Ama Ata Aidoo: Ghana mourns literary giant loved by musicians

Aidoo, whose works were referenced in West African music, succumbed to ill health at her home on Wednesday aged 81, according to a statement from her family. 

An esteemed writer and former education minister of Ghana, Aidoo’s contributions to African literature span more than five decades. Her first play, The Dilemma of a Ghost, published in 1965 by Longman during her time at the University of Ghana, made her the first published African woman dramatist.

Aidoo’s works were the subject of a number of popular West African songs. Ghanaian rapper M.anifest’s 2016 album Nowhere Cool borrows its title from a short story by Aidoo. The artist revealed that the entire project was inspired by Aidoo, who is featured on a track titled ‘Now Here Cool’ alongside singer Cina Soul.

Aidoo also appears on Afrobeats star Burna Boy’s ‘Monsters You Made’, taken off his Grammy-winning 2020 album Twice As Tall, alongside Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. The record features a 23-second snippet of an interview Aidoo granted in 1987 lamenting the adverse effects of Western imperialism on Africa.

“Since we met you people 500 years ago, look at us, we’ve given everything, you’re still taking. In exchange for that, we have got nothing. Nothing! And you know it,” Aidoo says in the interview.

After completing her studies and a fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University in California, Aidoo returned to Ghana in 1969 and began teaching English at the University of Ghana. She later became a professor and held positions at the Institute of African Studies and the University of Cape Coast. 

In 1982, she was appointed as the minister of education under the Provisional National Defence Council, a post she held for 18 months before resigning when she realised that her goal of making education freely accessible to all in Ghana would not be achieved.

Throughout her work, Aidoo’s writing, which criss-crossed plays, novels, poetry and children’s books, explores the tension between Western and African worldviews and challenges societal expectations placed on women.

Among her most notable accolades are the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Africa) for her novel Changes: A Love Story in 1992, and the Nelson Mandela Prize for Poetry for Someone Talking to Sometime in 1987.

The news of Aidoo’s passing has been met with a deluge of condolence messages from across Ghana’s social spectrum, with many touting her as a towering literary figure, social commentator and advocate.