Ama Ata Aidoo, ''née'' Christina Ama Aidoo (born 23 March 1942) is a

Ghanaian Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

author, poet, playwright and academic. She was the Minister of Education under the

Jerry Rawlings Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 194712 November 2020) was a Ghanaian military officer and politician who led the country for a brief period in 1979, and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the de ...

administration. In 2000, she established the Mbaasem Foundation to promote and support the work of African women writers.

Early life

Aidoo was born on 23 March 1942 in

Saltpond Saltpond is a town and the capital of the Mfantsiman Municipal District in the Central Region of South Ghana. Saltpond has a population of 24,689 people. Economy History Saltpond was in a state of economic decline since the landing beach was a ...

in the

Central Region of Ghana The Central Region is one of the sixteen administrative regions of Ghana. It is bordered by Ashanti and Eastern regions to the north, Western region to the west, Greater Accra region to the east, and to the south by the Gulf of Guinea. The Cen ...

. Some sources including Megan Behrent, Brown University, and ''Africa Who's Who'' have stated that she was born on 31 March 1940. She had a twin brother, Kwame Ata. She was raised in a Fante royal household, the daughter of Nana Yaw Fama, chief of Abeadzi Kyiakor, and Maame Abasema. She grew up at a time of resurgent

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

neocolonialism that was taking place in her homeland. Her grandfather was murdered by neocolonialists, which brought her father's attention to the importance of educating the children and families of the village on the history and events of the era. This led him to open up the first school in their village and influenced Aidoo to attend

Wesley Girls' High School Wesley Girls' High School (WGHS) is an educational institution for girls in Cape Coast in the Central region of Ghana. It was founded in 1836 by Harriet Wrigley, the wife of a Methodist minister. The school is named after the founder of Methodism ...

, where she first decided she wanted to be a writer.

Education

Aidoo attended

Wesley Girls' Senior High School Wesley Girls' High School (WGHS) is an educational institution for girls in Cape Coast in the Central region of Ghana. It was founded in 1836 by Harriet Wrigley, the wife of a Methodist minister. The school is named after the founder of Methodism ...

in Cape Coast, from 1961 to 1964. After high school, she enrolled at the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

, Legon where she obtained the degree of

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in English and also wrote her first play, ''The Dilemma of a Ghost'', in 1964. The play was published by

Longman Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC. Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...

the following year, making Aidoo the first published African woman dramatist.

Career

Ama was appointed Minister of Education under the

Provisional National Defence Council The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) was the name of the Ghanaian government after the People's National Party's elected government was overthrown by Jerry Rawlings, the former head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, in a co ...

in 1982. She resigned after 18 months, realising that she would be unable to achieve her aim of making education in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

freely accessible to all. She has portrayed the role of African women in contemporary society. She has opined that the idea of nationalism has been deployed by recent leaders as a means of keeping people oppressed. She has criticized those literate Africans who profess to love their country but are seduced away by the benefits of the developed world. She believes in a distinct African identity, which she views from a female perspective. She worked in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where she held a fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University, California. She also served as a research fellow at the

Institute of African Studies The Institute of African Studies on the Anne Jiagee road on campus of the University of Ghana at Legon is an interdisciplinary research institute in the humanities and social sciences. It was established by President Kwame Nkrumah in 1962 to enco ...

, and as a lecturer in English at the

University of Cape Coast The University of Cape Coast is a public collegiate university located in the historic town of Cape Coast. The campus has a rare seafront and sits on a hill overlooking the wide Atlantic Ocean. It operates on two campuses: the Southern Campus (O ...

, eventually rising there to the position of professor. She has also spent a great deal of time teaching and living abroad for months at a time. She has lived in the United States,

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. In

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1986, she delivered the

Walter Rodney Walter Anthony Rodney (23 March 1942 – 13 June 1980) was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include '' How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'', first published in 1972. Rodney was assassinated in Georgeto ...

Visions of Africa lecture organised by the support group for Bogle-L'Ouverture publishing house. Aidoo taught various English courses at

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

in Clinton New York, in the early mid-1990s. She is currently a visiting professor in the Africana Studies Department at Brown University. Aidoo was a patron of the

Etisalat Prize for Literature The 9mobile Prize for Literature (formerly the Etisalat Prize for Literature 2013–16) was created by Etisalat Nigeria in 2013, and is the first ever pan-African prize celebrating first-time African writers of published fiction books.

