Kofi Awoonor: Rest in peace
(English translation from Gikuyu)

by Kenyan poet Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

…

Awoonor son of the Ghana
That announced that Africa’s freedom had come
Awoonor son of the Africa of Nkrumah Kenyatta and Nasser
The Africa of Zik Ben Bella Mandela and Kimathi
The blood of your first arrival in Ghana rained joy
The blood of your final departure in Kenya reigned horror
You too have roamed the earth
Telling the story of one black people
Regardless of Muslim Christian or tradition this and that
Like Jomo and Kwame and Zik you were driven by one faith
The union of Africa and black people the world over
Was that not the refrain in all your poetry?
Your poems came from songs of the people
Your poems became voices of the people
Your poems were for a people empowered
The blood of your first arrival in Ghana rained joy
The blood of your final departure in Kenya reigned horror
We would have liked to send you off with clamor and dignity
Whistlings and ululations and dirges befitting a hero at the journeys end
We would have loved to pour libation on the earth
To tell Jomo and Kwame and others that you’re on the way
But they snatched you from us
Kofi we were not ready with songs of farewell

…

See complete poem in the Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2015, Vol. 50(1), pp. 3-6.