Yulisa Amadu Pat Maddy (27 December 1936 – 16 March 2014)"Freetown: Pat Yulisa Amadu Maddy Passes On"
''The Patriotic Vanguard'', 21 March 2014. was a

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, poet, actor, dancer, director and playwright. Known by his friends and colleagues as Pat Maddy or simply Prof, he had an "immense impact" on theatre in

Sierra Leone 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 , Sierr ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

.Maddy, Yulisa Amadu Pat
in ''Who’s Who in Contemporary World Theatre''.

Biography

Maddy was born in

Freetown 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 ...

to Sierra Leone Creole, Creole parents, where he grew up and was educated (attending St. Edward's Secondary School) until the age of 22. In 1958 he travelled to France and then Britain.

Simon Gikandi Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genu ...

, "Maddy, Yulisa Amadu (Pat)", in Gikandi, ed., ''Encyclopedia of African Literature'', Routledge, 2002. . Reprinted onlin
here
/ref> Maddy trained at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in the UK, and started broadcasting in Britain and Denmark, writing and producing radio plays. He was Director of Drama at the

Keskidee Centre The Keskidee Centre, or Keskidee Arts Centre, was Britain's first arts centre for the black community, founded in 1971. and led the short-lived Pan African Players, which in 1966 represented the United Kingdom, together with the Negro Theatre Workshop, at the first

World Festival of Negro Arts The World Festival of Black Arts (French: Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres), also known as FESMAN, is a month-long culture and arts festival that takes place in Africa. The festival features poetry, sculpture, painting, music, cinema, theatre, f ...

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...

, performing Obi Egbuna's ''Wind versus Polygamy''. Maddy's early plays, initially produced on the BBC African Service, were published as ''Obasai and Other Plays'' (1968). In the mid-1960s he lived in Denmark, where a book of his poetry, ''Ny afrikansk prosa'', was published (1969). On his return to Sierra Leone in 1968 Maddy became Head of Drama on Radio Sierra Leone. He was a founder-director of the theatre company Gbakanda Afrikan Tiata, founded 1969 in Freetown. He subsequently worked in

, where he directed the national dance troupe and trained them for the Montreal World's Fair in 1970. He also taught drama in

, at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 19 ...

and the

University of Ilorin University of Ilorin, also known as Unilorin, is a federal government-owned university in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. It was established by a decree of the federal military government in August, 1975. The establishment aimed to implement one o ...

, and in the United States. His first novel, ''No Past, No Present, No Future'', explored the dynamics of a group of three friends (including, controversially, at the time, one gay man) growing up in colonial West Africa and their physical, psychological and emotional journeys to Europe. It was published in 1973, to great acclaim in the 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 ...

, and his writing continued to develop. His work, which is often challenging and confrontational, has been broadcast by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and published internationally. However, the uncompromising honesty of his writing, particularly in his views on the social and political inequalities in Africa, led to his political imprisonment in Sierra Leone. Upon his release, he was forced to leave the country and become a political exile. In 2007, Maddy returned to Sierra Leone to teach at Freetown's Milton Margai College of Education and continue his academic research of exploring and developing Sierra Leone's cultural heritage, providing inspiration and opportunities to a new generation of artists and performers, and continuing to give a "voice to the voiceless" through the work of his Gbakanda Foundation. After a long period of illness, he died in March 2014, aged 78, at Choitram Hospital, Freetown.

Awards and honours

Maddy received a Sierra Leone National Arts Festival Award in 1973, a Gulbenkian Grant from the

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One ...

in 1978, and in 1979 an

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

Award.G. D. Killam, Alicia L. Kerfoot, ''Student Encyclopedia of African Literature'', Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 185. He has also received the distinction of being commemorated in a special stained-glass window of the

Pride Library Western Libraries is the library system of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. In 1898, the university Senate appointed James Waddell Tupper as the University of Western Ontario's first University Librarian. In 1918, John Davis ...

in Canada, as one of 135 writers, including

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

, James Baldwin and others, who have been acknowledged for their outstanding contribution to literature.

Works

* ''Alla Gbah'' he Big Man 1967 * ''Yon Kon'' lever Thief 1968. Reprinted in

Cosmo Pieterse Cosmo George Leipoldt Pieterse (born 1930 in Windhoek, Namibia) is a South African playwright, actor, poet, literary critic and anthologist. Education and career Cosmo Pieterse went to the University of Cape Town and taught in Cape Town until lea ...

(ed.), ''Ten One-Act Plays'', Heinemann, 1968.

34. * ''Obasai'' ver Yonder 1971. Reprinted in ''Obasai and Other Plays'', Heinemann, 1968. African Writers Series 89. * ''Ghana Bendu'' ough Guy 1971 * ''Life Everlasting'', 1972. Reprinted in Cosmo Pieterse (ed.), ''Short African Plays'', Heinemann, 1972. African Writers Series 78. * ''No Past, No Present, No Future'' (novel), London: Heinemann Educational, 1973. African Writers Series 137. * ''If Wishes Were Horses'' (radio play), 1973 * ''Big Breeze Blow'', produced Freetown, 1974 * ''Take Tem Draw Di Rope'', Freetown, 1975 * ''Naw We Yone Dehn See'', 1975 * ''Put for Me'', produced Freetown, 1975 * ''Big Berrin'' (Big Burying), Freetown, 1976 * ''Saturday Night Out'' (television play), 1980 * ''A Journey Into Christmas'', 1980 * ''Drums, Voices and Words'', 1985 * (with Donnarae MacCann) ''African Images in Juvenile Literature: Commentaries on Neocolonialist Fiction'', Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1996 * (with Donnarae MacCann) ''Neo-imperialism in Children's Literature about Africa: A Study of Contemporary Fiction'', New York: Routledge, 2009.

References

External links

"Yulisa Amadu Maddy interview, Freetown, Sierra Leone, July 2, 1975"
* George Ola-Davies
"Sierra Leone News: Alagbah: Fare thee Well"
''Awoko'', 8 April 2014.
"Sierra Leone News: Tribute: To Pat Maddy"
''Awoko'', 9 April 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maddy, Yulisa Pat Amadu 1936 births 2014 deaths Sierra Leone Creole people Sierra Leonean dramatists and playwrights Sierra Leonean novelists Literary critics Sierra Leonean writers Sierra Leonean male poets 20th-century Sierra Leonean poets 20th-century novelists 20th-century dramatists and playwrights People from Freetown 20th-century male writers 20th-century Sierra Leonean writers 21st-century Sierra Leonean writers