In collaboration with LOATAD (Library of Africa and African Diaspora), I had the privilege of founding the Adinkra Poetry Prize. This esteemed prize invited Ghanaian writers to submit original poems that skillfully engaged with selected Adinkra symbols. Our goal was twofold: to promote the sacred value of these symbols and their relevance as a form of poetics, while also raising awareness of the vast range and significance of Adinkra symbolism. Prior to the prize, I had the honor of coordinating a comprehensive 5-day art and poetry workshop. This workshop served as a platform for participants to immerse themselves in the world of Adinkra symbols, exploring their deep cultural and storytelling roots. The workshop culminated in a successful call for submissions, as part of the All African Women's Poetry Festival. As a result, three exceptional winners and three runner-ups were awarded a total of $600- as recognition of their outstanding poetic contributions.
I am grateful for the support received from the UNH (University of New Hampshire) and the Mellon Foundation, as part of a public humanities project. Their generous grant contributed to the success of this initiative, allowing us to celebrate and uplift the vibrant voices of Ghanaian writers who beautifully engage with Adinkra symbols in their poetic expressions.
Let’s begin in Accra, Ghana. I am twelve years old sitting at Kotoka International Airport with my sister and father, in anticipation of my reunion with my mother now living in the Bronx. We begin here because everything before this year is not relevant to my transformation as a migrant subject who now struggles with moving between the geographical and liminal spaces of a home.
But my beginning is also influenced by my name, Afia, a Friday born—the name my ancestors believe Nyame, God, gave me before I was christened into English, first and surname. I share lineage with Kwahus from my father’s side, who belong to the larger Akan ethnic group. When people ask me where I am from in Ghana, I say I am of the Kwahu people. In the United States, when people ask me where I am from, I list the places I have lived for more than a year, even though these places may not have lived in me—the Bronx, Southampton, New York, and Kingston, Rhode Island. I begin with the Duafe Adinkra symbol I recognized in a documentary by Henry Louis Gates while teaching an Introduction to African Literature class at Stony Brook University. This documentary led me through a metaphorical door of no return(thinking of Dionne Brand), and into a world of ancient African art objects and oral-literary texts— Adinkra symbols—that have no defined origin but have permeated West African and African Diasporic cultural spaces. Rediscovering Adinkra symbols has allowed me to complicate the issue of origins, of my beginning, as I begin again, as a writer and scholar who seeks to archive the symbolic language for people of the African diaspora.
I am currently an Assistant Professor in Africana Studies at the University of Rhode Island(URI). Before coming to URI, I completed a postdoc in Africana Studies at Mt. Holyoke College. I have a background in English literature and Business. My poems have been published in both national and international journals and my poetry collection was recently listed as a finalist for the National Poetry Series. I have three chapbooks, Black Ballad (Bull City Press, 2022), Try Kissing God (Akashic, 2020), and American Mercy (Finishing Line Press, 2019). More of my work is at afuansong.com.
