Efua Sutherland

Efua Sutherland
Born Efua Theodora Morgue
(1924-06-27)27 June 1924
Cape Coast, Gold Coast
Died 21 January 1996(1996-01-21) (aged 71)
Accra, Ghana
Nationality Ghanaian
Education St. Monica's Training College, Ghana and Homerton College, Cambridge, UK
Occupation Playwright-director, author, poet, educator, cultural activist, child advocate
Notable work Playtime in Africa (1961)
New Life in Kyerefaso (1960)
Edufa (1967)
The Marriage of Anansewa (1975)

Efua Theodora Sutherland (27 June 1924 – 21 January 1996) was a Ghanaian playwright, director, dramatist, children's author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist. Her works include Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975). She founded the Ghana Drama Studio,[1] the Ghana Society of Writers,[2] the Ghana Experimental Theatre, and a community project called the Kodzidan (Story House).[3] As the earliest Ghanaian playwright-director [4] she was an influential figure in the development of modern Ghanaian theatre, and helped to introduce the study of African performance traditions at the university level.[5] She was also a pioneering publisher, establishing the company Afram Publications in the 1970s.[6]

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.[7][8] 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.[9]

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, Felix Morisseau-Leroi, Es’kia Mphahlele, Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. In the 1990s she was the inspiration behind the biennial Pan-African Festival of Theatre Arts (PANAFEST).[10]

Efua Sutherland died in Accra aged 71 in 1996.

Education and early career

She was born Efua Theodora Morgue in Cape Coast, Gold Coast (now Ghana), where she studied teaching at St Monica's Training College in Mampong.[11][12] She then went to England to continue her education at Homerton College, Cambridge University — one of the first African women to study there — and at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.[1][11]

Returning to Ghana in 1951, she taught first at Fijai Secondary School at Sekondi, then at St. Monica's School (1951–54), and also began writing for children.[11] In 1954 she married Bill Sutherland, an African American and Pan-Africanist who in 1953 had moved to Ghana[13] (they would have three children: educationalist Esi Sutherland-Addy, architect Ralph Sutherland, and lawyer Amowi Sutherland Phillips)[14][15] and she helped her husband in the establishment of a school in the Transvolta area.[16][17]

Literary production

When the Gold Coast became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957, Efua Sutherland organised the Ghana Society of Writers (later the Association of Ghana Writers), which in 1960 brought out the first issue of the literary magazine Okyeame, of which she eventually became editor.[18][19]

Sutherland experimented creatively with storytelling and other dramatic forms from indigenous Ghanaian traditions. Her plays were often based on traditional stories, but also borrowed from Western literature, transforming African folktale conventions into modern dramatic theatre techniques.[20] Many of her poems and other writings were broadcast on The Singing Net, a popular radio programme started by Henry Swanzy,[21][22] and were subsequently published in his 1958 anthology Voices of Ghana. The 1960 first issue of Okyeame magazine contains her short story "Samantaase", a retelling of a folktale.[19] Her best known plays are Edufa (1967) (based on Alcestis by Euripides), Foriwa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975).[1]

In 1958, Sutherland founded the Ghana Experimental Theatre, which was based at the Ghana Drama Studio built by Sutherland and launched by President Kwame Nkrumah in 1963 with Joe de Graft as its first director. Sited in downtown Accra, the Drama Studio became a training ground for a range of theatre practitioners from all over Africa. In 1962 she joined the staff of the new School of Music and Drama, headed by J. H. Kwabena Nketia.[16] In 1963, when she took on the role of Research Associate at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana [11][23] she brought along with her the Ghana Drama Studio which became an off-campus training space, called the University of Ghana Drama Studio. Sutherland, in addition to her field research and teaching in African Dramatic Forms, was a core member of the team which conceptualised and established the School of Performing Arts. Also concerned with traditional storytelling and developing community theatre, she founded the Kodzidan (Story House) in Ekumfi-Atwia, Central Region, which was recognised world wide as a pioneering model in theatre for development.[20][11][24]

Sutherland mentored and was in turn inspired by, many of Ghana's accomplished writers, including Ama Ata Aidoo, Kofi Anyidoho and Meshack Asare.

