The event marked the 24th International African Writers’ Day which was held in Accra.

The categories are; the Grand Patron of the Arts Award, Noble Patron of the Arts Award and Honorary Membership of PAWA Award.The awardees for the Grand Patron of the Arts are; Professor Kwesi Botchwey, Founder and Executive Chairman of the African Development Policy Initiative, Ghana, Mr David Mungoshi, a former lecturer at University of Zimbabwe and creative writer,

Others are; Dr Alex Glover-Quartey, former Head of the Ghana Civil Service, Mr Walter Kefuoe Chakela, Founder of the Congress of South African Writers, Mr L’ambassadeur-Poete Silcarneyni Gueye, a Senegalese Poet, Chief Joop Berkhout, the Chief Executive Officer of Safari Books Limited who was born in Amsterdam but spent most of his life in Nigeria.

The rest are; Mr Otumba Olayinka Lawal-Solarin, a Nigerian Pharmacist and Publisher, Mr Joseph Quao Cleland, a Ghanaian Career Diplomat and Author of several short stories, and Ankoanna Apoma Kyekyeku III, a Ghanaian prolific Writer.The Honorary Membership of PAWA Awardees are; Prof Edara Kabaji, a Writer and Acting Principal of Turkana University College, South Africa, Ms Fatoumata Keita, a Senegalese Author and Prof Biodun Jeyifo, a Nigerian Writer and Prof Djibril Tamsir Niane, Founder of Djibril Tamasir Niane Library in Guinea.

Mr Thomas Kwesi Quartey, the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission received the Noble Patron of the Arts Award.Prof Atukwei Okai, the Secretary-General of PAWA said the programme was on the theme: “Language, Library and the Book Industry: the Urgent Agenda for Africa’s Destiny”.

The conference brought together over 150 prominent writers from Africa, Europe and the USA.Prof Okai said the ceremony was to strengthen the cultural and economic bonds between the people on the African continent.He said the association was a leading Pan African Cultural Institution accorded full Diplomatic status by government in 1992, made up of 52 National Writers Associations on the continent.

Prof Okai said the association was aimed at contributing its quota to moral, cultural and intellectual renaissance in Africa.