(alongside

Dele Olojede Dele Olojede (born 1961) is a Nigerian journalist and former foreign editor for ''Newsday''. He is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his work covering the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. He serves on the board of EARTH University, in Costa ...

Ellah Wakatama Allfrey Ellah Wakatama, OBE, Hon. FRSL (born 16 September 1966), is Editor-at-Large at Canongate Books, a senior Research Fellow at Manchester University and Chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. She was the founding Publishing Direct ...

, Margaret Busby,

Sarah Ladipo Manyika Sarah Ladipo Manyika is a British-Nigerian writer of novels, short stories and essays and an active member of the literary community, particularly supporting and amplifying young writers and female voices. She is author of two well received nove ...

and

Zakes Mda Zakes Mda ( ), legally Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda (born 1948) is a South African novelist, poet and playwright and he is the son of politician A. P. Mda. He has won major South African and British literary awards for his novels and plays. He ...

), created in 2013 as a platform for African writers of debut books of fiction. She obtained a Fulbright Scholarship award in 1988 and Mbari press short story prize.

Film

She is the subject of a 2014 documentary film, ''

The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo ''The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo'' is a 2014 Ghanaian documentary written and directed by Yaba Badoe. Plot The documentary film gives insight of the life of playwright and novelist Ama Ata Aidoo, coming to a homeland to empower woman despite the challe ...

'', made by

Yaba Badoe Yaba Badoe (born 1955) is a Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker, journalist and author. Career Yaba Badoe was born in Tamale, northern Ghana. She left Ghana to be educated in Britain at a very young age.Beti Ellerson"A Conversation with Y ...

."The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo - a film by Yaba Badoe"
official website.

Writings

Aidoo's plays include ''The Dilemma of a Ghost'', produced at Legon in 1964 (first published 1965) and Pittsburgh in 1988, and ''

Anowa ''Anowa'' is a play by Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo that was published in 1970, after Aidoo returned from Stanford University in California to teach at the University of Cape Coast. ''Anowa'' is based on a traditional Ghanaian tale of a daughter ...

'', published in 1971 and produced in London in 1991. Her works of fiction particularly deal with the tension between Western and African world views. Her first novel, ''

Our Sister Killjoy ''Our Sister Killjoy: or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint'' is the debut novel of Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo, first published by Longman in 1977. It has been called "a witty, experimental work whose main point is a stylish dismissal of cha ...

'', was published in 1977 and remains one of her most popular works. It is notable for portraying a dissenting perspective on

sexuality in Africa Sexuality in Africa varies by region. Attitudes towards sexuality diverges between Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, with the former more influenced by Christianity and the latter more influenced by Islam. Discussion of sexuality in Africa oft ...

and especially

LGBT in Africa With the exception of South Africa and Cape Verde, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Africa are limited in comparison to the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Out of the 55 states recognised ...

. Whereas one popular idea on the continent is that homosexuality is alien to Africa, and an intrusion of the ideas of

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

into a pure, inherently heterosexual "African" culture, Aidoo portrays the main character of ''Killjoy'' as indulging in lesbian fantasies of her own, and maintaining sympathetic relationships with lesbian characters. Many of Aidoo's other protagonists are also women who defy the stereotypical women's roles of their time, as in her play ''Anowa''. Her novel ''Changes'' won the 1992

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

for Best Book (Africa). She is also an accomplished poet—her collection ''Someone Talking to Sometime'' won the Nelson Mandela Prize for Poetry in 1987—and has written several

children's books A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...

. She contributed the piece "To be a woman" to the 1984 anthology '' Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology'', edited by

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

. Her story "Two Sisters" appears in the 1992 anthology '' Daughters of Africa'', edited by Margaret Busby. In 2000 she founded the Mbaasem Foundation, a non-governmental organization based in Ghana with a mission "to support the development and sustainability of African women writers and their artistic output", which she runs together with her daughter Kinna Likimani and a board of management. Aidoo is the editor of the 2006 anthology ''African Love Stories''. In 2012, she launched Diplomatic Pounds & Other Stories a compilation of short stories and another which is a collection of essays by renowned writers in Ghana, Africa and the African Diaspora.

