Poetry
Rediscovery and Other Poems
Kofi Awoonor · 1964
Synopsis
The poet's first collection, a slim booklet he signed George Awoonor-Williams. The poems carry into English the mark of the Anlo funeral dirge, in the Ewe language, so much so that critics compare them to the dirge-singer Akpalu. “The Weaver Bird” makes the weaver bird that comes to lay its eggs in the house an image of colonisation; “We Have Found a New Land” attacks professionals in three-piece suits. The title names a journey of rediscovery, which critics follow from poem to poem, including “Desire”.
Context
The chapbook appeared in 1964 in Ibadan, Nigeria, from Mbari Publications, under the name George Awoonor-Williams, which the author later dropped for Kofi Awoonor. Most of its poems passed into Night of My Blood in 1971. Kofi Anyidoho stresses how present the Anlo dirge is in it; according to the BBC, the poet's first major works were English translations of the songs of Akpalu, the Anlo poet to whom he laid claim.
Who it is for
A short collection, in English, never translated into French; knowing what an Ewe funeral dirge is sheds much light on many of the poems.
Prizes and reception
With this slim volume the young poet entered literature; in 1988 Richard Priebe ranks him, with Soyinka and Armah, among the “mythic” writers.