Wilson Adekumola
Iconic Ghanaian author and poet, Ama Ata Aidoo, has died aged 81.
Her death was announced in a statement, her family saying, “Our beloved relative and writer” passed away after a short illness, requesting privacy to allow them to grieve.
A renowned poet, was a Secretary of Education in Ghana from 1982 to 83 under Jerry Rawlings PDNC administration.
Her first play, The Dilemma of a Ghost was published in 1965, making Aidoo the first published African woman dramatist, and she was also honoured in her works like Changes, Our Sister Killjoy.
She resisted the “Western stereotype that the African woman is a downtrodden wretch.”
Ata Aidoo, a professor at a university, received numerous literary honours, including the 1992 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Changes, a love story about a statistician who marries into a polygamous union after divorcing her first spouse.
Her work, including plays like Anowa, has been read in schools across West Africa, along with works of other greats like Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.
