On 31 May 2023, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghanaian feminist, poet, playwright, novelist, and author of works including Our Sister Killjoy (1977) and Changes: A Love Story (1991), passed away aged 81. Aidoo’s death was announced in a press statement signed by the Aidoo family head, Kwamena Essandoh Aidoo. “With deep sorrow but in the hope of the resurrection, informs the general public that our beloved relative and writer passed away in the early hours May 31st, after a short illness,” the statement read.
Political & Teaching Career.
In January 1982, Aidoo was appointed as the minister of education under the government of President Jerry Rawlings. As minister of education, Aidoo sought to make education in Ghana freely available to everyone while serving as minister. However, after 18 months, when she realized she couldn’t accomplish her goals, she resigned. She went on to live and teach in the US before relocating to Zimbabwe in 1983 on a self-imposed political exile to pursue her career as a writer and an advocate for education.
Useful Achievements
Aidoo was one of Africa’s greatest literary voices and her status was evident in her numerous achievements and accomplishments. In 1987, she won the Nelson Mandela Poetry Award for Someone Talking to Sometime; in 1992 she was awarded the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa for her novel, Changes: A Love Story. In 1992, she became the first recipient of the International PEN Women’s Committee Travel Fellowship from UNESCO, and in 1998, she was chosen to lead the African Visions Literature Tour. In 1999, Aidoo was awarded Companion of the Star of Volta, Ghana’s highest civic honour.
