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Kofi Awoonor
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== Career == After graduating in 1960, Awoonor worked as a researcher for the [[Institute of African Studies|Institute for African Studies]] and began participating in the [[Pan-Africanism|pan-African]] campaigns of [[Kwame Nkrumah]]. He was appointed to the Ghana Film Corporation. He helped to found the Ghana Playhouse, where he played the lead role in [[Wole Soyinka]]'s ''[[The Lion and the Jewel]]''.<ref name="BBC" /> In the 1960s, he edited the literary journal ''[[Okyeame]]'' and was an associate editor of ''[[Transition Magazine]]''.<ref name="Britannica" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/23/kofi-awoonor|title=Kofi Awoonor obituary|first=Lyn|last=Innes|newspaper=The Guardian|date=23 September 2013}}</ref> While in England, he wrote several radio plays for the [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]], and began using the name Kofi Awoonor.<ref>[[Siga Fatima Jagne]], Pushpa Naidu Parekh (eds), [https://books.google.com/books?id=3iibMu0Qjs8C&dq=kofi+awoonor+williams&pg=PA53 "Kofi Awoonor (1935–)"], in ''Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook'', Routledge, 1998, p. 53.</ref> He spent the early 1970s in the United States, studying and teaching at [[Stony Brook University]] (then called SUNY at Stony Brook) where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1972.<ref>Deon J. Hampton, [http://www.newsday.com/news/world/kofi-awoonor-killed-in-kenya-mall-attack-was-stony-brook-professor-1.6120113#! "Kofi Awoonor killed in Kenya mall attack, was Stony Brook professor"], ''Long Island Newsday'', 22 September 2013.</ref> While in the United States he wrote ''[[This Earth, My Brother]]'' and ''Night of My Blood'', both books published in 1971. Awoonor returned to Ghana in 1975 as head of the English department at the [[University of Cape Coast]]. Within months he was arrested for helping a soldier accused of trying to overthrow the military government and was imprisoned without trial. His sentence was remitted in October 1976.<ref name=Britannica /><ref name="Who What When">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/whowrotewhatwhen0000unse/mode/2up |title=Who Wrote What When? |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1999 |isbn=0-684-85822-3 |location=London |pages=41 |archive-url=}}</ref> ''The House by the Sea'' (1978) is about his time in jail.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Awoonor |first=Kofi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aDKsAAAAIAAJ |title=The House by the Sea |date=1978 |publisher=Greenfield Review Press |isbn=978-0-912678-33-7 |language=en}}</ref> Awoonor was Ghana's ambassador to Brazil from 1984 to 1988, before serving as ambassador to Cuba.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/46064/Kofi-Awoonor |title=Kofi Awoonor (Ghanaian author) |access-date=24 September 2013 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> From 1990 to 1994, Awoonor was Ghana's [[Permanent Representative to the United Nations]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.un.int/ghana/past_ambassadors.html |title=Permanent Mission of Ghana to the United Nations – Past Ambassadors |access-date=28 April 2010 |publisher=United Nations |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510190850/http://www.un.int/ghana/past_ambassadors.html |archive-date=10 May 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-09-26 |title=Ghana {{!}} General Assembly |url=https://gadebate.un.org/en/68/ghana |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=gadebate.un.org |language=en}}</ref> where he headed the committee against [[apartheid]].<ref name="Uni KN">{{cite web |url= http://www.nu.ac.za/cca/images/tow/TOW2004/Kofi.htm |title= Kofi Awoonor |access-date=9 September 2007 |publisher= University of KwaZulu-Natal |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071104125546/http://www.nu.ac.za/cca/images/tow/TOW2004/Kofi.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 4 November 2007}}</ref> He was also a former Chairman of the [[Council of State (Ghana)|Council of State]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Senior Ghanaian citizen, Awoonor killed in Kenya gun attack |author=Emmanuel K. Dogbevi|url=http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2013/09/22/senior-ghanaian-citizen-awoonor-killed-in-kenya-gun-attack/|work=Ghana Business News|publisher=GBN|date=22 September 2013}}</ref> the main advisory body to the [[president of Ghana]], serving in that position from 2009 to January 2013.<ref name="BBC" />
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