A day before he was brutally killed by Somali-based terrorist group Al-Shaabab, acclaimed poet, politician and former Council of State Chairman Professor Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor told a group of poets and literary luminaries from both West and East Africa that he was not afraid of death.
He was in Nairobi as a guest at the popular literary festival called the Hay Festival for literary works in Africa.
In a speech about his poetry, he stated, ?I am unafraid of death,? as if he had a premonition about his death.
DAILY GUIDE?s visit to the Kenyan capital Nairobi for firsthand information about the tragic incident revealed that Kenyan literary establishment was mourning a departed colleague whom they had invited for the festival.
Professor Awoonor was said to have indicated a few weeks before his death how his funeral should be marked, opting for cremation and that his ashes must be interred at a spot in Wheta, his hometown in the Volta Region.
According to Prof Kofi Anyidoho, co-chair of the funeral planning committee, a testament written by the late Council of State Chairman indicated that mourners should not wail at his funeral.
The funeral rites would run from October 3 to October 11; and the final interment of the ashes on November 9.
DAILY GUIDE gathered from some participants at the literary festival in Nairobi that after delivering his speech, between 9:00am and 10:00am on Saturday, September 21, Professor Awoonor decided to go to the Westgate Shopping Mall three kilometers away from the Kenyan National Museum where the festival was taking place, to pick up some groceries and get a cup of caffe latte at a popular coffee shop in the Westgate Mall called the Art Caffe.
Unknown to him, at that exact moment, the terrorists had laid siege on the up-market Nairobi shopping mall.
He and his son Afetsi Awoonor were among the first casualties as they drove into the parking lot of the mall.
While he was shot dead, his son escaped with gunshot wounds on the shoulder.
At 5:00pm, he was expected to be back at the National Museum to participate in literary discussions of renowned poets in West and East Africa in an event tagged, ?East Engages West.?
He was among a group of West African poets that included Kwame Dawes, Nii Parkes, Fatou Were and East African poets such as Rashida Namulondo, Pamela Orogot, Kelly Taremwa and Clifton Gachagua.
Insider
According to Tony Mochama, a poet and a journalist based in Nairobi, the news of Prof. Awoonor?s cold-blooded killing by Al-Shaabab ?rippled like a seismic wave.?
Apparently on Thursday, September 19, 2013, Tony Mochama, also the Secretary General of Kenya?s Poverty Eradication Network (PEN), had met Prof. Awoonor at the media centre of the Storymoja Hay Festival and exchanged pleasantries with him.
?I only met Professor Awoonor briefly at the Storymoja Hay Festival at sunset on the last Thursday of his life, walking into the media centre there, and one wishes one had said something more profound than ?pleased to meet you sir,? Tony Mochama stated.
Professor Awoonor was killed alongside 67 others when Al-Shaabab militants stormed the shopping centre firing sophisticated weapons at unsuspecting shoppers indiscriminately.
It appeared the late poet was well prepared for his own death, as family sources stated that he had already made his own funeral arrangements and directed that it should be graced by only 250 mourners.
(DAILY GUIDE)
