Efua Sutherland

Efua Sutherland
Born
Efua Theodora Morgue

(1924-06-27)27 June 1924
Cape Coast, Gold Coast
Died2 January 1996(1996-01-02) (aged 71)
Accra, Ghana
NationalityGhanaian
Education
Occupation(s)Playwright-director, author, poet, educator, publisher, cultural activist, child advocate
Notable workPlaytime in Africa (1961)
New Life in Kyerefaso (1960)
Edufa (1967)
The Marriage of Anansewa (1975)
SpouseBill Sutherland
ChildrenEsi Sutherland-Addy, Ralph Sutherland, and Amowi Sutherland Phillips

Efua Theodora Sutherland (born 27 June 1924 – 2 January 1996)[1] was a Ghanaian playwright, director, dramatist, children's author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist. Her works include the plays Foriwa (1962),[2] Edufa (1967),[3] and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975).[4][5] She founded the Ghana Drama Studio,[6] the Ghana Society of Writers,[7] the Ghana Experimental Theatre, and a community project called the Kodzidan (Story House).[8] As Ghana's earliest playwright-director,[9] 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.[10] She was also a pioneering African publisher, establishing the company Afram Publications in Accra in the 1970s.[11]

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.[12][13] 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.[14]

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, including interactions with Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Maya Angelou, W. E. B. Du Bois and Shirley Graham Du Bois, Margaret Busby, Tom Feelings, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King, Femi Osofisan, Félix Morisseau-Leroy, Es'kia Mphahlele, Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. 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.[15][16]

Efua Sutherland died in Accra aged 71 in 1996.[17]

  1. ^ "Google Celebrates Efua Sutherland Across The World Today". Modern Ghana. 27 June 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
  2. ^ Sutherland, Efua Theodora (1967). Foriwa: A Play. State Publishing Corporation.
  3. ^ Sutherland, Efua T. (1979). Edufa. Longman. ISBN 9780582642720.
  4. ^ "The Marriage Of Anansewa". Goodreads. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  5. ^ Sutherland, Efua Theodora Morgue (1975). The Marriage of Anansewa: a storytelling drama. London: Longman. ISBN 058264139X. OCLC 2292359.
  6. ^ "Sutherland, Efua (Theodora)". Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam-Webster. 1995-04-01. p. 1081. ISBN 0-87779-042-6.
  7. ^ Danquah, Moses, "Ghana, One Year Old: a First Independence Anniversary Review", Accra: Publicity Promotions, 1958.
  8. ^ Thrash Murphy, Barbara (1 December 1998). Black Authors and Illustrators of Books for Children and Young Adults. Routledge (UK). ISBN 0-8153-2004-3.
  9. ^ Busby, Margaret, "Efua Sutherland", Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent (1992), Vintage, 1993, p. 314.
  10. ^ Banham, Martin (13 May 2004). A History of Theatre in Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80813-8.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference AframHistory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference About was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Groundology was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Simoes da Silva, Tony, "Myths, Traditions and Mothers of the Nation: Some Thoughts on Efua Sutherland's Writing", EnterText 4, no. 2 (2005): 256.
  15. ^ "History" Archived 2021-11-05 at the Wayback Machine, Panafest website.
  16. ^ Adams, Anne V.; Esi Sutherland-Addy, eds. (2007). The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African Cultural Activism. Banbury: Ayebia Clarke Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9547023-1-1.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference LUCAS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).