Kofi Awoonor

Lore & Background

Kofi Awoonor was one of the prominent West African writers present at the June 1962 Conference of African Writers of English Expression at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda. The conference was sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Mbari Club in association with the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of Makerere, whose director was Gerald Moore. Awoonor joined other notable attendees including Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The conference dealt with the issue of how colonialism had left the African writer with a dilemma regarding language choice, debating questions such as what constitutes African literature and whether it must be written in African languages. At the conference, several nationalist writers refused to acknowledge literature written in non-African languages as African literature, and Ngũgĩ noted the irony of the conference's title excluding those who did not write in English.

Reader's Guide

Kofi Awoonor's participation in the 1962 Makerere conference placed him at a pivotal moment in African literary history. The conference was described as 'not only the very first major international gathering of writers and critics of African literature on the African continent; it was also held at the very cusp of political independence for most African countries.' The debates about language and identity that characterized the conference—whether African literature must be written in African languages, and what constitutes authentic African expression—were central to Awoonor's own work. The conference also saw Obiajunwa Wali's essay 'The Dead End Of African Literature' published in Transition in 1963, which argued that African literature as defined at Makerere 'leads nowhere.' Ezekiel Mphahlele disagreed with Wali's criticisms, arguing that English and French had become common languages for presenting a nationalist front against white oppressors.

Did You Know?

• Kofi Awoonor attended the first African Writers Conference at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda, in June 1962.
• The conference was officially called a 'Conference of African Writers of English Expression'.
• The conference was sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Mbari Club.
• Awoonor was listed among the prominent West African writers at the conference, alongside Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka.
• The conference dealt with the dilemma of language choice in writing left by the legacy of colonialism.