Remembering Maya Angelou On Her Birthday…
When an elder dies a village loses its library – African Proverb
In the early 1960s Maya Angelou moved to Ghana with her son where Angelou joined many other African-American expatriates living in the country.
Angelou served as an instructor and assistant administrator at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times and the Ghanaian Broadcasting Company. She made such an impression on her hosts honoured her with a postal stamp.
It was in Ghana that Angelou met Malcolm X and agreed to return to the United States in 1964 to help build his Organization of Afro-American Unity.
Her book All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (1986): Explores Angelou’s experiences living in Ghana with her son from 1962 to 1965….
One of our favourite books is Kofi and his magic by MayaAngelou with beautiful illustrations by Margaret Courtney-Clarke, is a lovely tale about the wondrous life of a young Ashanti boy who lives in the West African village of Bonwire in Ghana….
According to the New World Encyclopedia, DNA tests taken in 2008 indicated that Angelou was descended from the Mende people of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Maya Angelou was fluent in 6 languages including Fante…
Credit: Maya Angelou/Ghana Education/Ghana History
