Amma Darko

Amma Darko’s biography

Amma Darko was born in Koforidua, Ghana, on June 26, 1956, and she grew up in Accra. She studied in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, and gained a diploma in 1980. She worked with a Technology Consultancy Centre in Kumasi.

She was born Ophelia Darko. “Amma” is a name used in the Akan culture for a girl born on a Saturday. It appears that “Amma” is commonly used than her official name.

Amma’s mother hails from Salt pond (Central Region, Ghana) and is of the Fanti ethnic group, her father was born in Aburi (Eastern region, Ghana) and is an Akwapim man. Because of matrilineal lineage, Amma Darko is a Fanti.

Between 1981 and 1987, Amma lived in Germany. Then came back in 1988 and since then, she has been living in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Her first novel, Beyond the Horizon, was originally published in Germany in 1995. And in 1999, she won the Ghana Book Award. Her literary works illustrate everyday life in Ghana. Her most recent novel, Faceless and Not without flowers, were published in Ghana. Faceless is her third novel. To write and enrich this novel, she wore dingy clothes and mingled with the inhabitants of the suburb slum “Sodom and Gomorrah” in Accra.

Vincent O. Odamtten discussed her work in his book, “Broadening the Horizon: Critical Introductions to Amma Darko”. Likewise, the 2001 doctoral thesis by Louise Allen Zak “Writing her way: a study of Ghanaian novelist Amma Darko” and in many other academic journals.

She has received the Ghana Book Council Development Award and her books have been translated into so many languages.