Kofi Awoonor

Kofi Awoonor (dem born am as George Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor-Williams; 13 March 1935 – 21 September 2013) na he be Ghanaian poet den author wey ein work combine de poetic traditions of ein native Ewe people den contemporary den religious symbolism so say ego depict Africa for de decolonization tym. He start dey rep plus de name George Awoonor-Williams,Hans M. Zell, Carol Bundy & Virginia Coulon (eds), A New Reader's Guide to African Literature, Heinemann Educational Books, 1983, p. 355. wey dem sana publish as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor. He teach African literature for University of Ghana. Na Professor Awoonor dey among menners wey dem kill for September 2013 attack for Westgate shopping mall wey dey Nairobi, Kenya insyd, wer na he be sam participant for Storymoja Hay Festival."Prof. Awoonor dies in Al-Shabab attack in Kenyan Mall". citifmonline.com. 22 September 2013.Alice Vincent (22 September 2013). "Nairobi shopping mall attacks: Kofi Awoonor, Ghanaian poet, killed in Westgate Attack". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013."Somalia's al-Shabab claims Nairobi Westgate Kenya attack". BBC News. 22 September 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.

 Ein early life den education 
Na dem born George Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor-Williams insyd Wheta,"Kofi Awoonor: Remembering a Ghanaian poet". BBC News. 23 September 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2023. insyd de Volta Region of wat na then ebe de Gold Coast, present-day Ghana. Na he be de eldest of 10 kiddies insyd de family.Jocelyn Edwards, "Ghana Mourns Kofi Awoonor Death", Huff Post Books, 25 September 2013. Na he be paternal descendant of de Awoonor-Williams family of Sierra Leone Creole descent. Na ein grandmommie be Ewe dirge singer.Foundation, Poetry (3 March 2023). "Kofi Awoonor". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 3 March 2023.

He attend Achimota School wey he then proceed go de University of Ghana, wey he graduate insyd 1960."Kofi Awoonor (Ghanaian author)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 24 September 2013. He study literature at University College London, wey he earn Master's Degree insyd 1970. He get ein Ph.D. at SUNY at Stony Brook, wey dey New York insyd 1972.

 Poetry 
De early poetry of Awoonor dey borrow from de Ewe oral tradition. Insyd ein critical book Guardians of de Sacred Word and Ewe Poetry, he render Ewe poetry insyd translation (1974). The Breast of the Earth: A Study of the History, Culture, and Literature of Africa South of the Sahara is another work of literary criticism (1975).

 Death 
For 21 September 2013, na Awoonor dey among those dem kill insyd an attack at de Westgate shopping mall insyd Nairobi. De Ghanaian government confirm Awoonor ein death de next day. Na dem sanso shoot ein kiddie son Afetsi Awoonor, wey na he accompany am, buh na dem later discharge am from hospital.

Na dem fly Awoonor ein remains from Nairobi to Accra, Ghana, for 25 September 2013.Kofi Anyidoho, "African Postman: Death of a Poet", Petchary's Blog, 18 September 2013.

Na dem cremate den bury ein body for sam particular spot insyd ein hometown for Wheta insyd de Volta Region. Na der sanso be no crying anaa mourning for ein funeral all according to ein will before ein death."Prof. Awoonor cremated". Daily Graphic. 4 October 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2014 – via JoyOnline.

 Ein works 

 Poetry 

 Rediscovery and Other Poems (Mbari Publications, 1964)
 Night of My Blood (Doubleday, 1971) – poems wey dey explore Awoonor ein roots, den de impact of foreign rule insyd Africa
 Ride Me, Memory (1973)
 The House by the Sea (Greenfield Review Press, 1978)
 Until the Morning After: Selected Poems, 1963–85 (Greenfield Review Press, 1987)
 The Promise of Hope: New and Selected Poems, 1964–2013 (Amalion / University of Nebraska Press, 2014)

 Novels 

 This Earth, My Brother (Doubleday, 1971) – a cross between a novel den a poem
 Comes the Voyager at Last: A Tale of Return to Africa (Africa World Press, 1992)

 Non-fiction 

 The Breast of the Earth: A Survey of the History, Culture, and Literature of Africa South of the Sahara (Anchor Press, 1975; ISBN 0-385-07053-5)
 The Ghana Revolution: Background Account from a Personal Perspective (1984)
 Ghana: A Political History from Pre-European to Modern Times (Sedco, 1990)
 Africa: The Marginalized Continent (1994)
 The African Predicament: Collected Essays (Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2006; ISBN 9789988550820)

 As editor anaa translator 

 Messages: Poems From Ghana (1971). Eds. Kofi Awoonor & G. Adali-Mortty.
 Guardians of the Sacred Word: Ewe Poetry (1974). Trans. Kofi Awoonor.

 Poems 

 The Cathedral
 The Weaver Bird
 Across a New Dawn
 A Call
 On the Gallows Once
 Lament of the Silent Sister
 Had Death Not Had Me in Tears
 Songs of Sorrow
 First Circle
 A Death Foretold

Read further
 Robert Fraser, West African Poetry: A Critical History, Cambridge University Press (1986), ISBN 0-521-31223-X
 Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates (eds), Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Basic Civitas Books (1999), ISBN 0-465-00071-1 – p. 153
 Lauret E. Savoy, Eldridge M. Moores and Judith E. Moores (eds), Bedrock: Writers on the Wonders of Geology, (Trinity University Press, 2006).
 References 

 External links 

 Report on the death of Kofi Awoonor, 22 September 2013.
 Paula Kahumbu of Princeton University and director of the Story Moja Hay Festival relates her time with Awoonor the Friday evening before his death
 Biographical details, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
 Interview, Sun newspaper (Nigeria), 18 June 2006.
 Poem: Songs of Sorrow by Kofi Awoonor
 Francis Kwarteng, "A Tribute to Prof. Kofi Awoonor", VibeGhana, 23 September 2013.
Category:Human
Category:Ghanaians
Category:1935 births
Category:2013 deaths
Category:20th-century Ghanaian poets
Category:20th-century male writers
Category:20th-century novelists
Category:21st-century Ghanaian poets
Category:21st-century male writers
Category:Alumni of Achimota School
Category:Alumni of University College London
Category:Ambassadors of Ghana to Brazil
Category:Ambassadors of Ghana to Cuba
Category:Awoonor-Renner family
Category:Ewe people
Category:Ghanaian male poets
Category:Ghanaian murder victims
Category:Ghanaian non-fiction writers
Category:Ghanaian novelists
Category:Male non-fiction writers
Category:Members of de Council of State (Ghana)
Category:Permanent Representatives of Ghana to de United Nations
Category:Academic staff of de University of Cape Coast
Category:University of Ghana alumni
Category:Academic staff of de University of Ghana
Category:People wey komot Volta Region
Category:Ambassadors to Cuba
Category:Ambassadors to Brazil
Category:Ambassadors of Ghana
Category:Ghanaian people of Sierra Leonean descent