Laing, Kojo
LAING, Kojo
Also wrote as Bernard Kojo Laing. Nationality: Ghanaian. Born: Bernard Ebenezer Laing, Kumasi, 7 January 1946. Education: Glasgow University, Scotland, 1964–68, M.A. 1968; College of Management, Ghana, 1969–70, diploma in management 1970; Birmingham University, England, 1975, certificate in rural management 1975. Family: Married 1) Josephine Laing in 1965 (separated), five sons and three daughters; 2) Naana Anaman, one son and two daughters. Career: Headmaster, Cluster of Schools, Accra, 1969; district administration officer, 1969–72, district chief executive, 1972–78, Ashanti; deputy secretary, government "think tank," Accra, 1978–79; secretary, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, 1980–84. Since 1984 chief executive, Family Schools, Accra. Awards: National Poetry prize, Valco award, 1976; National Novel prize, Ghana Association of Writers, 1985. Member: Ghana Association of Writers, 1984. Address: Box 2642, Accra, Ghana.
Publications
Poetry
Woman of the Aeroplanes. Oxford, Heinemann, 1987; New York, Morrow, 1989.
Godhorse. Oxford, Heinemann, 1989.
Novels
Search Sweet Country. London, Heinemann, and Boston, Faber, 1986.
Major Gentl and the Achimota Wars. Oxford, Heinemann, 1992.
*Critical Studies: "Search Sweet Country and the Language of Authentic Being" by M.E. Kropp Dakubu, in Research in African Literatures (Bloomington, Indiana), 24(1), spring 1993; "Culture Wars in Cyberspace: A Note on Kojo Laing's 'Major Gentl and the Achimota Wars'" by Derek Wright, in International Fiction Review (Canada), 23(1–2), 1996; "Science and the Re-Presentation of African Identity in 'Major Gentl and the Achimota Wars'" by Francis Ngaboh-Smart, in Connotations (Munster, Germany), 7(1), 1997–98; "'History Never Walks Here, It Runs in Any Direction': Carnival and Magic in the Fiction of Kojo Laing and Mia Couto" by Pietro Deandrea, in Coterminous Worlds: Magical Realism and Contemporary Post-Colonial Literature in English, edited by Elsa Linguanti, Francesco Casotti, and Carmen Concilio, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Rodopi, 1999.
Kojo Laing comments:
Whether poetry or prose, seeks the whole, either philosophically or psychologically, in ironic combinations of both the spiritual and the physical, the body being the base, in tragic mortality, of the spirit. Authentic living, which both mixes and transcends cultures, is linked with a modernity that—provided it is universalistic rather than purely Western—will move Africa forward without breaking the consciousness, without Western fragmentation of the mind. The theological ironies of seeking the ultimate spiritual/physical experiences while condemning institutions of worship and culture. Interested in how the African fits into space with an inclusive rather than an exclusive perspective, with informed magic. Set out first to destroy then transcend the pastoral African motif, making use of my schooling both in Ghana and in Scotland. The writing enjoys the concept of the rebel as well as the synthesizer of cultures, even though these may seem to be mutually exclusive.
* * *Kojo Laing may be as prolific in fiction as in poetry, but his style is unique in both genres. Born in Ghana, he was educated in Scotland, where he received an M.A. degree, and in Ghana. He served as secretary of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana and has headed private schools in his native country. He has published two volumes of poetry, and his work appears in anthologies such as The Heinemann Book of African Poetry in English (1990) and The New African Poetry: An Anthology (1999).
Laing's poetry carries a unique voice and is praised for its poetic evocation and linguistic inventiveness. On the other hand, his poetry is often riddling and playful, sometimes to the extent of detracting from its meaning. While it seemingly follows the verbal fireworks of fellow poet Atukwei Okai, Laing's poetry goes against the grain of modern Ghanaian poetry as seen in Kofi Anyidoho and Kobena Eyi-Acquah, whose simple works are generally indebted to the African oral tradition. While Akan words are interspersed among the lines, which bristle with a quaint musicality and other sound effects, Laing's poetic style is difficult to relate to the African oral tradition. Rather, it is an individualized modernist voice that cynically reflects on subjects ranging from portraits of daily life like a woman selling garden eggs in the rain to love, religion, and death.
Thus, Laing's poetic voice carries dry humor, irony, and sarcasm. In "Steps," for example, he attacks a so-called big man for his vanity. The poet often wears a strange mask. In "I am the freshly dead husband," the speaker, who has been killed in an accident, watches his fashionable wife pretending grief while "hurrying to bury" him; she bursts out laughing within as the dust covers him. In "Gods door" the poet addresses complaints about Christianity.
It appears, however, that for Laing, as with the Nigerian Christopher Okigbo, meaning is not a priority. Laing's poetry seems to be more concerned with communicating feeling and energy. His poems are thus of great formal and technical interest. The pictorial form of poems like "Festival" and "Wall" is eye-catching. He uses highly figurative language, especially metaphors, similes, and personification. His metaphors can be striking, for example, "The kente is the orchestra of colours" or "The Tamale man is an Accra cat." Similarly, he uses pointed similes, as in "The rain slants like the thighs / of a tall woman dancing." Personification is common in his poetry. He writes, for example, of the "huge car with a sad voice." One also reads of the "sun's tongue" and of a church door wanting to grow a mustache. Often the figures are mixed, as when he describes doors as "Muslims in Anglican churches." His poetry is filled with wit, for example, "Door sees woman whose sorrow / is larger than her breasts." There is also copious use of repetition, which may be varied, as in "Festival," "The rain slants," "Senior lady sells garden eggs," "Black girl, white girl," and "The bush."
Laing exploits the sound potential of words, hence the many instances of alliteration and assonance, as in "Omen after the last Amen," "saint selling sin at street corner," and "the bad and bitter biter." There is frequent playfulness, even when he is reflecting on serious issues. There is also a certain secular, if not sacrilegious or profane, angle to Laing's poetic voice, as in "Godsdoor." In this poem the poet speaks of the male organ, long sermons that kill birds, saints who sell sin, and priests who dance with "ecumenical lovers." There is so much about death that one gets an inkling of morbidity in a poet "lost between bitter and sweet" and who feels that "the living will use death for joy."
Laing is a unique poet whose poetic subjects, form, and techniques are inimitable. His linguistic dexterity and unusual images are bound to charm the reader.
—Tanure Ojaide