Kofi Awoonor’s Death And The “Creative Pregnancy”

Long ago, the peerless Ewe poet-cantor, Vinoko Akpalu sang a song: “I shall soon leave, who shall I find to hold my voice for me? I shall soon leave, who shall I find to keep my voice for me…?” As prophetic as poetry always is, this question remains very relevant even today.

The sudden death of the Ghanaian literary giant, Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor took the world by storm. The nation, indeed, lost a great thinker, humanist, nationalist, writer, poet, scholar, singer and Pan-Africanist.

As usual and as Ghanaian as we are, many people have attached several colours of sentiments to his passing. Some people wrote to condemn him, even in death, for a book in which he, frankly, wrote his mind about a revolution that took place in his time. All writers will do this. Days before his death, Chinua Achebe, launched his book on the Biafran War. He gave account of his involvement in it and the consequences.

Indeed, they say a prophet is never accepted in his own home. As some of us dis-honor him in his own Ghana, several world-wide movements honor him throughout the earth he dearly loved and wrote about. Indeed, many comments from world figures immortalize him.

He is known for many commitments but writing was his life-passion. Indeed, he died when attending a writing event in Nairobi. Now, the age old question of, “I shall soon leave, who shall I find to hold my voice for me…?” returns, even more forcefully. Many of us might not know about or hear of Akpalu, but Awoonor we do. So let us put Awoonor in the shoes of Akpalu asking us the age old question.

Kofi Awoonor's death is indeed a loss, of an international magnitude.

As posterity mandates, a vacuum must always be filled when it is created. But can the same be said of Awoonor? Creative writing in Ghana, in the not distant past, was a great venture to undertake. Many schools, corporate bodies, governments and individuals promoted it. This resulted in the emergence of great writers from Ghana.

The likes of Efua Sutherland, Ama Ata Aidoo, Amu Djoleto, Ayi Kwei Armah, Kofi Anyidoho, Joseph Wilfred Abruquah, Kobina Eyi Acquah, Kofi Aidoo, Mohammed Ben Abdallah, Raphael Armattoe, Bediako Asare, Meshack Asare, Efo Kodjo Mawugbe, Joe de'Graft, J. Benibengor Blay, Yaw M. Boateng, Kwesi Brew, Abena Busia, Akosua Busia, Gladys May Casely-Hayford, Michael Dei-Anang, Cameron Doudu, Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo, Albert William Kayper-Mensah, B. Kojo Laing , Bill Okyere, (John) Atukwei Okai, Martin Owusu, among the many other venerable creative minds, emerged and internationalized Ghanaian writing. In our days, many of these people still walk among us and we treat them as if they never existed.

(I hope we are not waiting for them to die before we celebrate them.) Many of them have however passed on into antiquity. The few that are among us today will also leave us as nature has designed it. However, as a nation, have we made practical efforts to continue the great tradition of creative writing that Ghana is known for?

As a young school boy in the Volta Region, I remember writing letters to friends almost every fortnight. Many of these friends wrote back. We learned from one another and improved our skills. Nana Koomson, President of the Western Regional Ghana Association of Teachers of English (GATE) confirmed to the Ghana News Agency in 2012, that things such as these letters developed and improved writing among students. The situation is not the same in this age of text messaging and electronic mail where short hands are used. One does not need to carefully think, draft, write and re-write a letter.

The urgent need for a 'creative pregnancy', the insatiable hunger for creative writing in Ghana, is more imperative now than ever. Creative writing sharpens students' ability to express their thoughts clearly. It encourages them to think beyond the ordinary, and to use their imagination to express their ideas in their own way. It has also been argued that creative writing helps develop critical thinking skills, as students learn to question and to “think outside the box.” A first step however, is to ensure that school children are imbued with writing skills to improve the falling standards of the English Language in the country. Creative writing must form an essential component of the extra-curricular activities in schools. School managements should help discover the talents of students. Inter-houses, inter-departmental, inter-clubs, inter-class writing competitions must be instituted, monitored and developed into a culture in our schools.

Parents are not left out in this task of finding replacement for our dying heroes and heroines. Parents can also help in the creative process. Parents must read to and with your children. Reading and writing go hand-in-hand. Good writers are well read, not just in grammar and usage, but in various subjects also, and well versed in various writing styles. Parents can play word-games with their children. Word games are brainstorming. Ideas from these games can develop into actual writing projects. Parents should also provide children with a place and materials for creative writing. Children should have a quiet place for all their writing assignments as well as for creative writing. Children need the encouragement for daily writing. This regular practice is the best way to improve writing skills.

Also children must be made to think about a writing project before doing any actual writing. Most writing begins by planning the story, article, or poem before actual putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. Parents must write along with their children. Writing along with them actually means doing the writing assignment yourself alongside the child. Doing this shows a child that you value creative writing skills. In the end, parents must evaluate whatever their children write and offer the needed recommendations for improvement. Parents must however, not force a particular form of writing on their children and allow them to write in any area they are interested in. Parents who are not literate in formal education, can contract educated members of the community to help their children in the process.

In a conversation with the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2001, Kofi Anyidoho, the then chairman of the organizing committee of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, said that his generation's talent was sustained by a nationwide program for creative writing, including the 1963 to the 1976 'Talent for Tomorrow' national writing competition. A selection of the work was collected into an anthology and made available in libraries all over the country. I remember reading some copies of this magazine when developing interest in creative writing, back in Sogakofe Senior High School. Now the libraries are starved of these books (and many creative writing books.)

Ghana is lucky to have a writer-president whose book has got an international acclaim. The establishment of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts by the Mahama administration is a very positive step towards addressing the dearth of creative writing. This ministry must establish more writing competitions and magazines through which talents can be unearthed and nourished.

The Okyeame of the Ghana Association of Writers must be revived. Creative writing clubs should be established in basic and second cycle institutions of education, the VALCO Literary Prize should be brought back onto the creative writing scene and more writers should be assisted to publish their works.

The efforts of creative writing teachers, the Ghana Association of Writers, Writers Project of Ghana, the Ghana Poetry Foundation, the Creative Writers Club of the Department of English; University of Ghana, the Ghana Burt Award for African Literature (BAAL), Golden Baobab Prize, the School of Performing Arts, and the University of Ghana must be encouraged by corporate bodies so they could develop more talents for the country. Ghanaians should appreciate these writers, buy their books and attend literary performances.

Indeed, rather than crucify Kofi Awoonor, based on the various meanings we read into his writings, let us be challenged to do more than he has achieved. Let us all motivate young ones to grow up reading, writing and thinking more than it is today. We need more Kofi Awoonors to tell our stories to the world.

God bless our homeland, Ghana.

Gabriel Edzordzi Agbozo Is The Director
Of International Affairs Of The Beyonders Foundation
[email protected]