Author Description

GHANA 21 HAIKU is unbelievably precious. After all, this delightful poetic form was not only exclusively Japanese until recently, but its Ghanaian manifestation may not be more than half a decade old. This collection is from Adjei Agyei Baah, the undoubtedly prolific headliner of a group of courageous, playful, yet profoundly serious poets.This excellent volume is also a potent symbol of our times. It is a great example of a certain easy and respectful claim to all the artistic heritage of the world, by all the peoples of the world: wherever they were, and are, produced.Meanwhile, and happily, contemporary global artistic imagination is not limited by any kind of timidity. Or maybe some from the post-colonial world possess the certainty of those who have confronted the sobering fact of having to produce poetry and other forms of literature in the languages of peoples of other continents. To put it simply, if Africans have had to write in English, French, Portuguese, and other European languages, then they can challenge their imagination with haiku. In contemporary speak, Adjei has "added value" to this collection in two ways. To begin with, he has provided a beautiful Asante Akan version for each haiku, and thereby also created a wonderful riddle for the reader. So of course, we are left to wonder forever which version came first: the English, or the Asante Akan. Meanwhile, he has also illustrated each poem with an exquisite version of Adinkra symbols (Ghanaian ideograms). The Adinkra symbols are one of a group of the many collections of early African writings that were stopped from developing into full orthographies by wars, the relentless and alternating tropical rains, droughts, the excessive dryness, and the heavy humidity. Then there was colonial intervention and its negative and heavily repressive ways of looking at anything and everything African. From/ "cocoa beverage /the farmer only smells the aroma/ in Ghana"/ to /"morning radio/ everyone knows the way fo