African writers celebrate Late Prof Awoonor
The Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) on the occasion of the 21st International African Writers’ Day on Thursday, celebrated the life and works of one of their own, the late Professor Kofi Awoonor in Accra.
The PAWA Evening of Candle Light Readings for the Late Prof Awoonor was patronised by its members, academia, students and the public.
It was on the theme: “Celebrating Kofi Awoonor; A Night of African Poetry.”
Prof Atukwei Okai, Secretary-General of PAWA said November 7, each is PAWA’s day and early on this year, the Association took the decision to dedicate this year’s event to the late Prof Chinua Achebe, but following the death of Prof Awoonor in the Westgate Shopping Mall terrorists shooting incident in Nairobi, Kenya on September 21, the body revised its decision.
The PAWA Secretary-General eulogised Prof Awoonor in his poem entitled: “The accountants of our dream.”
He said: “An Awoonoryan wail punctures the sanity of our village’s dawn. A blood-curdling annoyance stirs my being; it does not abate. Let us pray our passions to apply the ancestral brakes. The accountants of our dream never budgeted for such a quake.
“My senses sink, dumbfounded by the fall of our flower. My barn of vocabularies is pitilessly drained dry; There are no other earthly words left to utter the soul’s cry.”
Other contemporaries of the late Prof Awoonor also paid tribute to him using poetic language. They include Prof Asare Opoku, Prof Ama Atta Aidoo and Prof Esi Sutherland-Addy.
The programme was characterised by poetry recitals, cultural performances by school children and various cultural troupes.
Source: GNA