ABSTRACT
Since the publication of her first play The Dilemma of a Ghost in 1964,
Ama Ata Aidoo has been an important and vocal figure in the struggle
for Ghanaian national liberation and self-determination in the context
of colonialism and neo-colonialism, as well as the broader pan-Africanist
struggles against imperialism and racism. At the same time she has been
an outspoken proponent of women’s liberation in national and inter-
national contexts and an avid critic of the corruption and hypocrisy of
the national bourgeoisie in post-independence Ghana. She has likewise
made influential contributions to both the development of African litera-
ture and literary criticism both as a writer and as a scholar. Born in
1940 in the central region of Ghana, Aidoo was the daughter of a chief
in the town of Abeadzi Kyiakor and grew up in the royal household.
