Poetry, like many art forms, is a medium for conveying the complex experiences that make up what it is to be a human being. Chances are, at some point in our lives, we will all turn to poetry. We turn to poetry to grieve, celebrate, honor a memory, share a passion, and even to take a stand or make our voice heard.
In Africa, which is blessed with an abundance of diversity in culture and language, poetry has been widely used as a form of activism and storytelling to document history and advocate for change.
In the 1960s, as Africa went through a period of decolonization, African writers and poets were at the forefront of writing new histories and positing a new era of change for the continent. The same holds true for African poets of today.
In celebration of World Poetry Day, we’ve put together a list of eight incredible African poets, from the past and present, you should definitely learn about and be inspired by.
1. Dennis Brutus
Dennis Brutus was a South African poet and activist whose campaign against the apartheid government in South Africa led to the country being expelled from the 1964 Olympic Games. South Africa did not return to the competition until 1992.
He also led campaigns against discrimination in sports, leading to the apartheid government banning him from teaching, writing, publishing, and attending social or political meetings. Brutus flouted these bans and, as a result, the apartheid government sentenced him to 18 months in prison.
His first collection of poems Sirens, Knuckles and Boots were published in Nigeria during his time in prison. Widely recognized as an African classic, Brutus’ work is powerful, artistically controlled, and political.
In Letters to Martha and Other Poems from a South African Prison (first published in 1968), Brutus weaves a powerful motif of loneliness and misery inspired by his time in prison but pointedly highlighting the brutality of apartheid.
He continued to remain an advocate for equality and human rights until his death in 2009, aged 85, and his work continues to inspire a generation of activists.
2. Christopher Okigbo
Although he died more than 50 years ago, Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo has remained one of the most widely anthologized African poets.
Okigbo achieved so much in his short life. He was one of the leading voices of the post-colonial literary movement in Nigeria, alongside Nigerian literary icons Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka.
Okigbo founded the African Authors Association, worked as private secretary to Nigeria’s federal minister of research and information, and was manager for Cambridge University Press of West Africa, all before the age of 34.
Before he was killed in combat fighting for Biafra in the Nigerian Civil War, Okigbo published three volumes of work: Heavensgate (1962), Limits (1964), and Silences (1965).
His works are symbolic representations of his lived experiences, views on the role of the poet, and highly personal takes on many other themes. Okigbo was awarded first prize for poetry at the 1966 Festival of the Negro Arts in Dakar, which he declined because he believed poetic expression must be judged as good or bad, not as a product of race.
3. Safia Elhillo
Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo has been one of the most prolific poets of the last decade. She is the author of The January Children (2017), which received the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets and an Arab American Book Award.
Elhillo was also awarded the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and her novel in verse Home Is Not A Country (2021) was longlisted for the National Book Award and received a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor.
Her work examines longing in a postcolonial world, misogyny in Muslim culture, and creativity with man-made and male-dominated borders, among other themes.
“And for a long time I thought it would just be easier to not say anything at all,” she told NPR in 2022. “…but my silence will not protect me, and it will not protect my community either.”
4. Vonani Bila
Vonani Bila is a South African poet and founder of the Timbila Writers’ Village, a meeting point and workplace for authors, translators, publishers, and cultural activists.
His poetry explores the failures of government, the abuse of women and children, and the state neglect of HIV/AIDS, among other themes.
Known for encouraging new voices and advocating for marginalized voices in the poetry space, Bila was also nominated for the Daimler Chrysler South Africa Poetry Award in 2005.
Bila also advocates for Indigenous language preservation and linguistic diversity, and frequently writes in his native Tsonga, a language spoken by almost 15 million people in South Africa.
“People march for clean water, reliable electricity, AIDS treatment, housing, jobs; civil, political, and economic rights, etc.,” he told NER in 2018. “But they seldom march to protect their languages and cultural rights. Culture is regarded as a soft issue.”
5. Kofi Awoonor
Kofi Awoonor is one of Africa’s most widely recognized and accomplished poets.
He was also an accomplished author of novels, plays, political essays, and literary criticism, as well as his several volumes of poetry, including Rediscovery and Other Poems (1964), Night of My Blood (1971), Ride Me, Memory (1973), The House by the Sea (1978), and The Latin American and Caribbean Notebook (1992).
Following a short jail stint (he was imprisoned without trial by the military government at the time) in 1975, Awoonor became politically active and wrote about his time in jail in The House by the Sea.
After many years of teaching in the United States and Ghana, Awoonor served as the Ghanaian ambassador to Brazil and Cuba and served as ambassador to the United Nations from 1990 to 1994, leading the committee against apartheid.
Awoonor’s poetry was deeply rooted in the poetic and oral traditions of the Ewe people of Ghana (his grandmother was an Ewe dirge singer). He translated and published traditional Ewe poems in his critical study Guardians of the Sacred Word and Ewe Poetry (1974).
He died in the Westgate shopping mall terrorist attack in Nairobi in September 2013 while attending the Storymoja Hay festival, a celebration of writing and storytelling, in the Kenyan capital.
