‘Shirley Graham Du Bois was a woman of many lives’

Story: Salome Donkor
Mrs Shirley Graham Du Bois, the widow of Dr W.E.B Du Bois-an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author and editor, is not only remembered for her political commitment to the civil rights movement, women’s rights and anti-colonial struggles in Africa and Asia, but also remembered as a faithful caretaker and companion of her legendary husband.
The African-American author, playwright, composer and activist for African-Americans and other people, lived between 1896 and 1977, and got married in 1951, the second marriage for both. The couple later emigrated to Ghana, and received citizenship in 1961. In 1963 her husband died.
A biography on Mrs Du Bois, titled “Race Woman: The life of Shirley Graham Du Bois” written by Dr Gerald Horne of the University of Huston, described her as a “restless, multifaceted woman” and indicated that her life began with an early commitment to uplift her race.
The book shows how Mrs Du Bois handled successfully or unsuccessfully, the conflicts that confronted her as a black woman in a male-dominated arena and her personal struggle to resolve her parenting responsibilities with her artistic and political goals.
She understood that a solid education could free her from the challenges confronting most women in her time and reasoned that education might allow her to achieve better employment and be able to better support her children. For that reason, she relocated in 1929 to Paris, France, to study music composition.
In 1965, she was made the director of Ghana Television and in 1967, she moved to Cairo, Egypt, after a military-led coup d'etat, where she continued writing and died of breast cancer in March 27, 1977 in Beijing, China, where she had gone for treatment.
An 11-member panel that discussed the book at the American Embassy in Accra recently, as part of the centenary celebrations of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, made reference to Mrs Du Bois’ political and cultural activities and commitment to uplift her race.
Prof. Ablade Glover, who met Mrs Du Bois in Ghana in 1964, described the formative years of Mrs Du Bois as interesting, considering the fact that she left her sons in the care of others to go and study in France, where she met a lot of Black Americans and Africans who shared her activist kind of thinking.
Dr Mohammed Ben Abdellah of the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon, touched on the frustrations of artists, like Mrs Du Bois, in her bid to get a firm grip on the theatre and her contribution to the establishment of Ghana television in 1965. It was her expectation at the establishment of Ghana Television that 85 per cent of programmes to be shown on that station would originate from Ghana.
In her presentation, Dr Esi Sutherland Addy, a scholar in Diaspora studies, African history and culture of the Arts, touched on chapter five of the book, which she said revealed the soft and vulnerable side of Mrs Du Bois who spent a lot of time caring for her husband in his latter days, while Prof. Akosua A Ampofo, of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, described Mrs Du Bois as a woman with many lives that is worthy to be considered, adding that she was a strong character in her marriage, playing the motherly role, which she described as intriguing.
The other panelists were Dr Kofi Baku, immediate Head of the History Department of the University of Ghana, Prof. Alex Quarmyne, a retired Director of Ghana Television, who took over from Mrs Du Bois as the Director of Ghana Television after she left Ghana, Madam Mamle Kabu, writer and novelist from Ghana, Ms Doris Kuwornu, Director of Corporate Affairs, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Prof. Kojo Yankah, founder of the African University College of Education, and Prof. Akosua Anyidoho, of European University in Ghana.
The discussions were followed by a Video Conference with the author described Mrs as woman with tremendous accomplishment and said he referred to her as ‘Race Woman’ because Mrs Du Bois was concerned about the life and destiny of people of African-American descent.