In the early 1970s, Sutherland co-founded the publishing company Afram Publications, which was incorporated in 1973, and in March 1974 began operating from her private studio in "Araba Mansa", her compound at Dzorwulu, Accra.[6] Sutherland remained involved in Afram's editorial work until her death.[25]

Cultural activism and pan-Africanism

Sutherland’s work attracted the attention of creatives from the global African world. Maya Angelou’s fifth volume of memoirs All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes testifies to the emotional support and entrée into Ghanaian society afforded her in the 1960s by Efua Sutherland who became a close friend. [26]

Sutherland had met Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois when she led the Ghana delegation to the 1958 Afro-Asian Writers Conference in Tashkent (now the capital of Uzbekistan). She was to personally intervene, at his death in Accra, Ghana in 1963, to support Mrs Shirley Du Bois. In the 1980s Sutherland was instrumental in establishing the W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan African Culture and mausoleum at the Du Bois’ Accra home.

In the mid-1980s, she penned an original proposal for a pan-African historical theatre festival in Ghana as a cultural vehicle for bringing together Africans around the globe, underscoring the significance she attached to connections between Africa and its Diaspora.[ ] This came to fruition as PANAFEST, which was first held in 1992.[27]

Advocacy for children

Sutherland presided over Ghana's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (the first country to do so)and chaired the National Commission on Children from 1983 to 1990, a period which marked the most vigorous and comprehensive child advocacy on a national scale in the history of Ghana. In this capacity, she steered a number of innovative programs including a Child Education Fund to support underserved communities, the Mobile Technical Workshop extending science learning to poor or rural children, and the securing of land to seed model child-centred park and library complexes around the country. She laid the groundwork for the Mmofra Foundation, active since 1997 as a civic organisation dedicated to enriching the cultural and intellectual lives of all children in Ghana.[7] In 2012 the Playtime in Africa Initiative, inspired by her eponymous 1961 book was launched to revitalise child-friendly public space advocacy.

Her final most significant work at the Institute of African Studies, Legon, was her Children's Drama Development Project which was aimed at developing materials, methods and staff for programs of creative dramatics in and out of school. Sutherland was invited by UNICEF to join a worldwide network of scholars to consider a code of human rights for the protection of children.[28]

Legacy

  • Following the 1992 construction of the National Theatre of Ghana on the site occupied by the Drama Studio a replica of the Studio was constructed on the campus of the University of Ghana as part of the facilities of the School of Performing Arts. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the University, the Studio was renamed the Efua Sutherland Drama Studio.
    Efua Sutherland Children Park. Located near the centre of Accra, this 12-acre public space was secured by Efua Sutherland as a park for all children in the 1980s.
  • A 12-acre space in central Accra reserved as a children’s park in central Accra through the advocacy of[8] Efua Sutherland and it is named after her.[29][30][31][32]
  • Efua Sutherlandstraat is one of a number of streets in an area of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, named after significant women writers and activists.[33][30]
  • Active since 1997, Mmofra Foundation was established by Efua Sutherland in her final years and is dedicated to enriching the cultural and intellectual lives of all children in Ghana. For over 20 years, thousands of children have benefited from its literary, nature-sensitive and creativity-oriented programs.
  • A green cultural space/park called Mmofra Place in the Dzorwulu area of Accra is open to children of all backgrounds, thanks to the estate of Efua T. Sutherland.
  • Efua Sutherland Hall is a student hall of residence at Ashesi University, Berekuso, Ghana.
  • Writer, poet, lecturer and diplomat Abena P.A. Busia devoted a chapter "To the Roadmaker:Fragments of a Meditation" to Efua Sutherland in her volume of poems Traces of a Life: A Collection of Elegies and Praise Poems (Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2008)
  • The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan African Cultural Activism, a volume in her honour was published in 2007, edited by Anne V. Adams and Esi Sutherland-Addy.[34]
  • honoured with a google doodle on 27 june 2018, on her 94th Birthday.

