Kofi Awoonor's Tribute
What you need to know:
On September 21 2013, Professor Kofi Awoonor passed away in the Westgate attack.
On September 21 2013, Professor Kofi Awoonor passed away in the Westgate attack.
Kofi Awoonor was a literary great of Africa and a child of Ghana. He died at the age of 78 while in the country to attend and speak at Storymoja Hay Festival this year. The Festival was subsequently cancelled in his honour.
This is a poem by Kofi Awoonor.
REDISCOVERY
When our tears are dry on the shore
And the fishermen carry their nets home
And the sea gulls return to Bird Island
And the laughter of the children recedes
At night
There shall still linger here the communion we
Forged
The feast of oneness which we partook of
There shall still be the eternal gate-men
Who will close the cemetery door
And send the late mourners away
It cannot be music we heard that night
That still lingers in the chambers of memory
It is the new chorus of our forgotten
comrades
And the halleluyahs of our second selves….
Find pictures from his tribute below.