Awards and recognition

Aidoo has received several awards including the 1992 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Africa) for her novel ''Changes''. The Aidoo-Snyder book prize, awarded by the Women's Caucus of the African Studies Association for an outstanding book published by a woman that prioritizes African women's experiences, is named in honour of Ama Ata Aidoo and of Margaret C. Snyder, who was the founding director of

UNIFEM The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, french: Fonds de développement des Nations unies pour la femme, ) was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the International ...

. Launched in March 2017, the Ama Ata Aidoo Centre for Creative Writing (Aidoo Centre), under the auspices of the Kojo Yankah School of Communications Studies at the

African University College of Communications The African University College of Communications is a private tertiary institution at Adabraka, Accra, Ghana, for the study and teaching of journalism, communication studies, information technology convergence, business, African Studies, provi ...

(AUCC) in Adabraka,

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

, was named in her honour—the first centre of its kind in West Africa, with Nii Ayikwei Parkes as its director.Kwamina Tandoh/Winifred Zuur
"Ama Ata Aidoo Centre for Creative Writing inaugurated"
Ghana News Agency, 16 March 2017.

Selected works

* ''The Dilemma of a Ghost'' (play), Accra: Longman, 1965. New York: Macmillan, 1971. * ''

'' (a play based on a Ghanaian legend), London: Longman, 1970. New York: Humanities Press, 1970. * ''No Sweetness Here: A Collection of Short Stories'', Longman, 1970. * '' Our Sister Killjoy: or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint'' (novel), Longman, 1977. * ''Someone Talking to Sometime'' (a poetry collection), Harare: College Press, 1986. * ''The Eagle and the Chickens and Other Stories'' (for children), Tana Press, 1986. * ''Birds and Other Poems'', Harare: College Press, 1987. * ''An Angry Letter in January'' (poems), Dangaroo Press, 1992. * '' Changes: a Love Story'' (novel), The Women's Press, 1991. * ''The Girl Who Can and Other Stories'', Heinemann

African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an international audience fo ...

, 1997. * ''Diplomatic Pounds & Other Stories'', Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2012.

As editor

* ''African Love Stories: An Anthology''
''African Love Stories: An Anthology''
Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2006.

References

External links

Full-text, searchable works
from Black Drama database.

''International Who's Who'', accessed 1 September 2006.
"Ama Ata Aidoo – Her Story"
on

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

.
"Interview with Ama Ata Aidoo"
Video interview by Michael Walling, artistic director of Border Crossings theatre company.
"Ama Ata Aidoo on feminism in Africa - BBC HARDtalk"
interview with

Zeinab Badawi Zeinab Badawi ( ar, زينب بدوي; born October 1959) is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist. She was the first presenter of the ''ITV Morning News'' (later known as '' ITV News at 5:30''), and co-presented ''Channel 4 News'' ...

, 22 July 2014. YouTube. * Kundai Mugwanda-Nyamutenha
"Women's History Month profile: Ama Ata Aidoo"
''This Is Africa'', 30 March 2015. * Suzanne Kamata

''

Literary Mama ''Literary Mama'' (LiteraryMama.com) is a U.S.-based online literary magazine focused on publishing writing about motherhood in a variety of genres. The writings found in ''Literary Mama'' challenge all types of media to rethink its narrow focus of ...

'', February 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aidoo, Ama Ata 1942 births Living people Ghanaian novelists Ghanaian dramatists and playwrights Ghanaian women novelists Ghanaian women poets University of Cape Coast faculty Brown University faculty Ghanaian expatriates in the United States Government ministers of Ghana 20th-century novelists 20th-century Ghanaian poets Women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Ghanaian women writers 20th-century Ghanaian writers 20th-century Ghanaian educators 21st-century Ghanaian women writers 21st-century Ghanaian writers Ghanaian feminists Feminist writers Ghanaian women short story writers 20th-century short story writers 21st-century short story writers 20th-century Ghanaian politicians 20th-century Ghanaian women politicians Ghanaian women academics Women government ministers of Ghana 20th-century women educators Ghanaian twins University of Ghana alumni