Yulisa Amadu Pat Maddy (27 December 1936 – 16 March 2014)"Freetown: Pat Yulisa Amadu Maddy Passes On"
''The Patriotic Vanguard'', 21 March 2014. was a

Sierra Leonean The demographics of Sierra Leone are made up of an indigenous population from 18 ethnic groups. The Temne in the north and the Mende in the south are the largest. About 60,000 are Krio, the descendants of freed slaves who returned to Sierra L ...

writer, poet, actor, dancer, director and playwright. Known by his friends and colleagues as Pat Maddy or simply Prof, he had an "immense impact" on theatre in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

.Maddy, Yulisa Amadu Pat
in ''Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre''.

Biography

Maddy was born to Creole parents in

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

, Sierra Leone , where he grew up and was educated (attending

St. Edward's Secondary School St Edward's Secondary School is a public Catholic secondary school in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Since its inception it has remained one of the country's most prestigious schools. While St. Edwards is designed to be an all-male school, female studen ...

) until the age of 22. In 1958, he travelled to France and then Britain.

Simon Gikandi Simon E. Gikandi (born 30 September 1960) is a Kenyan Literature Professor and Postcolonial scholar. He is the Class of 1943 University Professor of English and Chair, Department of English at Princeton University. He is perhaps best known for h ...

, "Maddy, Yulisa Amadu (Pat)", in Gikandi, ed., ''Encyclopedia of African Literature'', Routledge, 2002. . Reprinted onlin
here
/ref> Maddy trained at the

Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama Rose Bruford College (formerly Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance) is a higher education institution in the London Borough of Bexley. Bruford has degree programmes in acting, actor musicianship, directing, theatre arts and various ...

in the UK, and started broadcasting in Britain and Denmark, writing and producing radio plays. He was Director of Drama at the

Keskidee Centre In 1971, Guyanese-born architect and cultural activist Oscar Abrams, Oscar Winston Abrams (1937–1996), who had settled in Britain in 1958, bought a run-down Victorian architecture, Victorian mission hall from the Shaftesbury Society for £9000 ...

in London,"Yulisa Amadu Maddy", Hans M. Zell, Carol Bundy & Virginia Coulon (eds), ''A New Reader's Guide to African Literature'', Heinemann Educational Books, 1983, pp. 410–11. and led the short-lived Pan African Players, which in 1966 represented the United Kingdom, together with the

Negro Theatre Workshop The Negro Theatre Workshop (NTW) was set up in London, England, in 1961, becoming one of the first Black British theatre companies. It aimed to produce dramas, revues and musicals, giving writers a chance to see their work performed as well as cre ...

, at the first

World Festival of Negro Arts The World Festival of Black Arts (French: ''Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres''), also known as FESMAN or FMAN, has been a series of month-long culture and arts festivals taking place in various parts of Africa. The festival features participant ...

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 million in 2023. Dakar is situated on the Cap-Vert peninsula, the w ...

, performing

Obi Egbuna Obi Benue Egbuna (18 July 1938 – 18 January 2014) was a Nigerian-born novelist, playwright and political activist known for leading the Universal Coloured People's Association (UCPA) and being a member of the British Black Panthers, Britis ...

's ''Wind versus Polygamy''. Maddy's early plays, initially produced on the BBC African Service, were published as ''Obasai and Other Plays'' (1968). In the mid-1960s, he lived in Denmark, where a book of his poetry, ''Ny afrikansk prosa'', was published (1969). On his return to Sierra Leone in 1968, Maddy became Head of Drama on Radio Sierra Leone. He was a founder-director of the theatre company Gbakanda Afrikan Tiata, established 1969 in Freetown. He subsequently worked in

, where he directed the national dance troupe and trained them for the

Montreal World's Fair The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 28 to October 29, 1967. It was a category one world's fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most s ...

in 1970. He also taught drama in Nigeria, at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Initially founded as the University College Ibadan in 1948, it maintained its affiliation with the University of London. In 1962, it became an independe ...

and the

University of Ilorin University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) is a federal government-owned public research university in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. The university's main campus sits on an expansive area of land, about 5,000 hectares in the ancient city of Ilorin; making ...