This latter is a posthumous collection of critical essays, reflective pieces, tributes and poems dedicated to the thought, work and life of Efua Theodora Sutherland. Initiated by literary scholar, Anne V. Adams, the editors of the collection conceptualised it to capture the sheer breadth of her intellectual work and activist pre-occupations within the broad universe of Pan African Culture and Development. Her commitment to establishing a solid research base for the study of Africa, the building of its nations and the development of its people at home and in diaspora earned her a distinguished international intellectual reputation. As writer, educator, director, producer, dramatist, publisher, and institution builder, her ideas and insight blossomed into a range of programs and projects which have impacted an astonishing range of people around the world. Efua Sutherland was an African woman trailblazer who provoked discourses and creative initiative. The editors have assembled eminent contributors placing her works in literary and philosophical perspective. Personalities who worked with her in the building of institutions and programs have written reflective essays which interpret this experience. While most of the contributors to the book have met or worked with Efua Sutherland, the final section of the book reveals the personal Efua behind the public persona and the relationships she developed with friends, colleagues and mentees – each felt a special link.

Contributors to The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan African Cultural Activism are Anne Adams, Sutherland-Addy, Ama Ata Aidoo, Maya Angelou, Kofi Anyidoho, Sandy Arkhurst, William Branch, Margaret Busby, John Collins, David Donkor, James Gibbs Comfort Caulley-Hanson, Biodun Jeyifo, Robert July, Mabel Komasi, Florence Laast, John Lemly, Jurgen Martini, Michael McMullan, Penina Mlama, Femi Osofisan, Sandra Richards, Amowi Sutherland Phillips, Ola Rotimi, Margaret Watts, Henry Wellington, Vivian Windley.

Works briefly annotated

Sutherland experimented creatively with storytelling and other dramatic forms from indigenous Ghanaian traditions. Her plays were often based on traditional stories, but also borrowed from Western literature, transforming African folktale conventions into modern dramatic theatre techniques.[20] Many of her poems and other writings were broadcast on The Singing Net, a popular radio programme started by Henry Swanzy,[35][36] and were subsequently published in his 1958 anthology Voices of Ghana. The 1960 first issue of Okyeame magazine contains her short story "Samantaase", a retelling of a folktale.[19] Her best known plays are Edufa (1967) (based on Alcestis by Euripides), Foriwa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975).[1]

In Edufa the eponymous character seeks to escape death by manipulating his wife, Ampoma, to the death that has been predicted for him by oracles. In the play, Sutherland uses traditional Ghanaian beliefs in divination and the interaction of traditional and European ceremonies in order to portray Edufa as a rich and successful modern person who is held in high esteem by his people. The play uses traditional ritual and symbolism, but the story is told in the context of Edufa's capitalistic abandonment of his moral commitment to his wife, while his wife and the other women favour the morality of the past.[20]

In Foriwa the eponymous character, who is the daughter of the queen mother of Kyerefaso, and Labaran, a graduate from northern Ghana who lives a simple life, bring enlightenment to Kyerefaso, a town that has become backward and ignorant because the town's elders refuse to learn new ways.[20] Foriwa's main theme is the alliance of old traditions and new ways.[1] The play has a national theme to promote a new national spirit in Ghana that would encourage openness to new ideas and inter-ethnic cooperation.[20]

The Marriage of Anansewa: A Storytelling Drama (1975) is considered Sutherland's most valuable contribution to Ghanaian drama and theater.[20] In the play, she transmutes traditional Akan Ananse Spider tales (Anansesem) into a new dramatic structure, which she calls Anansegoro.[20] Nyamekye (a version of Alice in Wonderland), one of her later plays, shows how she was influenced by the folk opera tradition.[1]

