Prof. Atukwei Okai[/caption] Professor Atukwei Okai, the renowned Ghanaian poet and cultural activist is dead. The iconic poet was said to have died on Friday whilst on admission at the country’s premier teaching hospital, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. Prof. Atukwei Okai, formerly known as John Okai, was 77. A short statement issued on behalf of the Odoi and Okai families by Prof Akilakpa Sawyerr announced his death in Accra. Prof. Atukwei Okai was the Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers Association of Ghana and a former president of the Ghana Association of Writers. He was generally acknowledged to be the first real performance poets to emerge from Africa, and his work has been called “also politically radical and socially conscious, one of his great concerns being Pan-Africanism”. His performances on radio and television worldwide included an acclaimed 1975 appearance at Poetry International at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, where he shared the stage with US poets Stanley Kunitz and Robert Lowell, and Nicolas Guillen of Cuba. He was born in Accra in 1941 and was educated at the Gambaga Native Authority School, Nalerigu Middle Boys’ School, and then at Methodist Middle Boys’ School in Accra and Accra High School.
Prof Otukwei Okai was survived by a wife and five daughters.
