Kofi Awoonor (pseudonimo di George Awoonor-Williams) è nato il 13 Marzo del 1935 in Ghana. È un critico letterario e professore di letteratura comparata e ha servito come ambasciatore per il Ghana. È autore di romanzi, opere teatrali, saggi politici, critica letteraria, e diversi volumi di poesia.
Kofi Awoonor è stato ucciso il 21 settembre 2013 durante un attacco terroristico al Westgate Shopping Mall di Nairobi, in Kenya.
Traduco solo la prima delle tre poesie che ho reperito dopo una rapida ricerca in rete, anche perché mi sembra emblematica del suo pensiero e persino della sua morte. Sul blog African Soulja, African Poetry Review la poesia viene analizzata come segue: “The meaning of this poem is defined when you realise that Awoonor calls the place where the cathedral is standing, ‘a dirty patch’ (line 1). It is called ‘dirty’ only because in his eyes, the ground is desecrated by the casual planting of a new religion as though it was another tree. How could anyone remove the ancient symbiosis of life and spirit that existed under that tree, from which the whole tribe drew its existence? It’s only fair that the cathedral, a symbol of imperialist and colonial oppression, is called ‘senseless’ (line 9). You will realise also that Awoonor respects the rules of first line capitalisation in keeping with the first sentence of the poem but breaks this rule in the last line when he announces the senselessness of the cathedral that is planted on his holy ground. He makes us know that no wisdom will justify the imposition of a new religion in the place where an old one freely grew. In the larger sphere, the cathedral symbolises not only the change in religious and spiritual experience but also the purity of local fellowship and freedom which was stolen by the imposition of a colonial government.”
La cattedrale
Su questo spiazzale sporco
un tempo sorgeva un albero
che diffondeva incenso sul granturco appena nato:
i suoi rami si estendevano attraverso un paradiso
rischiarato dagli ultimi fuochi di una tribù.
Poi mandarono geometri e costruttori
a tagliare l’albero
e piantare al suo posto
un’insensata gigantesca cattedrale di sventura.
The cathedral
On this dirty patch
a tree once stood
shedding incense on the infant corn:
its boughs stretched across a heaven
brightened by the last fires of a tribe.
They sent surveyors and builders
who cut that tree
planting in its place
A huge senseless cathedral of doom.
Paolo Venti