End Date :
Room 509,
Knox Hall
Global Cultural Studies and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society present a talk by Professor Kofi Anyidoho of the University of Ghana – Legon. Kwame Nkrumah (1909 -1972) was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation’s independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana. An influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963.
Kofi Anyidoho is Professor of Literature at the University of Ghana-Legon, where he has also served as Director of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa’s(CODESRIA) African Humanities Institute Programme, Acting Director of the School of Performing Arts and Head of the English Department. His published works include five collections of poetry, a children’s play in Ewe and English, CD & Cassette recordings of his poetry in Ewe. His GhanaNya CD presents Anyidoho as a poet-singer whose voice alternates with that of his late mother, Abla Adidi Anyidoho, herself a poet-cantor in the Ewe oral tradition. He has published many scholarly essays on African and African Diaspora literature, history, and culture; and edited a number of major books on African literature. Anyidoho is a past President of the United States-based African Literature Association and a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.