Efua Theodora Sutherland (27 June 1924 – 2 January 1996) was a pioneering Ghanaian playwright, poet, educationalist and cultural activist who helped shape modern theatre and children’s advocacy in Ghana. She is remembered for plays such as Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967) and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975), which blended traditional storytelling with modern drama. She founded the Ghana Drama Studio, the Ghana Experimental Theatre, the Ghana Society of Writers and later Afram Publications, becoming one of the country’s most influential cultural figures. Born in Cape Coast, she studied at St. Monica’s Training College before continuing her education in England at Cambridge University and SOAS, University of London. Returning to Ghana in 1951, she began teaching and writing for children. In 1954 she married Bill Sutherland, an African American Pan-Africanist, and together they raised three children while supporting educational initiatives. Sutherland was central to Ghana’s literary and theatre movements after independence, editing the Okyeame magazine and training a new generation of artists through the Drama Studio and the University of Ghana. She worked closely with writers and thinkers across Africa and the diaspora and later inspired the establishment of PANAFEST, a Pan-African festival of theatre and culture. A lifelong advocate for children, she co-authored Playtime in Africa in 1960 and later chaired the National Commission on Children, leading projects that created parks, mobile workshops and education programmes. Ghana became the first country to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child under her leadership. Her legacy is honoured through the Efua Sutherland Drama Studio at the University of Ghana, the children’s park in Accra that bears her name, the Mmofra Foundation and numerous tributes in literature and culture. She died in Accra in 1996 at the age of 71, remembered as a trailblazer in theatre, a champion for children and a strong voice for Pan-African unity.