Kofi Anyidoho

{{Short description|Ghanaian poet and academic (born 1947)}} {{Infobox person | name = Kofi Anyidoho | image =  | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|25 July 1947|df=y}} | birth_place = Wheta, Volta Region, Ghana | death_date = | education = University of Ghana; Indiana University Bloomington; University of Texas | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Poet and academic | organisation = University of Ghana | known_for = }}

'''Kofi Anyidoho''' (born 25 July 1947) is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists.<ref name="Unesco">[http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/dialogue/tagore-neruda-and-cesaire/networks-and-partners/international-sponsoring-committee/kofi-anyidoho/ "Kofi Anyidoho (Ghana)"], UNESCO.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Anyidoho, Kofi 1947– {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/anyidoho-kofi-1947 |access-date=2020-05-27 |website=encyclopedia.}}</ref> He is currently Professor of Literature at the University of Ghana.<ref name="Profile">[http://ias.ug.edu.gh/index.php/component/content/article?id=86 "Profile of Prof. Kofi Anyidoho"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222030735/http://ias.ug.edu.gh/index.php/component/content/article?id=86 |date=2014-02-22 }}, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-25 |title='I weep for my beloved party' - Koku Anyidoho on change in NDC parliamentary leadership - MyJoyOnline.com |url=https://www.myjoyonline.com/i-weep-for-my-beloved-party-koku-anyidoho-on-change-in-ndc-parliamentary-leadership/ |access-date=2023-01-28 |website=MyJoyonline. |language=en-US}}</ref>

He has received numerous awards for his poetry, including the Valco Fund Literary Award, the Langston Hughes Prize, the BBC Arts and Africa Poetry Award, the Fania Kruger Fellowship for Poetry of Social Vision, Poet of the Year (Ghana), and the Ghana Book Award.<ref name="Gikandi 2003">{{cite book | last = Gikandi | first = Simon | author-link = Simon Gikandi | title = Encyclopedia of African Literature | publisher = Taylor & Francis | location = London | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-1-134-58223-5 | oclc = 1062304793 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hKmCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 | access-date = 2018-12-04 | pages = 33–34 }}</ref>

== Biography == Born in Wheta, in Ghana's Volta Region,<ref name="ProQuest">[http://literature.proquestlearning.com/critRef/displayItemById.do?QueryType=reference&forAuthor=3804&BackTo=Author%20Page&ItemID=bio3804%20pqllit_ref_lib "Anyidoho, Kofi"], ProQuest Biographies, 2006.</ref> Anyidoho was educated in Ghana and the USA, and holds a B.A. Honours degree in English & Linguistics from the University of Ghana, Legon, an M.A. in Folklore from Indiana University Bloomington and gained his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin.<ref name="Profile" />

Having trained as a teacher at Accra Training College and at the Advanced Teacher Training College-Winneba, he taught primary, middle and secondary school, before joining the University of Ghana-Legon. Currently the Professor of Literature in the English Department, he has also been Director of the CODESRIA African Humanities Institute Program, acting Director of the School of Performing Arts and Head of the English Department.<ref name="Profile" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Profile of Prof. Kofi Anyidoho {{!}} Centre for Migration Studies|url=http://cms.ug.edu.gh/profile-prof-kofi-anyidoho|website=cms.ug.edu.gh|access-date=2020-05-27}}</ref> He was installed as the first occupant of the Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies at the University of Ghana on 18 March 2010.<ref name="Unesco" /><ref>[http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article545 "Installation of Prof. Kofi Anyidoho as first occupant Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019160224/http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article545 |date=2014-10-19 }}, CODESRIA.</ref>

