Aidoo, Ama Ata (1942–)

Ghanaian playwright, poet, novelist, and short-story writer and political activist. Name variations: Christina Ama Ata Aidoo. Born Christina Ama Aidoo, Mar 23, 1942, in Abeadzi Kyiakor, near Dominase, Gold Coast (now Ghana); dau. of a chief of Abeadzi Kyiakor; grew up in a royal household; educated at Wesley Girls' High School in Cape Coast; graduated from University of Ghana at Legon, 1964; also studied creative writing at Stanford University; children: daughter Kinna.

Important activist-writer whose work explores the tension between African and Western values and the impact of postcolonialism on women; worked with Efua Sutherland (1960s); gained 1st notice with her play The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965); was a junior research fellow at Institute of African Studies at University of Ghana (1964–66); served as consulting professor to Washington bureau of Phelps-Stokes Fund's Ethnic Studies Program (1975–75); served as Ghanaian Secretary for Education under Jerry Rawlings (1981–83); moved to Harare, Zimbabwe, to work for the curriculum development unit of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Education (1983) and served as chair of Zimbabwe Women Writers Group; was a professor of English at University of Ghana and distinguished visiting professor of English at Oberlin College; published Changes: A Love Story (1991), which was awarded the Commonwealth Writers Prize, Africa Division (1993); plays include Anowa (1970); also published short story collection No Sweetness Here (1970), novels including the semi-autobiographical Our Sister Killjoy: Or, reflections From a Black-Eyed Squint (1977), the poetry collection Someone Talking to Sometime (1986), and the children's book The Eagle and the Chickens (1987).