Kwara State University Declares 3 Days Mourning for Prof. Kofi Awoonor

The Kwara State University, Malete yesterday declared a three-day mourning for the late Ghanaian poet Professor Kofi Awoonor who was killed on Saturday in the Westgate Shopping Mall terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya.

Awoonor, it would be recalled, delivered the first convocation lecture of the university on May 30, this year.

Vice-Chancellor of the university Professor Abdulrasheed Na'Allah who described Awoonor's killing among others in the attack as "senseless" said the late poet served in the committee that fought against apartheid in South-Africa.

Speaking during the celebration of African American and Black Diaspora Week organised by the institution's College of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences and Centre for Innovation and International Studies, the vice chancellor said the world has indeed lost an icon and a man endowed with lots of wisdom and experience.

He described Awoonor as an academic guru whose work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people and contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during and after colonization.