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[12] He has been aGuggenheim Fellow,[13] an Orwell Fellow,[14] and a MacDowell Fellow,[15] and has also taught writing atThe New School,Princeton University, andColumbia University.[1]
Godwin's filmThe Industry of Death (1993) was an investigation of Thailand's sex industry.
In 1997, Godwin publishedMukiwa: A White Boy in Africa. A memoir about growing up in Southern Rhodesia in the 1960s and 1970s during theRhodesian Bush War, it was described by theBoston Globe as "devastatingly brilliant" and "[o]ne of the best memoirs to come out of Africa."[16] The book won theOrwell Prize in 1997.[14]
In 2006, Godwin's second memoir,When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, was published.[17] It details the ebbing of his father's life, set against the backdrop of modern-day Zimbabwe, and his discovery of his father's Polish Jewish roots.
Godwin's book,The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe (2011),[18] chronicles the campaign of murder and torture unleashed by Zimbabwe's autocratic ruler following his defeat at the polls. Godwin was interviewed byTerry Gross onFresh Air (NPR) in March 2011 about the situation in Zimbabwe since the2008 general election.[19]
The Fear was selected as a best book of 2011 byThe New Yorker,The Economist, andPublishers Weekly.
Godwin's fourth memoir,Exit Wounds, was published in September 2024 byCanongate Books.[20][21][22]
Godwin was married toJoanna Coles. The couple lived on theUpper West Side of Manhattan with their sons, Thomas and Hugo, and with a dog, Phoebe.[23] Their daughter, Holly, is based in the UK.[24] In July 2019, Coles filed for divorce from Godwin.[citation needed]
