VP given GAW/PEN membership

Ghana’s Vice President, John Dramani Mahama is the newest member of the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) and PEN International, Ghana Centre (PEN). An invitation was issued last week to the Vice President during a private reading of his soon (July 2012) to be published book, “My First Coup D’etat And Other True Stories of the Lost Decade of Africa” . The invitation was extended to him on behalf of the two literary organizations by Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Harruna Attah, President of the Ghanaian Centre of PEN with the support of Mr. Kwesi Gyan Appenteng, President of GAW during a “Special Afternoon of Literature” hosted by the Vice President to welcome his editor/publisher, Nancy Miller, from Bloomsburg. The Vice President accepted the membership and promised to “pay my dues”. Present were other Ghanaian literary personnel including Professor Atukwei Okai, Secretary General of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), Ama Atta-Aidoo, Professor Kofi Anyidoho, Dr. Ben Abdallah, Esi Sutherland Addy, Nana Awere Damoah, Kofi Sekyi Addo and others. The programme involved readings and recitals by some of the guests before the Vice President read a chapter from his book. The event was coordinated by Nana Ama Danquah, the Vice President’s literary consultant on the project.