, and in the United States. His first novel, ''No Past, No Present, No Future'', explored the dynamics of a group of three friends (including, controversially, at the time, one gay man) growing up in colonial West Africa and their physical, psychological and emotional journeys to Europe. It was published in 1973, to great acclaim in the

Heinemann African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an international audience fo ...

, and his writing continued to develop. His work, which is often challenging and confrontational, has been broadcast by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and published internationally. However, the uncompromising honesty of his writing, particularly in his views on the social and political inequalities in Africa, led to his political imprisonment in Sierra Leone. Upon his release, he was forced to leave the country and become a political exile. In 2007, Maddy returned to Sierra Leone to teach at Freetown's Milton Margai College of Education and continue his academic research of exploring and developing Sierra Leone's cultural heritage, providing inspiration and opportunities to a new generation of artists and performers, and continuing to give a "voice to the voiceless" through the work of his Gbakanda Foundation. After a long period of illness, he died in March 2014, aged 78, at Choitram Hospital, Freetown.

Awards and honours

Maddy received a Sierra Leone National Arts Festival Award in 1973, a Gulbenkian Grant from the

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One of the wealthiest charitable founda ...

in 1978, and in 1979 an

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...

Award.G. D. Killam, Alicia L. Kerfoot, ''Student Encyclopedia of African Literature'', Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 185. He has also received the distinction of being commemorated in a special stained-glass window of the Pride Library in Canada, as one of 135 writers, including

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'' has been ranked ...

and others, who have been acknowledged for their outstanding contribution to literature.

Works

* ''Alla Gbah'' he Big Man 1967 * ''Yon Kon''

lever Thief A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or ''fulcrum''. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the locations of fulcrum, load, and effort, the lever is div ...

1968. Reprinted in

Cosmo Pieterse Cosmo George Leipoldt Pieterse (born 1930 in Windhoek, Namibia) is a South African playwright, actor, poet, literary critic and anthologist. Education and career Cosmo Pieterse went to the University of Cape Town and taught in Cape Town until le ...

(ed.), ''Ten One-Act Plays'', Heinemann, 1968.

African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an int ...

34. * ''Obasai'' ver Yonder 1971. Reprinted in ''Obasai and Other Plays'', Heinemann, 1968. African Writers Series 89. * ''Ghana Bendu''

ough Guy Ough may refer to: * Ough (orthography), a letter sequence in English orthography * Ough (surname) Ough is an English surname English names are personal names used in, or originating in, England. In England, as elsewhere in the English-speaking ...

1971 * ''Life Everlasting'', 1972. Reprinted in Cosmo Pieterse (ed.), ''Short African Plays'', Heinemann, 1972. African Writers Series 78. * ''No Past, No Present, No Future'' (novel), London: Heinemann Educational, 1973. African Writers Series 137. * ''If Wishes Were Horses'' (radio play), 1973 * ''Big Breeze Blow'', produced Freetown, 1974 * ''Take Tem Draw Di Rope'', Freetown, 1975 * ''Naw We Yone Dehn See'', 1975 * ''Put for Me'', produced Freetown, 1975 * ''Big Berrin'' (Big Burying), Freetown, 1976 * ''Saturday Night Out'' (television play), 1980 * ''A Journey Into Christmas'', 1980 * ''Drums, Voices and Words'', 1985 * (with Donnarae MacCann) ''African Images in Juvenile Literature: Commentaries on Neocolonialist Fiction'', Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1996 * (with Donnarae MacCann) ''Neo-imperialism in Children's Literature about Africa: A Study of Contemporary Fiction'', New York: Routledge, 2009.

References

External links

"Yulisa Amadu Maddy interview, Freetown, Sierra Leone, July 2, 1975"
* George Ola-Davies
"Sierra Leone News: Alagbah: Fare thee Well"
''Awoko'', 8 April 2014.
"Sierra Leone News: Tribute: To Pat Maddy"
''Awoko'', 9 April 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maddy, Yulisa Pat Amadu 1936 births 2014 deaths 20th-century dramatists and playwrights 20th-century male writers 20th-century novelists 20th-century Sierra Leonean poets 20th-century Sierra Leonean writers 21st-century Sierra Leonean writers Academic staff of the University of Ibadan Academic staff of the University of Ilorin Literary critics People from Freetown Sierra Leone Creole people Sierra Leonean dramatists and playwrights Sierra Leonean male poets Sierra Leonean novelists Sierra Leonean writers