A popular Ghana-based writer and poet, Professor Kofi Awoonor is dead.
The 78-year-old poet met his untimely death in Kenya on Saturday during an attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi Kenya.
He was scheduled to perform at Storymoja Hay Festival on the same evening he died.
According to Ghanaian High Commission in Nairobi Kenya, Kofi Awoonor died after sustaining multiple gun shot wounds. Mr. Awoonor’s son who was with him at the mall also sustained injuries but is currently responding to treatment.
A source at Legon said that Mr. Awoonor’s death “has put Ghanaians in a big mourning mood. He was a very beloved man, an honorable writer who believed in lifting up all Ghanaians.”
At various times, Mr. Awoonor, who was inspired by his country’s most well known nationalist figure, Kwame Nkrumah, also served as Ghana’s ambassador to Cuba, Brazil. From 1990 to 1994, he served as Ghana’s ambassador and permanent representative at the United Nations in New York City, heading the world body’s committee against apartheid.
Mr. Awoonor was born on March 13, 1935, educated in Ghana, the University of London, and the United States. A polyglot and renaissance man, he spoke English, Spanish, French and Portuguese in addition to several Ghanaian languages. Mr. Awoonor held several positions including Head of the Ghana Film Corporation. He taught at universities in the US, the University of Ghana in Legon, and the University of the Cape Coast where he was head of the Department of English. May his soul rest in perfect peace
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