Mabel Dove Danquah (1905
''Graphic Online'' (via Modern Ghana), 13 April 2007. (Some sources mistakenly give her date of birth as 2010.) – 1984) was a Gold Coast-born journalist, political activist, and creative writer, one of the earliest women in West Africa to work in these fields.Audrey Gadzekpo
"Dove-Danquah, Mabel (1905–84, Ghanaian journalist, short-story writer"
in Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (eds), ''Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English'' (1994), 2nd edition, Routledge, 2005, pp. 371–72. As Francis Elsbend Kofigah notes in relation to Ghana's literary pioneers, "before the emergence of such strong exponents of literary feminism as Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, there was Mabel Dove Danquah, the trail-blazing feminist." She used various pseudonyms in her writing for newspapers from the 1930s: "Marjorie Mensah" in ''The Times of West Africa''; "Dama Dumas" in the ''

African Morning Post The ''African Morning Post'' () was a daily newspaper in Accra, Gold Coast, published by City Press Ltd. Editorial and Pub. Its editor-in-chief in 1934 was Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who later also founded several newspapers in Nigeria, including the ''We ...

''; "Ebun Alakija" in the '' Nigerian Daily Times''; and "Akosua Dzatsui" in the ''

Accra Evening News The ''Accra Evening News'' was a daily newspaper established in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1948 by Kwame Nkrumah. The paper's appearance marked the foundation of the press in the country as a powerful means to mobilize people, and was followed b ...

''. Entering politics in the 1950s before Ghana's independence, she became the first woman to be elected a member of any African legislative assembly. She created the awareness and the need for self-governance through her works.

Education and early years

Mabel Ellen Dove was born in

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, , ...

to Eva Buckman, a businesswoman in Osu, and Francis (Frans) Dove (1869–1949), a lawyer from Sierra Leone who was the first President of the Gold Coast Bar. With her sisters, Mabel at the age of six was taken to

Annie Walsh Memorial School The Annie Walsh Memorial School is an all-girls secondary school in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was established in 1849 originally in Charlotte, Sierra Leone, Charlotte, a newly established village for recaptives. It is claimed to be the oldest g ...

in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and received further education in England at Anglican Convent in Bury St. Edmunds and St. Michael's College, Hurstpierpoint, where she took a secretarial course, against the wishes of her father.Kathleen Sheldon
"Dove Danquah, Mabel (1905/1910–1984)"
''Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa'', Scarecrow Press, 2005, p. 66. She was sent back to Freetown, and while there she helped set up a women's

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

club, participated in the local dramatics society and read extensively, before returning at the age of 21 to the Gold Coast.Denzer
"Gender & Decolonization"
(2005), p. 218. She found employment as a shorthand-typist with Elder Dempster for eight years, then transferred to G. B. Olivant, before going to work as a Manager with the trading company of

A. G. Leventis Anastasios George Leventis ( el, Αναστάσιος Γ. Λεβέντης; December 1902 – October 25, 1978) was a Greek Cypriot businessman who founded a major merchandise trading firm, A.G. Leventis (Nigeria) Plc, in West Africa. A dominant f ...

Journalism

She started writing for ''The Times of West Africa'', Ghana's first daily newspaper, which was founded and owned by Dr

J. B. Danquah Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah (18 December 1895 – 4 February 1965) was a Ghanaian politician, scholar, lawyer, and one of the founding fathers of Ghana. He played a significant role in pre- and post-colonial Ghana, which was former ...

and strongly advocated fundamental human rights while denouncing foreign domination."Flagbearers of Ghana: Dr J. B. Danquah (1896–1965)"
''Ghana Nation'', 15 November 2011. Through the column "Ladies Corner

ater Women's Ater (Hebrew אֲתַר) is an Old Testament male name. #A descendant of Hezekiah, who returned from Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Baby ...

by Marjorie Mensah" (1931–34), her articles won her great public popularity: "she dared women to break with form, to derive inspiration from the suffragists, to denounce imperialism, and to fight for their rights." She also won the admiration of the paper's proprietor, whom she eventually married in 1933. In 1939, she gave radio talks in support of the war effort. After ''The Times of West Africa'' ceased to function, she went on to write for the ''

'' (1935–40), the '' Nigerian Daily Times'' (1936–37), the ''

'' (1950–1960s) and the '' Daily Graphic'' (1952). When in 1951 she took on the editorship of the ''Accra Evening News'' — the paper of the Convention People's Party (CPP), founded in 1948 — she was the second woman ever to edit a newspaper in Ghana. Although the appointment ended after five months because of disagreement with CPP leader

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...

over editorial methods, she remained loyal to Nkrumah and the party.

