Efua Sutherland
| Efua Sutherland | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Efua Theodora Morgue 27 June 1924 Cape Coast, Gold Coast |
| Died | 2 January 1996 (aged 71) Accra, Ghana |
| Nationality | Ghanaian |
| Occupation | Playwright-director, children's author, poet, broadcaster |
| Notable work |
Foriwa (1962) Edufa (1967) The Marriage of Anansewa (1975) |
Efua Theodora Sutherland (27 June 1924 – 2 January 1996) was a Ghanaian playwright, director, children's author, poet and dramatist. Her best-known works include Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975). She founded the Ghana Drama Studio, the Ghana Society of Writers, the Ghana Experimental Theatre, and a community project called the Kodzidan (Story House). As the earliest Ghanaian playwright-director and a popular broadcaster, she was an influential figure in the establishment of modern Ghanaian theatre, and helped to establish the study of African performance traditions at university level. She was also a pioneering publisher, establishing the company Afram Publications in the 1970s.
She was an influential cultural advocate for children from the early 1950s until her death, and played a major role in developing educational curricula, literature, theatre and film for and about Ghanaian children.
She was born Efua Theodora Morgue in Cape Coast, Gold Coast (now Ghana), where she studied teaching at St Monica's Training College. She then went to England to continue her studies at Homerton College, Cambridge University, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
When she returned to Ghana, Sutherland helped to establish the literary magazine Okyeame at the end of 1957. She then taught at schools including at St. Monica's Training College, before settling in Accra. In 1954 she married Bill Sutherland, an African American and pan-Africanist who had moved to Ghana. They had three children (educationalist Esi Sutherland-Addy, architecht Ralph Sutherland, and lawyer Amowi Sutherland Phillips) and she helped her husband in the establishment of a school in the Transvolta area.
...
Wikipedia