== Poetry == Kofi Anyidoho's poetry is noted for its distinctive approach of blending modern themes with traditional elements. It draws upon the three-chord structure of Ewe oral tradition to inspire hope.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wilkinson|first=Jane|title=Kofi Anyidoho. An Ewe Poet Between Tradition and Change|date=1988|journal=Africa: Rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione dell'Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente |volume=43|issue=4|pages=543–573|jstor=40760329|issn=0001-9747}}</ref> He not only writes with the background of Ewe oral tradition experiences but also enacts the very performance and oration of his poems in griotic style.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mensah|first=Augustine N.|date=2011|title=The Place We Call Home and Other Poems: A Review Article|journal=Legon Journal of the Humanities|volume=22|pages=177–188|via=Africa Journals Online}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Murua |first=James|author-link=James Murua |date=2022-10-11 |title=Pa Gya! A Literary Festival 2022 schedule revealed |url=https://www.writingafrica.com/pa-gya-a-literary-festival-2022-schedule-revealed/ |access-date=2024-05-11 |website=Writing Africa |language=en-GB}}</ref> * ''Elegy for the Revolution'' (1978) * ''A Harvest of Our Dreams'' (1985), Heinemann (paperback 1998), {{ISBN|0-435-90261-X}} * ''Earthchild'' (1985), Woeli Publishing, {{ISBN|9964-970-72-2}} * ''Ancestral Logic and Caribbean Blues'' (1992), Africa World Press, {{ISBN|0-86543-265-1}} * ''Praise Song for the Land: Poems of Hope & Love & Care'' (2002). Foreword by Kofi Awoonor * ''The Place We Call Home and Other Poems'' (2011)

== Writing == Anyidoho's academic writing includes: * ''The Pan African Ideal in Literatures of the Black World'', Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1989<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Pan African ideal in literatures of the Black world {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/22727579 |access-date=2023-01-28 |website=World cat. |language=en}}</ref> * ''Transcending Boundaries: the diaspora experience in African heritage literatures'', Evanston: Northwestern University, 1995<ref>{{Cite web |title=Transcending Boundaries: The Diaspora Experience in African Heritage Literature by Kofi Anyidoho, 1995-05-16 {{!}} Archival and Manuscript Collections |url=https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/repositories/6/archival_objects/374551 |access-date=2023-01-28 |website=findingaids library northwestern edu}}</ref> * ''The Word Behind Bars and the Paradox of Exile'', Northwestern University Press (1997), {{ISBN|0-8101-1393-7}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kofi Anyidoho {{!}} Get Textbooks {{!}} New Textbooks {{!}} Used Textbooks {{!}} College Textbooks - GetTextbooks.com |url=https://www.gettextbooks.com/author/Kofi_Anyidoho |access-date=2023-01-28 |website=gettextbooks.}}</ref> * Kofi Anyidoho and James Gibbs (eds), ''Fontomfrom. Contemporary Ghanaian Literature, Theatre and Film'', Editions Rodopi B.V. (2000), {{ISBN|90-420-1273-0}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Anyidoho |first1=Kofi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bjTT4cLtM3MC |title=FonTomFrom: Contemporary Ghanaian Literature, Theatre and Film |last2=Gibbs |first2=James |last3=Gibbs |first3=James Morel |date=2000 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=978-90-420-1283-7 |language=en}}</ref> * Poetry as Dramatic Performance in Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato Quayson's African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory<ref>{{Cite web |title=African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory {{!}} Wiley |url=https://www.wiley.com/en-us/African+Literature%3A+An+Anthology+of+Criticism+and+Theory-p-9781405112000 |access-date=2023-01-28 |website=Wiley. |language=en-us}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

== External links == * Simon Gikandi, ''Encyclopedia of African Literature'', Routledge (2002), p. 24, {{ISBN|0-415-23019-5}}. * Dominic Head, ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'', Cambridge University Press (2006), p. 35, {{ISBN|0-521-83179-2}}. * [https://archive.today/20050113052152/http://www.ukzn.ac.za/cca/pa2001bios05.html#Kofi%20Anyidoho%20(Ghana) "Poetry Africa Festival"], Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anyidoho, Kofi}} Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Ghanaian male poets Category:Ewe people Category:20th-century Ghanaian poets Category:21st-century Ghanaian poets Category:International Writing Program alumni Category:20th-century Ghanaian male writers Category:21st-century Ghanaian male writers Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni Category:Ghanaian expatriates in the United States