Esi Sutherland-Addy
{{Short description|Ghanaian academician, educationalist, writer and human rights activist}}
{{use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Esi Sutherland-Addy
| image = Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy, Ghanaian academic, writer, educationalist, and activist.jpg
| birth_name = Esi Reiter Sutherland
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| birth_place = Ghana
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| education = Achimota School
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| occupation = Academic, writer, educationalist, and human rights activist
| nationality = Ghanaian
| organization = Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana
| parents = Efua Sutherland and Bill Sutherland
| yearsactive =
| notable works =
| website =
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Esi Sutherland-Addy is a Ghanaian academic, writer, educationalist, and human rights activist. She is a professor at the Institute of African Studies, where she has been senior research fellow, head of the Language, Literature, and Drama Section, and associate director of the African Humanities Institute Program at the University of Ghana. She is credited with more than 60 publications in the areas of education policy, higher education, female education, literature, theatre and culture,{{Cite web |last=Akosah-Sarpong |first=Kofi |date=12 April 2012 |title=Integrating and Differentiating the Enlightenment Voices |url=http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/25158 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707072647/http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/25158 |archive-date=7 July 2019 |access-date=6 May 2024 |website=Newstime Africa}} and serves on numerous committees, boards and commissions locally and internationally.{{Cite web |title=Esi Sutherland-Addy |url=https://search.nyu.edu/s/search.html?f.All%7Cpeople-v01=People&query=Esi+Sutherland-Addy&collection=nyu-all-meta-v02 |access-date=6 May 2024 |website=nyu.edu |archive-date=6 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506213419/https://search.nyu.edu/s/search.html?f.All%7Cpeople-v01=People&query=Esi+Sutherland-Addy&collection=nyu-all-meta-v02 |url-status=live }} She is the first daughter of writer and cultural activist Efua Sutherland.{{Cite web |date=10 June 2016 |title=The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan–African Cultural Activism |url=http://www.ayebia.co.uk/products/11/the-legacy-of-efua-sutherland-pan-african-cultural-activism.html%3Fshowtemplate%3Dfalse |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707072649/http://www.ayebia.co.uk/products/11/the-legacy-of-efua-sutherland-pan-african-cultural-activism.html%3Fshowtemplate%3Dfalse |archive-date=7 July 2019 |access-date=6 May 2024 |website=Ayebia Clarke Publishing}}{{Cite web |date=2020-08-18 |title=Why Efua Sutherland Park was named after my mother - Daughter speaks |url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/Why-Efua-Sutherland-Park-was-named-after-my-mother-Daughter-speaks-1036933 |access-date=2023-09-28 |website=GhanaWeb |language=en}}
Biography
Born in Ghana as Esi Reiter Sutherland, she is the eldest of the three childrenKwekudee, [http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/efua-t-sutherland-africas-female.html "Efua T Sutherland: Africa's Female Pioneer Dramatist, Cultural Visionary and Activist and "Black Africa's Most Famous Woman Writer"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404064722/http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/efua-t-sutherland-africas-female.html |date=4 April 2016 }}, Trip Down Memory Lane, 2 October 2014. of playwright and cultural activist Efua Sutherland and African-American Bill Sutherland (1918–2010),Esi Sutherland-Addy, Ralph Sutherland, Amowi Sutherland Phillips and Matt Meyer, [http://www.pambazuka.org/pan-africanism/bill-sutherland-pan-african-pacifist "Bill Sutherland, Pan-African pacifist"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160530163824/http://www.pambazuka.org/pan-africanism/bill-sutherland-pan-african-pacifist |date=30 May 2016 }}, Pambazuka News, 14 January 2010. a colonial civil rights activist who went to Ghana in 1953 on the recommendation of George Padmore to Kwame Nkrumah.{{Cite web |date=17 July 2013 |title=Efua Sutherland-Addy — Associate Professor |url=http://ias.ug.edu.gh/index.php/staff?id=95 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150811034321/http://ias.ug.edu.gh/index.php/staff?id=95 |archive-date=11 August 2015 |access-date=7 May 2024 |website=Institute of African Studies}} She was educated at St. Monica's Secondary School, Mampong and Achimota School (where she met her husband).
She has held various positions at educational establishments in Europe and the US, which includes being a Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Education at Manchester University, UK, and as visiting lecturer at the following universities: University of Indiana, Bloomington, USA, the Centre for African Studies, New York University Accra Campus, University of Birmingham, UK, and L'Institut des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France.{{Cite web |last=Ruha |first=Genevieve |date=17 September 2013 |title=Dr. Esi Sutherland-Addy |url=http://www.ghanagrio.com/biography/17160-dr-esi-sutherland-addy.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428001416/http://www.ghanagrio.com/biography/17160-dr-esi-sutherland-addy.html |archive-date=28 April 2016 |access-date=7 May 2024 |website=Ghana Nation}}{{Cite web |title=Dr Esi Sutherland |url=https://werus.org/dr-esi-sutherland/ |access-date=2023-09-29 |website=WeRuS |language=en-US |archive-date=6 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506214116/https://werus.org/dr-esi-sutherland/ |url-status=live }}
She served with the Ghana government as Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Culture and Tourism from (1986–93) and from 1994 to 1995 as Minister of Education and Culture.
