Kofi Awoonor (formerly George Awoonor-Williams) has written something noteworthy in almost all the major literary genres. As a poet, his name is to be found high on the list of the best contemporary African poets. His novel This Earth My Brother (1971) continues to attract critical attention. His major critical work, The Breast of the Earth (1975), is widely used as a standard introductory text on African literature and is frequently cited in African literature scholarship. All in all, his work as a creative writer, critic, and translator provides a clear demonstration of the enduring power and beauty of the African oral-poetic tradition.

Awoonor, born to Atsu E. and Kosiwo Nyidevu Awoonor on 13 March 1935, spent his earliest years in Wheta, Ghana, his birthplace, before moving with his family to Dzodze, some eleven miles away, where in 1939 he enrolled at the Roman Catholic Mission School. In 1943 he was transferred to the...