Library Weekly

On 2 January 1996, Ghanaian playwright, children's author, poet, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist Efua Sutherland passed away. Her works include the plays Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975). As Ghana's earliest playwright-director, she was an influential figure in the development of modern Ghanaian theatre, and helped to introduce the study of African performance traditions at university level. She was also a pioneering African publisher, establishing the company Afram Publications in Accra in the 1970s.

She was a cultural advocate for children from the early 1950s until her death, and played a role in developing educational curricula, literature, theatre and film for and about Ghanaian children. Her 1960 photo essay Playtime in Africa, co-authored with Willis E. Bell, highlighted the centrality of play in children's development and was followed in the 1980s by her leadership in the development of a model public children's parks system for the country.

Sutherland's pan-Africanism was reflected in her support for its principles and her collaborations with African and African diaspora personalities in a range of disciplines. Having in 1980 written an original proposal for a pan-African historical theatre festival in Ghana as a cultural vehicle for bringing together Africans around the globe, Sutherland was the inspiration behind the biennial Pan-African festival of theatre arts known as PANAFEST, first held in 1992. Efua Sutherland died in Accra aged 71 in 1996.

(Source: Wikipedia accessed on 2 January 2025).

Selected publications

Adams, Anne V, and Esi Sutherland-Addy, The legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African cultural activism (Banbury, 2007).

Brown, Lloyd Wellesley, Women writers in Black Africa (Westport, 1981).

Duerden, Dennis, en Cosmo Pieterse, African writers talking: a collection of interviews (London, 1972).

Etherton, Michael, en Jane Plastow, Youth (Oxford, 2006).

Migraine-George, Thérèse, African women and representation: from performance to politics (Trenton, 2008).

Rotimi, Ola, Issues in African theatre (Ibadan, 2003).

Sutherland, Efua and William E. Bell, The roadmakers : photographs by Willis E. Bell (Accra, 1961).

Sutherland, Efua, The marriage of Anansewa: a storytelling drama (London, 1975).

Sutherland, Efua, Edufa (London,1967).

Utudjian Saint-André, Éliane, Le théâtre anglophone du Nigeria, du Ghana et de la Sierra Leone : évolution des formes, des origines à la fin du XXe siècle (Paris, 2007).

Wilentz, Gay, Binding cultures : black women writers in Africa and the diaspora (Bloomington,1992).

3 Things to Know about Efua Sutherland, Ghanaian arts trailblazer