{"id":49023,"date":"2014-09-18T17:02:22","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T17:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=49023"},"modified":"2014-09-18T17:02:22","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T17:02:22","slug":"mahama-eulogizes-awoonor-at-1-year-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/09\/mahama-eulogizes-awoonor-at-1-year-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahama eulogizes Awoonor at 1 year memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

President John Mahama has eulogized the late Ghanaian poet, Professor Kofi Awoonor<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> as “a great intellectual the country was privileged to have.”<\/p>\n

The renowned poet was killed in the West Gate mall attack in Kenya in 2013 when he was in that country as guest speaker for the annual Storymoja Hay Festival.<\/p>\n

He praised the late Awoonor for his particularly blunt ways of addressing issues.<\/p>\n

His mortal remains was subsequently flown and buried in Ghana.<\/p>\n

President John Dramani Mahama, who was speaking at a colloquium to mark one year of his demise, said the country has lost a great son.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cwe had lost a great intellectual, a writer, a poet, a diplomat, a statesman. To some of us, he was a comrade, a friend and he was an advisor. We respected him for one thing\u2026he will say things that most of us will shiver to repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, various programmes have been scheduled to take place both in Ghana and Kenya to mark the memorial of Prof. Awoonor.<\/p>\n

In Ghana, the Department of English of the University of Ghana, will start its memorial activities with an international symposium on September 18 as well as the launch of ‘The Promise of Hope,’ a book by Prof Awoonor.<\/p>\n

The memorial activities will culminate in a vigil on September 20, followed by the unveiling and dedication of the Awoonor Mausoleum at Wheta in the Volta Region.<\/p>\n

There will also be the launch of the Kofi Awoonor Literary Prize Competition and an evening of poetry reading and performance of traditional songs.<\/p>\n

In Nairobi, Kenya, there will\u00a0be a special exhibition of recorded voices, portraits and poetry of writers, politicians and diplomats including Awoonor\u2019s last collection.<\/p>\n

The headline guest speaker at this year’s Storymoja Hay Festival\u00a0is Nigerian Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka.<\/p>\n

Among the major panel speakers will be the Ghanaian author, Ivor Agyemang Duah.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n

Follow @AlloteyGodwin<\/a>
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