
Celebrating 100 Years of Efua T. Sutherland
The 100th anniversary of the birth of the celebrated Ghanaian playwright, poet, educator, cultural institution builder, and pan-Africanist Efua Theodora Sutherland will be officially marked with a year-long global celebration from 2024-2025.
The Efua Sutherland Centenary Project hopes to introduce this remarkable woman to new generations at home and abroad, and to revive and strengthen her legacy.
Upcoming Centenary Events in 2025
Continuity or Rupture?: A Conversation in Honour of Efua Sutherland & Her Contemporary Pathfinders
March 27 - 28, 2025 | Accra, Ghana
“Continuity or Rupture?: A Conversation in Honour of Efua Sutherland & Her Contemporary Pathfinders” will examine the work of some prominent African scholars toward a new order of knowledge creation about Africa, and assess what progress has been made in positioning African knowledge systems as a foundation for scholarship about Africa.
This is Efua! An Evening of Theatre in Honour of Efua Sutherland
March 28, 2025 | Accra, Ghana
This evening of theatre in honour of Efua Sutherland features the Mason Cross Theater Arts Department at Rutgers University, The School of Performing Arts and the University of Ghana, Fiifi Coleman Productions, and Terra Alta Foundation.
Kodzidan 2.0: Another House For Stories
Throughout 2025 | Accra, Ghana
A celebration of the work, narratives, philosophies, and legacy of Efua Theodora Sutherland from a variety of counter-cultural and contemporary perspectives, curated by Elisabeth Efua Sutherland.
Installation at Homerton College, Cambridge University
2025 | Cambridge, UK
Eddie Ade Akin is the first art curator at Homerton College, where Efua Sutherland attended in the late 1940s and became one of the pioneering African women admitted to Cambridge University. Continuum is a collection framework that chronicles fragmented narratives and often omitted subject matter, investigating the nature of self-discovery and pedagogy. This framework does not seek to fill these gaps with a singular ‘truth’ but instead embraces the silences, absences, and complexities inherent within the archival. In an installation at the college, Eddie hopes to honour Efua Sutherland and further embrace her values on Teaching/Education through reconfiguring poeticised text, imagery, and literature materials.
Past Centenary Events
Ghana Garden +
Flower Show
September 2024 | Accra, Ghana
The Ghana Garden & Flower Movement dedicated the 2024 edition of its annual show to the memory of Efua Sutherland, after whom the public children's park hosting the show is named.
Emancipation Day Photo Exhibition
July 2024 | Accra, Ghana
Mate Masie, a photo exhibition about the life and work of playwright and pan-Africanist, Efua Theodora Sutherland, was held at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra as part of the commemmoration of Emancipation Day.
Playtime: Then and Now
May 2024 | Spokane, USA
During the 50th anniversary commemmoration of the 1974 World's Fair in Spokane, USA, the nonprofit Friends of Mmofra curated a unique pole banner exhibition of images and text from the 1960's photobook Playtime in Africa by Efua Sutherland and Willis Bell celebrating the universality of play.
All African Women Poetry Festival
May 2024 | Accra, Ghana
The 2024 edition of the All African Women Poetry Festival (AAWPFestival) centered on the remarkable life and literary contributions of Efua Sutherland. Themed "Poetry and Play," the festival was held at the W.E.B. Du Bois Center in Accra and attended by poets, thinkers, healers, therapists and playwrights from across the African continent. It included performances, dialogues, and playful engagements among other activities.
Foundation & Future: A Centenary Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Efua Theodora Sutherland
February 2024 | Accra, Ghana
For its February 2024 Labone Dialogues event, NYU Accra presented “Foundation & Future,” a centenary celebration of the life and legacy of Efua Theodora Sutherland.
Kimpa Vita Festival
November 17-18, 2023 | Dakar, Senegal
Held in Dakar, Senegal, the Kimpa Vita pan-African feminist and eco-responsible festival kicked off the upcoming centenary celebration of Efua T Sutherland’s legacy with dramatic performances, lectures, children's activities,concerts, exhibitions, live shows and film screenings.
© 2025 Estate of Efua T. Sutherland