Gladys Casely-Hayford
Gladys Casely-Hayford | |
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Born | Gladys May Casely-Hayford 11 May 1904 |
Died | October 1950 | (aged 46)
Nationality | British subject |
Other names | Aquah Laluah |
Occupation |
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Spouse(s) | Arthur Hunter |
Children | Kobina Hunter |
Parent(s) | Adelaide Casely-Hayford J. E. Casely Hayford |
Gladys May Casely-Hayford alias Aquah Laluah (11 May 1904 – October 1950) was a Gold Coast-born Sierra Leonean writer. She is credited as the first author to write in the Krio language.
Early life and career[]
Gladys was born into the Casely-Hayford family of Axim, Gold Coast on 11 May 1904. As a child, known then as Aquah LaLuah, she was a voracious reader, devouring Charles Kingsley's Heroes at the age of seven. She could sing, dance, and write poetry at an early age. Due to her upbringing she could speak fluent English, Creole, and Fante (the language of her father). She had her primary and secondary school education in Gold Coast[1] but for medical reasons was taken to England, and was then educated in Europe,[2] including at Penrhos College, Colwyn Bay, in Wales, then travelled with a Berlin jazz band as a dancer.[1] She travelled in the US as well.[2] When she started having breakdowns in 1932[3] she had to go home. Back home in Africa, she taught at the Girls' Vocational School in Freetown, Sierra Leone, run by her mother, Adelaide Casely-Hayford.
Later life and work[]
Acquah Laluah married Arthur Hunter.[3] At the school she taught African Folklore and Literature.[citation needed] Very aware of her African background, she celebrated her blackness poems including "Rejoice" and "Nativity". Although not much of her poetry was published during her lifetime, many of her poems were anthologized in the 1960s.[2] Poems such as "Nativity" (1927), "The Serving Girl" (1941) and "Creation" (1926), have been widely anthologized; writers from the Harlem Renaissance loved her work.[4]
Death[]
Gladys May Casely-Hayford lived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for much of her life. She moved to Accra, where her father's family lived, and where she died in 1950 of blackwater fever.[3]
Works[]
- Take'Um So, 1948 (poetry)
Notes[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Chipasula, Stella; Chipasula, Frank Mkalawile, eds. (1995). The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry. Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-435-90680-1.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Killam, Douglas; Kerfoot, Alicia L., eds. (2008). "Casely-Hayford, Gladys (1904-1950)". Student Encyclopedia of African Literature. Westport: Greenwood. pp. 79–80. ISBN 9780313335808.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Crista Martin, "Casely-Hayford, Gladys (1904–1950)", "Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia", Encyclopedia.com.
- ^ See Countee Cullen, ed., Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, 1927; Langston Hughes, ed., Poetry of the Negro World, 1949; African Treasury, 1960; Poems from Black Africa, 1963; Langston Hughes and Christiane Reyngault, eds, Anthologie Africaine et Malgache, 1962; Margaret Busby, ed., Daughters of Africa, 1992.
- 1904 births
- 1950 deaths
- Sierra Leone Creole people
- Sierra Leonean women writers
- Sierra Leonean women poets
- 20th-century women writers
- 20th-century Sierra Leonean poets
- Ghanaian women poets
- 20th-century Ghanaian poets
- Sierra Leonean people of Jamaican descent
- Sierra Leonean people of British descent
- People of Scottish descent
- People of English descent
- People of Jamaican Maroon descent
- Sierra Leoneans of Jamaican Maroon descent
- Sierra Leonean people of Ghanaian descent
- Ghanaian people of Jamaican descent
- Ghanaian people of English descent
- Ghanaian people of Sierra Leonean descent
- Casely-Hayford family
- Krio-language writers
- Fante people
- Ghanaian people of Irish descent