Kofi Anyidoho (Prof.)
Bi-Lingual Poet, literary scholar, educator, cultural activist Kofi Anyidoho is Professor of Literature and Director, CODESRIA African Humanities Institute Programme, University of Ghana. He was the first occupant of the Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies; Ag. Director, School of Performing Arts; Head, English Department. Well-known for his unique style of performance-poetry and audio-visual recordings of his poetry in English and Ewe. Has lectured and performed his poetry globally; published several books of poetry, journal articles, book chapters and edited major books on African literature and the humanities.
He was President of the US-based African Literature Association (ALA). Winner of several awards, including the 2015 Millennium Excellence Award (Literature Prize); Le grand Prix de poesie en langue nationale [Ewe], by RICEP Lome, Togo 2012; Distinguished Membership Award for outstanding service to the African Literature Association and for Contributions to Scholarship and Teaching of African Lit (2008); Golden Key of Smederevo Award (Republic of Serbia’s Highest Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry 2022); Fonlon-Nichols Prize of the African Literature Association for Excellence in Poetry (2023).
Notable works of poetry include Elegy for the Revolution (1978); A Harvest of Our Dreams (1984/1985); AncestralLogic and CaribbeanBlues (1992), PraiseSong for The Land (2002); The Place We Call Home (2011). The last three collections come with audio recordings. Two other collections with Audio recordings – GhanaNya and Agbnoxevi – present Anyidoho’s poetry written in Ewe. GhanaNya features Anyidoho as poet and singer with his mother Abla Adidi Anyidoho, a singer-poet in the Anlo-Ewe oral tradition. Anyidoho has also written two plays for children: Akpokplo [in Ewe and English] and The Phone Call (2018). Video recordings of his poetry include He Spoke Truth Quietly; PraiseSong for TheLand, and Through the Stampede into SoulTime, Twin Brother, (English-Serbian bi-lingual selected poems, 2022), Africa, the Sad Tropical Continent-Selected Poems in Korean Translations by Lee Seok Ho, Seoul, 2012; Some of his poems have also been translated into Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.
Kofi holds a PhD in Comparative Literature (Univ of Texas-Austin, 1983); an Honorary Doctorate (University of Glasgow 2022); an Honorary DLitt, (University of Ghana (2023), He is a Fellow and past Vice President (Arts), Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow, Royal Society of Edinburgh.