Gladys May Casely-Hayford ''alias'' Aquah Laluah (11 May 1904 – October 1950) was a

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

-born

Sierra Leonean Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

writer. She is credited as the first author to write in the

Krio language Sierra Leonean Creole or Krio is an English-based creole language that is lingua franca and de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 96 percent of the country's population, and it uni ...

Early life and career

Gladys was born into the

Casely-Hayford Casely-Hayford is an English language patronymic surname that is native to Ghana. It is most commonly borne by the Casely-Hayford family, descendants of the famous 19th century Euro- Fante and Pan-Africanist, J. E. Casely-Hayford of Cape Coast. ...

family of

Axim Axim is a coastal town and the capital of Nzema East Municipal district, a district in Western Region of South Ghana. Axim lies 64 kilometers west of the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi in the Western Region, west of Cape Three Points. Axim has ...

, Gold Coast on 11 May 1904. As a child, known then as Aquah LaLuah, she was a voracious reader, devouring

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working ...

's ''Heroes'' at the age of seven. She could sing, dance, and write poetry at an early age. Due to her upbringing she could speak fluent English, Creole, and Fante (the language of her father). She had her primary and secondary school education in Gold Coast but for medical reasons was taken to England, and was then educated in Europe, including at Penrhos College,

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpo ...

, in Wales, then travelled with a Berlin jazz band as a dancer. She travelled in the US as well. When she started having breakdowns in 1932 she had to go home. Back home in Africa, she taught at the Girls' Vocational School in

Freetown, Sierra Leone Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

, run by her mother,

Adelaide Casely-Hayford Adelaide Casely-Hayford, Order of the British Empire, MBE (née Smith; 2 June 1868 – 24 January 1960), was a Sierra Leone Creole people, Sierra Leone Creole advocate, an activist of cultural nationalism, a teacher and fiction writer and a femi ...

Later life and work

Acquah Laluah married Arthur Hunter. At the school she taught African Folklore and Literature. Very aware of her African background, she celebrated her blackness in poems including "Rejoice" and "Nativity". Although not much of her poetry was published during her lifetime, many of her poems were anthologized in the 1960s. Poems such as "Nativity" (1927), "The Serving Girl" (1941) and "Creation" (1926), have been widely anthologized; writers from the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

loved her work.See

Countee Cullen Countee Cullen (born Countee LeRoy Porter; May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946) was an American poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright, particularly well known during the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Childhood Countee LeRoy Porter ...

, ed., ''

Caroling Dusk ''Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Black Poets of the Twenties: Anthology of Black Verse'' is a 1927 poetry anthology that was edited by Countee Cullen. It has been republished at least three times, in 1955, 1974, and 1995 and included work ...

: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets'', 1927;

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...

, ed., ''Poetry of the Negro World'', 1949; ''African Treasury'', 1960; ''Poems from Black Africa'', 1963; Langston Hughes and Christiane Reyngault, eds, ''Anthologie Africaine et Malgache'', 1962;

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

, ed., ''

Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'', 1992.

Death

Gladys May Casely-Hayford lived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for much of her life. She moved to

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, , ...

, where her father's family lived, and where she died in 1950 of

blackwater fever Blackwater fever is a complication of malaria infection in which red blood cells burst in the bloodstream (hemolysis), releasing hemoglobin directly into the blood vessels and into the urine, frequently leading to kidney failure. The disease ...

.Crista Martin
"Casely-Hayford, Gladys (1904–1950)"
"Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia", Encyclopedia.com.

Works

*''Take'Um So'', 1948 (poetry)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casely-Hayford, Gladys 1904 births 1950 deaths Sierra Leone Creole people Sierra Leonean women writers Sierra Leonean women poets 20th-century women writers 20th-century Sierra Leonean poets Ghanaian women poets 20th-century Ghanaian poets Sierra Leonean people of Jamaican descent Sierra Leonean people of British descent People of Jamaican Maroon descent Sierra Leoneans of Jamaican Maroon descent Sierra Leonean people of Ghanaian descent Ghanaian people of Jamaican descent Ghanaian people of English descent Ghanaian people of Sierra Leonean descent Gladys Krio-language writers Fante people Ghanaian people of Irish descent Emigrants from Gold Coast (British colony) to Sierra Leone