African authors have paid tribute to renowned Ghanaian author and playwright Ama Ata Aidoo, who died in the early hours of Wednesday, May 31, at the age of 81.
Her family said in a statement that she died after a brief illness and asked for privacy.
Ata Aidoo was a university professor and won many awards for her novels, plays, and poems, including her novel 'Changes', which won the 1992 Common Wealth Writers Prize for Best African Book.
Kenyan author Mukoma Wa Ngugi called her "a pillar," and with her passing, ‘’the African literary tradition wobbles.’’
Nigerian poet and author Lọlá Shónẹ́yìn wrote: ‘’She was my literary mother. She embraced me, taught me, and always had the right words. Mama was a towering literary figure.’’
Ama Ata Aidoo was born in Ghana's central Fanti-speaking region in 1942.
At the age of 15, she decided that she wanted to be a writer, and she achieved that ambition four years later when she entered a competition.
She went on to study literature at the University of Ghana and became a lecturer, publishing her first play in 1964.
Her work, including plays like Anowa, has been read in schools across West Africa, along with the works of other greats like Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.
