GHANAKofi Awoonor was a Ghanaian poet, professor and former ambassador to Brazil, Cuba and the United Nations. Ghana's ministry of information said Awoonor's son was injured and is responding to treatment.
Awoonor's work drew its inspiration from the traditions of his native Ewe tribe. Ghana's poetry foundation said on its website that Awoonor went into exile after Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was driven out in a coup in 1966. He studied at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his dissertation was published in 1975. He returned to Ghana and was later jailed for alleged involvement coup plot. His time in prison was recounted in “The House by the Sea (1978),” the foundation said.