Our Kofi Awoonor

Kofi Awoonor – poet, linguist, diplomat 

Olu Oguibe

Wake for Awoonor

We salute Awoonor's body
Salute the Great Spirit
Great Spirit, we salute

The poets salute Awoonor's body
Salute the Great Spirit
Great Spirit, we salute

The linguists salute Awoonor's body
Guardian of the sacred word
Great Spirit, we salute

The drummers salute Awoonor's body
Master of the giant drum
Great Spirit, we salute

May his murderers die a thousand deaths
A thousand deaths to his murderers
World without end

May their memory be wiped from the land of the living
A thousand deaths to his murderers
World without end

May their memory be wiped from the land of the dead
A thousand and one deaths
To his murderers' souls
World without end

Oguibe salutes Awoonor's body
As long as the waters of the Great Volta
So may his voice survive

Africa salutes Awoonor's body
Great Spirit, we salute
Great Spirit, we salute
Everlasting Element
Without beginning
Without end
We salute.

© Oguibe, 2013

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

To Kofi Awoonor (1935-2013)

An ancestor 
In the future tense
Past tense is not your forte
Kofi 
Son of Awoonor
Abiding in spirit
Between capitals
And periods
Beyond the death sentence 
Of mullahs of terror.

I sing of you
In the present tense
Songs sans sorrow
Out of the lofts
Bearing legends
Of the weaverbird 
Bestriding Kenya and Ghana
In the hug of harmony
Named immortality
Across the globe of love.

© Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, 2013


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