Celebrated Ghanaian author and feminist dies at 81
Renowned Ghanaian author, poet, playwright and academic Ama Ata Aidoo during the Ake Arts and Book festival in Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria, on November 17, 2017. She died on Wednesday aged 81.
What you need to know:
- Prof Ama Ata Aidoo was a role model for many other African women writers, including Nigeria's award-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
- Her work has also been quoted by musicians, including Nigerian Afrobeats artist Burna Boy, who included her criticism of colonialism in his song Monsters You Made in 2020.
As Kenya celebrates 60 years of independence, Ghana is mourning the death of renowned literary giant Prof Ama Ata Aidoo, who made exceptional contributions to African literature and advocacy for women’s rights.
Prof Aidoo died on Wednesday after a brief illness. She was 81. With a career spanning more than five decades, her work shaped African literature as she broached difficult societal issues such as colonialism and patriarchy. One of the central features of her work was highlighting African women’s lives and experiences at a time when it was considered trivial to write their stories.
Born in Christina Ama Ata Aidoo, a town near Saltpond in Ghana’s Central Region in 1942, she discovered her passion for writing while in high school and decided to pursue a career as a writer. In1964, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Ghana and became the first African woman dramatist to have her work, The Dilemma of a Ghost, published.
Recognition
Prof Aidoo published 11 books and a volume of African love stories in her life. Her brilliant works received international recognition making her one of the most prominent African writers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Some of her most acclaimed works include: plays such as Anowa published in 1971; novels such as Changes, which won the 1992 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Africa); and poems such as Someone Talking to Sometime that won the Nelson Mandela Prize for Poetry in 1987.
Besides being a literary giant, she also held a public office in 1982 when she became Ghana's Minister for Education and worked towards providing free education. A year later, she resigned and worked in Zimbabwe, where she helped develop a curriculum for the Zimbabwe Ministry for Education.
She was a role model for many other African women writers, including Nigeria's award-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Ms Adichie, who discovered her works while living in her hometown of Nsukka in Nigeria, wrote this about her:
“When I first discovered Ama Ata Aidoo's work...I was stunned by the believability of her characters, the sureness of her touch and what I like to call, in a rather clunky phrase, the validating presence of complex femaleness. Because I had not often seen this complex femaleness in other African books I had read and loved her work, mine was a wondrous discovery,’’ Ms Adichie wrote in a piece about Prof Aidoo.
Her work has also been quoted by musicians, including Nigerian Afrobeats artist Burna Boy, who included her criticism of colonialism in his song Monsters You Made in 2020.
Prof Aidoo will be remembered for her literary prowess, influence on African literature and for being an unapologetic African feminist.
