Renowned Ghanaian author and playwright, Ama Ata Aidoo, known for celebrating African women and challenging Western stereotypes, has passed away at the age of 81.
Through works like The Dilemma of a Ghost, Our Sister Killjoy, and Changes, Aidoo depicted and honored the experiences of African women, she countered the perception of them as downtrodden. She rejected the notion that the African female is a victim.
In addition to her literary contributions, Aidoo served as an education minister in the early 1980s. She tried to make education free but she encountered some obstacles which made her resign from the position.
Her family released a statement expressing their grief and requesting privacy following her passing after a brief illness.
As a university professor, Ata Aidoo received numerous literary accolades, including the 1992 Commonwealth Writers Prize for her novel Changes, a poignant love story exploring a statistician’s journey through divorce and polygamy.
Her works, such as Anowa, have been widely studied in West African schools alongside the writings of other literary giants like Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.
When asked in a 2014 interview if she saw herself as a writer with a mission, Aidoo responded, “In retrospect, I suppose I could describe myself as a writer with a mission. But I never was aware that I had a mission when I started to write. People sometimes question me, for instance, why are your women so strong? And I say, that is the only woman I know.”
Ama Ata Aidoo had a profound influence on the younger generation of writers, including the acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
In a tribute piece published in The Africa Report in 2011, Adichie wrote, “When I first discovered Ama Ata Aidoo’s work… I was stunned by the believability of her characters, the sureness of her touch, and what I like to call the validating presence of complex femaleness.”
Nigerian Afrobeats star Burna Boy featured Aidoo’s powerful critique of colonialism and the exploitation of Africa’s resources in his song “Monsters You Made” in 2020.
Ama Ata Aidoo was born in 1942 in a small village in Ghana’s Fanti-speaking region. Her father, who had established the village’s first school, played a significant role in shaping her life.
At the age of 15, she aspired to become a writer, and within a short period, her dream was realized when she won a short story competition. Seeing her name in print affirmed her path as a writer.
After studying literature at the University of Ghana and briefly engaging in politics, Aidoo embarked on a self-imposed exile in Zimbabwe, dedicating herself to writing full-time.”
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