Ama Ata Aidoo was born in 1942, in what is now Ghana. She grew up in a royal household (her father was a chief) receiving both a western education and knowledge of African traditions.

She began publishing poetry while studying at the University of Ghana, from which she graduated in 1964. Since then she has gone on to write fiction and drama, as well as poetry, and her writing addresses the conflict between the traditional ways of Africa and western education and values, the struggle for women's liberation in Africa and the part this has to play in the fight for Ghanaian self determination post-independence.

She was the Minister of Education in Ghana in 1983-84 and has taught extensively in Kenya and the USA as well as being a Professor of English at Ghana University. Her writing has won many awards including the 1992 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Africa) for her novel Changes.

• http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aidoo.htm
• http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/africa/ghana/aidoo/aidoobio.html
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/womenwriters/aidoo_life.shtml
• http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/aidoo.htm