Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor killed in terrorist attack

Ghanaian poet, writer and academic Kofi Awoonor was among those killed Saturday September 21st in the attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Awoonor was in Kenya for the 2013 Storymoja Hay Festival.

Kofi Awoonor’s literary work expresses the influence of Ewe poetic forms. He published several books of poetry, such as Rediscovery (1964) and Until the Morning After: Collected Poems (1987), novels, plays and political essays. Kofi Awoonor gained his PhD in English and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York. He was appointed as Ambassador of Ghana to the United Nations from 1990 to 1994, and as President of the African Literature Association from 1998 to 1999.

For an overview of works by and about Kofi Awoonor from our library catalogue, see http://opc-ascl.oclc.org/REL?PPN=086449664

For an interview with Kofi Awoonor, see http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/verba-africana/ewe/c-interview-kofi-awoonor.htm