Atukwei John Okai was a Ghanaian poet, cultural activist and academic.
14 Facts About Atukwei Okai
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Atukwei Okai was Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers' Association, and a president of the Ghana Association of Writers.
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Atukwei Okai was born on 15 March 1941 in Accra, Ghana, and from the age of three for eight years lived in the country's Northern Region, where his father was a school headmaster in Gambaga.
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Nkrumah had meanwhile been overthrown in a coup in 1966, and when Atukwei Okai returned home the following year, he and other Ghanaian students who had studied in the Soviet Union were not welcomed by the new regime and had difficulty finding employment.
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Atukwei Okai began teaching at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1971 as lecturer in Russian literature at the Department of Modern Languages, and in 1984 became Senior Research Fellow in African Literature at the Institute of African Studies.
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Atukwei Okai was the head of the GaDangbe Department of Education at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
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Atukwei Okai's pioneering role at PAWA was recognized by the Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana, which in 1991 presented him with their highest award, the Flagstar, the first time that this award was given to a writer.
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Atukwei Okai died aged 77 in Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, on 13 July 2018, after a short illness.
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Atukwei Okai was survived by his wife Beatrice and their five daughters.
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Atukwei Okai's state-assisted funeral service, attended by many dignitaries including past and present Ghanaian leaders, was on 13 September 2018 at the Accra International Conference Centre and his body was buried at the new Military Cemetery at Burma Camp in Accra.
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Atukwei Okai introduced me to Mr Moses Danquah, the Editor of a new magazine that was yet to appear, The Ghanaian Magazine.
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Atukwei Okai's poems have been translated into several languages and have appeared widely in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry and prominent international journals such as The Atlantic Monthly, New African, Black World, Literary Cavalcade and New American Review.
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Atukwei Okai wrote three books of "verses and chants" for children.
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In 1968 Atukwei Okai was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 1979 was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa in the US.