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Ama Ata Aidoo

Ecrivain/ne, Dramaturge, Poète
(Femme)
Ghana

Français

Ecrivaine, féministe panafricaine, novelliste, dramaturge et poètesse ghanéenne.
Née au Ghana en 1942, Ama Ata Aidoo est une grande figure du féminisme africain. Auteure de romans, de pièces de théâtre, de poèmes, elle a reçu plusieurs prix, dont le Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book en 1992.
Bien que très connue dans le monde anglophone, ses romans n’avaient jamais été traduits en français, jusqu’en 2008, par Eloïse Brezault et Catherine Tymen (Désordres amoureux, Editions Zoé, traduction de Changes: A Love Story).
Sa sublime pièce de théâtre sur l’esclavage, Anowa (publiée en 1970), a été adaptée à l’Université de Californie (Santa Barbara, USA).
La réalisatrice Yaba Badoe lui a consacré un documentaire portrait, The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo (L’Art de Ama Ata Aidoo), avec la participation de Carole Boyce Davies, Nana Wilson- Tagoe et Vincent Odamtten.

English

Ghanaian writer, Pan-African feminist, poet, playwright and novelist.

One of Africa’s foremost woman writers, a trailblazer for an entire generation of exciting new talent. Ama Ata Aidoo’s creative journey in a life spans 7 decades from colonial Ghana through the tumultuous era of independence to a more sober present day Africa where nurturing women’s creative talent remains as hard as ever.
The publication of The Dilemma of a Ghost in 1965 at the age of 25 made Aidoo the first published African woman playwright. In Anowa (1970), she demonstrated her courage by addressing slavery, a very sensitive topic even today in Ghana. Her most recent work is Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories (Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd.).
Directed by Ghana’s Yaba Badoe, exec. produced by Amina Mama, The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo (2014, documentary, 78min), celebrates an acclaimed and provides a fascinating insight into her life and celebrates one woman’s contribution to Africa’s Renaissance. With contributions from Carole Boyce Davies, Nana Wilson-Tagoe and Vincent Odamtten.
Over the course of a year the film follows Aidoo as she returns home to her ancestral village in the Central Region of Ghana, launches her latest collection of short stories in Accra, and travels to the University of California, Santa Barbara to attend the premier of her seminal play about the slave trade, Anowa.
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