Ama Ata Aidoo

Ama Ata Aidoo was born into a royal Fante family in the Central Region of Ghana. She studied English literature at the University of Ghana, Legon, where she wrote her first acclaimed play, The Dilemma of a Ghost, staged in 1964 and published in 1965, making her one of Africa's earliest published female dramatists.

Aidoo's work fiercely challenged colonial narratives and traditional patriarchal expectations in post-independence Africa. In 1982, she was appointed Minister of Education under the Provisional National Defence Council, working to make education accessible to all Ghanaians before resigning over policy differences. Her 1991 novel, Changes: A Love Story, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Africa). Through the Mbaasem Foundation, she dedicated her later life to mentoring and supporting African women writers across the continent.