body-container-line-1
22.09.2013 Press Statement

OUR CONDOLENCE TO THE FAMILY OF PROF. KOFI AWOONOR

22.09.2013 LISTEN
By Sonetco Institute

We at SONETCO INSTITUTE [SI] extend our condolence to the family of the Late Prof Kofi Awoonor who joined his maker after sustaining severe injuries during the terrorist attack on WestGate mall in Nairobi Kenya which Al-shabab group linked to alqaeda claims responsibilities. His son survived though suffered injuries too. To us it is a tragedy for the family, Ghana, Kenya and Mother Africa.

We use this opportunity to condemn this coward style of expressing anger by said terrorist group Al-shabab killing innocent people to drive home a message of hurt. What sadden us most is that, this happening during the day the whole continent is celebrating and reflecting on the works and dreams of the African of the millennium Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. May the soul of the former chairman of the Council of State rest in peace.

Below is a brief profile of Late Prof Kofi Awoonor.

Prof Kofi Awoonor was born in Ghana on 13 March 1935 when it was still called the Gold Coast. He was a poet and author whose work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people, contemporary religious symbolism to depict Africa during the era of decolonization. He went to university there and went on to teach African literature at the University of Ghana. He started writing under the name George Awoonor-Williams. While at the University of Ghana he wrote his first poetry book, Rediscovery. Like the rest of his work, Rediscovery is based on African oral poetry.

In Ghana he managed the Ghana Film Corporation and founded the Ghana Play House. He then studied literature at the University of London, and while in England he wrote several radio plays for the BBC. He spent the early 1970s in the United States, studying and teaching at universities. While in the USA he wrote This Earth, My Brother, and My Blood. Prof Kofi Awoonor returned to Ghana in 1975 as head of the English department at the University of Cape Coast. Within months he was arrested for helping a soldier accused of trying to overthrow the military government and was imprisoned without trial. After ten months he was found not guilty and released. The house by the Sea is about his time in jail. After imprisonment Awoonor became politically active and has written mostly nonfiction.

From 1990 to 1994 Awoonor was Ghana's Ambassador to the United Nations, where he headed the committee against apartheid.

He passed on to his maker on Saturday 21st September 2013

Some of his masterpiece are as follows
Rediscovery and Other Poems (1964)
Night of My Blood (1971) - poems that explore Awooner's roots, and the impact of foreign rule in Africa

The House By the Sea (1978)
This Earth, My Brother (1971)
Comes the Voyager at Last (1992)
The Breast of the Earth: A Survey of the History, Culture, and Literature of Africa South of the Sahara (1975)

A Political History from Pre-European to Modern Times (1990)

We have indeed lost an icon and a man endowed with a lot of wisdom and experience.

We empathize with family, loved ones, Ghanaians and Africans both home and abroad.

Long live Sonetco Institute
Long live Ghana
Eric E. Essel - 0244381797
Kwasi Dawood - 0246399412
Robert Ahiabenu - 0242357975
Administrators; SONETCO Institute.
Issued in Accra, Sunday 22, September 2, 2013
http://www.sonetco.wordpress.com

body-container-line