Genevieve Ruha, [http://www.ghanagrio.com/biography/17160-dr-esi-sutherland-addy.html "Dr. Esi Sutherland-Addy"], Ghana Nation, 17 September 2013. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428001416/http://www.ghanagrio.com/biography/17160-dr-esi-sutherland-addy.html|date=28 April 2016}}.
She has undertaken studies particularly in the field of education for many international organizations including UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa.[http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/VFTC/Pages/Members.aspx Members of the Board of Trustees] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160523120100/http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/VFTC/Pages/Members.aspx |date=23 May 2016 }}, Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She has been on both local and global boards with companies such as Ghana Commercial Bank, Open Society for West Africa, and The Commonwealth of Learning.
She has also held key roles in non-governmental organizations and she has been on the executive board of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)[http://www.fawe.org/about/team/GA/index.php "General Assembly"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024021905/http://www.fawe.org/about/team/GA/index.php |date=24 October 2017 }}, FAWE. and the Mmofra Foundation.[http://mmofraghana.org/about/board-of-directors/ "Board of Directors"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328060303/https://mmofraghana.org/about/board-of-directors/ |date=28 March 2022 }}, Mmofra Foundation.
At the moment, Esi works with institute of African studies at the University of Ghana and is spearheading a project called Oral Traditions and Expressive Diversity involving the collection and digitization of Ghanaian Oral Traditions. She also supervise postgraduate students.{{Cite web |title=Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy {{!}} Institute of African Studies {{!}} University of Ghana |url=https://ias.ug.edu.gh/content/professor-esi-sutherland-addy |access-date=2023-09-28 |website=ias.ug.edu.gh |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922172801/https://ias.ug.edu.gh/content/professor-esi-sutherland-addy |url-status=live }}
She serves as the Chairperson of the following entities:
Board of Trustees of the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights.
The Forum of African Women Educationalists (Ghana) and
Awards
Esi Sutherland-Addy has been the recipient of several awards, which include:
An Honorary Fellowship of the College of Preceptors, UK (1998),
A Group Award by the Rockefeller Foundation (2001 and 2002) for the Women Writing Africa Project,
An Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Education, Winneba (2004), and
the Excellence in Distance Education Award from the Commonwealth of Learning (2008).
Ghana Tourism Authority 20th Anniversary Emancipation Day Award (2018)
Selected bibliography
;Editor
- (Editor) Perspectives on Mythology (Proceedings of a Conference organized by the Goethe-Institut and the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, between 21 and 24 October 1997), Goethe-Institut/Woeli Publ. Services, 1999. {{ISBN|9789964978549}}
- (Co-editor with Aminata Diaw) Women Writing Africa: West Africa and the Sahel, The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2005. {{ISBN|978-1558615007}}.
- (Co-editor with Anne V. Adams) The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African Cultural Activism, Banbury: Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-9547023-1-1}}.
- (With Ama Ata Aidoo) Ghana, where the Bead Speaks, Foundation for Contemporary Art-Ghana, 2008. {{ISBN|9789988153601}}.
- (Co-editor with Takyiwaa Manuh) Africa in Contemporary Perspective: A Textbook for Undergraduate Students. Ghana: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2013. {{ISBN|9789988647377}}.
;Papers
- "Gender Equity in Junior and Senior Secondary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa", World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 6500, November 2008.
- [https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/00162-EN.pdf "Women, Intangible Heritage and Development: Perspectives from the African Region"], ICH UNESCO.
Further reading
- Sutherland-Addy, E. (2018). "Ama Ata Aidoo in Conversation with Esi Sutherland-Addy" (2017). Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, 44(2), 124+.
- Sharma, Veena, and Esi Sutherland-Addy. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44733623 "A Conversation with Esi Sutherland-Addy"], India International Centre Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 1, 2011, pp. 124–133.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150811034321/http://ias.ug.edu.gh/index.php/staff?id=95 “Efua Sutherland-Addy, Associate Professor], Institute of African Studies
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fcWP7BjBnI "ESI SUTHERLAND ADDY PERSONALITY - PROFILE FRIDAY ON JOYNEWS (14-3-14)"]. My JoyOnline, 14 March 2014. YouTube.
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxrBTkBf9_0 ". Esi Sutherland-Addy – The Executive Lounge on JoyNews (2-8-19)"]. JoyNews, 2 August 2019.
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Category:Ghanaian women writers
Category:Academic staff of the University of Ghana
Category:Alumni of Achimota School
Category:20th-century Ghanaian women writers
Category:20th-century Ghanaian writers
Category:Ghanaian women academics
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Ghanaian human rights activists
Category:20th-century Ghanaian women
Category:20th-century Ghanaian educators
Category:Cabinet ministers of Ghana