Ama Ata Aidoo was born in 1942 in Saltpond, Ghana and was a celebrated author, poet, playwright, and academic. As one of Africa's leading feminist writers, she obtained a B.A. degree in English at the University of Ghana and has taught at universities in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, and North America. She established the Mbaasem Foundation in 2000 to promote and support the work of African women writers. In 2017, a new centre for creative writing – the first of its kind in West Africa – was named in her honour. Aidoo has received several awards including the Nelson Mandela Prize in 1987 for her collection of poetry, Someone talking to Sometime (1985) and the 1992 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Africa) for her novel Changes (1991). Ama Ata Aidoo died in 2023.