Interview with Kofi Awoonor
Kofi Awoonor (George Awoonor-Williams), Ghanaian poet, novelist and academic, whose literary work expresses the influence of Ewe poetic forms. He published several books of poetry such as Rediscovery (1964) and Until the Morning After: Collected Poems (1987), novels and plays such as This Earth, My Brother (1971) and Laments (1972), and political essays (see Ghana: A Political History from Pre-European to Modern Times, 1990). He also published Guardians of the Sacred Word and Ewe poetry (1974), a hallmark of the translation and study of Ewe poetry. Kofi Awoonor gained his PhD in English and Comparative Literatures (see The Breast of the Earth, 1975) at the State University of New York. He was appointed as Ambassador of Ghana to the United Nations from 1990 to 1994, and as President of the African Literature Association from 1998 to 1999. He is presently Artist-in-Residence at the University of Ghana (Legon).