Efua Theodora Sutherland (1924–1996) was a pioneering Ghanaian playwright, poet, director, educator, children's author, cultural activist, and researcher. 

She was instrumental in shaping modern Ghanaian theatre, founding the Ghana Drama Studio, Ghana Experimental Theatre, and the Ghana Society of Writers. Among her notable works are Foriwa, Edufa, and The Marriage of Anansewa. She also established Afram Publications and promoted African performance traditions in academia.

Educated in Ghana and at Cambridge and SOAS in the UK, Sutherland returned to Ghana in the early 1950s to teach and began writing in response to the disconnect between children's literature and their local realities. 

She married African-American Pan-Africanist Bill Sutherland and had three children. Her creative work drew heavily from Ghanaian oral traditions, and she helped launch the literary magazine Okyeame.

Sutherland collaborated with key African and diaspora intellectuals and was a key figure behind the establishment of PANAFEST. She was a dedicated child advocate, leading Ghana’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and chairing the National Commission on Children, where she initiated several educational and recreational programmes. 

Her legacy includes the Efua Sutherland Drama Studio, a children’s park in Accra bearing her name, and the Mmofra Foundation. She was posthumously honoured with a Google Doodle in 2018.