Professor Ama Ata Aidoo - Activist, Pan-Africanist, Academic, Feminist and Literary Icon

“Gloriously outspoken” is how a BBC programme host described her in an early 2000s World Service production. And, the late Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo – whom we’ve gathered in our numbers here today to mourn – was one, who, throughout her long and illustrious career, was never hesitant to express herself and her leading views boldly, eloquently and with literary and oral grace.

Born a twin in 1942, and christened, Christina, Ama Ata Aidoo’s anti-repression inclinations might have been fuelled by the gruesome murder of her grandfather by colonists early in the Twentieth Century.  And from the second half of that century to the early years of the next, Ama Ata Aidoo had written her name into the history of African literature, feminism, Pan-African activism and academia, very literally. She was an international award-winning writer, a playwright and poet widely-recognised and acclaimed as the first African woman dramatist to be published.

"Dilemma of a Ghost", published by Longman in 1965, was that first and seminal work which became a household title and made required reading for instruction and examination in secondary schools in Ghana and Africa. 

As a primary and secondary school student, my inclination was to the literary arts, regularly performing in plays and poetry recitals.

But coming of age under post-independence Ghana’s hope and championship of the total liberation of the continent, fostered under the visionary leadership of the Pre-eminent Apostle of African Emancipation, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, I could only come under the influence of Ama Ata Aidoo’s writings at that time.  

Making notable grades in the Literature-in-English subject at the ‘A’ Levels made it of easier consequence for English to be the minor course in my first degree Law programme at the University of Ghana. So, as part of our course requirements, we often had to be at the Drama Theatre on campus to watch and review drama productions. The works of Ama Ata Aidoo, and the likes of the founder of the Experimental Drama Theatre herself, that is Efua Sutherland, Prof. Joe de Graft, Bill Marshall and other iconic Ghanaian and foreign dramatists, were constant fare on the production menu, so much so that, some of us became attached to the plays of Ama Ata Aidoo and others on offer at the theatre. One such work of significant impression was “No Sweetness Here”, an incisive story that laid bare the scorching aridity of this earthly existence, especially for widows, orphans and other marginalised and vulnerable groups.

Such was the passionate activism – especially for the struggling African woman – that runs through Prof Ama Ata’s works. From the University of Cape Coast, where she had been a lecturer since 1970, such activism caught the eye of Flt-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings’ Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government. Prof. was then appointed PNDC Secretary for Education in 1982. 

The impact of her work in the educational sector was evident to all, touching hearts and lives with policy initiatives as only an academic, activist, feminist and writer-Minister of Education may have. Alas, in a part of the world where to be economical with reality, especially with superiors, may be considered an art form, required communication practice, or significantly equated to civility and politeness, the bold and expressive poet, may have found out, after about a year, that style and form differed not only in literary practice but in local political culture as well.   

Ama Ata Aidoo was proud of her African heritage. She wore it on her sleeves – or, rather, in her traditional kaba dress and headgear style – at any time, locally and on the global stage. Her unique and down-to-earth brand of Pan-African activism caught global attention in a 1987 interview with a French media outlet. With her measured and controlled diction, and clad in traditional African print wear, Auntie Ama flashed and crossed words’ swords with the interviewer on the usual and vexed themes of colonial, neocolonial and racial injustice. She added her own insights in refreshing flashes of inspiration that made her a delight to watch. 

After her transitory romance with Ghanaian politics, Prof. Ama Ata’s attitudes, attributes, qualities and qualifications, came together in a relocation to Southern Africa. There, in Zimbabwe, she led their Ministry of Education to rewrite the syllabus of schools as a Consultant.

Need I say our distinguished Ghanaian academic “export” we mourn this fateful day, did an amazing job? No, I need not. Because, Zimbabwe has, for decades, had consistently high national literacy rates among Africa’s top performers.

She who did her work with sustained and compassionate passion, howbeit with habitual humility and modesty, has received such a gushing outpouring of love and praise from her countrymen and women and from colleagues and patrons all over the world. Indeed, Burna Boy – Nigeria’s contemporary Grammy Award-winning, Afrobeat music star – featured her on one of his albums, titled “Twice As Tall”. This is yet another proof in the divine mystery of providential rewards and retributions that the best things come to those who diligently tend their own turf, and not necessarily scratch and scrape for them. 

As I conclude this tribute to yet another shining shooting star in the bright galaxy of Ghanaian and African achievement, I wish to broach the institutionalisation of an annual Lecture Series to promote the literary arts, in the name of Prof. Christina Ama Ata Aidoo.

Without a doubt, in life as in death, she has earned the status of a celebrity in a field of endeavour that usually doesn’t flaunt itself, yet continues to build up the future, turn the wheels of progress and nurture us all.

Fare thee well, Prof!

Nante yie, Auntie Ama. 

The certainty of your legacy would be no ‘dilemma’ to any, for you’ll certainly be no ‘ghost’ in the celebrated pantheon of Ghanaian, African and global literary colossi!  

'Onyame nfa wo kra nsié'

Amen.