Let haiku be on the UNESCO list! (39)

 

Let haiku be on the UNESCO list!

 

On December 10, 2015, Mr.  Adjei Agyei-Baah in Ghana, kindly sent me an e-mail as follows.

 

Dear Hiruta san,

 

I must say Basho’s bug has also caught up with our continent Africa and to be more specific my part of the land, Ghana that we cannot afford to add our voice to the campaign to make haiku as part of the UNESCO list, as haiku continue to be a fast spreading poetry genre uniting mankind into one big family.

We might have become fascinated by haiku due to is brevity and yet saying a lot. Perhaps a confirmation of Robert Southey quote on brevity, “It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn”.

To us, haiku in its brevity, akin to a pill can be taken once a day to subdue the stress of humanity and put a smile on our lips as we interact with people in our daily engagements.

Ghana around 2006 discovered and had her first haiku published by Nana Fredua Agyeman in the 2006 winter edition of Simply Haiku, and had continue to deepen herself in the aesthetics of the art with her contemporary poets like Jacob Kobina Mensha, Adjei Agyei-Baah, Celestine Nudanu, Prince K. Mensah Kojo Turson, Kweku Feni Adow, Justice Prah etc. who have embraced the haiku art as the fastest way of telling the African story to the world especially  in this modern age of information explosion where people hardly stop to read lengthy text.

In short, we write to add our unwavering support to you and Akita Haiku Networks in your effort to make haiku as part of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Haiku indeed as an art cuts across cultures, boundaries, borders, and races and religion, and we beautifully justify it like this:

 

black coffee

white sugar

I stir the world into oneness

 

Adjei Agyei-Baah (Ghana)

 

We wish you the best in this great pursuit for the love of humanity.

Warmly,

Adjei Agyei-Baah (Ghana)

Co-founder, Africa Haiku Network

 

Here is a haiku photo by Adjei Agyei-Baah.