SAN FRANCISCO, September 22, (THEWILL) – Kofi Awoonor, one of Africa’s most renowned writer and celebrated poet was killed alongside 58 other persons in a Kenyan shopping mall in Nairobi on Saturday, as members of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab hailed bullets as they seized the mall.
The siege and hostage incident at the Westgate Shopping Mall also left at least 200 shoppers injured.
Awoonor, 78, was killed as he shopped with his son, who was wounded but has been treated and released from a local hospital, according to the Deputy Information Minister of Ghana, Mr. Felix Kwakye Ofosu.
The Agence France Presse (AFP) said Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama expressed shock over his killing in a statement released in Accra, Ghana.
“I am shocked to hear of the death of Prof. Kofi Awoonor in the Nairobi mall terrorist attack. Such a sad twist of fate…,” the president said.
African and Middle Eastern news agencies said Awoonor was in Kenya for the 2013 Storymoja Hay Festival — an event celebrating the art of storytelling with readings, workshops and discussions. The festival, which began Thursday, was suspended after the mall shootings.
Born George Awoonor-Williams to ethnic Ewe parents, he studied at University College of Ghana and London’s University College before earning his doctorate in comparative literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, according to a biography on the website of the Poetry Foundation.
He taught comparative literature at State University of New York at Stony Brook before returning to Ghana in 1975. He published his most significant works in the immediate post-independence period, including “The House by the Sea” (1978), which the biography said was influenced by the 10 months he spent in prison for alleged involvement in a coup.
Awoonor served as Ghana’s ambassador to Brazil and Cuba in the 1980s, as well as United Nations envoy during the 1990-94 presidency of Jerry Rawlings.
He was also the author of “Rediscovery and Other Poems” (1964), “Night of My Blood” (1971), “Ride Me, Memory (1973), “The Latin American and Caribbean Notebook” (1992) and a volume of collected poems, “Until the Morning After” (1987).
Some of his poems can be found on Poetry Foundation Ghana’s website.
*** The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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