Passwords: Kwame Dawes on Contemporary African Poetry

Poet Kwame Dawes introduces a new generation of African poets whose work reflects the complex cosmopolitanism of contemporary African societies and cultures that remain fully traditional and yet excitingly engaged with modernity. He gives a brief history of modern African poetry, with special attention to the work of Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor and discusses the work of rising poets including Warsan Shire of Somalia, Nick Makoha of Uganda, and Tsitsi Jaji of Zimbabwe.

Kwame Dawes is Chancellor’s Professor of English at the University of Nebraska. Editor of Prairie Schooner, he is the author of more than 16 books of poetry, including Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems, Wheels, and Progeny of Air, which received a 1994 Forward Poetry Prize. Other honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, and the Silver Musgrave Medal for Literature.