I Could Have Been A Victim Of The Kenya Mall Massacre - Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has
said he and the late Ghanaian diplomat
and poet, Kofi Awoonor could have
been together at the Westgate shopping
mall shooting in Nairobi where Kofi was
killed.

But thanks to him not being able to
attend the Storymoja/Hay Literature
Festival, his life was spared.
Soyinka who spoke in Lagos yesterday
during a memorial reading session held
in honour of the late Ghanaian poet,
said he was invited to the same festival
poet Kofi was in Nairobi for but he
could not attend.

Because of two commitments: a public
conversation with a very brave
individual, Karima Bennoune, an
Algerian national, and the annual
conference of international investigators
in Tunis.

He said:

l“My absence was particularly
regrettable, because I had planned to
make up for my failure to turn up for the
immediate prior edition. It was at least
two days after the listing of Kofi
Awoonor among the victims that I even
recollected the fact that the Festival was
ongoing at that very time.

“With that realisation came another:
that Kofi and I could have been splitting
a bottle at that same watering hole in
between events and at the end of each
day. My feelings, I wish to state clearly,
did not undergo any changes. The
emotions of rage, hate and contempt
remained on the same qualitative and
quantitative levels”.

Soyinka described the late Awoonor as
a passionate African who gave primacy
of place to values derived from his Ewe
heritage.

May his soul rest in peace.