Poet and author Benjamin Zephaniah has refused to accept an OBE because he claims it stands for colonial brutality and slavery.

On BBC Radio 4's Today programme Zephaniah said that he had been "fighting against the legacy of empire all my life... Anybody who has thought of giving me this OBE can't have read my work."

In an article that appeared on the Guardian Website Zephaniah wrote that "(empire) reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised."

He went on to say that: "I think OBEs compromise writers and poets, and laureates suddenly go soft - in the past I've even written a poem, Bought and Sold, saying that."

His comments might upset another children's author Anne Fine, who is also a former Children's Laureate. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen's birthday honours list earlier this year for services to Literature.

Zephaniah, a vegan and animal writes campaigner, claimed that he would have preferred to be offered an award for his work in animal rights or his "struggle against racism" and that he would consider accepting the award on behalf of the millions of people who opposed the war in Iraq, but that he did not write for awards.