Who is Ama Ata Aidoo? Renowned Ghanaian author dies at 81

Ama Ata Aidoo, one of Africa’s most celebrated authors and playwrights, died on May 31, 2023, at the age of 81.

In a statement, her family said “Our beloved relative and writer” passed away after a short illness, requesting privacy to allow them to grieve.

She was a well-known feminist who depicted and celebrated the plight of African women in works like The Dilemma of a Ghost, Our Sister Killjoy, and Changes. She fought against what she called a “Western perception of the African female as a downtrodden wretch.” She was also an education minister in the early 1980s but resigned when she was unable to make education free.

Ata Aidoo, a university professor, won numerous literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1992 for Changes, a love story about a statistician who divorces her first husband and enters a polygamist marriage.

Her plays, such as Anowa, have been read in schools across West Africa, alongside works by other greats such as Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.