Sutherland was also an author of works for children. These works included two animated rhythm plays, Vulture! Vulture! and Tahinta (1968), and two pictorial essays, with photographs by Willis Bell (1924–2000): Playtime in Africa (1960) and The Roadmakers (1961). Many of her short stories can be described as rhythmic prose poems. Voice in the Forest, a book of the folklore and fairytales of Ghana, was published in 1983.[1]

Playtime in Africa has been described "a groundbreaking book on Ghana's play culture", which Sutherland considered important for in developing young minds and bodies.[8] Not only was it published three years after Ghana's independence it was the first documentation of children’s play culture in Ghana. The book presented the nuances of children’s lives to forefront of society and it also ushered in an indigenous movement in writing for children, along with publishing and development through drama for children.

A Voice in the Forest is a text that powerfully portrays the political, economic, and social complexity of colonialism and cultural relativism in Ghana in regards to children. The text is a retelling of an Akan folktale and deals with traditional cultural values through the role of the trickster figure. It tells the story of a man named Bempong who unknowingly discovers a Samanta, a wood nymph, and brings her back to his village. Initially Bempong believes the Samanta is a lost girl, wandering alone through the forest. For the first half of the story the Samanta refuses to speak. It is not until Bempong cuts off her hair, in an effort to tame her outgrown hair, that Bempong realizes this girl is a Samanta, a wood nymph—“a creature of strange magical powers.”[37] Finding her voice in a moment of anger, the Samanta curses the village, leaving them with no food until she has her hair back. The hero of the book is Afrum, Bempong’s son, who is regarded as the village fool. Sutherland’s choice to celebrate the fool is a part of a longer lineage of uses of the trickster figure in African literature.[38]

Selected bibliography

  • with Willis E. Bell, The Roadmakers: a picture book of Ghana(for children). Accra: Ghana Information Services / London: Newman Neame, 1961, 1963
  • with Willis E. Bell, Playtime in Africa (for children), New York: Atheneum, 1962
  • Edufa (play), Longman, 1967
  • Foriwa: A Play in Three Acts, Accra-Tema: State Publishing Corporation, 1967
  • Tahinta (1968)
  • Vulture! Vulture! and Tahina: Two Rhythm Plays, Tema: Ghana Publishing House, 1968
  • Odasani (play), Accra: Anowuo Educational Publications, 1969
  • with Willis Bell, The Original Bob: The Story of Bob Johnson, Ghana's Ace Comedian (play), Accra: Anowuo Educational Publications, 1970
  • Anansegoro: Story-Telling Drama in Ghana, Accra: Afram, 1975
  • The Marriage of Anansewa (play), London: Longman, 1977, 1980; Washington, DC: Three Continents Press, 1980
  • The Voice in the Forest: A Tale from Ghana, Philomel Books, 1983

