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Atukwei Okai
Atukwei John Okai (15 March 1941 – 13 July 2018) was a Ghanaian poet, cultural activist and academic. He was Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers' Association, and a president of the Ghana Association of Writers. His early work was published under the name John Okai. With his poems rooted in the oral tradition, he is generally acknowledged to have been the first real performance poet to emerge from Africa, and his work has been called "also politically radical and socially conscious, one of his great concerns being Pan-Africanism".[citation needed] His performances on radio and television worldwide include an acclaimed 1975 appearance at Poetry International at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, where he shared the stage with US poets Stanley Kunitz and Robert Lowell, and Nicolás Guillén of Cuba.
Atukwei Okai was born on 15 March 1941 in Accra, Ghana, and from the age of three for eight years lived in the country's Northern Region, where his father (Ga by birth) was a school headmaster in Gambaga. Okai was educated at the Gambaga Native Authority School, Nalerigu Middle Boys' School, then at Methodist Middle Boys' School in Accra and Accra High School.
In 1961, he went on a scholarship from the government of President Kwame Nkrumah to Moscow, where he earned his M.A. (Litt.) from the Gorky Literary Institute in 1967. Nkrumah had meanwhile been overthrown in a coup in 1966, and when Okai returned home the following year, he and other Ghanaian students who had studied in the Soviet Union were not welcomed by the new regime and had difficulty finding employment. He recalled: "It was a most despondent time of my life.... I was already a writer and broadcaster of some note before I went to the Soviet Union. It galled greatly that those of us that went to study in the former Eastern Bloc were tarred by the general suspicion attached to socialism in those days. We were not politicians and we did not get our scholarships on our political affiliations. We were young Ghanaians with passion to help build the country." He nevertheless honoured invitations from schools and colleges, such as Wesley Girls' High School, and Adisadel College in Cape Coast, and Achimota School, to give performances of his work, which had a memorable impact on the young students.
Okai subsequently took up a post-graduate scholarship from the University of Ghana to pursue studies in the UK, earning his Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) degree in 1971 from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London, which is today part of University College London.
He began teaching at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1971 as lecturer in Russian literature at the Department of Modern Languages, and in 1984 became Senior Research Fellow in African Literature at the Institute of African Studies. He was also the head of the GaDangbe Department of Education at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
In 1989 he was elected the first Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers' Association (PAWA), a position he held till his death. His pioneering role at PAWA was recognized by the Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ECRAG), which in 1991 presented him with their highest award, the Flagstar, the first time that this award was given to a writer.
Atukwei Okai died aged 77 in Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, on 13 July 2018, after a short illness. He was survived by his wife Beatrice and their five daughters.
Atukwei Okai’s state-assisted funeral service, attended by many dignitaries including past and present Ghanaian leaders, was on 13 September 2018 at the Accra International Conference Centre and his body was buried at the new Military Cemetery at Burma Camp in Accra.
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Atukwei Okai
Atukwei John Okai (15 March 1941 – 13 July 2018) was a Ghanaian poet, cultural activist and academic. He was Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers' Association, and a president of the Ghana Association of Writers. His early work was published under the name John Okai. With his poems rooted in the oral tradition, he is generally acknowledged to have been the first real performance poet to emerge from Africa, and his work has been called "also politically radical and socially conscious, one of his great concerns being Pan-Africanism".[citation needed] His performances on radio and television worldwide include an acclaimed 1975 appearance at Poetry International at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, where he shared the stage with US poets Stanley Kunitz and Robert Lowell, and Nicolás Guillén of Cuba.
Atukwei Okai was born on 15 March 1941 in Accra, Ghana, and from the age of three for eight years lived in the country's Northern Region, where his father (Ga by birth) was a school headmaster in Gambaga. Okai was educated at the Gambaga Native Authority School, Nalerigu Middle Boys' School, then at Methodist Middle Boys' School in Accra and Accra High School.
In 1961, he went on a scholarship from the government of President Kwame Nkrumah to Moscow, where he earned his M.A. (Litt.) from the Gorky Literary Institute in 1967. Nkrumah had meanwhile been overthrown in a coup in 1966, and when Okai returned home the following year, he and other Ghanaian students who had studied in the Soviet Union were not welcomed by the new regime and had difficulty finding employment. He recalled: "It was a most despondent time of my life.... I was already a writer and broadcaster of some note before I went to the Soviet Union. It galled greatly that those of us that went to study in the former Eastern Bloc were tarred by the general suspicion attached to socialism in those days. We were not politicians and we did not get our scholarships on our political affiliations. We were young Ghanaians with passion to help build the country." He nevertheless honoured invitations from schools and colleges, such as Wesley Girls' High School, and Adisadel College in Cape Coast, and Achimota School, to give performances of his work, which had a memorable impact on the young students.
Okai subsequently took up a post-graduate scholarship from the University of Ghana to pursue studies in the UK, earning his Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) degree in 1971 from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London, which is today part of University College London.
He began teaching at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1971 as lecturer in Russian literature at the Department of Modern Languages, and in 1984 became Senior Research Fellow in African Literature at the Institute of African Studies. He was also the head of the GaDangbe Department of Education at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
In 1989 he was elected the first Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers' Association (PAWA), a position he held till his death. His pioneering role at PAWA was recognized by the Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ECRAG), which in 1991 presented him with their highest award, the Flagstar, the first time that this award was given to a writer.
Atukwei Okai died aged 77 in Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, on 13 July 2018, after a short illness. He was survived by his wife Beatrice and their five daughters.
Atukwei Okai’s state-assisted funeral service, attended by many dignitaries including past and present Ghanaian leaders, was on 13 September 2018 at the Accra International Conference Centre and his body was buried at the new Military Cemetery at Burma Camp in Accra.