Gladys Casely-Hayford

Gladys Casely-Hayford
Born
Gladys May Casely-Hayford

(1904-05-11)11 May 1904
Axim, Gold Coast
DiedOctober 1950 (1950-11) (aged 46)
Freetown, British Sierra Leone
NationalityBritish subject
Other namesAquah Laluah
Occupations
  • Educator
  • writer
SpouseArthur Hunter
ChildrenKobina 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.[1][2][3]

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[4] but for medical reasons was taken to England, and was then educated in Europe,[5] including at Penrhos College, Colwyn Bay, in Wales, then travelled with a Berlin jazz band as a dancer.[4] She travelled in the US as well.[5] When she started having breakdowns in 1932[6] 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,[3] specializing in African folklore and literature.[7]

Later life and work

Acquah Laluah married Arthur Hunter around 1936, and their son Kobina was born in 1940.[6] Very aware of her African background, she celebrated her blackness in 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.[5] Poems such as "Nativity" (1927), "The Serving Girl" (1941) and "Creation" (1926), have been widely anthologized; writers from the Harlem Renaissance loved her work.[2]

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.[6]

Works

  • Take'Um So, 1948 (poetry)

Further reading

  • Hunter, Yema Lucilda, An African Treasure: In search of Gladys Casely-Hayford 1904–1950. Freetown: Sierra Leonean Writers Series, 2016. ISBN 9789991054032.

Notes

  1. ^ Chipasula, Stella; Chipasula, Frank Mkalawile, eds. (1995). The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry. Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-435-90680-1.
  2. ^ a b 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.
  3. ^ a b "Casely-Hayford, Gladys: 1904–1950". www.encyclopedia.com.
  4. ^ a b Chipasula, Stella; Chipasula, Frank Mkalawile, eds. (1995). The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry. Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-435-90680-1.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ a b c Crista Martin, "Casely-Hayford, Gladys (1904–1950)", "Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia", Encyclopedia.com.
  7. ^ Crommwell, Adelaide M., An African Victorian Feminist: The Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Casely Hayford 1848–1960 (1992), reprinted Routledge, 2014, p. 141.