Politics

Her involvement with politics started after

founded his Convention People's Party (CPP), in 1949, and she became a member of staff of the nationalist ''Accra Evening News'', joining the campaign for the end of British rule and immediate self-government for the Gold Coast. In the general election of 1954, she was committed to organising women for the CPP, and she was subsequently put up as a CPP candidate for Ga Rural constituency, which she won. Her election made her the first female member of the

Legislative Assembly of the Gold Coast The Parliament of Ghana is the legislative body of the Government of Ghana. History Legislative representation in Ghana dates back to 1850, when the country was a British colony known as Gold Coast. The body, called the Legislative Council, w ...

Creative writing

She was a prolific author over a period of four decades — her published collections of short stories include ''The Happenings of the Night'' (1931), ''The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for Mr Shaw'' (1934), ''Anticipation'' (1947), ''The Torn Veil'' (1947), ''Payment'' (1947), ''Invisible Scar'' (1966) and ''Evidence of Passion'' (1969) — until her literary career was curtailed by her blindness in 1972. Her work is anthologised in collections including

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 ...

′ ''An African Treasury: Articles, Essays, Stories, Poems'' (1960), and

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' ...

's ''

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). A collection of her work, ''Selected Writings of a Pioneer West African Feminist'' (edited by Stephanie Newell and

Audrey Gadzekpo Professor Audrey Sitsofe Gadzekpo is a Ghanaian media practitioner and female dean of the School of Information and Communications Studies at the University of Ghana. She was formerly a Communications Consultant and Lecturer who represented women ...

), was published in 2004.

Personal life

In September 1933 Dove married the political statesman and historian

and they had a son, Vladimir. However, the marriage "did not survive Danquah's prolonged absence during the period 1934–36 when he was in England as secretary of the Gold Coast delegation" and the couple divorced in the mid-1940s.

Selected bibliography

* ''The Happenings of the Night'' (1931) * ''The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for Mr Shaw'' (1934) * ''Anticipation'' (1947) * ''The Torn Veil'' (1947) * ''Payment'' (1947) * ''Invisible Scar'' (1966) * ''Evidence of Passion'' (1969)
''Selected Writings of a Pioneer West African Feminist''
(edited by Stephanie Newell and Audrey Gadzekpo). Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2004. .

Legacy

Dove's satire of George Bernard Shaw's '' The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God'' (1932), which she titled ''The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for Mr Shaw'', was included in the British Library's 2015–16 exhibition '' West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song''.Thembi Mutch
"From Timbuktu to Trinidad: British Library launches dazzling West Africa show"
''The Guardian'', 16 October 2015.

References

External links

* Kofigah, Francis Elsbend
"The Writing of Mabel Dove Danquah"
6 July 1996. A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Master of Arts in Comparative Literature, 1996. * Kwarteng, Francis
"Mabel Dove-Danquah: A Trailblazing Author, Feminist, Politician, Activist & Journalist"
GhanaWeb, 17 October 2015.
"I Have Tamed My Wife" By Mabel Dove Danquah Read By Fauziyatu Moro (Ghana)
Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora. {{DEFAULTSORT:Danquah, Mabel Dove 1905 births 1984 deaths 20th-century Ghanaian politicians 20th-century Ghanaian women politicians 20th-century Ghanaian writers 20th-century journalists 20th-century women writers Feminist writers Ghanaian feminists Ghanaian journalists Ghanaian MPs 1954–1956 Ghanaian women journalists Ghanaian women writers People from Accra Women columnists