Accepting a prestigious German prize Sunday in honor of her work, Zimbabwean writer and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga called for a “new Enlightenment,” saying a fundamental shift is needed to overcome the structures of tribal hierarchy that have led to violence in her home country and across the world.

“What we can look to is to change our thought patterns word by word, consciously and consistently over time and to persevere until results are seen in the way we do things and in the outcomes of our actions,” she said Sunday in Frankfurt.

Dangarembga is the first woman of colour to win the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($29,100) and has been awarded since 1950.

In her remarks, Dangarembga spoke about Zimbabwe’s colonial past and the various forms of violence white colonialists inflicted on its inhabitants in the 19th and 20th centuries. That violence continued when Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, she added.

“These kinds of violence are structured into the global order that we live in and have their root in the structures of Western empire that began to be formed over half a millennium ago,” she said.

As a result, Dangarembga said the world is in need of new ways of thinking. She said bringing about real change will require hard, conscious work on behalf of those who have benefited from western power structures.

Announcing the prize earlier this year, the jury said she is “not just one of her country’s most important artists but also a widely audible voice of Africa in contemporary literature.”

Auma Obama, a sociologist and activist and half-sister of former U.S. President Barack Obama, introduced Dangarembga. She said the writer and filmmaker has fought “against all odds” and “with all possible means” for “the voiceless and for freedom of expression” in Zimbabwe.

“You presented a differentiated picture of the African continent worldwide,” Obama added.

In addition to the Peace Prize, Dangarembga has also been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize and the PEN International Award for Freedom of Expression this year.

Eleven Pablo Picasso artworks have been sold for a combined $109 million in a Las Vegas auction coinciding with the artist’s 140th birthday.

The nine paintings and two ceramic pieces had been displayed inside the Picasso restaurant at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art for more than two decades until owner MGM Resorts decided earlier this year to sell them.

The event was organized by Sotheby’s and marked the first time the famed auction house staged an evening marquee sale in North America outside its New York saleroom. It featured Picasso artworks from 1917 to 1969.

Auction officials said Picasso’s 1938 portrait of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter entitled “Femme au béret rouge-orange” (“Woman in a reddish-orange hat”) sold for $40.5 million after a bidding battle, well above estimates of $20 million to $30 million.

The Picasso auction also featured two Cubist-inspired still life paintings from the early 1940s during World War II with “Nature morte au panier de fruits et aux fleurs” selling for $16.6 million and “Nature morte aux fleurs et au compotier” going for $8.3 million.

“Homme et enfant,” a 1959 work that is nearly two meters tall, sold for $24.4 million.

Picasso lived from 1881 until 1973 and spent much of his adult life in France.

Over the course of more than 70 years as a working artist, Picasso is said to have created more than 13,000 paintings.

Organizers said the auction lasted about 45 minutes and drew about 150 people.