The historic migration of the Yoruba people from Ile-Ife has shaped Ghana’s Yoruba community through trade, faith and family ties. At the heart of this connection is Chief Brimah, an Ilorin merchant, whose leadership and entrepreneurial spirit forged enduring bonds with the Ga people and deeply influenced Accra’s Zongo communities.
Ghanaian writer and author of The Rest of You, Maame Blue, says her debut novel, Bad Love, was inspired by own dating experiences at the time of writing: ‘I wanted to explore how first love shapes who we are for everyone else we meet afterwards, and what it means to navigate a relationship for the first time.’
Ghanaian writer and author of The Hundred Wells of Salaga, Ayesha Harruna Attah, says she was inspired to write her latest novel during the COVID-19 pandemic: ‘The inspiration for Zainab Takes New York came from being stuck indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the uncertainty of those first months of the pandemic, I thought to myself: write what you’ve always wanted to write—and that turned out to be a romantic comedy.’
In her second novel, Nightbloom, Peace Adzo Medie uses issues associated with womanhood and family dynamics to speak to larger societal issues in Ghana.
Ghanaian writer and author of Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, says her children’s book was inspired by a Bible passage about the furnishings in King Solomon’s temple.
Ghanaian novelist and author of What Napoleon Could Not Do, DK Nnuro, says his debut novel was inspired by his experiences: ‘Since relocating to the US from Ghana, I have had one foot firmly placed among Black immigrants—Ghanaian immigrants, specifically—and another among Black Americans. It was natural that I would explore the tensions between the two in a novel.’
Growing up in Ghana in the 1980s, there were certain writers you didn’t escape. Ama Ata Aidoo, who passed away in May 2023, was one such writer, Nii Ayikwei Parkes writes. Hers is a timeless legacy of a writer who triumphed over the double battle of high-level literary creation and persistent erasure, and became one of the world’s leading thinkers and writers.
For a long time, not many Ghanaians knew that Theodosia Okoh designed their country’s iconic flag. Like many African countries, the history of Ghana’s independence unfailingly details the contributions of men who are all tagged ‘founding fathers’. Women like Okoh and their contributions, however, are often left out of the archives and consciousness of their country people.
Ama Ata Aidoo, whose works include The Dilemma of a Ghost (1962), Our Sister Killjoy (1977), Someone Talking to Sometime (1986), and Changes: A Love Story (1991), has died aged 81. The Ghanaian novelist, poet, and playwright was a renowned feminist whose works celebrated the lives of Ghanaian and African women.
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