This Earth, My Brother is a 1971 novel by Ghanaian novelist Kofi Awoonor published, later republished by Heinemann as part of the influential African Writers Series. [1]
Awoonor started writing the novel in 1963—and it was a "straightforward narrative" which Awoonor compared to works by Conrad and Joyce. [2] Subsequently, Awoonor wrote other sections: original printing of the novel included two types of printed material: the narrative section, and other sections written after the initial draft. [2] The intermixed narrative strategies radically changed assumptions about what African novels should include. [2]
Academic Kwame Ayivor describes the novel as a fictional representation of the mythology and worldview of the Ewe people. [3] Ayivor describes the style of using this material, as very similar to Ayi Kwei Armah's The Healers (1979). [3]
In an obituary for Awoonor, Ghanaian-British writer Nii Ayikwei Parkes called the novel "wonderfully musical prose, its immersion in Accra's history, its obvious confidence in its place in the world, made me go to my father and ask about the other uncle." [4]
Kofi Awoonor was a Ghanaian poet and author whose work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people and contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization. He started writing under the name George Awoonor-Williams, and was also published as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor. He taught African literature at the University of Ghana. Professor Awoonor was among those who were killed in the September 2013 attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a participant at the Storymoja Hay Festival.
Kwame is an Akan masculine given name among the Akan people in Ghana which is given to a boy born on Saturday. Traditionally in Ghana, a child would receive their Akan day name during their Outdooring, eight days after birth.
Guy Warren of Ghana, also known as Kofi Ghanaba, was a Ghanaian musician, best known as the inventor of Afro-jazz — "the reuniting of African-American jazz with its African roots" — and as a member of The Tempos, alongside E. T. Mensah. He also inspired musicians such as Fela Kuti. Warren's virtuosity on the African drums earned him the appellation "The Divine Drummer". At different stages of his life, he also worked as a journalist, DJ and broadcaster.
Raphael Nii Amaa Ollennu was a jurist and judge who became a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana from 1962 to 1966, the acting President of Ghana during the Second Republic from 7 August 1970 to 31 August 1970 and the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana from 1969 to 1972.
Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah was a Ghanaian politician, scholar, lawyer and statesman. He was a politician in pre- and post-colonial Ghana, which was formerly the Gold Coast, and is credited with giving Ghana its current name.
St. Augustine’s College is an all-male boarding academic institution in Cape Coast, Ghana. The school started at Amissano, a village near Elmina, in 1930. The Roman Catholic institution was established to serve as a training college and seminary. The school was named after St. Augustine of Hippo. The motto of the college is Omnia Vincit Labor, meaning "Perseverance conquers All". The school has a total of 11 houses.
Kofi Anyidoho is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists. He is currently Professor of Literature at the University of Ghana.
Okyeame was a literary magazine founded by the Ghana Society of Writers in the post-Independence era, which saw the rapid rise of a new generation of thinkers, writers and poets in the country. The first issue of Okyeame appeared in 1960, and issues were published, at irregular intervals, up until 1972. Inspired by Kwame Nkrumah, the first Prime Minister of Ghana, the publication sought to explore the experiences of Africa from a new intellectual framework. Writers published in the magazine include its first editor Kofi Awoonor, Efua Sutherland, Ayi Kwei Armah and Ama Ata Aidoo.
Frank Kobina Parkes was a Ghanaian journalist, broadcaster and poet. He was the author of one book, Songs from the Wilderness, but is widely anthologised and is perhaps best known for his poem "African Heaven", which echoes the title of Carl Van Vechten's controversial 1926 novel Nigger Heaven, and was selected by Langston Hughes for inclusion in the groundbreaking anthology of African writing An African Treasury (1960). Parkes' poetic style, an intelligent, rhythmic free verse brimming with confidence and undercut with humour, is believed to owe much to the Senegalese poet David Diop, one of the pioneers of the négritude movement. Reviewing Songs from the Wilderness, Mbella Sonne Dipoko said: "Mr Parkes is one of the fine poets writing today about Africa and the world." The book was hailed as "...a landmark not only in Ghanaian poetry but in African poetry as a whole".
Kwame Nsiah-Apau, known by his stage name Okyeame Kwame and nicknamed Rap Doctor, is a Ghanaian musician, songwriter, creative director and entrepreneur.
The Narrow Path is a 1966 autobiographical novel by Ghanaian novelist Francis Selormey. The novel was part of Heineman's African Writers Series. The novel heavily focuses on recounting the unhappy and painful experiences of a child, Kofi, attending a Catholic mission school in Ghana, and the contrasting traditional education he receives. The novel, that has many of the developmental features of a bildungsroman, but utilizes an adult narrator to observe the development of the child focal character, Kofi. The novel is also unique because of its focus on the childs' primary education, only retelling the elementary years.
Amalion is a multilingual independent academic publishing house based in Dakar, Senegal.
Isaac Chukwu Udeh popularly known as Chukwu the painter is a Ghanaian live painter and performance artist. He is known for his reverse painting and has exhibited at Ghana Banking Awards in 2016 and 2017. His artwork exhibitions was unveiled at the MTN Heroes of Change 2019. He is known for his tribute painting for the late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant.
Veronica Ayele Bekoe is a biologist from Ghana. She is known for her impact in the invention of the Veronica bucket used to reduce the spread of communicable diseases.
Nii Osae Osae Dade is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and a computer scientist. He is the co-founder and director of both Mazzuma and Utopia Technologies: two companies in the digital commerce space for emerging markets. He is the Director of Software engineering for Mazzuma.