Mawuli Adjei(Dr.), B.A. (Ghana), M.A. (Birmingham), MPhil, PhD. (Ghana)
Mawuli Adjei is a British Chevening Fellow who has taught English in Nigeria, Libya and Ghana. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Ghana, Legon, where he teaches African Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Popular Literature, Practice in Criticism, Creative Writing, and other courses.
Writing under the pen name Mawuli Adzei, Dr Adjei’s creative career started in Keta Secondary School. He won the Southern Volta Poetry Competition for secondary schools under the auspices of the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) for FESTAC ‘77. In 1996, his collection of poetry, Testament of the Seasons, received the Valco Fund Literary Award for Meritorious Writing (Unpublished Poetry Category). Some of his poems have since appeared in The Mirror, The Daily Graphic, and on radio (Citi FM, Accra). Mawuli’s poems have been read at various poetry readings and recitals, including at events at the University of Ghana, University of Lome, Togo, the Nubuke Foundation Literary Night series and the Splendours of Dawn World Poetry Day workshop (2011).
Mawuli has also served as a resource person for the Writers Project Ghana, Mbaasem Foundation, and Splendours of Dawn.
Mawuli has three books to his credit— the novels The Jewel of Kabibi (Infinity Publications, in press), Taboo (Kwadwoan Publishers, 2012) and the poetry collection Testament of the Seasons (ERASKA Print). He is currently working on a third novel, Unchained.
Journal Articles
1. ‘Trans-Atlantic Memories: The Black Diaspora in the Poetry of Kofi Anyidoho and Kofi Awoonor.’ Africa and Trans-Atlantic Memories, Eds. Naana Opoku-Agyemang, Paul Lovejoy & David Trotman, Africa World Press, pp. 373-394, 2008.
2. ‘Male-bashing and Narrative Subjectivity in Amma Darko’s First Three Novels.’ SKASE Journal of Literary Studies, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 47-61, 2009.
3. ‘Corruption and the Body Politic: A Re-reading of Amu Djoleto’s Money Galore in the Era of “Zero Tolerance for Corruption” in Ghana.’ Legon Journal of the Humanities, Vol. 20, pp. 89-104, 2010.
4. ‘Adaptations of the Trickster Character in West African Video-Film Productions: A Critique of Chukwuka’s The Master.’ GUMAGA, 2013.
5. ‘Revisiting History, Rethinking Pan-Africanism: Failed States, Citizenship, Ethno-Nationalism and Xenophobia’ in Alex Agyei-Agyiri’s Unexpected Joy at Dawn’. Ife Journal of the Humanities and Social Studies (IJOHUSS), pp. 74-88, 2013.
6. ‘The Back-to-Africa Consciousness in the African Diaspora: Confronting the Myth and the Reality in Ghanaian Fiction.’ Legon Journal of the Humanities, 2013.
7. ‘From the “Great Tradition” of English Literature to Literatures in English: A Case Study of Undergraduate Long Essays in Two Ghanaian Universities.’ Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies, 2014.
8. ‘The Video-Movie Flourish in Ghana: Evolution and the Search for Identity.’ Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol.4 No.17, 2014.
9. (With George E. Agbozo & David Odoi) ‘Towards Universal Harmony: The Works of Two Ghanaian Poets’. ANGLISTICUM: International Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol.3, No.9, Sept. 2014.
10. ‘Looking Death in the Eye: The Human Condition, Morbidity and Mortality in Kofi Awoonor’s Poetry’. African Literature Today, Vol.32: Politics and Social Justice, 2014.
11. ‘Beyond Fiction: Historical, Sociological and Ideological Perspectives on Kwakuvi Azasu’s The Slave Raiders’. International Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Science, Vol.2 No.6, pp.55-66, 2014.
12. (With George E. Agbozo) ‘Contemporary English Loan-words in Ewe: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal.’ International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2014.
13. ‘Memories of Slavery in African Orature: Anlo-Ewe Slave Proverbs.’ GUMAGA 2014.
Book Chapters
1. (With Kofi Anyidoho) ‘Afterword’, in Jakob Spieth, The Ewe People: A Study of the Ewe People in German Togo, Eds. William Komla Anku et al., Sub-Sahara Publishers, 2011. Available at books.google.com.gh/books?isbn=9988647905
2. ‘Cutting a Long Story Short: A Semiotic and Postmodernist Reading of Veronique Tadjo’s As the Crow Flies.’ Ghanaian Voices on Topics in English Language and Literature, Eds. A.N. Mensah et al. Ayebia Clarke, pp.99-114, 2013.
3. (With Sela K. Adjei) ‘Still Animation as an Alternative Means of Disseminating Ananse Stories in Ghana.’ Narrating (Hi) Stories: Storytelling in West Africa. Ed. Johanna Ella, (Goettingen, Germany, in press).
4. ‘Documentation of Slavery in Ghanaian Folklore: Anlo-Ewe Slave Songs.’ Discourses in African Musicology: A Festschrift in Honour of J.H. Kwabena Nketia’ (Eds: Kwasi Ampene, Akosua A. Ampofo, Godwin Adjei, Albert Awedoba ), African Studies Centre and the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, University of Michigan & the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana (in press, Michigan: University of Michigan Press).
5. Reinventing the Congo through Western Eyes: Echoes of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in Michela Wrong’s In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz. Critical Approaches to Joseph Conrad (in press, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press).
Creative Works - Novels
1. Taboo (Novel), Accra: Kwadwoan Publishing, 2012.
2. Testament of the Seasons (Poetry), Accra: ERASKA PRINT, 2013.
3. The Jewel of Kabibi (Novel), Accra: Masterman Publications, 2014.
4. The Witch of Lagbati (Novel), Accra: Masterman Publications, 2014. Study Guides 1. Introduction to Punctuation Accra: Kwadwoan Publishing, 2011.
COURSES TAUGHT:
- ENGL 344 Introduction to African Literature
- ENGL 364 Creative Writing
- ENGL 622 Poetry and Society in Africa
CONTACT INFORMATION:
via post: Department of English,
University of Ghana,
P. O. Box LG 129
Legon