Kofi Awoonor was a novelist and poet based in Nairobi, Kenya. Born in Weta, Gold Coast, now Ghana, he was a Ghanian poet whose work has been largely anthologized and translated. He attended University College of the Gold Coast and then went on to study at University College, London, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He later returned to Ghana and taught English, and African literature at the University of Ghana, formerly known as the University College of the Gold Coast. He also taught at the University of Cape Town. He founded the Ghana Playhouse, directed the Ghana Film Corporation, and was an editor for two literary magazines, Okyeme, and Transitions. He also served as Ghana’s ambassador to Brazil, Cuba, and the United State. Through his poetry, he aimed to incorporate African vernacular into modern writing, focusing mainly on the dirge songs of the Ewe people. The main themes in his poetry are Christianity, exile, and death. His collections of poetry include Rediscovery and Other Poems, Night of My Blood, Ride Me, Memory, The House by the Sea, and Latin American and Caribbean Notebook. His later works were published in Until the Morning After, and one posthumous collection, The Promise of Hope: New and Selected Poems, 1964–2013.
Information from The Encyclopedia Brittanica.
