Prof Ama Ata Aidoo dies aged 81

Ghanaian poet and author of international repute, Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo has died, aged 81.
She died, Wednesday 31st May, 2023 after a short illness according to a statement released a while ago by her family.
“The family of Prof. Ama Atta 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 of this morning Wednesday 31st May 2023, after a short illness,” the statement partly read.
The family stated that funeral arrangements would be announced in due course and also requested privacy at this difficult moment.
Prof. Ata Aidoo was born on 23rd March 1942 in Abeadzi Kyiakor near Saltpond in the Central Region.
With a career spanning over fifty years, she received international recognition as one of the most prominent African playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries. ‘The Dilemma of a Ghost’, her first play, was written in 1964 and published the following year, 1965, while she was about 23 years old, making her the first published African woman dramatist, a feat she relished all her life. Other books written by her are Anowa, No Sweetness Here, Our Sister Killjoy, Diplomatic Pounds, Someone Talking To Sometimes, After The Ceremonies, among others.
As a novelist, she won numerous awards including, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Changes (1991).

She was a Minister of Education under the Jerry John Rawlings administration and a known advocate of feminism and women empowerment.