Ayi Kwei Armah

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Ayi Kwei Armah (born 1939) is a Ghanaian writer.

Born to Fante-speaking parents in the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana, Armah left Ghana in 1959 to attend Groton School in Groton, MA. After graduating, he entered Harvard University, receiving a degree in sociology. Armah then moved to Algeria and worked as a translator for the magazine Révolution Africaine. In 1964, Armah returned to Ghana, where he was a scriptwriter for Ghana Television and later taught English at the Navrongo School.

Between 1967 and 1968, he was editor of Jeune Afrique magazine in Paris. From 1968-1970, Armah studied at Columbia University, obtaining his MFA in creative writing. In the 1970s, he worked as a teacher in East Africa, at the College of National Education, Chamg'omge, Tanzania, and at the National University of Lesotho. He lived in Dakar, Senegal, in the 1980s and taught at Amherst and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

His works include:

• The Healers, Popenguine, Senegal : Per Ankh, 2000.
• Osiris Rising: A Novel of Africa Past, Present and Future, Popenguine, West Africa : Per Ankh, 1995.
• Two Thousand Seasons, London : Heinemann, 1973.
• Why Are We So Blest?, New York : Doubleday, 1972
• The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, London : Heinemann, 1968