Source: newsthemegh.com
Ama Ata Aidoo, a well-known author and playwright, will be laid to rest in mid-July from Thursday, July 13, to Sunday, July 16.
When the family visited President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, June 14, to tell him of the last-minute burial plans, they made this announcement.
“I’m glad I can attend the laying-in-state thanks to the preparations you made for her funeral.
“I had already decided that she should be granted a state-assisted funeral before you arrived. President Akufo-Addo stated, “She deserves it, and it will give myself and the people of Ghana the chance to pay our final respects.
After a brief illness, the acclaimed author, poet, playwright, and academic passed away on May 31 at the age of 81.
One of the most well-known African authors of the 20th and 21st centuries, Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo, achieved fame on a global scale.
She was born on March 23, 1942, in Ghana’s Central Region at Abeadzi Kyiakor, close to Saltpond. The late Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo attended both the University of Ghana and Wesley Girls’ High School.
The author’s English-language writing highlighted the paradoxical position of the contemporary African woman. Her literary creations challenged preexisting narratives and changed the literary scene by bringing African perspectives to the fore.
With his issue play The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965), Ama Ata Aidoo gained early notoriety. In it, a Ghanaian student returning home introduces his African American wife to the traditional culture and large family that he now finds constrictive.
Their predicament represents Aidoo’s recurring concern with Africans who have received an education overseas (the “been-to”), which she also expressed in her experimental semi-autobiographical debut book, Our Sister Killjoy; or, Reflections from a Black-Eyed Squint (1966).
After receiving a fellowship to study at Stanford University in California, Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo returned to Cape Coast, Ghana (1970–1982) to teach before accepting a number of visiting professorships in the US and Kenya.