Further reading

  • Anne V. Adams and Esi Sutherland-Addy (2007). The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African Cultural Activism,[34] Banbury: Ayebia Clarke Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9547023-1-1
  • James Gibbs, "Efua Sutherland: The 'Mother' of the Ghanaian Theatre", in Nkyin-kyin: Essays on the Ghanaian Theatre (Cross/Cultures 98), Rodopi, 2009.
  • Salm & Falola (2002). Culture and Customs of Ghana. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-32050-0
  • Esi Sutherland-Addy, "Creating For and With Children in Ghana — Efua Sutherland: A retrospective", in Michael Etherton (ed.), African Theatre: Youth, James Currey Ltd, 2006, pp. 1–15.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam-Webster. 1995-04-01. p. 1081. ISBN 0-87779-042-6.
  2. ↑ Moses Danquah, "Ghana, One Year Old: a First Independence Anniversary Review", Accra: Publicity Promotions, 1958.
  3. ↑ Thrash Murphy, Barbara (1 December 1998). Black Authors and Illustrators of Books for Children and Young Adults. Routledge (UK). ISBN 0-8153-2004-3.
  4. ↑ Margaret Busby, "Efua Sutherland", Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent (1992), Vintage, 1993, p. 314.
  5. ↑ Banham, Martin (13 May 2004). A History of Theatre in Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80813-8.
  6. 1 2 "Our History", Afram Publications.
  7. 1 2 "About", Mmofra Foundation.
  8. 1 2 3 "Imagining a Better Future – Playtime in Africa", PlayGroundology, 30 April 2012.
  9. ↑ Tony Simoes da Silva, “Myths, Traditions and Mothers of the Nation: Some Thoughts on Efua Sutherland's Writing,” EnterText 4, no. 2 (2005): 256.
  10. ↑ Adams, Sutherland-Addy, Anne, Esi, ed. (2007). The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African Cultural Activism. Banbury: Ayebia Clarke Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9547023-1-1.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sutherland, Efua (1924–1996)", Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia.com.
  12. ↑ "Sutherland, Efua (1924–1996)", Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages, Gale, 2007.
  13. ↑ Interview with Bill Sutherland (19 July 2003), for William Minter, Gail Hovey, and Charles Cobb Jr. (eds), No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950–2000, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2007.
  14. ↑ "ESI SUTHERLAND ADDY PERSONALITY - PROFILE FRIDAY ON JOYNEWS (14-3-14)", My JoyOnline. YouTube.
  15. ↑ "Board of Directors", Mmofra Foundation.
  16. 1 2 Liukkonen, Petri. "Efua Sutherland". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008.
  17. ↑ "US anti-apartheid activist dies", News24 Archives, January 6, 2010.
  18. ↑ Simon Gikandi, "Sutherland, Efua Theodora", Encyclopedia of African Literature, Routledge, 2003.
  19. 1 2 3 James Gibbs, "Efua Sutherland: The 'Mother' of the Ghanaian Theatre", in Nkyin-kyin: Essays on the Ghanaian Theatre (Cross/Cultures 98), Rodopi, 2009, p. 101.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Owonoyela, Oyekan (23 August 2002). A History of Twentieth-Century African Literatures. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8604-X.
  21. ↑ "Efua Sutherland", Encyclopædia Britannica.
  22. ↑ Arbogast Kemoli Akidiva, "Radio and Literature in Africa: Lee Nichols' Conversations with African Writers", p. 229. University of Alberta dissertation, Spring 1997.
  23. ↑ Collins, Stephen (2011), "Playwriting and postcolonialism: identifying the key factors in the development and diminution of playwriting in Ghana 1916-2007", MPhil(R) thesis, p. 15, University of Glasgow.
  24. ↑ Gibbs, pp. xv, 111.
  25. ↑ Kofi Anyidoho and James Woods (eds), FonTomFrom: Contemporary Ghanaian Literature, Theatre and Film, p. 80.
  26. ↑ Maya Angelou, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, 1986.
  27. ↑ "The Impetus and Objectives of PANAFEST", Panafest website.
  28. ↑ Agovi, K.E. (1996). Tributes to Efua Sutherland.
  29. ↑ "Efua Sutherland Children's Park (Accra).
  30. 1 2 "Founder", Mmofra Foundation.
  31. ↑ "Efua Sutherland Children’s Park to be refurbished", Ghana News Agency, 30 December 2014.
  32. ↑ Kofi Akordor, "What happened to the children’s parks in Ghana?", GhanaWeb, 13 October 2015.
  33. ↑ Streetview map, Geographic.org.
  34. 1 2 Judith Greenwood, "The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African Cultural Activism" (review), Leeds University Centre for African Studies, African Studies Bulletin, 70 (December 2008), pp. 84–86.
  35. ↑ "Efua Sutherland", Encyclopædia Britannica.
  36. ↑ Arbogast Kemoli Akidiva, "Radio and Literature in Africa: Lee Nichols' Conversations with African Writers", p. 229. University of Alberta dissertation, Spring 1997.
  37. ↑ Efua Sutherland, A Voice in the Forest (Ghana: Afram Publishing, 1983), 9.
  38. ↑ See Pelton, Robert D. The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
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