Renowned Ghanaian author, playwright and feminist, Professor Ama Ata Aidoo has died at the age of 81.
A statement by the Aidoo’s family disclosed that she died after a brief illness in the early hours of Wednesday.
She lived as one of Africa’s most celebrated literary icons with some of her popular works like The Dilemma of a Ghost, Our Sister Killjoy and Changes receiving recognitions and awards.
Aidoo was a university professor and served as Ghana’s education minister in the early 1980’s.
In a statement, her family said, “Our beloved relative and writer” passed away after a short illness, requesting privacy to allow them to grieve.
Aidoo won many literary awards including the 1992 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Changes, a love story about a statistician who divorces her first husband and enters into a polygamist marriage.
Her work, including plays like Anowa, have been read in schools across West Africa, along with works of other greats like Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.
