Kofi awoonor: the man and his legacy

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• Chris kwame Awuyah 12 years ago

  Prof. Agbemabiese, Congrats of having captured the essence of Prof. Awoonor's legacy. The trauma of his loss continues. We return again and again to his voice in hope of finding a way out of the nightmare. Your tribute reflec ...
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  Prof. Agbemabiese, Congrats of having captured the essence of Prof. Awoonor's legacy. The trauma of his loss continues. We return again and again to his voice in hope of finding a way out of the nightmare. Your tribute reflects Prof. Awoonor's vision and achievement. He was a poet of the dispossessed and voiceless. He reached deeply into the recess of our minds.
  
  As Prof. Agbemabiase demonstrates, Prof Awoonor's life and work began within the early phase of Ghana's self determination. Nurtured under the pan-Africanist vision of Dr Nkrumah and Dr Du Bois, Prof Awoonor kept the fire burning through generations.
  
  He remains relevant in our contemporary times. He has spoken with alacrity and urgency now as he did during the early years of Ghana. Prof. Awoonor embraced Dr Nkrumah's pan-African vision as the encompassing agency for realizing the aspirations of Africans across the continent and beyond.
  
  Thank you, Prof. Agbemabiese, for a most moving tribute.

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• insight to the bone 12 years ago

  just wait...but they are spinning their wheels in their own mud!

  just wait...but they are spinning their wheels in their own mud!

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• Kontopiaat 12 years ago

  Dr Padmore in his exegesis, exaggerates no end because what the man stood for varies from person to person because it is like a moving target which cannot be easily aimed at. The man did his part. What has Padmore done or wil ...
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  Dr Padmore in his exegesis, exaggerates no end because what the man stood for varies from person to person because it is like a moving target which cannot be easily aimed at. The man did his part. What has Padmore done or will do to build on the legacy of the departed to make Ghana a better place? That is the question.

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• insight to the bone marrow 12 years ago

  "We will not have another Awoonor, the poet, the essayist, the playwright, the statesman and visionary." We have not had any one person multiple times so yes, we will not have another Kofi Awoonor again. You listed a number o ...
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  "We will not have another Awoonor, the poet, the essayist, the playwright, the statesman and visionary." We have not had any one person multiple times so yes, we will not have another Kofi Awoonor again. You listed a number of his attributes but left out the most important of them all: an avowed tribalist. May his soul rest in peace, the peace he sought after in the wrong places.

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• koku Leonards 12 years ago

  Kudos Dr Padmore!! The Agbonugla was and is a towering philosophical,literary,political figure who will continue to inspire us from the ranks of the ancestors indeed.thank you.

  Kudos Dr Padmore!! The Agbonugla was and is a towering philosophical,literary,political figure who will continue to inspire us from the ranks of the ancestors indeed.thank you.

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• KK 12 years ago

  Kofi Awoonor was certainly one of the best Ghana has produced. His death is painful and we are still mourning him.
  
  But it seems in our pain over his loss, some people have become over-enthusiastic in his praise and have lo ...
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  Kofi Awoonor was certainly one of the best Ghana has produced. His death is painful and we are still mourning him.
  
  But it seems in our pain over his loss, some people have become over-enthusiastic in his praise and have lost all sense of critical balance. Reading Agbemabiase, one would think Awoonor, without a doubt, the best creative brain to have ever come out of Africa. Agbemabiase makes certain claims for the man that can be challenged.
  
  I wrote my A Level English Literature (as it was then called) in Ghana in the mid-70s. Awoonor was NOT on the syllabus even though he had already published some poems and This Earth, which many of us read privately. I don't know when his work came on the syllabus but we were reading Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, James Ngugi (as he was then called) but no Awoonor.
  
  Of course, we knew of him since when he was writing articles to Daily Graphic from the US. I think Awoonor's influence came later on - perhaps in the 80s.
  
  Ama Ata Aidoo and Ayi Kwei Armah may both be a few years younger (3-4) than Awoonor but these two started writing very early. I don't see how Awonoor is a bridge between an earlier generation of writers and these two who are very nearly his contemporaries. Anyidoho is much younger, so, perhaps him, but the others...
  
  Awoonor's work at the Ghana Film Industry certainly deserves praise. He was heading a national institution at a very young age (early 30s?). But if you look at the national film institutions of several countries, even in Europe, they were headed by very young persons in the 1950s and the 1960s. And when Awoonor took that job, there were not many others it could go to. We didn't have many qualifed persons then, just a few years after our independence.
  
  Awoonor's political and diplomatic careers from the 80s onwards were aided more by his association with his fellow tribesman who made a coup (Rawlings) than by any personal acts distinguishing him as a brilliant politician or diplomat. Agbemabiase does not mention this fact. Without Rawlings, Awoonor would never have been posted to Brazil, Cuba or New York. He was no career diplomat!
  
  Agbemabiase tells us Awoonor headed the UN committee against apartheid. He was Ghana's permanent UN boss between 1990-1994. Apartheid was officially banned in 1990 even though 1994 is regarded as the time it was really abolished. Even before 1990, apartheid was crumbling, Mandela was released in 1990. Anybody heading a UN body against apartheid at this time may not have done much in helping to bring down the practice.
  
  Agbemabiase completely refused to mention the fact that Awoonor's political association with Rawlings was a very controversial one. Not all Ghanaians like that association and they fault him for the excesses of the Rawlings regime - by association. His role in these excesses is still a hotly debated topic today in Ghana. Any fair assessment of the totality of the man cannot fail to discuss this. Agbemabiase neatly avoids this in his longish article.
  
  As for Awoonor's poetry, yes. He was good. But I don't know what Akpalu himself would have said about his poetry or his fellow Anlos who are well versed in Akpalu fe agohawo.
  
  Please, let us give the man his due. Let us give him the praise that he deserves. Those who have met him personally attest to the fact that he was a likeable and social man. He was also very humble and had said that his burial should be attended only by a few people. But let us not be carried away when we are praising him, especially not if we are Professors of English.

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• KK 12 years ago

  Sorry for wrongly spelling your name. It's Agbemabiese, not Agbemabiase...
  
  Sorry.

  Sorry for wrongly spelling your name. It's Agbemabiese, not Agbemabiase...
  
  Sorry.

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• DUNGEON MASTER 12 years ago

  Not to sound too cliche, but I could not have written a better assessment of this so-called tribute that has clearly over-exagerated Awoonor's accomplishments--to say nothing of the author's deliberate avoidance of the man's ...
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  Not to sound too cliche, but I could not have written a better assessment of this so-called tribute that has clearly over-exagerated Awoonor's accomplishments--to say nothing of the author's deliberate avoidance of the man's Ewe hegemonic attributes

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• Mawuli 12 years ago

  Spare me all this hero worshiping. JJ said Awoonor was the brain behind the so-called "Revolution". So he was responsible for all the atrocities visited on innocent Ghanaians. Up till now 264 Ghanaians are unaccounted for. S ...
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  Spare me all this hero worshiping. JJ said Awoonor was the brain behind the so-called "Revolution". So he was responsible for all the atrocities visited on innocent Ghanaians. Up till now 264 Ghanaians are unaccounted for. So why praise this son of a bitch? All of them including JJ, Tsatsu, Kojo Tsikata, PV, Ahwoi brothers etc. deserve same bullet that ended Awoonor's life. Curse unto his soul.

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• Ignorants 12 years ago

  Ei , Ghanaba do u have the power to curse anybody's soul? Your anger and jealousy will kill you..all die be die anyway...

  Ei , Ghanaba do u have the power to curse anybody's soul? Your anger and jealousy will kill you..all die be die anyway...

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