Efua Sutherland

Efua Theodora Sutherland (1924 to 1996) was a Ghanaian playwright, director, children's author, poet and educationalist. Born in Cape Coast, she studied teaching at St Monica's Training College, took a degree at Homerton College, Cambridge, and returned to Ghana in 1951 to teach at Fijai Secondary School and then at St Monica's School. Dismayed by the literature children were being given, she began writing for them. She founded the Ghana Society of Writers, the Ghana Experimental Theatre and the Ghana Drama Studio, helped to develop educational curricula, literature, theatre and film for Ghanaian children, and taught African dramatic forms at the University of Ghana, where she was a core member of the team that established the School of Performing Arts. She also founded the Kodzidan, or Story House, a community project recognised as a pioneering model of theatre for development.