Efua Theodora Sutherland (27 June, 1924 – 21 January, 1996) was a Ghanaian playwright, director, researcher, children's author, poet, dramatist, educationist, researcher, child advocate and cultural activist. A pioneer in establishing post-independence cultural institutions, she founded the Ghana Society of Writers, the Ghana Experimental Theatre, and the Ghana Drama Studio. As the earliest Ghanaian playwright-director, she was the key figure in the development of modern Ghanaian theatre. Her best-known works include Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975). She became one of the first indigenous publishers in Ghana when she launched Afram Publications in 1973. Sutherland was also a pioneering African woman in film.

She was an influential cultural advocate for children from the early 1950s until her death and played a major role in developing educational curricula, literature, theatre and film for and about Ghanaian children. 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 1980’s by her leadership in the development of a model public children’s parks system for the country as Chair of the Ghana National Commission on Children.

Sutherland’s pan-Africanism was reflected in her support for its principles and her collaborations with eminent 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 1990’s, she was the inspiration behind the biennial Pan-African Festival of Theatre Arts (PANAFEST).

Efua Sutherland died in Accra aged 71 in 1996. Along with many of her other forward-looking initiatives, Sutherland leaves behind a legacy of inspiring ideas that continue to be explored.

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